The re-imagined story …
Have you ever thought how fortunate you are to be born in this place at this time? I could have been born 100 years ago or a 150 years from now. What would Swindon be like in the year 2001. Will the mighty GWR, God’s Wonderful Railway still be here in Swindon? Perhaps they will be producing other forms of transport, a time travelling machine perhaps.
Mother says I have some funny notions and how could I possibly have been born in the future. But surely it’s just a random act that a soul enters a body at a given time and place in history – but I suppose if you don’t believe in the existence of the soul, then it does all sound a bit phantasmagorical. I’m not sure what I believe in when it comes to religion. I think there are some things that are still inexplicable and science doesn’t have the answer to everything – yet!
I think my parents wish I was more practical. It’s all very good having these theories but they won’t put food on the table or pay the rent, mother says.
But surely the great inventors of our time are not just good with their hands. Take Mr Bickle, for example. Without a questioning mind how could he invent his double vibrating cylinder steam engine presently on exhibition at the Great Exhibition. Mother and father are going to take me to London in the school holidays. There are so many things I want to see in the Great Exhibition. I especially want to see the Lord of the Isles loco, which will be on display, but I also want to see Mr Bickle’s invention – apparently it is so small it will be displayed on a two inch counter space. Isn’t that incredible. I think that if anyone could invent a time travelling machine it would be Mr. Bickle – or possibly me!
The facts …
‘Daddy’ Bickle’s engineering treasure chest
15 May 1981 Swindon Evening Advertiser
Swindon’s reputation for high quality engineering goes back a long way.
Ever since the railway works were established alongside Brunel’s iron road to the West, generations of craftsmen have been producing the best.
So it’s not altogether surprising that a Swindon man had an exhibit accepted for the world famous Great Exhibition of 1851 at Crystal Palace.
The official catalogue says William Bickle, described as a designer and manufacturer of 18 Reading Street, exhibited ‘a working model of a pair of non-condensing steam engines, which stand within the compass of a shilling and weighs three drachms; made, with the exception of the piston rods, of fine white metal.’
Imagine in thos days when a man had little more than his own skills to depend on producing a working model which would stand on a five pence piece and weighed less than a quarter of an ounce.
A recent visitor to Swindon from Yeovil remembered meeting this remarkable man whose work was ranked so highly 130 years ago.
‘I knew him as ‘Daddy Bickle’ and used to go to his home – he had moved to Oriel Street – to look at all the wonderful things he had made said Stanley Richards, now in his upper eighties.
Stanley’s family lived in Medgbury Road and London Street, and Stanley was apprenticed in the railway works and later held important posts with the aircraft manufacturers Handley Page and Westland.
He remembers William Bickle as an outstanding engineer who made at least two microscopes, a gyroscope and his own geometric lathe which enabled him to produce many other pieces.
A beam engine expert employed by Harvey’s of Hale in Cornwall, Mr Bickle is believed to have moved to Swindon to instal the beam engine which kept the Severn railway tunnel free of water.
At one time he worked in the Spanish copper industry.
He became a railway man by adoption and left one example of his craft in the Mechanics Institute a working electric clock, unfortunately no longer in evidence.
Swindon – In addition to the locomotive engine now in course of erection in the Swindon works, and intended for the Great Exhibition, two other articles will be sent from this place, one of which is a double vibrating cylinder steam engine, the handiwork of Mr Wm. Bickle, one of the artizans employed at the Swindon works. So small is this article, that after being wrapped up in paper it can be placed very comfortably in an ordinary size walnut shell. The plate on which this Lilliputian piece of workmanship stands being about the size of a sixpence, yet we have been informed by competent judges that it is quite complete, and that the workmanship and finish are of a first rate character. We understand that two inches of counter space was applied for and granted for this model.
The other article is of a more practical character, being a model to exemplify an improvement in the valve gearing of steam engines. This article is now in course of manufacture by the inventor, Mr. W.D. Sharp, of Swindon.
Salisbury and Winchester Journal Saturday January 25, 1851.
Model of a High Pressure Oscillating Steam Engine, improved and constructed by William Bickle of Hayle Foundry. This model was intended to illustrate an engine of greater simplicity than any hitherto constructed. The steam enters the piston through one side of the tumbler in the cylinder, and leaves through the opposite side. This tumbler is so contrived that the oscillating motion of the cylinder opens and closes those passages at the proper time. All valves, eccentrics, and gear of every sort are therefore dispensed with, and consequently, the liability to derangement is considerably diminished. The speed of the engine is regulated by turning the cock fixed underneath the cylinder; the same cock also reverses the engine by admitting steam through the opposite side of the tumbler; consequently by turning this cock, a reversal of the motion is certain. This engine is therefore peculiarly applicable for whims, marine purposes etc, or where a reverse motion is often required.
As with so many of the 33,000 burials in Radnor Street Cemetery, William Bickle’s grave has no surviving memorial.
With thanks to the family historian bicklehe who has submitted information on a public family tree on Ancestry.
Radnor Street Cemetery 