William Swinburne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Swinburne (1805 – 1883) was a pioneering steam locomotive builder of the United States.

Swinburne was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1805. By 1833 he had moved to Paterson, New Jersey, where, in 1837 he was employed by Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor as a pattern maker. He left Rogers employ in 1848 to form his own company in a partnership with Samuel Smith. Swinburne's company did not survive the Panic of 1857 and was purchased in 1858 by the New York and Erie Railway to serve as the railroad's repair shops in Paterson.

After leaving the locomotive manufacturing trade, Swinburne held a number of public offices in Paterson until his death in 1883.

[edit] References

• White, John H., Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830-1880. New York, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23818-0.  p. 457.