Charles Cheffins


Charles Frederick Cheffins was a British mechanical draughtsman, cartographer, consulting engineer, assistant to John Ericsson and George Stephenson, and surveyor for many British railroad companies in the mid-19th century. He is also known for the 1850 Cheffins's Map of English & Scotch Railways and other maps.

Biography

Charles Frederick Cheffins was born in London, where his father had for many years acted as official manager of the New River Waterworks Company, supervising the manufacturing boring of wooden pipes used to supply water to the metropolis. After having obtained an interview with Christ's Hospital, young Cheffins was admitted into the institution as a scholar in July 1815. He remained there until 1822, diligently pursuing his studies and he received several gold medals for his proficiency in arithmetic and mathematics.
On the completion of his education, he started working at Messrs. Newton and Son, patent agents and mechanical draughtsmen. In their employment he obtained practice in making drawings from specifications and from models of machinery, which proved useful to him in his after-career, and aided in giving him knowledge of his profession which he was admitted to possess. With Messrs. Newton and Son he remained some time after the expiration of his pupilage.
From 1830 he obtained an engagement, under Captain John Ericsson, to assist in making the drawings for the locomotive engines. The next year he became assistant to George Stephenson, and worked in the preparation of the plans and sections of the projected Grand Junction Railway. On the completion of the parliamentary submissions for the Grand Junction Railway, between 1832 and 1833, he set up his own cartographical and drawing business, and spent over two decades working as surveyor for numerous railroad construction projects in the United Kingdom. In 1838, he published his first Map of the Grand Junction Railway and Adjacent Country; and the next year Cheffins's Official Map of the Railway from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool under sanction of the directors. In 1846, Cheffins commissioned John Cooke Bourne to produce his History of the Great Western Railway. Occasionally Cheffins also published lithographical work by others. In the year 1848 he had been elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and continued to take interest in all the proceedings.
One year before for his death in 1861, the partnership between Cheffins and his sons as surveyors, draftsmen, and lithographers, had been dissolved by mutual consent. The business continued with Cheffins and his son, Charles Richard Cheffins as continuing partners. Cheffins died from an internal injury on 23 October 1861, after only a few hours’ illness, leaving his son to complete the work which he commenced a month or two before his death. His death, at the age of fifty-four years, caused regret to all those with whom he had been connected for so many years, as also to those of his assistants, who had served under him in the numerous parliamentary campaigns in which he had been engaged - and to many of whom he had shown much kindness in recommending them to posts of trust and responsibility on the Indian railways.

Work

Locomotive design

About the year 1830, he obtained an engagement, under Captain John Ericsson, to assist in making the drawings for the Novelty locomotive engine, then about to be constructed by Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson, for competition against the Stephenson's Rocket and other engines on the Rainhill Trials on the Manchester and Liverpool Railway.
The result of the competition proved unfavorable to the Novelty, on account of the failure of the blast apparatus. Cheffins was present at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and remained some time longer with Captain Ericsson, making drawings for other inventions, among which was a steam fire-engine and a caloric engine - machines which brought attention in the period. Cheffins’ practical knowledge of machinery rendered him a valuable assistant in the preparation of the designs.

Testimony in patent right lawsuit

In 1830 Cheffins testified in a case of Lord Galloway and Alexander Cochrane versus John Braithwaite and John Ericsson. Cheffins gave the following testimony:

Mr. Charles Frederick Cheffins, mechanical draughtsman, saith, that on 27 July 1830, he went to the manufactory of Mr. Galloway, and saw the boiler exhibited by him in operation. There was no vessel containing a column of water attached to said boiler, but that, on the contrary, there was a considerable quantity of smoke issuing out from the upper extremity of the upright open pipe or chimney. He asked Mr. Galloway, jun., where said column of water was placed, so as to afford resistance to the passage of the heated air? That Mr. Galloway, jun. told him they did not use a column of water to this boiler, but that in order to obtain a resistance they had diminished the area of the upright open pipe or chimney, so that its area should be less than the area of the flue in the boiler, thereby effecting the desir d object. That deponent farther observed, that the ante-chamber or magazine through which the furnace was supplied with fuel was not surrounded by water, as represented in the plaintiffs' specification and drawing. That the deponent considers that the plaintiffs have been enabled to dispense with such contrivance, from the reason that the heated air, instead of being subjected to a considerable pressure at the end of the flues, is suffered to escape freely into the atmosphere through an open pipe or chimney, whose sectional area, to the best of deponent's belief, measures five inches by eight inches. That upon asking Mr. Galloway, jun. how long said boiler had been in operation, he was answered, that it had been in constant work for seven months. That a boiler was shown to deponent constructed with a vessel to contain water, and an upright tube similar to drawing in plaintiffs' specification, but which deponent was informed had only been used for experiments, and that the said boiler was not in operation at the time deponent saw it.

The Lord Chancellor responded:

... with respect to that case of Cochrane and Braithwaite, correct me if I am wrong with respect to those affidavits handed in, which I was to look at, respecting the patent for steam-engines;. I do not find that Mr. Galloway carries back the use of the boiler beyond six months... Now the patent of Mr. Braithwaite is one year and a half old, and it is dated in January, 1829; so that this boiler which Mr. Galloway is now showing was, in point of fact, not in use till one year after Mr. Braithwaite's patent was obtained. Under these circumstances, I think the parties ought to be left to try their right at law, and the injunction to be dissolved. It is quite unnecessary for me, in this stale of things, to give any opinion with respect to the patent; but this much, however, I will state, I have read the specification with attention, and the evidence, and it appears to me that the objects of the two patents are different...

Cheffins took the stand in court more often. In one 1847 case narrated in The Railway Record, Charles F. Cheffins, engineer and surveyor, was called for the defence, proved that he had examined the plans and sections in question, and detected so many errors that the case became quite clear.

Grand Junction Railway

In 1831 he was introduced to George Stephenson, by the Mr. Padley, who was that gentleman's oldest associate and surveyor. After the successful opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, numerous other schemes were immediately started, in which the great Engineer occupied a prominent position.
Cheffins’ first occupation under Mr. Stephenson was in the preparation of the plans and sections of the projected Grand Junction Railway, which had for its object the connection of the towns of Birmingham and Liverpool ; and it was whilst engaged upon this work, that his persevering industry was noticed by those with whom he was brought into contact ; amongst whom may be mentioned Joseph Locke, Frederick Swanwick, Daniel Gooch, and many others, who have since become eminent in the Engineering profession.

Lithograph of London Station

In 1830 Cheffins started making lithographs, which were published in magazines such as in the 1837 The Mirror. The prefixed engraving represented the London Terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway, at Button Grove, near Euston Square, in the New Road. The structure was being erected at the time of the publication. The work was designed by Philip Hardwick, architect of St. Katherine's Docks, Goldsmith's Hall, the City Club-house, and other buildings.
The facade of the Euston Arch would occupy about 300 feet towards Drummond Street, opposite a wide opening into Euston Square. The principal elevation, as shown in the Engraving, consisted of a Grecian Doric portico, with ante, and two lodges on each side, appropriated to the offices of the Company; the spaces between the columns and antse of the portico, and also of the lodges, were inclosed by iron gates.
The whole of the works were proceeded rapidly, and was expected that a portion of that Railway would be opened to the public after Midsummer. The Engraving has been reduced from a drawing by Thomas Allom, lithographed by Mr. C. F. Cheffins, Southampton Buildings, Hulborn.

Other lithographic work

In his studio at 9, Southampton Buildings, Holborn, Cheffins lithographed work for numerous other artists:
On the completion of the parliamentary deposits for the Grand Junction Railway, Cheffins terminated his engagement with Stephenson. Foreseeing that railway schemes were only then in their infancy and that much work might be anticipated, Cheffins devoted himself exclusively to the surveying department of the profession and established himself in London, commencing business on his own account. He retained the support and patronage of all those with whom he had been previously associated, besides adding many other names to his list of friends. Robert Stephenson was among the latter, and under his direction and superintendence, he prepared many of the designs for the construction of the bridges on the London and Birmingham Railway. Cheffins was also engaged by him on various other matters. Thieir friendship and support only ceased with Robert Stephenson's death, and Cheffins continued to hold high regard for the man to whom his success in life may be attributed.
In his further professional career, Cheffins completed numerous projects for the London and Blackwall Railway, the Great Eastern Railway, the Trent Valley Line, and the North Staffordshire Railway—a few of those which he lived to see to completion, though in their course through both Houses of Parliament sustained the opposition of other companies and large-landed proprietors.
As a testimony of his services, during the years he was engaged in these and other matters, a service of plate was presented to him in the year 1846, the subscription headed by the leading Engineers of the day. This token of regard has been handed down to his family to be kept by them as an heir-loom.
The last scheme in which he was employed was the projected Great Eastern Northern Junction Railway Bill of 1860, which his friend George Parker Bidder had placed in his hands, and in which he took interest; but death cut him short whilst in the active discharge of his duties.

Selected publications

Cheffins published dozens of maps, most of railways. A selection:
Other maps, a selection: