Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Webb, Francis William
WEBB, FRANCIS WILLIAM (1836–1906), civil engineer, born at Tixall rectory, Staffordshire, on 21 May 1836, was second son of William Webb, rector of Tixall. Showing at an early age a liking for mechanical pursuits, he became at fifteen a pupil of Francis Trevithick, then locomotive superintendent of the London and North Western railway. With that railway he was, save for an interval of five years, associated for life. When his pupilage ended he was engaged in the drawing-office; in Feb. 1859 he became chief draughtsman, and from 1861 to 1866 he was works manager. After serving as manager of the Bolton Iron and Steel Company's works from 1866 to 1871, he became on 1 Oct. 1871 chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent of the London and North Western railway. The post carried heavy responsibility. Not only is the company's system exceptionally extensive, but the locomotive superintendent had charge, in addition to his normal duties, of departments dealing with signals, permanent way, cranes, water-supply, and electrical work. For more than thirty years, during which the population of Crewe increased from 18,000 to 42,000, Webb, who was exceptionally energetic, self-reliant, and resourceful, was the autocratic ruler of the industrial colony there.
He was a prolific inventor and took out many patents for improvements in the design and construction of locomotives and other machinery, but his name is chiefly associated with the compound locomotive, the steel sleeper, the electric train-staff for working single-line railways, and the electrical working of points and signals.
Webb began work on the compound locomotive in 1878, by converting to the compound principle an old locomotive. This was worked for several years on the Ashby and Nuneaton branch, and in 1882 he put into service a three-cylinder compound engine of an entirely new type, named ‘Experiment,’ in which he used two outside high-pressure and one inside low-pressure cylinders, the high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders driving on separate axles. In 1884 he brought out the ‘Dreadnought’ class, with larger cylinders, and in 1889 the ‘Teutonic’ class, with cylinders of the same size as the ‘Dreadnoughts’ but larger driving-wheels and simplified low-pressure valve-gear. The ‘Greater Britain’ class of 1891 had still larger cylinders, and in 1897 Webb brought out the ‘Black Prince’ or ‘Diamond Jubilee’ class of compounds, which had two high-pressure and two low-pressure cylinders, all driving on one axle. He was a strong advocate of compounding, and he satisfied himself that by means of it he obtained, with substantial economy, the greater power called for by the steady increase in the weight of trains. The subject excited much controversy among engineers, and the question of the relative merits of simple and compound locomotives is not yet settled.
The town of Crewe owes much to his public spirit. The Mechanics' Institution, of which he was president for many years, was an object of his special solicitude. The Cottage Hospital is due to his initiative, and of it he was a generous supporter. With Sir Richard Moon he prevailed upon the directors of the railway company to present to the town a public park. He served on the governing body of the town, and was elected mayor in Nov. 1886, being re-elected for a second term in the following year. During the first term of his mayoralty the 4000th locomotive was completed at Crewe, and the occasion was signalised by the presentation to him of the freedom of the borough. He was also created in 1886 an alderman of the borough; and was for some time magistrate for the county and an alderman of the county council. To him was due the formation of the engineer volunteer corps at Crewe, a reserve of the royal engineers, which rendered valuable service in the South African war.
He was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 23 May 1865, and became a member on 3 Dec. 1872. He was elected to the council of that society in May 1889, and became a vice-president in Nov. 1900. At the time of his retirement from the council in 1905 he was the senior vice-president. He bequeathed to the institution money for a prize for papers on railway machinery, and made a generous legacy to the benevolent fund of the society.
His contributions to its ‘Proceedings’ were four papers dealing with a ‘Standard Engine-Shed’ (lxxx. 258); ‘Steel Permanent Way’ (lxxxi. 299); ‘Locomotive Fire-box Stays’ (cl. 89), and ‘Copper Locomotive-Boiler Tubes’ (clv. 401). He was also a member of council of the Iron and Steel Institute, to which he presented a paper ‘On the Endurance of Steel Rails’ (Journal, 1886, 148). He was a life member of the Société des Ingénieurs civils de France.
He retired from the London and North Western railway in Dec. 1902, when the directors recorded their appreciation of his ‘devoted and exceptional services.’ After his retirement his health failed, and on 4 June 1906 he died at Bournemouth, where he was buried. He was unmarried.
By his will Webb left 10,000l. to found a nursing institution at Crewe, and the residue of his estate, amounting to 50,000l., to found an orphanage for children of deceased employees of the London and North Western Railway Company. The orphanage, which accommodates twenty boys and twenty girls, was opened on 18 Dec. 1911.
A bust of Webb, being a replica of a model made from life by Sir Henry B. Robertson of Corwen, is in the Cottage Hospital at Crewe. A second replica, as well as a portrait in oils by Hall Neale, is in the orphanage. Another portrait in oils, by Mr. Charles H. Charnock, a blacksmith employed at the Crewe works, is also in the Cottage Hospital.
[Minutes of Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., clxvii. 373; The Times, 6 June 1906; Chronicle (Crewe), 29 Dec. 1902; Railway Mag., Feb. 1900; private information.]