ЛОКОМОБИЛ

An engine that converts the thermal energy of steam into mechanical work—most often in the form of rotational motion—is a simple way to define a revolutionary invention: the steam engine. Since James Watt’s improvements, the steam engine has found applications in transportation, industry, and in the steam-powered locomobile—a universal drive machine used to power other machines. It began production between 1880 and 1885 and was used in fields for activities such as wood sawing, water pumping, and grain threshing. As a stationary machine, it was also employed in workshops to power mills, factories, and even small power plants, where it was connected to generators to produce electricity.

The invention of the steam engine marked the beginning of a new industrial era. Steam-powered engines—known as locomobiles—powered mills, sawmills, threshers, water pumps, and various other machines. The first steam engines in Bosnia and Herzegovina, aside from those in the mills of the Trappists and at the residence of the Orthodox bishop in Tuzla, were locomotives operating on the only standard-gauge railway, the Banja Luka–Prijedor–Dobrljin line, which had been active since 1872/73. These locomotives brought only a hint of industrial progress to the region.

Although internal combustion engines began to be developed in the United States by the late 19th century, alongside the exploitation of oil, it took over 50 years for the steam engine to cease being widely used. Today, the potential of steam as a driving fuel is being reconsidered due to global pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels.

Key milestones in the city’s 19th-century development and modernization included the introduction of the telegraph in 1866, connecting Banja Luka with Prijedor and Bihać, and the construction of the standard-gauge railway line Banja Luka–Prijedor–Dobrljin in 1872/73. Street lanterns continued to be used into the 1920s, maintained by crews stationed in towers who lit them every evening. These crews also served as town watchmen (posvandžije), walking the streets and blowing trumpets to alert the fire brigade of potential fires. Electric lighting was introduced in Ljubija in 1926, followed by the central part of Prijedor in 1928. The power source for Ljubija was a locomobile from the Ljubija mine, while Prijedor’s power came from a Šipad locomobile located at the train station. The first expansion of the electric grid occurred in 1933, when the district of Urije received electric lighting, improving the electricity supply for existing industrial and economic facilities. In 1939, a power line was constructed between Ljubija and Prijedor, after which Prijedor was supplied with electricity from the Ljubija mine. That same year, three transformer (trafo) stations were built in Prijedor, with a total capacity of 90 kVA, and the low-voltage network was expanded to Puharska, a suburban area. These facilities and the electricity supply system remained unchanged until 1943, when the Ljubija power plant was destroyed. After the liberation, between 1946 and 1950, an electric utility company was established in Prijedor as part of the Elektro BiH enterprise based in Sarajevo.

• The steam locomobile in the yard of the Kozara Museum was found in Golubača, where the headquarters of the Second Krajina Detachment was located in 1941–1942. The locomobile was transported from the sawmill in Podgradci in November 1941, after the attack on Podgradci. In Golubača, it was used for electric lighting.

Museum of Science and Technology, Belgrade
https://strane.muzejnt.rs/portfolio-item/na-parni-pogon/

PHOTO:

One of the steam engine models.

Various examples of lighting and electrical networks in city streets at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.