During the late 1820s Ericsson and Braithwaite were working together building horse drawn fire engines with steam pumps.

This incredibly short space of time has led people to suggest that Novelty is in fact a converted fire engine.

Like George Stephenson, Ericsson understood that a large area was needed to extract heat from the hot gases.

Very few steam locomotives have ever used a forced draught like this, the main reason is that in order to add fuel either the draft must be stopped or some form of airlock fitted.

Novelty used an airlock to feed the fuel in, but there was still a chance of flame and hot gases being blown into the face of the fireman.

The blower was driven from the rods linking the cylinders to the wheels, thus the draught was proportional to the speed of the engine, not to how hard it is working as with a blastpipe.

[5][6] As one of the rules for the Rainhill Trials related to the weight of the engine without a tender, a special allowance had to be made for Novelty.

Starting on the second day of the trials, it began the planned series of runs but very quickly the blower failed and repairs had to be made.

However, when Novelty next ran the water feed pipe burst and more repairs had to be made, which seem to have included a seal on the boiler.

Once all the repairs were completed, Novelty made a number of successful demonstration runs but it was too late to have any effect on the competition.

[citation needed] Two further engines were built by Ericsson and Braithwaite named William IV and Queen Adelaide.

During 1929 the original wheels and one cylinder were incorporated into a full-scale, non-working model that is now on display in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

This early replica was rebuilt in 1988 and currently includes batteries and an electric motor to allow it to move (all wheels are driven making the engine a 4wBE), although the steam components are non-functional.

For the Rocket 150 event in 1980, a completely new replica of Novelty was constructed by Locomotion Enterprises in the Springwell Workshop of the Bowes Railway.

During the Rocket 150 event, Novelty was carried on a Well wagon, supported in such a way as to allow the engine to be run and its wheels to rotate freely.

For the BBC TV programme Timewatch – Rocket and its Rivals the replica of Novelty was transported to the National Railway Museum in York.

The solution adopted by the National Railway Museum Workshop was to employ a metal fabricator to cut four rings from 40 mm (1.6 in)-thick steel plate.

Early tests showed up two major problems: firstly the linkage to the blower was not strong enough, and secondly operating the water feed pump caused very serious priming of the boiler.

To fully recreate the Rainhill Trials, 20 return runs along a section of the Llangollen Railway were required (between Carrog and Glyndyfrdwy stations).

The maximum speed attained at any point was 17 miles per hour (27 km/h), possibly because the main steam pipe from the boiler was restricting the flow to the cylinders.