Saxonia

Saxonia may refer to:

See also

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen [ˈfʁaɪ̯ʃtaːt ˈzaksən]; Upper Sorbian: Swobodny stat Sakska) is a landlocked federal state of Germany, bordering the federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig.

Saxony is the tenth-largest of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres (7,109 sq mi), and the sixth most populous, with 4.3 million people.

Located in the middle of a large, formerly all German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, and twice a republic.

The area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and the Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Saxonia (locomotive)

The locomotive Saxonia was operated by the Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company (Leipzig–Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie or LDE) and was the first practical working steam locomotive built in Germany. Its name means Saxony in Latin.

History

The Saxonia was built by Johann Andreas Schubert. Schubert had been inspired by the English-built locomotive, Comet, procured for the LDE, and he analysed and improved on what he saw. He used the same dimensions but, unlike Comet, two coupled axles were driven, therefore providing increased tractive force, and a carrying axle was added at the back to improve ride qualities.

The development and construction of the locomotive was carried out in the Maschinenbauanstalt Übigau at Dresden, an engineering works that had been founded on 1 January 1837. From the beginning Schubert was the head of the company. The construction of the engine was a technical and economic risk for the firm. For a start, it had no technical experience at all; furthermore there were no orders for a locomotive.