Vauclain, Samuel (Matthews) (1856–1940)

US engineer and inventor. He perfected a series of improvements to locomotives and became a world authority on locomotive design. As president (from 1919) and later board chairman (from 1929) of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, he was noteworthy for his hostility to labour unions, once firing 2,500 workers he considered to be ‘agitators’.

Vauclain was born in Port Richmond, Pennsylvania. His father helped Matthias Baldwin build his first locomotive. After an apprenticeship with the Pennsylvania Railroad shops, the younger Vauclain joined the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia in 1883 and remained with the company for the rest of his life.