Mr. C. F. Adams, in his work on _Railroads_: _Their Origin and Problems_,
remarks:—“There is, indeed, some reason for believing that the South
Carolina Railroad was the first ever constructed in any country with a
definite plan of operating it exclusively by locomotive steam power. But
in America there was not—indeed, from the very circumstances of the case,
there could not have been—any such dramatic occasions and surprises as
those witnessed at Liverpool in 1829 and 1830. Nevertheless, the people
of Charleston were pressing close on the heels of those at Liverpool, for
on the 15th of January, 1831—exactly four months after the formal opening
of the Manchester and Liverpool road—the first anniversary of the South
Carolina Railroad was celebrated with due honor. A queer-looking
machine, the outline of which was sufficient in itself to prove that the
inventor owed nothing to Stephenson, had been constructed at the West
Point Foundry Works in New York during the summer of 1830—a first attempt
to supply that locomotive power which the Board had, with sublime
confidence in possibilities, unanimously voted on the 14th of the
preceding January should alone be used on the road. The name of _Best
Friend_ was given to this very simple product of native genius. The idea
of the multitubular boiler had not yet suggested itself in America. The
_Best Friend_, therefore, was supplied with a common vertical boiler, ‘in
form of an old-fashioned porter-bottle, the furnace at the bottom
surrounded with water, and all filled inside of what we call teats
running out from the sides and tops.’ By means of the projections or
‘teats’ a portion at least of the necessary heating surface was provided.
The cylinder was at the front of the platform, the rear end of which was
occupied by the boiler, and it was fed by means of a connecting pipe.
Thanks to the indefatigable researches of an enthusiast on railroad
construction, we have an account of the performances of this and all the
other pioneers among American locomotives, and the pictures with which
Mr. W. H. Brown has enriched his book would alone render it both curious
and valuable. Prior to the stockholders’ anniversary of January 15th,
1831, it seems that the _Best Friend_ had made several trips ‘running at
the rate of sixteen to twenty-one miles an hour, with forty or fifty
passengers in some four or five cars, and without the cars, thirty to
thirty-five miles an hour.’ The stockholders’ day was, however, a
special occasion, and the papers of the following Monday, for it happened
on a Saturday, gave the following account of it:—
“Notice having been previously given, inviting the stockholders, about
one hundred and fifty assembled in the course of the morning at the
company’s buildings in Line Street, together with a number of invited
guests. The weather the day and night previous had been stormy, and the
morning was cold and cloudy. Anticipating a postponement of the
ceremonies, the locomotive engine had been taken to pieces for cleaning,
but upon the assembling of the company she was put in order, the
cylinders new packed and at the word the apparatus was ready for
movement. The first trip was performed with two pleasure cars attached,
and a small carriage, fitted for the occasion, upon which was a
detachment of United States troops and a field-piece which had been
politely granted by Major Belton for the occasion. . . The number of
passengers brought down, which was performed in two trips, was estimated
at upward of two hundred. A band of music enlivened the scene, and great
hilarity and good humour prevailed throughout the day.”
It was not long, however, before the _Best Friend_ came to serious grief.
Naturally, and even necessarily, inasmuch as it was a South Carolina
institution, it was provided with a negro fireman. It so happened that
this functionary while in the discharge of his duties was much annoyed by
the escape of steam from the safety valve, and, not having made himself
complete master of the principles underlying the use of steam as a source
of power, he took advantage of a temporary absence of the engineer in
charge to effect a radical remedy of this cause of annoyance. He not
only fastened down the valve lever, but further made the thing perfectly
sure by sitting upon it. The consequences were hardly less disastrous to
the _Best Friend_ than to the chattel fireman. Neither were of much
further practical use. Before this mishap chanced, however in June,
1831, a second locomotive, called the _West Point_, had arrived in
Charleston, and this last was constructed on the principle of
Stephenson’s _Rocket_. In its general aspect, indeed, it greatly
resembled that already famous prototype. There is a very characteristic
and suggestive cut representing a trial trip made with this locomotive on
March 5th, 1831. The nerves of the Charleston people had been a good
deal disturbed and their confidence in steam as a safe motor shaken by
the disaster which had befallen the _Best Friend_. Mindful of this fact,
and very properly solicitous for the safety of their guests, the
directors now had recourse to a very simple and ingenious expedient.
They put what they called a ‘barrier car’ between the locomotive and
passenger coaches of the train. This barrier car consisted of a platform
on wheels upon which were piled six bales of cotton. A fortification was
thus provided between the passengers and any future negro sitting on the
safety valve. We are also assured that ‘the safety valve being out of
the reach of any person but the engineer, will contribute to the
prevention of accidents in the future, such as befel the _Best Friend_.’
Judging by the cut which represents the train, this occasion must have
been even more marked for its ‘hilarity’ than the earlier one which has
already been described. Besides the locomotive and the barrier car there
are four passenger coaches. In the first of these was a negro band, in
general appearance very closely resembling the minstrels of a later day,
the members of which are energetically performing on musical instruments
of various familiar descriptions. Then follow three cars full of the
saddest looking white passengers, who were present as we were informed to
the number of one hundred and seventeen. The excursion was, however,
highly successful, and two-and-a-quarter miles of road were passed over
in the short space of eight minutes—about the speed at which a good horse
would trot for the same distance.
This was in March, 1831. About six months before, however, there had
actually been a trial of speed between a horse and one of the pioneer
locomotives, which had not resulted in favour of the locomotive. It took
place on the present Baltimore and Ohio road upon the 28th of August,
1830. The engine in this case was contrived by no other than Mr. Peter
Cooper. And it affords a striking illustration of how recent those
events which now seem so remote really were, that here is a man until
very recently living, and amongst the most familiar to the eyes of the
present generation, who was a contemporary of Stephenson, and himself
invented a locomotive during the Rainhill year, being then nearly forty
years of age. The Cooper engine, however, was scarcely more than a
working model. Its active-minded inventor hardly seems to have aimed at
anything more than a demonstration of possibilities. The whole thing
weighed only a ton, and was of one horse power; in fact it was not larger
than those handcars now in common use with railroad section-men. The
boiler, about the size of a modern kitchen boiler, stood upright and was
fitted above the furnace—which occupied the lower section—with vertical
tubes. The cylinder was but three-and-a-half inches in diameter, and the
wheels were moved by gearing. In order to secure the requisite pressure
of steam in so small a boiler, a sort of bellows was provided which was
kept in action by means of a drum attached to one of the car-wheels over
which passed a cord which worked a pulley, which in turn worked the
bellows. Thus, of Stephenson’s two great devices, without either of
which his success at Rainhill would have been impossible—the waste steam
blast and the multitubular boiler—Peter Cooper had only got hold of the
last. He owed his defeat in the race between his engine and a horse to
the fact that he had not got hold of the first. It happened in this
wise. Several experimental trips had been made with the little engine on
the Baltimore and Ohio road, the first sections of which had recently
been completed and were then operated upon by means of horses. The
success of these trips was such that at last, just seventeen days before
the formal opening of the Manchester and Liverpool road on the other side
of the Atlantic, a small open car was attached to the engine—the name of
which, by the way, was _Tom Thumb_—and upon this a party of directors and
their friends were carried from Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills and back, a
distance of some twenty-six miles.
The trip out was made in an hour, and was very successful. The return
was less so, and for the following reason:—
“The great stage proprietors of the day were Stockton and Stokes; and on
that occasion a gallant grey, of great beauty and power, was driven by
them from town, attached to another car on the second track—for the
company had begun by making two tracks to the Mills—and met the engine at
the Relay House on its way back. From this point it was determined to
have a race home, and the start being even, away went horse and engine,
the snort of the one and the puff of the other keeping tune and time.
“At first the grey had the best of it, for his _steam_ would be applied
to the greatest advantage on the instant, while the engine had to wait
until the rotation of the wheels set the blower to work. The horse was
perhaps a quarter of a mile ahead when the safety valve of the engine
lifted, and the thin blue vapour issuing from it showed an excess of
steam. The blower whistled, the steam blew off in vapoury clouds, the
pace increased, the passengers shouted, the engine gained on the horse,
soon it lapped him—the silk was plied—the race was neck and neck, nose
and nose—then the engine passed the horse, and a great hurrah hailed the
victory. But it was not repeated, for, just at this time, when the
grey’s master was about giving up, the band which draws the pulley which
moved the blower slipped from the drum, the safety valve ceased to
scream, and the engine—for want of breath—began to wheeze and pant. In
vain Mr. Cooper, who was his own engineer and fireman, lacerated his
hands in attempting to replace the band upon the wheel; the horse gained
upon the machine and passed it, and although the band was presently
replaced, and the steam again did its best, the horse was too far ahead
to be overtaken, and came in the winner of the race.”