Trevithick with smooth wheels hauling loads of considerable weight, in
Cornwall, was confident that equal success might be expected in the
north-country, and built a carriage to be moved by men stationed at
four handles, by which its wheels were turned.
This carriage was loaded with heavy masses of iron, and attached to
trains of coal-wagons on the railway. By repeated experiment, varying
the weight of the traction-carriage and the load hauled, Hedley
ascertained the proportion of the weight required for adhesion to that
of the loads drawn. It was thus conclusively proven that the weight of
his proposed locomotive-engine would be sufficient to give the
pulling-power necessary for the propulsion of the coal-trains which it
was to haul.
When the wheels slipped in consequence of the presence of grease,
frost, or moisture on the rail, Hedley proposed to sprinkle ashes on
the track, as sand is now distributed from the sand-box of the modern
engine. This was in October, 1812.
Hedley now went to work building an engine with smooth wheels, and
patented his design March 13, 1813, a month after he had put his
engine at work. The locomotive had a cast-iron boiler, and a single
steam-cylinder 6 inches in diameter, with a small fly-wheel. This
engine had too small a boiler, and he soon after built a larger
engine, with a return-flue boiler made of wrought-iron. This hauled 8
loaded coal-wagons 5 miles an hour at first, and a little later 10,
doing the work of 10 horses. The steam-pressure was carried at about
50 pounds, and the exhaust, led into the chimney, where the pipe was
turned upward, thus secured a blast of considerable intensity in its
small chimney. Hedley also contracted the opening of the exhaust-pipe
to intensify the blast, and was subjected to some annoyance by
proprietors of lands along his railway, who were irritated by the
burning of their grass and hedges, which were set on fire by the
sparks thrown out of the chimney of the locomotive. The cost of
Hedley's experiment was defrayed by Mr. Blackett.
Subsequently, Hedley mounted his engine on eight wheels, the
four-wheeled engines having been frequently stopped by breaking the
light rails then in use. Hedley's engines continued in use at the
Wylam collieries many years. The second engine was removed in 1862,
and is now preserved at the South Kensington Museum, London.
GEORGE STEPHENSON, to whom is generally accorded the honor of having
first made the locomotive-engine a success, built his first engine at
Killingworth, England, in 1814.
[Illustration: George Stephenson.]
At this time Stephenson was by no means alone in the field, for the
idea of applying the steam-engine to driving carriages on common roads
and on railroads was beginning, as has been seen, to attract
considerable attention. Stephenson, however, combined, in a very
fortunate degree, the advantages of great natural inventive talent and
an excellent mechanical training, reminding one strongly of James
Watt. Indeed, Stephenson's portrait bears some resemblance to that of
the earlier great inventor.
George Stephenson was born June 9, 1781, at Wylam, near
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and was the son of a "north-country miner." When
still a child, he exhibited great mechanical talent and unusual love
of study. When set at work about the mines, his attention to duty and
his intelligence obtained for him rapid promotion, until, when but
seventeen years of age, he was made engineer, and took charge of the
pumping-engine at which his father was fireman.
When a mere child, and employed as a herd-boy, he amused himself
making model engines in clay, and, as he grew older, never lost an
opportunity to learn the construction and management of machinery.
After having been employed at Newburn and Callerton, where he first
became "engine-man," he began to study with greater interest than ever
the various steam-engines which were then in use; and both the
Newcomen engine and the Watt pumping-engine were soon thoroughly
understood by him. After having become a brakeman, he removed to
Willington Quay, where he married, and commenced his wedded life on 18
or 20 shillings per week. It was here that he became an intimate
friend of the distinguished William Fairbairn, who was then working as
an apprentice at the Percy Main Colliery, near by. The "father of the
railroad" and the future President of the British Association were
accustomed, at times, to "change works," and were frequently seen in
consultation over their numerous projects. It was at Willington Quay
that his son Robert, who afterward became a distinguished civil
engineer, was born, October 16, 1803.
In the following year Stephenson removed to Killingworth, and became
brakeman at that colliery; but his wife soon died, and he gladly
accepted an invitation to become engine-driver at a spinning-mill near
Montrose, Scotland. At the end of a year he returned, on foot, to
Killingworth with his savings (about L28), expended over one-half of
the amount in paying his father's debts and in making his parents
comfortable, and then returned to his old station as brakeman at the
pit.
Here he made some useful improvements in the arrangement of the
machinery, and spent his spare hours in studying his engine and
planning new machines. He a little later distinguished himself by
altering and repairing an old Newcomen engine at the High Pit, which
had failed to give satisfaction, making it thoroughly successful after
three days' work. The engine cleared the pit, at which it had been
vainly laboring a long time, in two days after Stephenson started it
up.
In the year 1812, Stephenson was made engine-wright of the
Killingworth High Pit, receiving L100 a year, and it was made his duty
to supervise the machinery of all the collieries under lease by the
so-called "Grand Allies." It was here, and at this period, that he
commenced a systematic course of self-improvement and the education of
his son, and here he first began to be recognized as an inventor. He
was full of life and something of a wag, and often made most amusing
applications of his inventive powers: as when he placed the watch,
which a comrade had brought him as out of repairs, in the oven "to
cook," his quick eye having noted the fact that the difficulty arose
simply from the clogging of the wheels by the oil, which had been
congealed by cold.
Smiles,[51] his biographer, describes his cottage as a perfect
curiosity-shop, filled with models of engines, machines of various
kinds, and novel apparatus. He connected the cradles of his neighbors'
wives with the smoke-jacks in their chimneys, and thus relieved them
from constant attendance upon their infants; he fished at night with a
submarine lamp, which attracted the fish from all sides, and gave him
wonderful luck; he also found time to give colloquial instruction to
his fellow-workmen.
[51] "Lives of George and Robert Stephenson," by Samuel Smiles. New
York and London, 1868.
He built a self-acting inclined plane for his pit, on which the
wagons, descending loaded, drew up the empty trains; and made so many
improvements at the Killingworth pit, that the number of horses
employed underground was reduced from 100 to 16.
Stephenson now had more liberty than when employed at the brakes, and,
hearing of the experiments of Blackett and Hedley at Wylam, went over
to their colliery to study their engine. He also went to Leeds to see
the Blenkinsop engine draw, at a trial, 70 tons at the rate of 3 miles
an hour, and expressed his opinion in the characteristic remark, "I
think I could make a better engine than that to go upon legs." He very
soon made the attempt.
Having laid the subject before the proprietors of the lease under
which the collieries were worked, and convinced Lord Ravensworth, the
principal owner, of the advantages to be secured by the use of a
"traveling engine," that nobleman advanced the money required.
Stephenson at once commenced his first locomotive-engine, building it
in the workshops at West Moor, assisted mainly by John Thirlwall, the
colliery blacksmith, during the years 1813 and 1814, completing it in
July of the latter year.
This engine had a wrought-iron boiler 8 feet long and 2 feet 10 inches
in diameter, with a single flue 20 inches in diameter. The cylinders
were vertical, 8 inches in diameter and of 2 feet stroke of piston,
set in the boiler, and driving a set of wheels which geared with each
other and with other cogged wheels on the two driving-axles. A
feed-water heater surrounded the base of the chimney. This engine drew
30 tons on a rising gradient of 10 or 12 feet to the mile at the rate
of 4 miles an hour. This engine proved in many respects defective, and
the cost of its operation was found to be about as great as that of
employing horse-power.
Stephenson determined to build another engine on a somewhat different
plan, and patented its design in February, 1815. It proved a much
more efficient machine than the "Bluecher," the first engine.
[Illustration: FIG. 51.--Stephenson's Locomotive of 1815. Section.]
This second engine (Fig. 51) was also fitted with two vertical
cylinders, _C c_, but the connecting-rods were attached directly to
the four driving-wheels, _W W'_. To permit the necessary freedom of
motion, "ball-and-socket" joints were adopted, to unite the rods with
the cross-heads, _R r_, and with the cranks, _R' Y'_; and the two
driving-axles were connected by an endless chain, _T t'_. The cranked
axle and the outside connection of the wheels, as specified in the
patent, were not used until afterward, it having been found impossible
to get the cranked axles made. In this engine the forced draught
obtained by the impulse of the exhaust-steam was adopted, doubling the
power of the machine and permitting the use of coke as a fuel, and
making it possible to adopt the multi-tubular boiler. Small
steam-cylinders, _S S S_, took the weight of the engine and served as
springs.
It was at about this time that George Stephenson and Sir Humphry
Davy, independently and almost simultaneously, invented the
"safety-lamp," without which few mines of bituminous coal could to-day
be worked. The former used small tubes, the latter fine wire gauze, to
intercept the flame. Stephenson proved the efficiency of his lamp by
going with it directly into the inflammable atmosphere of a dangerous
mine, and repeatedly permitting the light to be extinguished when the
lamp became surcharged with the explosive mixture which had so
frequently proved fatal to the miners. This was in October and
November, 1815, and Stephenson's work antedates that of the great
philosopher.[52] The controversy which arose between the supporters of
the rival claims of the two inventors was very earnest, and sometimes
bitter. The friends of the young engineer raised a subscription,
amounting to above L1,000, and presented it to him as a token of their
appreciation of the value of his simple yet important contrivance. Of
the two forms of lamp, that of Stephenson is claimed to be safest, the
Davy lamp being liable to produce explosions by igniting the explosive
gas when, by its combustion within the gauze cylinder, the latter is
made red-hot. Under similar conditions, the Stephenson lamp is simply
extinguished, as was seen at Barnsley, in 1857, at the Oaks Colliery,
where both kinds of lamp were in use, and elsewhere.
[52] _Vide_ "A Description of the Safety-Lamp invented by George
Stephenson," etc., London, 1817.
Stephenson continued to study and experiment, with a view to the
improvement of his locomotive and the railroad. He introduced better
methods of track-laying and of jointing the rails, adopting a
half-lap, or peculiar scarf-joint, in place of the then usual
square-butt joint. He patented, with these modifications of the
permanent way, several of his improvements of the engine. He had
substituted forged for the rude cast wheels previously used,[53] and
had made many minor changes of detail. The engines built at this time
(1816) continued in use many years. Two years later, with a
dynamometer which he designed for the purpose, he made experimental
determinations of the resistance of trains, and showed that it was
made up of several kinds, as the sliding friction of the axle-journals
in their bearings, the rolling friction of the wheels on the rails,
the resistance due to gravity on gradients, and that due to the
resistance of the air.
[53] The American chilled wheel of cast-iron, a better wheel than
that above described, has never been generally and successfully
introduced in Europe.
These experiments seemed to him conclusive against the possibility of
the competition of engines on the common highway with locomotives
hauling trains on the rail. Finding that the resistance, with his
rolling-stock, and at all the speeds at which he made his experiments,
was approximately invariable, and equivalent to about 10 pounds per
ton, and estimating that a gradient rising but 1 foot in 100 would
decrease the hauling power of the engine 50 per cent., he saw at once
the necessity of making all railroads as nearly absolutely level as
possible, and, consequently, the radically distinctive character of
this branch of civil engineering work. He persistently condemned the
"folly" of attempting the general introduction of steam on the common
road, where great changes of level and an impressible road-bed were
certain to prove fatal to success, and was most strenuous in his
advocacy of the policy of securing level tracks, even at very great
expense.
Taking part in the contest, which now became a serious one, between
the advocates of steam on the common road and those urging the
introduction of locomotives and their trains on an iron track, he
calculated that a road-engine capable of carrying 20 or 30 passengers
at 10 miles per hour, could, on the rail, carry ten times as many
people at three or four times that speed. The railway-engine finally
superseded its predecessor--the engine of the common road--almost
completely.
In 1817, Stephenson built an engine for the Duke of Portland, to haul
coal from Kilmarnock to Troon, which cost L750, and, with some
interruptions, this engine worked on that line until 1848, when it was
broken up. On November 18, 1822, the Hetton Railway, near Sunderland,
was opened. George Stephenson was the engineer of the line--a short
track, 8 miles long, built from the Hetton Colliery to the docks on
the bank of the river Wear. On this line he put in five of the
"self-acting inclines"--two inclines worked by stationary engines, the
gradients being too heavy for locomotives--and used five
locomotive-engines of his own design, which were called by the people
of the neighborhood, possibly for the first time, "the iron horses."
These engines were quite similar to the Killingworth engine. They drew
a train of 17 coal-cars--a total load of 64 tons--about 4 miles an
hour. Meantime, also, in 1823, Stephenson had been made engineer of
the Stockton & Darlington Railroad, which had been projected for the
purpose of securing transportation to tide-water for the valuable
coal-lands of Durham. This road was built without an expectation on
the part of any of its promoters, Stephenson excepted, that steam
would be used as a motor to the exclusion of horses.
Mr. Edward Pearse, however, one of the largest holders of stock in the
road, and one of its most earnest advocates, became so convinced, by
an examination of the Killingworth engines and their work, of the
immense advantage to be derived by their use, that he not only
supported Stephenson's arguments, but, with Thomas Richardson,
advanced L1,000 for the purpose of assisting Stephenson to commence
the business of locomotive-engine construction at Newcastle. This
workshop, which subsequently became a great and famous establishment,
was commenced in 1824.
For this road Stephenson recommended wrought-iron rails, which were
then costing L12 per ton--double the price of cast rails. The
directors, however, stipulated that he should only buy one-half the
rails required from the dealers in "malleable" iron. These rails
weighed 20 pounds to the yard. After long hesitation, in the face of a
serious opposition, the directors finally concluded to order three
locomotives of Stephenson. The first, or "No. 1," engine (Fig. 52) was
delivered in time for the opening of the road, September 27, 1825. It
weighed 8 tons. Its boiler contained a single straight flue, one end
of which was the furnace. The cylinders were vertical, like those of
the earlier engines, and coupled directly to the driving-wheels. The
crank-pins were set in the wheels at right angles, in order that,
while one engine was "turning the centre," the other might exert its
maximum power. The two pairs of drivers were coupled by horizontal
rods, as seen in the figure, which represents this engine as
subsequently mounted on a pedestal at the Darlington station. A
steam-blast in the chimney gave the requisite strength of draught.
These engines were built for slow and heavy work, but were capable of
making what was then thought the satisfactorily high speed of 16 miles
per hour. The inclines on the road were worked by fixed engines.
[Illustration: FIG. 52.--Stephenson's No. 1 Engine, 1825.]
On the opening day, which was celebrated as a holiday by the people
far and near, the No. 1 engine drew 90 tons at the rate of 12, and at
times 15, miles an hour.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--Opening of the Stockton and Darlington
Railroad, 1815. (After an old engraving.)]
Stephenson's engines were kept at work hauling coal-trains, but the
passenger-coaches were all drawn for some time by horses, and the
latter system was a rude forerunner, in most respects, of modern
street-railway transportation. Mixed passenger and freight trains were
next introduced, and, soon after, separate passenger-trains drawn by
faster engines were placed on the line, and the present system of
railroad transportation was now fairly inaugurated.
A railroad between Manchester and Liverpool had been projected at
about the time that the Stockton & Darlington road was commenced. The
preliminary surveys had been made in the face of strong opposition,
which did not always stop at legal action and verbal attack, but in
some instances led to the display of force. The surveyors were
sometimes driven from their work by a mob armed with sticks and
stones, urged on by land-proprietors and those interested in the lines
of coaches on the highway. Before the opening of the Stockton &
Darlington Railroad, the Liverpool & Manchester bill had been carried
through Parliament, after a very determined effort on the part of
coach-proprietors and landholders to defeat it, and Stephenson urged
the adoption of the locomotive to the exclusion of horses. It was his
assertion, made at this time, that he could build a locomotive to run
20 miles an hour, that provoked the celebrated rejoinder of a writer
in the _Quarterly Review_, who was, however, in favor of the
construction of the road and of the use of the locomotive upon it:
"What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous, than the prospect
held out of locomotives traveling _twice as fast_ as stage-coaches? We
would as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be
fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet-rockets, as trust themselves
to the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate."
It was during his examination before a committee of the House of
Commons, during this contest, that Stephenson, when asked, "Suppose,
now, one of your engines to be going at the rate of 9 or 10 miles an
hour, and that a cow were to stray upon the line and get in the way
of the engine, would not that be a very awkward circumstance?"
replied, "Yes, _very_ awkward--_for the coo!_" And when asked if men
and animals would not be frightened by the red-hot smoke-pipe,
answered, "But how would they know that it was not _painted?_" The
line was finally built, with George Rennie as consulting, and
Stephenson as principal constructing engineer.
His work on this road became one of the important elements of the
success, and one of the great causes of the distinction, which marked
the life of these rising engineers. The successful construction of
that part of the line which lay across "Chat Moss," an unfathomable
swampy deposit of peat, extending over an area of 12 square miles, and
the building of which had been repeatedly declared an impossibility,
was in itself sufficient to prove that the engineer who had
accomplished it was no common man. Stephenson adopted the very simple
yet bold expedient of using, as a filling, compacted turf and peat,
and building a road-bed of materials lighter than water, or the
substance composing the bog, and thus forming a _floating_ embankment,
on which he laid his rails. To the surprise of every one but
Stephenson himself, the plan proved perfectly successful, and even
surprisingly economical, costing but little more than one-tenth the
estimate of at least one engineer. Among the other great works on this
remarkable pioneer-line were the tunnel, a mile and a half long, from
the station at Liverpool to Edgehill; the Olive Mount deep-cut, two
miles long, and in some places 100 feet deep, through red sandstone,
of which nearly 500,000 yards were removed; the Sankey Viaduct, a
brick structure of nine arches, of 50 feet span each, costing L45,000;
and a number of other pieces of work which are noteworthy in even
these days of great works.
Stephenson planned all details of the line, and even designed the
bridges, machinery, engines, turn-tables, switches, and crossings,
and was responsible for every part of the work of their construction.
Finally, the work of building the line approached completion, and it
became necessary promptly to settle the long-deferred question of a
method of applying motive-power. Some of the directors and their
advisers still advocated the use of horses; many thought stationary
hauling-engines preferable; and the remainder were, almost to a man,
undecided. The locomotive had no outspoken advocate, and few had the
slightest faith in it. George Stephenson was almost alone, and the
opponents of steam had secured a provision in the Newcastle & Carlisle
Railroad concession, stipulating expressly that horses should there be
exclusively employed. The directors did, however, in 1828, permit
Stephenson to put on the line a locomotive, to be used, during its
construction, in hauling gravel-trains. A committee was sent, at
Stephenson's request, to see the Stockton & Darlington engines, but no
decided expression of opinion seems to have been made by them. Two
well-known professional engineers reported in favor of fixed engines,
and advised the division of the line into 19 stages of about a mile
and a half each, and the use of 21 fixed engines, although they
admitted the excessive first-cost of that system. The board was
naturally strongly inclined to adopt their plan. Stephenson, however,
earnestly and persistently opposed such action, and, after long
debate, it was finally determined "to give the traveling engine a
chance." The board decided to offer a reward of L500 for the best
locomotive-engine, and prescribed the following conditions:
1. The engine must consume its own smoke.
2. The engine, if of 6 tons weight, must be able to draw after it,
day by day, 20 tons weight (including the tender and water-tank) at
10 miles an hour, with a pressure of steam on the boiler not
exceeding 50 pounds to the square inch.
3. The boiler must have two safety-valves, neither of which must be
fastened down, and one of them completely out of the control of the
engine-man.
4. The engine and boiler must be supported on springs, and rest on 6
wheels, the height of the whole not exceeding 15 feet to the top of
the chimney.
5. The engine, with water, must not weigh more than 6 tons; but an
engine of less weight would be preferred, on its drawing a
proportionate load behind it; if of only 4-1/2 tons, then it might
be put only on 4 wheels. The company to be at liberty to test the
boiler, etc., by a pressure of 150 pounds to the square inch.
6. A mercurial gauge must be affixed to the machine, showing the
steam-pressure above 45 pounds to the square inch.
7. The engine must be delivered, complete and ready for trial, at
the Liverpool end of the railway, not later than the 1st of October,
1829.
8. The price of the engine must not exceed L550.
This circular was printed and published throughout the kingdom, and a
considerable number of engines were constructed to compete at the
trial, which was proposed to take place October 1, 1829, but which was
deferred to the 6th of that month. Only four engines, however, were
finally entered on the day of the trial. These were the "Novelty,"
constructed by Messrs. Braithwaite & Ericsson, the latter being the
distinguished engineer who subsequently came to the United States to
introduce screw-propulsion, and, later, the monitor system of
iron-clads; the "Rocket," built from Stephenson's plans; and the
"Sanspareil" and the "Perseverance," built by Hackworth and Burstall,
respectively.
The "Sanspareil," which was built under the direction of Timothy
Hackworth, one of Stephenson's earlier foremen, resembled the engine
built by the latter for the Stockton & Darlington road, but was
heavier than had been stipulated, was not ready for work when called,
and, when finally set at work, proved to be very extravagant in its
use of fuel, partly in consequence of the extreme intensity of its
blast, which caused the expulsion of unconsumed coals from the
furnace.
The "Perseverance" could not attain the specified speed, and was
withdrawn.
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--The "Novelty," 1829.]
The "Novelty" was apparently a well-designed and for that time a
remarkably well-proportioned machine. _A_, in Fig. 54, is the boiler,
_D_ the steam-cylinders, _E_ a heater. Its weight but slightly
exceeded three tons, and it was a "tank engine," carrying its own fuel
and water at _B_. A forced draught was obtained by means of the
bellows, _C_. This engine was run over the line at the rate of about
28 miles an hour at times, but its blowing apparatus failed, and the
"Rocket" held the track alone. A later trial still left the "Rocket"
alone in the field.
The "Rocket" (Fig. 55) was built at the works of Robert Stephenson &
Co., at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The boiler was given considerable
heating-surface by the introduction of 25 3-inch copper tubes, at the
suggestion of Henry Booth, secretary of the railroad company. The
blast was altered by gradually closing in the opening at the extremity
of the exhaust-pipe, and thus "sharpening" it until it was found to
have the requisite intensity. The effect of this modification of the
shape of the pipe was observed carefully by means of syphon
water-gauges attached to the chimney. The draft was finally given such
an intensity as to raise the water 3 inches in the tube of the
draught-gauge. The total length of the boiler was 6 feet, its
diameter 40 inches. The fire-box was attached to the rear of the
boiler, and was 3 feet high and 2 feet wide, with water-legs to
protect its side-sheets from injury by overheating. The cylinders, as
seen in the sketch, were inclined, and coupled to a single pair of
driving-wheels. A tender, attached to the engine, carried the fuel and
water. The engine weighed less than 4-1/2 tons.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--The "Rocket," 1829.]
The little engine does not seem to have been very prepossessing in
appearance, and the "Novelty" is said to have been the general
favorite, the Stephenson engine having few, if any, backers among the
spectators. On its first trial, it ran 12 miles in less than an hour.
After the accident which disabled the "Novelty," the "Rocket" came
forward again, and ran at the rate of from 25 to 30 miles an hour,
drawing a single carriage carrying 30 passengers. Two days later, on
the 8th of October, steam was raised in a little less than an hour
from cold water, and it then, with 13 tons of freight in the train,
ran 35 miles in 1 hour and 48 minutes, including stops, and attained a
speed of 29 miles an hour. The average of all runs for the trial was
15 miles an hour.
This success, far exceeding the expectation of the most sanguine of
the advocates of the system, and greatly exceeding what had been
asserted by opponents to be the bounds of possibility, settled
completely the whole question, and the Manchester & Liverpool road was
at once equipped with locomotive engines.
The "Rocket" remained on the line until 1837, when it was sold, and
set at work by the purchasers on the Midgeholme Railway, near
Carlisle. On one occasion, on this road, it was driven 4 miles in
4-1/2 minutes. It is now in the Patent Museum at South Kensington,
London.
In January, 1830, a single line of rails had been carried across Chat
Moss, and, six months later, the first train, drawn by the "Arrow,"
ran through, June 14th, from Liverpool to Manchester, making the trip
in an hour and a half, and attaining a maximum speed of over 27 miles
an hour. The line was formally opened to traffic September 15, 1830.
This was one of the most notable occasions in the history of the
railroad, and the successful termination of the great work was
celebrated, as so important an event should be, by impressive
ceremonies. Among the distinguished spectators were Sir Robert Peel
and the Duke of Wellington. Mr. Huskisson, a Member of Parliament for
Liverpool, was also present. There had been built for the line, by
Robert Stephenson & Co., 7 locomotives besides the "Rocket," and a
large number of carriages. These were all brought out in procession,
and 600 passengers entered the train, which started for Manchester,
and ran at times, on smooth portions of the road, at the rate of 20
and 25 miles an hour. Crowds of people along the line cheered at this
strange and to them incomprehensible spectacle, and the story of the
wonderful performances of that day on the new railroad was repeated in
every corner of the land. A sad accident, the precursor of thousands
to follow the introduction of the new method of transportation, while
it repressed the rising enthusiasm of the people and dampened the
ardor of the most earnest of the advocates of the railroad, occurring
during this trip, assisted in making known the power of the new motor
and the danger attending its use as well. The trains stopped for water
at Parkside, and occasion was taken to send the "Northumbrian," an
engine driven by George Stephenson himself, on a side track, with the
carriage containing the Duke of Wellington, and the other engines and
trains were all directed to be sent along the main track in view of
the Duke and his party. While this movement was in process of
execution, Mr. Huskisson, who had carelessly stood on the main line
until the "Rocket," which led the column, had nearly reached him,
attempted to enter the carriage of the Duke. He was too late, and was
struck by the "Rocket," thrown down across the rail, and the advancing
engine crushed a leg so seriously that he died the same evening.
Immediately after the accident, he was placed on the "Northumbrian,"
and Stephenson made the 15 miles to the destination of the wounded man
in 25 minutes--a speed of 36 miles an hour. The news of this accident,
and the statement of the velocity of the engine, were published
throughout the kingdom and Europe; and the misfortune of this first
victim of a railroad accident was one of the causes of the immediate
adoption and rapid spread of the modern railway system.
This road, which was built in the hope of securing 400 passengers per
day, almost immediately averaged 1,200, and in five years reported
500,000 passengers for the year.[54] The success of this road insured
the general introduction of railroads, and from this time forward
there was never a doubt of their ultimate adoption to the exclusion
of every other system of general internal communication and
transportation.
[54] Smiles.
For some years after this his first great triumph, George Stephenson
gave his whole time to the building of railroads and the improvement
of the engine. He was assisted by his son Robert, to whom he gradually
surrendered his business, and retired to Tapton House, on the Midland
Railway, and led a busy but pleasant life during the remaining years
of his existence.
Even as early as 1840, he seems to have projected many improvements
which were only generally adopted many years later. He proposed
self-acting and continuous systems of brake, and considered a good
system of brake of so great importance, that he advocated their
compulsory introduction by State legislation. He advised moderate
speeds, from considerations both of safety and of expense.
A few years after the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester road,
great numbers of schemes were proposed by ignorant or designing men,
which had for their object the filling of the pockets of their
proposers rather than the benefit of the stockholders and the public;
and the Stephensons were often called upon to combat these crude and
ill-digested plans. Among these was the pneumatic system of
propulsion, already referred to as first proposed by Papin, in
combination with his double-acting air-pump, in 1687. It had been
again proposed in the early part of the present century by Medhurst,
who proposed a method of pneumatic transmission of small parcels and
of letters, which is now in use, and, 15 years later, a railroad to
take the place of that of Stephenson and his coadjutors. The most
successful of several attempts to introduce this method was that of
Clegg & Samuda, at West London, and on the London & Croydon road, and
again in Ireland, between Kingstown and Dalkey. A line of pipe, _B B_,
seen in Fig. 56, two feet in diameter, was laid between the rails, _A
A_, of the road. This pipe was fitted with a nicely-packed piston,
carrying a strong arm, which rose through a slit made along the top of
the pipe, and covered by a flexible strip of leather, _E E_. This arm
was attached to the carriage, _C C_, to be propelled. The pressure of
the atmosphere being removed, by the action of a powerful pump, from
the side toward which the train was to advance, the pressure of the
atmosphere on the opposite side drove the piston forward, carrying the
train with it. Stephenson was convinced, after examining the plans of
the projectors, that the scheme would fail, and so expressed himself.
Those who favored it, however, had sufficient influence with
capitalists to secure repeated trials, although each was followed by
failure, and it was several years before the last was heard of this
system.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--The Atmospheric Railroad.]
A considerable portion of several of the later years of Stephenson's
life was spent in traveling in Europe, partly on business and partly
for pleasure. During a visit to Belgium in 1845, he was received
everywhere, and by all classes, from the king down to the humblest of
his subjects, with such distinction as is rarely accorded even to the
greatest men. He soon after visited Spain with Sir Joshua Walmsley, to
report on a proposed railway from the capital to the Bay of Biscay. On
this journey he was taken ill, and his health was permanently
impaired. Thenceforward he devoted himself principally to the
direction of his own property, which had become very considerable, and
spent much of his time at the collieries and other works in which he
had invested it. His son had now entirely relieved him of all business
connected with railroads, and he had leisure to devote to
self-improvement and social amusement. Among his friends he claimed
Sir Robert Peel, his old acquaintance, now Sir William, Fairbairn, Dr.
Buckland, and many others of the distinguished men of that time.
In August, 1848, Stephenson was attacked with intermittent fever,
succeeded by haemorrhage from the lungs, and died on the 12th of that
month, at the age of sixty-six years, honored of all men, and secure
of an undying fame. Soon after his death, statues were erected at
Liverpool, London, and Newcastle, the cost of the second of which was
defrayed by private subscriptions, including a contribution of about
$1,500 by 3,150 workingmen--one of the finest tributes ever offered to
the memory of a great man.
But the noblest monument is that which he himself erected by the
establishment of a system of education and protection of his
working-people at Clay Cross. He made it a condition of employment
that every employe should contribute from five to twelve pence each
fortnight to a fund, to which the works also made liberal
contributions. From that fund it was directed that the expenses of
free education of the children of the work-people, night-schools for
those employed in the works, a reading-room and library, medical
treatment, and a benevolent fund were to be defrayed. Music and
cricket-clubs, and prize funds for the best garden, were also founded.
The school, public hall, and the church of Clay Cross, and this noble
system of support, are together a nobler monument than any statue or
similar structure could be.
The character of George Stephenson was in every way admirable. Simple,
earnest, and honorable; courageous, indomitable, and industrious;
humorous, kind, and philanthropic, his memory will long be cherished,
and will long prove an incentive to earnest effort and to the pursuit
of an honorable fame with hundreds of the youth who, reading his
simple yet absorbing story, as told by his biographer, shall in later
years learn to know him.
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--Stephenson's Locomotive, 1833.]
After the death of his father, Robert Stephenson continued, as he had
already done for several years, to conduct the business of building
locomotives, as well as of constructing railroads. The work of
locomotive engine-building was done at Newcastle, and for many years
those works were the principal engine-building establishment of the
world.
After their introduction on the Liverpool & Manchester road, the
engines of the firm of Robert Stephenson & Co. were rapidly modified,
until they assumed the form shown in Fig. 57, which remained standard
until their gradual increase in weight compelled the builders to place
a larger number of wheels beneath them, and make those other changes
which finally resulted in the creation of distinct types for special
kinds of work. In the engine of 1833, as shown above, the cylinders,
_A_, are carried at the extreme forward end of the boiler, and the
driving-wheels, _B_, are coupled directly to the connecting-rod of the
engine and to each other. A buffer, _C_, extends in front, and the
rear end of the boiler is formed into a rectangular fire-box, _D_,
continuous with the shell, _E_, and the flame and gases pass to the
connection and smoke-pipe, _F_, _G_, through a large number of small
tubes, _a_. Steam is led to the cylinders by a steam-pipe, _H H_, to
which it is admitted by the throttle-valve, _b_. A steam-dome, _I_,
from which the steam is taken, assists by giving more steam-space far
above the water-line, and thus furnishing dry steam. The exhaust steam
issues with great velocity into the chimney from the pipe, _J_, giving
great intensity of draught. The engine-driver stands on the platform,
_K_, from which all the valves and handles are accessible. Feed-pumps,
_L_, supply the boiler with water, which is drawn from the tender
through the pipes, _e_, _f_.
The valve-gear was then substantially what it is to-day, the
"Stephenson link" (Fig. 58). On the driving-axle were keyed two
eccentrics, _E_, so set that the motion of the one was adapted to
driving the valve when the engine was moving forward, and the other
was arranged to move the valve when running backward. The former was
connected, through its strap and the rod, _B_, to the upper end of a
"strap-link," _A_, while the second was similarly connected with the
lower end. By means of a handle, _L_, and the link, _n_, and its
connections, including the counterweighted bell-crank, _M_, this link
could be raised or depressed, thus bringing the pin on the link-block,
to which the valve-stem was connected, into action with either
eccentric. Or, the link being set in mid-gear, the valve would cover
both steam-ports of the cylinder, and the engine could move neither
way. As shown, the engine is in position to run backward. A series of
notches, _Z_, into either of which a catch on _L_ could be dropped,
enabled the driver to place the link where he chose. In intermediate
positions, between mid-gear and full-gear, the motion of the valve is
such as to produce expansion of the steam, and some gain in economy of
working, although reducing the power of the engine.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--The Stephenson Valve-Gear, 1833.]
The success of the railroad and the locomotive in Great Britain led to
its rapid introduction in other countries. In France, as early as
1823, M. Beaunier was authorized to construct a line of rails from the
coal-mines of St. Etienne to the Loire, using horses for the traction
of his trains; and in 1826, MM. Seguin began a road from St. Etienne
to Lyons. In 1832, engines built at Lyons were substituted for horses
on these roads, but internal agitations interrupted the progress of
the new system in France, and, for 10 years after the opening
of the Manchester & Liverpool road, France remained without
steam-transportation on land.
In Belgium the introduction of the locomotive was more promptly
accomplished. Under the direction of Pierre Simon, an enterprising and
well-informed young engineer, who had become known principally as an
advocate of the even then familiar project of a canal across the
Isthmus of Darien, very complete plans of railroad communication for
the kingdom were prepared, in compliance with a decree dated July 31,
1834, and were promptly authorized. The road between Brussels and
Mechlin was opened May 6, 1837, and other roads were soon built; and
the railway system of Belgium was the first on the Continent of
Europe.
The first German railroad worked with locomotive steam-engines was
that between Nuremberg and Fuerth, built under the direction of M.
Denis. The other European countries soon followed in this rapid march
of improvement.
In the United States, public attention had been directed to this
subject, as has already been stated, very early in the present
century, by Evans and Stevens. At that time the people of the United
States, as was natural, closely watched every important series of
events in the mother-country; and so remarkable and striking a change
as that which was taking place in the time of Stephenson, in methods
of communication and transportation, could not fail to attract general
attention and awaken universal interest.
Notwithstanding the success of the early experiments of Evans and
others, and in spite of the statesmanlike arguments of Stevens and
Dearborn, and the earnest advocacy of the plan by all who were
familiar with the revelations which were daily made of the power and
capabilities of the steam-engine, it was not until after the opening
of the Manchester & Liverpool road that any action was taken looking
to the introduction of the locomotive. Colonel John Stevens, in 1825,
had built a small locomotive, which he had placed on a circular
railway before his house--now Hudson Terrace--at Hoboken, to prove
that his statements had a basis of fact. This engine had two "lantern"
tubular boilers, each composed of small iron tubes, arranged
vertically in circles about the furnaces.[55] This exhibition had no
other effect, however, than to create some interest in the subject,
which aided in securing a rapid adoption of the railroad when once
introduced.
[55] One of these sectional boilers is still preserved in the
lecture-room of the author, at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
The first line of rails in the New England States is said to have been
laid down at Quincy, Mass., from the granite quarry to the Neponset
River, three miles away, in 1826 and 1827. That between the coal-mines
of Mauch Chunk, Pa., and the river Lehigh, nine miles distant, was
built in 1827. In the following year the Delaware & Hudson Canal
Company built a railroad from their mines to the termination of the
canal at Honesdale. These roads were worked either by gravity or by
horses and mules.
The competition at Rainhill, on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad,
had been so widely advertised, and promised to afford such conclusive
evidence relative to the value of the locomotive steam-engine and the
railroad, that engineers and others interested in the subject came
from all parts of the world to witness the trial. Among the strangers
present were Mr. Horatio Allen, then chief-engineer of the Delaware &
Hudson Canal Company, and Mr. E. L. Miller, a resident of Charleston,
S. C., who went from the United States for the express purpose of
seeing the new machines tested.
Mr. Allen had been authorized to purchase, for the company with which
he was connected, three locomotives and the iron for the road, and had
already shipped one engine to the United States, and had set it at
work on the road. This engine was received in New York in May, 1829,
and its trial took place in August at Honesdale, Mr. Allen himself
driving the engine. But the track proved too light for the locomotive,
and it was laid up and never set at regular work. This engine was
called the "Stourbridge Lion"; it was built by Foster, Rastrick & Co.,
of Stourbridge, England. During the summer of the next year, a small
experimental engine, which was built in 1829 by Peter Cooper, of New
York, was successfully tried on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, at
Baltimore, making 13 miles in less than an hour, and moving, at some
points on the road, at the rate of 18 miles an hour. One carriage
carrying 36 passengers was attached. This was considered a
working-model only, and was rated at one horse-power.
Ross Winans, writing of this trial of Cooper's engine, makes a
comparison with the work done by Stephenson's "Rocket," and claims a
decided superiority for the former. He concluded that the trial
established fully the practicability of using locomotives on the
Baltimore & Ohio road at high speeds, and on all its curves and heavy
gradients, without inconvenience or danger.
This engine had a vertical tubular boiler, and the draught was urged,
like that of the "Novelty" at Liverpool, by mechanical means--a
revolving fan. The single steam-cylinder was 3-1/4 inches in diameter,
and the stroke of piston 14-1/2 inches. The wheels were 30 inches in
diameter, and connected to the crank-shaft by gearing. The engine, on
the trial, worked up to 1.43 horse-power, and drew a gross weight of
4-1/2 tons. Mr. Cooper, unable to find such tubes as he needed for his
boiler, used gun-barrels. The whole machine weighed less than a ton.
Messrs. Davis & Gartner, a little later, built the "York" for this
road--a locomotive having also a vertical boiler, of very similar form
to the modern steam fire-engine boiler, 51 inches in diameter, and
containing 282 fire-tubes, 16 inches long, and tapering from 1-1/2
inches diameter at the bottom to 1-1/4 at the top, where the gases
were discharged through a combustion-chamber into a steam-chimney.
This engine weighed 3-1/2 tons.
They subsequently built several "grasshopper" engines (Fig. 59), some
of which ran many years, doing good work, and one or two of which are
still in existence. The first--the "Atlantic"--was set at work in
September, 1832, and hauled 50 tons from Baltimore 40 miles, over
gradients having a maximum rise of 37 feet to the mile, and on curves
having a minimum radius of 400 feet, at the rate of 12 to 15 miles an
hour. This engine weighed 6-1/2 tons, carried 50 pounds of steam--a
pressure then common on both continents --and burned a ton of
anthracite coal on the round trip. The blast was secured by a fan, and
the valve-gear was worked by cams instead of eccentrics. This engine
made the round trip at a cost of $16, doing the work of 42 horses,
which had cost $33 per trip. The engine cost $4,500, and was designed
by Phineas Davis, assisted by Ross Winans.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--The "Atlantic," 1882.]
Mr. Miller, on his return from the Liverpool & Manchester trial,
ordered a locomotive for the Charleston & Hamburg Railroad from the
West Point Foundery. This engine was guaranteed by Mr. Miller to draw
three times its weight at the rate of 10 miles an hour. It was built
during the summer of 1830, from the plans of Mr. Miller, and reached
Charleston in October. The trials were made in November and December.
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--The "Best Friend," 1830.]
This engine (Fig. 60) had a vertical tubular boiler, in which the
gases rose through a very high fire-box, into which large numbers of
rods projected from the sides and top, and passed out through tubes
leading them laterally outward into an outside jacket, through which
they rose to the chimney. The steam-cylinders were two in number, 8
inches in diameter and of 16 inches stroke, inclined so as to connect
with the driving-axle. The four wheels were all of the same size,
4-1/2 feet in diameter, and connected by coupling-rods. The engine
weighed 4-1/2 tons. The "Best Friend," as it was called, did excellent
work until June, 1831, when the explosion of the boiler, in
consequence of the recklessness of the fireman, unexpectedly closed
its career.
A second engine (Fig. 61) was built for this road, at the West Point
Foundery, from plans furnished by Horatio Allen, and was received and
set at work early in the spring of 1831. The engine, called the "West
Point," had a horizontal tubular boiler, but was in other respects
very similar to the "Best Friend." It is said to have done very good
work.
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--The "West Point," 1831.]
The Mohawk & Hudson Railroad ordered an engine at about this time,
also, of the West Point Foundery, and the trials, made in July and
August, 1831, proved thoroughly successful.
This engine, the "De Witt Clinton," was contracted for by John B.
Jervis, and fitted up by David Matthew. It had two steam-cylinders,
each 5-1/2 inches in diameter and 16 inches stroke of piston. The
connecting-rods were directly attached to a cranked axle, and turned
four coupled wheels 4-1/2 feet in diameter. These wheels had cast-iron
hubs and wrought-iron spokes and tires. The tubes were of copper,
2-1/2 inches in diameter and 6 feet long. The engine weighed 3-1/2
tons, and hauled 5 cars at the rate of 30 miles an hour.
Another engine, the "South Carolina" (Fig. 62), was designed by
Horatio Allen for the South Carolina Railroad, and completed late in
the year 1831. This was the first eight-wheeled engine, and the
prototype, also, of a peculiar and lately-revived form of engine.
In the summer of 1832, an engine built by Messrs. Davis & Gartner, of
York, Pa., was put on the Baltimore & Ohio road, which at times
attained a speed, unloaded, of 30 miles an hour. The engine weighed
3-1/2 tons, and drew, usually, 4 cars, weighing altogether 14 tons,
from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, a distance of 13 miles, in the
schedule-time, one hour.
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--The "South Carolina," 1831.]
Horatio Allen's engine on the South Carolina Railroad is said to have
been the first eight-wheeled engine ever built.
It was at about the time of which we are now writing that the first
locomotive was built of what is now distinctively known as the
American type--an engine with a "truck" or "bogie" under the forward
end of the boiler. This was the "American" No. 1, built at the West
Point Foundery, from plans furnished by John B. Jervis, Chief
Engineer, for the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad. Ross Winans had already
(1831) introduced the passenger-car with swiveling trucks.[56] It was
completed in August, 1832, and is said by Mr. Matthew to have been an
extremely fast and smooth-running engine. A mile a minute was
repeatedly attained, and it is stated by the same authority,[57] that
a speed of 80 miles an hour was sometimes made over a single mile.
This engine had cylinders 9-1/2 inches diameter, 16 inches stroke of
piston, two pairs of driving-wheels, coupled, 5 feet in diameter each;
and the truck had four 33-inch wheels. The boiler contained tubes 3
inches in diameter, and its fire-box was 5 feet long and 2 feet 10
inches wide. Robert Stephenson & Co. subsequently built a similar
engine, from the plans of Mr. Jervis, and for the same road. It was
set at work in 1833. In both engines the driving-wheels were behind
the fire-box. This engine is another illustration of the fact--shown
by the description already given of other and earlier engines--that
the independence of the American mechanic, and the boldness and
self-confidence which have to the present time distinguished him, were
among the earliest of the fruits of our political independence and
freedom.
[56] "History of the First Locomotives in America," Brown.
[57] "Ross Winans _vs._ The Eastern Railroad Company--Evidence."
Boston, 1854.
These American engines were all designed to burn anthracite coal. The
English locomotives all burned bituminous coal.
Robert L. Stevens, the President and Engineer of the Camden & Amboy
Railroad, and a distinguished son of Colonel John Stevens, of Hoboken,
was engaged, at the time of the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester
Railroad, in the construction of the Camden & Amboy Railroad. It was
here that the first of the now standard form of _T_-rail was laid
down. It was of malleable iron, and of the form shown in the
accompanying figure. It was designed by Mr. Stevens, and is known in
the United States as the "Stevens" rail. In Europe, where it was
introduced some years afterward, it is sometimes called the
"Vignolles" rail. He purchased an engine of the Stephensons soon after
the trial at Rainhill, and this engine, the "John Bull," was set up on
the then uncompleted road at Bordentown, in the year 1831. Its first
public trial was made in November of that year. The road was opened
for traffic, from end to end, two years later. This engine had
steam-cylinders 9 inches in diameter, 2 feet stroke of piston, one
pair of drivers 4-1/2 feet in diameter, and weighed 10 tons. This
engine, and that built by Phineas Davis for the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad, were exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia,
in the year 1876.
[Illustration: FIG. 63.--The "Stevens" Rail. Enlarged Section.]
[Illustration: FIG. 64.--"Old Ironsides," 1832.]
Engines supplied to the Camden & Amboy Railroad subsequent to 1831
were built from the designs of Robert L. Stevens, in the shop of the
Messrs. Stevens, at Hoboken. The other principal roads of the country,
at first, very generally purchased their engines of the Baldwin
Locomotive Works, then a small shop owned by Matthias W. Baldwin.
Baldwin's first engine was a little model built for Peale's Museum, to
illustrate to the visitors of that then well-known place of
entertainment the character of the new motor, the success of which,
at Rainhill, had just then excited the attention of the world. This
was in 1831, and the successful working of this little model led to
his receiving an order for an engine from the Philadelphia &
Germantown Railroad. Mr. Baldwin, after studying the new engine of the
Camden & Amboy road, made his plans, and built an engine (Fig. 64),
completing it in the autumn of 1832, and setting it in operation
November 23d of that year. It was kept at work on that line of road
for a period of 20 years or more. This engine was of Stephenson's
"Planet" class, mounted on two driving-wheels 4-1/2 feet in diameter
each, and two separate wheels of the same size, uncoupled. The
steam-cylinders were 9-1/2 inches in diameter, 18 inches stroke of
piston, and were placed horizontally on each side of the smoke-box.
The boiler, 2-1/2 feet in diameter, contained 72 copper tubes 1-1/2
inches in diameter and 7 feet long. The engine cost the railroad
company $3,500. On the trial, steam was raised in 20 minutes, and the
maximum speed noted was 28 miles an hour. The engine subsequently
attained a speed of over 30 miles. In 1834, Mr. Baldwin completed for
Mr. E. L. Miller, of Charleston, a six-wheeled engine, the "E. L.
Miller" (Fig. 65), with cylinders 10 inches in diameter and 16 inches
stroke of piston. He made the boiler of this engine of a form which
remained standard many years, with a high dome over the fire-box. At
about the same time, he built the "Lancaster," an engine resembling
the "Miller," for the State road to Columbia, and several others were
soon contracted for and built. By the end of 1834, 5 engines had been
built by him, and the construction of locomotive-engines had become
one of the leading and most promising industries of the United States.
Mr. William Norris established a shop in Philadelphia in 1832, which
he gradually enlarged until it, like the Baldwin Works, became a large
establishment. He usually built a six-wheeled engine, with a
leading-truck or bogie, and placed his driving-wheels in front of the
fire-box.
[Illustration: FIG. 65.--The "E. L. Miller," 1834.]
At this time the English locomotives were built to carry 60 pounds of
steam. The American builders adopted pressures of 120 to 130 pounds
per square inch, the now generally standard pressures throughout the
world. In the years 1836 and 1837, Baldwin built 80 engines. They were
of three classes: 1st, with cylinders 12-1/2 inches in diameter and of
16 inches stroke, weighing 12 tons; 2d, with cylinders 12 by 16, and
a weight of 10-1/2 tons; and 3d, engines weighing 9 tons, and having
steam-cylinders of 10-1/2 inches diameter and of the same stroke. The
driving-wheels were usually 4-1/2 feet in diameter, and the cylinder
"inside-connected" to cranked axles. A few "outside-connected" engines
were made, this plan becoming generally adopted at a later period.
The railroads of the United States were very soon supplied with
locomotive-engines built in America. In the year 1836, William Norris,
who had two years before purchased the interest of Colonel Stephen H.
Long, an army-officer who patented and built locomotives of his own
design, built the "George Washington," and set it at work. This
engine, weighing 14,400 pounds, drew 19,200 pounds up an incline 2,800
feet long, rising 369 feet to the mile, at the speed of 15-1/2 miles
an hour. This showed an adhesion not far from one-third the weight on
the driving-wheels. This was considered a very wonderful performance,
and it produced such an impression at the time, that several copies of
the "George Washington" were made, on orders from British railroads,
and the result was the establishment of the reputation of the
locomotive-engine builders of the United States upon a foundation
which has never since failed them. The engine had Jervis's
forward-truck, now always seen under standard engines, which had
already been placed under railroad-cars by Ross Winans.
In New England, the Locks & Canals Company, of Lowell, began building
engines as early as 1834, copying the Stephenson engine. Hinckley &
Drury, of Boston, commenced building an outside-connected engine in
1840, and their successors, the Boston Locomotive Works, became the
largest manufacturing establishment of the kind in New England. Two
years later, Ross Winans, the Baltimore builder, introduced some of
his engines upon Eastern railroads, fitting them with upright boilers,
and burning anthracite coal.
The changes which have been outlined produced the now typical American
locomotive. It was necessarily given such form that it would work
safely and efficiently on rough, ill-ballasted, and often
sharply-winding tracks; and thus it soon became evident that the two
pairs of coupled driving-wheels, carrying two-thirds the weight of the
whole engine, the forward-truck, and the system of "equalizing"
suspension-bars, by which the weight is distributed fairly among all
the wheels, whatever the position of the engine, or whatever the
irregularity of the track, made it the very best of all known types of
locomotive for the railroads of a new country. Experience has shown it
equally excellent on the smoothest and best of roads. The
"cow-catcher," placed in front to remove obstacles from the track, the
bell, and the heavy whistle, are characteristics of the American
engine also. The severity of winter-storms compelled the adoption of
the "cab," or house, and the use of wood for fuel led to the invention
of the "spark-arrester" for that class of engines. The heavy grades on
many roads led to the use of the "sand-box," from which sand was
sprinkled on the track, to prevent the slipping of the wheels.
In the year 1836, the now standard chilled wheel was introduced for
cars and trucks; the single eccentric, which had been, until then,
used on Baldwin engines, was displaced by the double eccentric, with
hooks in place of the link; and, a year later, the iron frame took the
place of the previously-used wooden frame on all engines.
The year 1837 introduced a period of great depression in all branches
of industry, which continued until the year 1840, or later, and
seriously checked all kinds of manufacturing, including the building
of locomotives. On the revival of business, numbers of new
locomotive-works were started, and in these establishments originated
many new types of engine, each of the more successful of which was
adapted to some peculiar set of conditions. This variety of type is
still seen on nearly all of the principal roads.
The direction of change in the construction of locomotive-engines at
the period at which this division of the subject terminates is very
well indicated in a letter from Robert Stephenson to Robert L.
Stevens, dated 1833, which is now preserved at the Stevens Institute
of Technology. He writes: "I am sorry that the feeling in the United
States in favor of light railways is so general. In England we are
making every succeeding railway stronger and more substantial." He
adds: "Small engines are losing ground, and large ones are daily
demonstrating that powerful engines are the most economical." He gives
a sketch of his latest engine, weighing _nine tons_, and capable, as
he states, of "taking 100 tons, gross load, at the rate of 16 or 17
miles an hour on a level." To-day there are engines built weighing 70
tons, and our locomotive-builders have standard sizes guaranteed to
draw over 2,000 tons on a good and level track.
[Illustration]