TRAVEL OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
At the present time, when England, and indeed almost the whole of
the civilised world, is covered with a network of railways, and
the cuttings, the tunnels, and the high embankments seem almost to
be physical features of the landscape that we see around us, it is
difficult to realise that a hundred years ago none of these things
were in existence. Our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers,
as we have seen, had to be content with very different modes of
travel, and would have been amazed if they had been told that it
would be possible before very long to make the journey from London
to York in a few hours.
It is said that Lord Worcester in the reign of Charles II. was one
of the first scientists to experiment with steam engines, and about
a century later James Watt improved and utilised this invention. We
have all heard of the little Scotch boy who used to sit watching
the steam coming from the spout of a boiling kettle, who puzzled
his head over its power and who, when he grew up, worked hard in
order to earn money and be able to carry out his experiments.
The first railway was opened in 1825, but before that the
steam engine invented by Watt had been in use for some time in
collieries. One of these early engines, which was called "Puffing
Billy," can still be seen in a London museum.
The railway trains of ninety years ago, wonderful as they were
considered then, were very different from those of to-day, for
there were no comfortable carriages with windows and cushioned
seats, and the passengers had to travel in open wagons. There
were no waiting rooms or platforms either, and the speed was very
moderate, fifteen to twenty miles an hour being thought marvellous
and even dangerous.
This is what a writer says in the year 1837:
"The length of the Liverpool railway is thirty-one miles, and
the fact that passengers are regularly conveyed that distance by
locomotive engines in one and a half to two hours produced an
extraordinary sensation."
[Illustration: EARLY ENGINE.]
As the years went on, railways and the trains which ran on
them improved very quickly and stage coaches became hopelessly
old-fashioned, but for some time a railway journey was something
of an adventure and many strange plans were made in order to
prevent accidents.
One of the most eccentric of these ideas was that the last carriage
or van on a train should have a roof sloping backwards towards
the ground and fitted with railway lines, so that if the train to
which it was attached were overtaken by another, there would be no
collision, for the second engine would run up the sloping roof and
travel along on the top of the slower train.
[Illustration: WHITE SUDAN TRAIN.]
Nowadays, railway travelling has become much safer and also
more luxurious, and our trains, with their sleeping berths and
restaurant cars, would have been considered marvels by the early
passengers who crowded contentedly into the jolting open trucks of
1839. One of the most interesting of modern trains is to be seen on
the Sudan line. It is painted white for the sake of coolness and
has wooden venetian blinds instead of windows.
[Illustration: MOUNTAIN RAILWAY.]
At first it was considered impossible for railways to be
constructed except on level ground, but difficulties were gradually
overcome and for many years there have been trains running up the
Rigi and other mountains. Now a line has been made to the summit of
the Jung Frau, which is over thirteen thousand feet high, and by it
tourists can be taken far into the region of perpetual snow.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century a new power began to
be used, and we hear of locomotives driven not by steam but by
electricity. Now, although steam has not been ousted from the
field, there are many electric trains, and in almost every city of
Europe electric trams run through the streets and often far out
into the country beyond.
Another invention of the nineteenth century which made, as time
went on, a new means of travel, was the bicycle, but although
the first of these machines appeared more than a hundred years
ago, they were very strange-looking contrivances indeed, and were
considered ridiculous and useless.
[Illustration: HIGH BICYCLE.]
The first of all cycles--if it can be dignified by such a
name--made it début in 1808 in Paris. It was called a "hobby-horse"
and consisted of two wheels placed one behind the other, and
connected by a bar on which was a small saddle. The rider kept his
feet on the ground, and when he came to a hill raised them and let
the machine carry him down. At corners, however, he had to lift up
the hobby-horse and turn it round.
The dandy-horse, which had a movable front wheel, came next, and
then there was a long succession of strange inventions, many of
which hailed from America. One of these consisted of a large
rocking-horse mounted on two wheels, and another had one very
large wheel in which the rider sat. Some of these machines were
propelled with the feet, others with the hands. Croft's invention
was punted along by two long poles in the hands of the rider, and
Mey's machine had a large front wheel in which a dog ran round like
a squirrel in a cage.
While experiments were being made with these extraordinary
contrivances, more practical bicycles were already in use. They
were called velocipedes, or bone-shakers, and very wonderful they
were thought to be, although to our modern eyes the high bicycle
of thirty years ago with its large front wheel on which the rider
was perched and small back wheel, seems almost as curious as the
quaint hobby-horse of earlier times.
[Illustration: EARLY CYCLE.]
The present form of bicycle was first made towards the end of
the last century, after the invention of pneumatic tyres, but
motor-cycles are now beginning to take its place, and we are all
familiar with these wonderful little vehicles, many of which have
a side-car for an extra passenger, and are able to travel at the
rate of thirty, forty, or even fifty miles an hour.
[Illustration: EARLY MOTOR-CAR.]
From cycles we go to motor-cars, and now when the roads are
thronged with these swift conveyances it is strange to think
that for a long time "horseless carriages" were considered an
impossibility and spoken of with jeering incredulity.
More than a hundred years ago, however, a Frenchman invented a
steam carriage which could travel at the rate of two miles an hour,
and during the next half-century other vehicles of the sort were
patented besides several very curious mechanical carriages.
A picture and description of one of these appears in a magazine of
the time, and we see that it was a large carriage with four wheels.
One man sits in front, holding what are apparently quite useless
reins, while a second man, standing behind in a kind of box,
works a machine with his feet and so propels the heavy conveyance
along. Another and an even more extraordinary-looking carriage
was invented by a Mr. Boller in 1804. It was propelled by a very
complicated arrangement of large and small cog-wheels.
Progress was made during the next few years, and in 1829 two
inventors had constructed a steam carriage which could travel at
the rate of fifteen miles an hour. A little later we learn that
there was a regular service of steam coaches running between
Gloucester and Cheltenham.
After that, however, many years elapsed before horseless carriages
came into general use, one reason being that such conveyances were
heavily taxed and subjected to many rules. It was not until 1896
that these were altered, and then immediately there was a change
and cars driven by steam, electricity, and petrol came into use.