THE STEAM RAILWAY.
TREVITHICK’S FIRST LOCOMOTIVE--BLENKINSOP’S LOCOMOTIVE--HEDLEY’S
“PUFFING BILLY”--STEPHENSON’S LOCOMOTIVE--THE LINK MOTION--STOCKTON
AND DARLINGTON RAILWAY, 1825--HACKWORTH’S “ROYAL GEORGE”--
“STOURBRIDGE LION”--“JOHN BULL”--BALDWIN’S LOCOMOTIVES--WESTINGHOUSE
AIR BRAKES--JANNEY CAR COUPLING--THE WOODRUFF SLEEPING CAR--RAILWAY
STATISTICS.
The fact that more patents have been granted in the class of carriages
and wagons than in any other field, shows that means of transportation
has engaged the largest share of man’s inventive genius, and has been
most closely allied to his necessities. The moving of passengers and
freight seems to be directly related to the progress of civilization,
and the factor whose influence has been most felt in this field is the
steam locomotive. Sir Isaac Newton in 1680 proposed a steam carriage
propelled by the reaction of a jet of steam. Dr. Robinson in 1759
suggested the steam carriage to Watt. Cugnot in 1769 built a steam
carriage. Symington, in 1770, and Murdock, in 1784, built working
models, and in 1790 Nathan Read also made experiments in steam
transportation, but the Nineteenth Century dawned without any other
results than a few abandoned experiments, and the criticism and
disappointment of the inventors in this field.
[Illustration: FIG. 93.--TREVITHICK’S LOCOMOTIVE, 1804. THE FIRST TO RUN
ON RAILS.]
The father of the locomotive and the first inventor of the Nineteenth
Century who directed his energy to its development was Richard
Trevithick, of Camborne, Cornwall. In 1801 he built his first steam
carriage, adapted to carry seven or eight passengers, which was said to
have “gone off like a bird,” but broke down, and was taken to the home
of Capt. Vivian, who afterward became a partner of Trevithick. An old
lady, upon seeing this novel and, to her, frightful engine, is said to
have cried out: “Good gracious! Mr. Vivian, what will be done next? I
can’t compare it to anything but a walking, puffing devil.” On the 24th
of March, 1802, Trevithick and Vivian obtained British patent No. 2,599
for their steam carriage, and a second one was built in 1803 which was
popularly known as Capt. Trevithick’s “Puffing Devil.” In 1804, at Pen y
Darran, South Wales, a third engine was built, which was the first
steam locomotive ever to run on rails. It is seen in the illustration,
No. 93. It had a horizontal cylinder inside the boiler, a cross head
sliding on guides in front of the engine, the cross head being connected
to a crank on a rear gear wheel, which in turn meshes with an
intermediate gear wheel above and between two other gear wheels on the
running wheels. A fly wheel was on the crank shaft. The steam was
discharged into the chimney, and the whole engine weighed five tons, and
it ran, when loaded, at five miles an hour. In 1808 Trevithick built a
circular railway at London within an inclosure, and charged a shilling
for admission to his steam circus and a ride behind his locomotive. The
engine here employed was the “Catch Me Who Can,” and had a vertical
cylinder and piston, without the toothed gear wheels shown in the
illustration.
[Illustration: FIG. 94.--BLENKINSOP’S LOCOMOTIVE, 1811.]
In Fig. 94 is shown Blenkinsop’s locomotive of 1811. This was employed
at the Middleton Colliery in hauling coal. It had cog wheels engaging
teeth on the side of the rail. The fire was built in a large tube
passing through the boiler and bent up to form a chimney. Two vertical
cylinders were placed inside the boiler, and the pistons were connected
by cross heads, and, by connecting rods, to cranks on the axles of small
cog wheels engaging with the main cog wheels. It drew thirty tons weight
at three and three-quarter miles an hour.
[Illustration: FIG. 95.--HEDLEY’S “PUFFING BILLY,” 1813.]
In 1813 “Puffing Billy” was built by Wm. Hedley. There were (see Fig.
95) four smooth drive wheels running on smooth rails, which wheels were
coupled together by intermediate gear wheels on the axle, and all
propelled by a gear wheel in the middle, driven by a connecting rod from
the walking beam overhead. Hedley’s locomotive was used on the Wylam
railway, and was said to have been at work more or less until 1862.
Most prominent among those who took an active interest in the
development of the locomotive were George Stephenson and his son,
Robert. Stephenson’s first locomotive was tried on the Killingworth
Railway on July 27, 1814. In 1815 Dodds and Stephenson patented an
arrangement for attaching the connecting rods to the driving wheels,
which took the place of cog wheels heretofore employed, and in the
following year Stephenson, in connection with Mr. Losh, patented the
application of steam cushion-springs for supporting the weight of the
locomotive in an elastic manner.
In 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in England, was opened for
traffic, with George Stephenson’s engine, “Locomotion,” and was put
permanently into service for the transportation of freight and
passengers.
[Illustration: FIG. 96.--HACKWORTH’S LOCOMOTIVE, “ROYAL GEORGE,” 1827.]
In 1827 Hackworth produced the “Royal George” (see Fig. 96), whose
cylinders were arranged vertically at the rear end of the boiler, and
whose pistons emerged from the cylinders at the lower ends of the
latter, and imparted their power through connecting rods to cranks on
the opposite ends of the axle of the rear driving wheels in a more
direct manner than heretofore, and doing away with the overhead
mechanism heretofore employed in most engines. Hackworth also improved
the steam blast, put on the bell, and greatly simplified and modernized
the appearance of the locomotive.
[Illustration: FIG. 97.--GEORGE STEPHENSON’S “ROCKET,” 1829.]
In 1829 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was completed, and the
directors offered a prize of £500 for the best locomotive. George
Stephenson’s “Rocket,” shown in Fig. 97, attained a speed of 24⅙ miles
an hour, and took the prize. Its success, however, was marred by the
first railroad fatality, for it ran over and killed a man on this
occasion. It embodied, as leading features, the steam blast and the
multitubular boiler, which latter was six feet long and had twenty-five
three-inch tubes. The fire box was surrounded by an exterior casing that
formed a water jacket, which, by means of pipes, was in open
communication with the water space of the boiler.
[Illustration: FIG. 98.--“STOURBRIDGE LION,” 1829.]
The first practical locomotive to run on a railroad in the United States
was the “Stourbridge Lion,” seen in Fig. 98. This was imported from
England, and arrived in New York in May, 1829, and was tried in that
year on a section of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company’s railroad. The
boiler was tubular, and the exhaust steam was carried into the chimney
by a pipe in front of the smoke stack as shown. It had vertical
cylinders of thirty-six inch stroke, with overhead grasshopper beams and
connecting rods.
[Illustration: FIG. 99.--LOCOMOTIVE “JOHN BULL,” 1831.]
In Fig. 99 is shown the “John Bull,” now in the National Museum at
Washington, D. C. It was built by Stephenson & Co. for the Camden &
Amboy Railroad, and was brought over from England and put into service
in 1831. During the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, after a
long rest in the Washington Museum, it made its way under its own steam
to Chicago, drawing a train of two cars a distance of 912 miles without
assistance. It further distinguished itself while there by carrying
50,000 passengers over the exhibition tracks, and although sixty-two
years of age at the time, showed itself quite capable of performing
substantial work.
[Illustration: FIG. 100.--BALDWIN’S “OLD IRONSIDES,” 1832.]
Most of the early locomotives used in America were imported from
England, but our inventors soon commenced making them for themselves.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia, has had a notable career
in the field of locomotive construction. “Old Ironsides,” built in
1832, was the first Baldwin locomotive, and it did duty for over a
score of years. It is shown in Fig. 100. It had four wheels and weighed
a little over five tons. The drive wheels were 54 inches in diameter,
and the cylinder 9½ inches in diameter, 18 inches stroke. The wheels had
heavy cast iron hubs with wooden spokes and rims and wrought iron tires,
and the frame was of wood placed outside the wheels. The boiler was 30
inches in diameter and had 72 copper flues 1½ inches in diameter, 7 feet
long. The price of the locomotive was $4,000, and it attained a speed of
30 miles an hour, with its train.
[Illustration: FIG. 101.--EIGHT-WHEEL PASSENGER EXPRESS LOCOMOTIVE,
1863.]
[Illustration: FIG. 102.--EXPRESS PASSENGER LOCOMOTIVE, 1881.]
In Fig. 101 is shown a standard type of passenger locomotive of the
period of 1863, and in Fig. 102 is illustrated the period of 1881, which
latter represents perhaps the greatest epoch of railroad building in the
history of the world. According to Poor’s Manual, $1,000,000 a day was
the estimated cash outlay on this account for the three years up to the
close of 1882, during which period 28,019 miles of railroad were opened
up in the United States, or more than enough to girdle the entire earth.
Some idea of the wonderful growth of the railroad industry during this
period is given by the following tables, which represent the yearly
production of locomotives by the Baldwin Company alone for forty years
prior to this period:
1842 14
1843 12
1844 22
1845 27
1846 42
1847 39
1848 20
1849 30
1850 37
1851 50
1852 49
1853 60
1854 62
1855 47
1856 59
1857 66
1858 33
1859 70
1860 83
1861 40
1862 75
1863 96
1864 130
1865 115
1866 118
1867 127
1868 124
1869 235
1870 280
1871 331
1872 442
1873 437
1874 205
1875 130
1876 232
1877 185
1878 292
1879 398
1880 517
1881 555
1882 563
1883 557
The present capacity of the Baldwin works is one thousand locomotives a
year, and they have built up to this date about fifteen thousand
locomotives, or nearly one-half of all the locomotives in use in the
United States.
The successive steps of the development in detail of the various
features of the locomotive are distributed over a long period, and are
somewhat difficult to trace. The turning of the exhaust steam into the
smoke stack was done by Trevithick as early as 1804, but its effect was
greatly increased by Hackworth about 1827, who augmented its power by
directing it into the chimney through a narrow orifice. This and the
tubular locomotive boiler by Seguin in 1828, the link-motion in 1832,
the steam whistle by Stephenson in 1833, the Giffard injector in 1858,
and the Westinghouse air brake of 1869, are the most prominent features
of the locomotive.
[Illustration: FIG. 103.--STEPHENSON’S LINK MOTION.]
The link motion has been claimed both for the younger Stephenson and W.
T. James, of New York, the latter being probably its real inventor. Its
purpose is to reverse the engine and also to cut off steam in either
direction, so that it may act expansively. The form of link motion most
generally used is shown in Fig. 103, and is known as Stephenson’s. A B
are two eccentrics projecting in opposite directions from the center of
the common drive shaft, their rods being connected at their outer ends
by a curved and slotted link C D. In the slot of this link plays a pin
E, carried by a pendent swinging lever G F, which lever is jointed at
its lower end to the slide valve rod H. A T-shaped lever I L K M has one
arm at I connected by a rod with the slotted link at C. The opposite arm
is provided with a counter weight at K to balance the weight of the link
C D and eccentric rods, and the upright arm is connected at M to a rod
operated by a hand lever P within easy access of the engineer. When the
link C D is lowered the eccentric B imparts its throw to pendent lever G
F and valve rod H, and the eccentric A will only swing the end C of the
link without imparting any effect to the valve. When link C D is drawn
up so that pin E is in the bottom of the slot, the eccentric A is active
and B inactive, and as A has an opposite throw to B, the action of the
valve is reversed. If link C D be drawn half way up, the pin E becomes
the center of the oscillation of the link, and the valve rod is not
moved at all. By adjusting the link nearer to or further from the
central position, the throw of the slide valve may be made shorter or
longer, and the steam cut off at a later or earlier period in the stroke
of the piston.
[Illustration: FIG. 104.--LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE NO. 999.]
Fig. 104 is a type of the best modern express locomotive. This is the
famous 999 of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad. Its
cylinders are 19 × 24 inches, driving wheels 86½ inches in diameter,
weight 62 tons, steam pressure 190 pounds. This engine hauls the Empire
State Express at a speed of 64.22 miles an hour, excluding stops, or
more than a mile a minute.
[Illustration: FIG. 105.--COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE.]
In securing a higher efficiency and a greater economy in the use of
steam, the most recent developments in the locomotive have been in the
application of the principle of the compound expansion engine, in which
two or more cylinders of different diameters are used, the steam at high
pressure acting in the smaller cylinder, and being then exhausted into
and acting expansively upon the piston of the larger cylinder. A fine
example of the compound locomotive is shown in Fig. 105. The cylinders
are arranged in pairs, the small high pressure cylinder above, and the
larger low pressure cylinder below, both piston rods engaging a common
cross head. The application of this principle of the compound engine is
said to involve a saving in coal of over 25 per cent.
Prominent among modern improvements in steam railways is the air brake.
This invention is chiefly the result of the ingenuity of Mr. George
Westinghouse, Jr., who, beginning his experiments in 1869, took out his
first patents on the automatic air brake March 5, 1872, Nos. 124,404 and
124,405, which have since been followed up by many others in perfecting
the system. The principle of the air brake is to store up compressed air
in a reservoir on the locomotive by means of a steam pump. This air
passing through a train pipe connected by hose couplings between cars
charges an auxiliary reservoir under each car. This reservoir is
arranged beside a cylinder having a piston and a triple valve. Pressure
in the train pipe is maintained constantly, and the power to work the
piston to apply the brakes comes from the auxiliary reservoir beside it,
which is set into action by a sudden reduction of pressure in the train
pipe by the engineer through a special form of valve on the locomotive.
The air brake is capable of stopping a train at average speed within the
distance of its own length, and so great a safeguard to life and
property is it, that its application to a certain number of cars on
every train is made compulsory by law.
The automatic car coupling is another important life-saving improvement.
Many thousands of these have been patented, but the “Janney” coupling,
patented April 29, 1873, No. 138,405, is the most representative type.
The year 1900 is to witness the compulsory adoption of automatic car
couplings on all cars. The “block system” of signals, by which no train
is admitted on to a given section of track until the preceding train has
left that section, improved switches, which are not dependent upon the
memory of men, and steel rails, which constitute nine-tenths of all
tracks and serve to increase the stability of the track, are further
modern safeguards against danger.
Sleeping cars were invented by Woodruff, and patented Dec. 2, 1856, Nos.
16,159 and 16,160. These, with the palace cars of Pullman and Wagner,
the special refrigerator cars for perishable goods, cars for cattle, and
cars for coal, multiply the equipment, swell the traffic, and supply
every want of the great railroad systems of modern times.
The first railroad in the United States was built near Quincy, Mass., in
1826. The Pacific Railway, the first of our half a dozen
transcontinental railways, was completed in 1869. The great
Trans-Siberian Railway is nearing completion, and in the Twentieth
Century a Trans-Sahara Railway will probably relieve the burdens of the
camel, as it has already done those of the horse.
At the end of the year 1898 there were in use in the United States
36,746 locomotives, 1,318,700 cars, and the mileage in tracks, including
second track and sidings, was 245,238.87, which, if extended in a
straight line, would build a railway to the moon. The money investment
represented in capital stock and bonds was $11,216,886,452. The gross
earnings for the year 1898 were $1,249,558,724. The net earnings were
$389,666,474. Tons of freight moved were 912,973,853. Receipts from
freight were $868,924,526. Number of passengers carried was 514,982,288.
Receipts from passengers were $272,589,591, and dividends paid were
$94,937,526. Add to the above the elevated railroads and street
railroads, which are not included, and the immensity of the railroad
business in the United States becomes apparent. In 1898 the United
States exported 468 locomotives, worth $3,883,719. Mulhall estimates
that the steam horse power of railroads in the world amounted in 1896 to
40,420,000, of which the United States had more than one-third. He also
states that the railways in the United States carry _every day_, in
merchandise, a weight equal to that of the whole of the seventy millions
of persons constituting its population; that the total railway traffic
of the world in 1894 averaged ten million passengers and six million
tons of merchandise _daily_; and that the total railway capital of the
world reached in that year, 6,745 million sterling, or about
thirty-three billion dollars.
It is said that the highest railway speed ever attained by steam prior
to 1900 was by locomotive No. 564 of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern
Railroad, made during part of a run from Chicago to Buffalo. In this run
86 miles were made at an average rate of 72.92 miles an hour. The train
load was 304,500 pounds, and the 86 mile run included one mile at 92.3
miles an hour, eight miles at 85.44 miles an hour, and thirty-three
miles at 80.6 miles an hour. On May 26, 1900, however, an experiment on
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, made by Mr. F. U. Adams between Baltimore
and Washington, demonstrated that by sheathing the train to prevent
retardation by the air, an average speed of 78.6 miles an hour was
obtained, and for five miles on a down grade a speed of 102.8 miles an
hour was reached.
The largest and most powerful locomotives in the world are those being
built for the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad for hauling long
trains of iron and ore, one of which has just been completed. Its
cylinders are 24 × 32 inches; drive wheels, 54 inches diameter; weight,
125 tons; draw bar pull 56,300 pounds, and hauling capacity 7,847 tons.
One of these mammoth engines is capable of drawing a train of box cars,
loaded with wheat, and more than a mile long, at a speed of ten miles an
hour. This load of wheat would represent the yield of 14 square miles of
land. No doubt it would greatly astonish our forefathers to know that at
the end of the century we would have iron horses capable of carting
away, at a single load, the products of 14 square miles of the country
side, and do it at a gait faster than that of their local mail coach.