draught in the chimney, was also the subject of numerous experiments.
When the engine was first tried, it was thought that the blast in the
chimney was not sufficiently strong for the purpose of keeping up the
intensity of the fire in the furnace, so as to produce high-pressure
steam with the required velocity. The expedient was therefore adopted of
hammering the copper tubes at the point at which they entered the
chimney, whereby the blast was considerably sharpened; and on a farther
trial it was found that the draught was increased to such an extent as
to enable abundance of steam to be raised. The rationale of the blast
may be simply explained by referring to the effect of contracting the
pipe of a water-hose, by which the force of the jet of water is
proportionately increased. Widen the nozzle of the pipe and the jet is,
in like manner, diminished. So is it with the steam-blast in the chimney
of the locomotive.
Doubts were, however, expressed whether the greater draught obtained by
the contraction of the blast-pipe were not counterbalanced in some
degree by the pressure upon the piston. Hence a series of experiments
was made with pipes of different diameters, and their efficiency was
tested by the amount of vacuum that was produced in the smoke-box. The
degree of rarefaction was determined by a glass tube fixed to the bottom
of the smoke-box, and descending into a bucket of water, the tube being
open at both ends. As the rarefaction took place, the water would of
course rise in the tube, and the height to which it rose above the
surface of the water in the bucket was made the measure of the amount
of rarefaction. These experiments proved that a considerable increase of
draught was obtained by the contraction of the orifice; accordingly, the
two blast-pipes opening from the cylinders into either side of the
"Rocket" chimney, and turned up within it, were contracted slightly
below the area of the steam-ports; and before the engine left the
factory, the water rose in the glass tube three inches above the water
in the bucket.
The other arrangements of the "Rocket" were briefly these: The boiler
was cylindrical with flat ends, six feet in length, and three feet four
inches in diameter. The upper half of the boiler was used as a reservoir
for the steam, the lower half being filled with water. Through the lower
part the copper tubes extended, being open to the fire-box at one end,
and to the chimney at the other. The fire-box, or furnace, two feet wide
and three feet high, was attached immediately behind the boiler, and was
also surrounded with water. The cylinders of the engine were placed on
each side of the boiler, in an oblique position, one end being nearly
level with the top of the boiler at its after end, and the other
pointing toward the centre of the foremost or driving pair of wheels,
with which the connection was directly made from the piston-rod to a pin
on the outside of the wheel. The engine, together with its load of
water, weighed only four tons and a quarter; and it was supported on
four wheels, not coupled. The tender was four-wheeled, and similar in
shape to a wagon,--the foremost part holding the fuel, and the hind part
a water-cask.
When the "Rocket" was finished, it was placed upon the Killingworth
Railway for the purpose of experiment. The new boiler arrangement was
found perfectly successful. The steam was raised rapidly and
continuously, and in a quantity which then appeared marvellous. The same
evening Robert despatched a letter to his father at Liverpool, informing
him to his great joy, that the "Rocket" was "all right," and would be in
complete working trim by the day of trial. The engine was shortly after
sent by wagon to Carlisle, and thence shipped for Liverpool.
The time so much longed for by George Stephenson had now arrived, when
the merits of the passenger locomotive were about to be put to the test.
He had fought the battle for it until now, almost single-handed.
Engrossed by his daily labors and anxieties, and harassed by
difficulties and discouragements which would have crushed the spirit of
a less resolute man, he had held firmly to his purpose through good and
through evil report. The hostility which he had experienced from some of
the directors opposed to the adoption of the locomotive, was the
circumstance that caused him the greatest grief of all; for where he had
looked for encouragement, he found only carping and opposition. But his
pluck never failed him; and now the "Rocket" was upon the ground to
prove, to use his own words, "whether he was a man of his word or not."
Great interest was felt at Liverpool, as well as throughout the country,
in the approaching competition. Engineers, scientific men, and mechanics
arrived from all quarters to witness the novel display of mechanical
ingenuity on which such great results depended. The public generally
were no indifferent spectators, either. The populations of Liverpool,
Manchester, and the adjacent towns felt that the successful issue of the
experiment would confer upon them individual benefits and local
advantages almost incalculable, while populations at a distance waited
for the result with almost equal interest.
On the day appointed for the great competition of locomotives at
Rainhill, the following engines were entered for the prize:--
1. Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson's "Novelty."
2. Mr. Timothy Hackworth's "Sanspareil."
3. Messrs. R. Stephenson & Co.'s "Rocket."
4. Mr. Burstall's "Perseverance."
Another engine was entered by Mr. Brandreth, of Liverpool,--the
"Cycloped," weighing three tons, worked by a horse in a frame,--but it
could not be admitted to the competition. The above were the only four
exhibited, out of a considerable number of engines constructed in
different parts of the country in anticipation of this contest, many of
which could not be satisfactorily completed by the day of trial.
The day fixed for the competition was the 1st of October; but to allow
sufficient time to get the locomotives into good working order, the
directors extended it to the 6th. On the morning of the 6th the ground
at Rainhill presented a lively appearance, and there was as much
excitement as if the St. Leger were about to be run. Many thousand
spectators looked on, among whom were some of the first engineers and
mechanicians of the day. A stand was provided for the ladies; the
"beauty and fashion" of the neighborhood were present, and the side of
the railroad was lined with carriages of all descriptions.
It was quite characteristic of the Stephensons that although their
engine did not stand first on the list for trial, it was the first that
was ready; and it was accordingly ordered out by the judges for an
experimental trip. Yet the "Rocket" was by no means the "favorite" with
either the judges or the spectators. Nicholas Wood has since stated that
the majority of the judges were strongly predisposed in favor of the
"Novelty," and that nine tenths, if not ten tenths, of the persons
present were against the "Rocket" because of its appearance.[19] Nearly
every person favored some other engine, so that there was nothing for
the "Rocket" but the practical test. The first trip made by it was quite
successful. It ran about twelve miles, without interruption, in about
fifty-three minutes.
The "Novelty" was next called out. It was a light engine, very compact
in appearance, carrying the water and fuel upon the same wheels as the
engine. The weight of the whole was only three tons and one
hundred-weight. A peculiarity of this engine was that the air was driven
or forced through the fire by means of bellows. The day being now far
advanced, and some dispute having arisen as to the method of assigning
the proper load for the "Novelty," no particular experiment was made
farther than that the engine traversed the line by way of exhibition,
occasionally moving at the rate of twenty-four miles an hour. The
"Sanspareil," constructed by Mr. Timothy Hackworth, was next exhibited,
but no particular experiment was made with it on this day. This engine
differed but little in its construction from the locomotive last
supplied by the Stephensons to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, of
which Mr. Hackworth was the locomotive foreman.
The contest was postponed until the following day; but before the judges
arrived on the ground, the bellows for creating the blast in the
"Novelty" gave way, and it was found incapable of going through its
performance. A defect was also detected in the boiler of the
"Sanspareil," and some farther time was allowed to get it repaired. The
large number of spectators who had assembled to witness the contest were
greatly disappointed at this postponement; but to lessen it, Stephenson
again brought out the "Rocket," and attaching to it a coach containing
thirty-four persons, he ran them along the line at the rate of from
twenty-four to thirty miles an hour, much to their gratification and
amazement. Before separating, the judges ordered the engine to be in
readiness by eight o'clock on the following morning, to go through its
definitive trial according to the prescribed conditions.
On the morning of the 8th of October the "Rocket" was again ready for
the contest. The engine was taken to the extremity of the stage, the
fire-box was filled with coke, the fire lighted, and the steam raised
until it lifted the safety-valve loaded to a pressure of fifty pounds to
the square inch. This proceeding occupied fifty-seven minutes. The
engine then started on its journey, dragging after it about thirteen
tons weight in wagons, and made the first ten trips backward and forward
along the two miles of road, running the thirty-five miles, including
stoppages, in an hour and forty-eight minutes. The second ten trips were
in like manner performed in two hours and three minutes. The maximum
velocity attained during the trial trip was twenty-nine miles an hour,
or about three times the speed that one of the judges of the competition
had declared to be the limit of possibility. The average speed at which
the whole of the journeys were performed was fifteen miles an hour, or
five miles beyond the rate specified in the conditions published by the
company. The entire performance excited the greatest astonishment among
the assembled spectators; the directors felt confident that their
enterprise was now on the eve of success; and George Stephenson rejoiced
to think that, in spite of all false prophets and fickle counsellors,
the locomotive system was now safe. When the "Rocket," having performed
all the conditions of the contest, arrived at the "grand stand" at the
close of its day's successful run, Mr. Cropper--one of the directors
favorable to the fixed-engine system--lifted up his hands, and
exclaimed, "Now has George Stephenson at last delivered himself."
Neither the "Novelty" nor the "Sanspareil" was ready for trial until the
10th, on the morning of which day an advertisement appeared, stating
that the former engine was to be tried on that day, when it would
perform more work than any engine on the ground. The weight of the
carriages attached to it was only seven tons. The engine passed the
first post in good style; but in returning, the pipe from the
forcing-pump burst and put an end to the trial. The pipe was afterward
repaired, and the engine made several trips by itself, in which it was
said to have gone at the rate of from twenty-four to twenty-eight miles
an hour.
The "Sanspareil" was not ready until the 13th; and when its boiler and
tender were filled with water, it was found to weigh four hundred-weight
beyond the weight specified in the published conditions as the limit of
four-wheeled engines; nevertheless, the judges allowed it to run on the
same footing as the other engines, to enable them to ascertain whether
its merits entitled it to favorable consideration. It travelled at the
average speed of about fourteen miles an hour with its load attached;
but at the eighth trip the cold-water pump got wrong, and the engine
could proceed no farther.
It was determined to award the premium to the successful engine on the
following day, the 14th, on which occasion there was an unusual
assemblage of spectators. The owners of the "Novelty" pleaded for
another trial, and it was conceded. But again it broke down. Then Mr.
Hackworth requested the opportunity for making another trial of his
"Sanspareil." But the judges had now had enough of failures, and they
declined, on the ground that not only was the engine above the
stipulated weight, but that it was constructed on a plan which they
could not recommend for adoption by the directors of the company. One of
the principal practical objections to this locomotive was the enormous
quantity of coke consumed or wasted by it,--about six hundred and
ninety-two pounds per hour when travelling,--caused by the sharpness of
the steam-blast in the chimney, which blew a large proportion of the
burning coke into the air.
The "Perseverance" of Mr. Burstall was found unable to move at more than
five or six miles an hour, and it was withdrawn from the contest at an
early period. The "Rocket" was thus the only engine that had performed,
and more than performed, all the stipulated conditions; and it was
declared to be entitled to the prize of £500, which was awarded to the
Messrs. Stephenson and Booth[20] accordingly. And farther to show that
the engine had been working quite within its powers, George Stephenson
ordered it to be brought upon the ground and detached from all
incumbrances, when, in making two trips, it was found to travel at the
astonishing rate of thirty-five miles an hour.
The "Rocket" had thus eclipsed the performances of all locomotive
engines that had yet been constructed, and outstripped even the sanguine
expectations of its constructors. It satisfactorily answered the report
of Messrs. Walker and Rastrick, and established the efficiency of the
locomotive for working the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and indeed
all future railways. The "Rocket" showed that a new power had been born
into the world, full of activity and strength, with boundless capability
of work. It was the simple but admirable contrivance of the steam-blast,
and its combination with the multitubular boiler, that at once gave
locomotion a vigorous life, and secured the triumph of the railway
system. As has been well observed, this wonderful ability to increase
and multiply its powers of performance with the emergency that demands
them, has made this giant engine the noblest creation of human wit, the
very lion among machines.
The success of the Rainhill experiment, as judged by the public, may be
inferred from the fact that the shares of the company immediately rose
ten per cent, and nothing farther was heard of the proposed twenty-one
fixed engines, engine-houses, ropes, etc. All this cumbersome apparatus
was thenceforth effectually disposed of.
When the reading was over, Bedford said: "When I heard you were going to
have George Stephenson this afternoon, I wrote to my cousin Prentiss
Armstrong, who has been at the locomotive works at Altoona for several
years, and asked him about locomotives nowadays, that I might be able to
compare them with the locomotives of George Stephenson's time. This is
his letter, which I'll read, if there be no objection:"--
DEAR BEDFORD,--Speaking roughly, a freight-engine of the "Consolidation"
type (eight driving-wheels and two truck-wheels) weighs from
forty-seven to forty-eight tons of two thousand pounds. On a road with
no grades over twenty feet to the mile (1 in 250) it will haul over one
thousand tons at fifteen miles an hour. If the train is of merchandise,
it will be of say fifty cars, each weighing ten tons and carrying ten
tons. If it is of coal or ore, the cars will each carry twenty or
twenty-five tons.
["The 'Rocket,'" said Bedford, "which was the successful engine at the
Rainhill competition, weighed a little over four tons and had four
wheels. Dragging a weight of thirteen tons in wagons, it made
thirty-five miles in about two hours."]
Our Engine No. 2 [continued the letter] made a mile on a level in
forty-three seconds with no train, but there are very few such records.
Two of our fast trains (four cars each, weighing twenty-five tons) make
a schedule in one place (level) of nine miles in eight minutes. I have
seen a record of a run on the Bound Brook route of four cars, ten miles
in eight minutes. I think this must have been down hill.
I hope these facts will answer your views. If there's anything else that
I can get up for you, I shall be glad to do it.
Yours truly,
PRENTISS ARMSTRONG.
XI.
ELI WHITNEY.
The young people all came in laughing.
"And what is it?" said Uncle Fritz, good-naturedly.
"It is this," said Alice, "that I say that all this is very entertaining
about Palissy the Potter and Benvenuto Cellini; and I have been boasting
that I know as much of the steam-engine as Lucy did, who was 'sister to
Harry.' But I do not see that this is going to profit Blanche when she
shall make her celebrated visit to Mr. Bright, and when he asks her what
is the last sweet thing in creels or in fly-frames."
"Is it certain that Blanche is to go?" said Uncle Fritz, doubtfully.
"Oh, dear, Uncle Fritz, do you know?" said Blanche, in mock heroics;
"are you in the sacred circle which decides? Will the Vesuvius pass its
dividend, or will it scatter its blessings right and left, so that we
can go to Paris and all the world be happy?"
"I wish I knew," said Colonel Ingham; "for on that same dividend depends
the question whether I build four new rooms at Little Crastis for the
accommodation of my young friends when they visit me there."
"Could you tell us," said Fergus, "what is the cause of the depression
in the cotton-manufacture?"
"Don't tell him, Uncle Fritz," said Fanchon, "for the two best of
reasons,--first, that half of us will not understand if you do; and
second, that none of us will remember."
Colonel Ingham laughed. "And third," he said, "that we are to talk about
Inventions and Inventors, and we shall not get to Fergus's grand
question till we come to the series on 'Political Economy and Political
Economists.'
"You are all quite right in all your suggestions and criticisms. It is
quite time that you girls should know something of the industry which is
important not only to all the Southern States, but to all the
manufacturing States. Cotton is the cheapest article for clothing in the
world, and the use of it goes farther and farther every year. The
manufacture is also improving steadily. Thirty men, women, and children
will make as much cotton cloth to-day as a hundred could make the year
you were born, Hester. I saw cottons for sale to-day at four cents a
yard which would have cost nearly three times that money thirty years
ago. So I have laid out for you these sketches of the life of Eli
Whitney, on whose simple invention, as you remember, all this wealth of
production may be said to depend. You college boys ought to be pleased
to know, that within a year after this man graduated from Yale College,
he had made an invention and set it a going, which entirely changed the
face of things in his own country. At that moment there was so little
cotton raised in America, that Whitney himself had never seen cotton
wool or cotton seed, when he was first asked if he could make a machine
which would separate one from the other. It was so little known, indeed,
that when John Jay of New York negotiated a treaty of commerce with
England in 1794, the year after Whitney's invention, he did not know
that any cotton was produced in the United States. The treaty did not
provide for our cotton, and had to be changed after it was brought back
to America. With this invention by Whitney, it was possible to clean
cotton from the seed. The Southern States, which before had no staple of
importance, had in that moment an immense addition to their resources.
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee, besides the States in
the old thirteen, were settled almost wholly to call into being new
lands for raising cotton. To these were afterwards added Arkansas,
Florida, and Texas. With this new industry slave labor became vastly
more profitable; and the institution of slavery, which would else have
died out probably, received an immense stimulus. Fortunately for the
country and the world, the Constitution had fixed the year 1808, as the
end of the African slave trade. But, up to that date, slaves were pushed
in with a constantly increasing rapidity, so that the new States were
peopled very largely with absolute barbarians. There is hardly another
instance in history where it is so easy to trace in a very few years,
results so tremendous following from a single invention by a single man.
"Fortunately for us, Miss Lamb has just published a portrait of Eli
Whitney in the 'Magazine of History.' Here it is, in the October number
of the 'Magazine of History.'
"As to processes of manufacture, of course we can learn little or
nothing about them here. But you had better read carefully this article
in Ure's 'Dictionary of Arts,' though it is a little old-fashioned, and
then you will be prepared to make up parties to go out to the Hecla, or
up to Lowell or Lawrence, where you can see with your own eyes.
"And now I will read you a little sketch of the life of Eli Whitney."
ELI WHITNEY.
Eli Whitney was born at Westborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts,
Dec. 8, 1765. His parents belonged to the middle class in society, who,
by the labors of husbandry, managed by uniform industry and strict
frugality to provide well for a rising family.
The paternal ancestors of Mr. Whitney emigrated from England among the
early settlers of Massachusetts, and their descendants were among the
most respectable farmers of Worcester County. His maternal ancestors, of
the name of Fay, were also English emigrants, and ranked among the
substantial yeomanry of Massachusetts. A family tradition respecting the
occasion of their coming to this country may serve to illustrate the
history of the times. The story is, that about two hundred years ago,
the father of the family, who resided in England, a man of large
property and great respectability, called together his sons and
addressed them thus: "America is to be a great country. I am too old to
emigrate myself; but if any one of you will go, I will give him a double
share of my property." The youngest son instantly declared his
willingness to go, and his brothers gave their consent. He soon set off
for the New World, and landed in Boston, in the neighborhood of which
place he purchased a large tract of land, where he enjoyed the
satisfaction of receiving two visits from his venerable father. His son
John Fay, from whom the subject of this memoir is immediately descended,
removed from Boston to Westborough, where he became the proprietor of a
large tract of land, since known by the name of the Fay Farm.
From the sister of Mr. Whitney, we have derived some particulars
respecting his childhood and youth, and we shall present the anecdotes
to our readers in the artless style in which they are related by our
correspondent, believing that they would be more acceptable in this
simple dress than if, according to the modest suggestion of the writer,
they should be invested with a more labored diction. The following
incident, though trivial in itself, will serve to show at how early a
period certain qualities of strong feeling tempered by prudence, for
which Mr. Whitney afterward became distinguished, began to display
themselves. When he was six or seven years old he had overheard the
kitchen maid, in a fit of passion, calling his mother, who was in a
delicate state of health, hard names, at which he expressed great
displeasure to his sister. "She thought," said he, "that I was not big
enough to hear her talk so about my mother. I think she ought to have a
flogging; and if I knew how to bring it about, she should have one." His
sister advised him to tell their father. "No," he replied, "it will hurt
his feelings and mother's too; and besides, it is likely the girl will
say she never said so, and that would make a quarrel. It is best to say
nothing about it."