The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

1893.] tin: locomotive. 125
only working locomotive in the world was that of Trevithick and Vivian, at Merthyr-
Tvilvil, niul the la'lroal itself had not grown beyond the old wooden tnim-rojids of
tlie collieries. Yet Colonel Stevens says in this paper: ' I can see nothing to hinder a
steam-carriage n.oving on its ways with a velocity of one hundred miles an hour' —
adding in a footnote that ' this astonishing velocity is considered here merely possible. It
is probable that it may not, in practice, be convenient to exceed twenty or thirty miles
ptr hour. Actual e.\i)eriments can only determine this matter, and I .should not be sur-
])ris(d at seeing steam-carriages propelled at the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour.'
He proposed rails of timber, protected when neces.sary by iron plates, or to be made
wholly of iron. The car-wheels were to be of cast-iron, with inside flanges to keep
them on the track. The steam-engine was to be driven by steam of fifty poimds press-
ure and to be non-condensing. He gives 500 to 1,000 pounds as the maximum weight
to be placed on eueh wheel, shows that the trains — or ' suites of carriages,' as he calls
them — will make their journeys 'with as much certainty and celerity in the darkest
night as in the light of day,' shows that the grades of proi)osed roads would offer but
little resistance, and places the whole subject before the public with accuracy of statement
and evident ai)preciation of its true value.
"In 1814 George Stephenson, to whom is generally accorded the honor of having
first made the locomotive-engine a success, built his first engine at Killiiigworth, Eng-
hind. In 1815, he applied the blast pipe in the chimney, by which the puff of the ex-
haust steam is made useful in intensifying the draught, and applied it successfully to
his second locomotive. This [the blast-pipe] is the essential characteristic of the loco-
motive-engine. In 1815, therefore, the modern locomotive steam-engine came into
existence, for it is this invention of the blast-pipe that gives it its life, and it is the
mechanical adaptation of this and of the other organs of the steam engine to locomotion
that gives George Stephenson his greatest claim to distinction. In 1825 the Stockton &
Darlington Railroad was opened, and one of Stephenson's locomotives, in which he em-
ployed his ' steam blast,' was successfully used, drawing passengers as well as coal trains.
Stephenson had at this time become engineer of the road. The time required to travel
the distance of twelve miles was two hours. One of the most important and interesting
occasions in the history of the application of the non-condensing steam-engine to railroads,
as well as in the life of Stephenson, was the opening of the Liverpool & Man-
chester Railroad in the year 1829. When this road was built, it was determined, after
long and earnest discussion, to try whether locomotive-engines might not be used to the
exclusion of horses, and a prize of £500 was offered for the best that should be presented
at a date which was finally .settled at the 6th of October, 1829. Four engines competed,
and the 'Rocket,' built by Stephenson, received the prize. This engine weighed four
and one-fourth tons, with its supply of water. Its boiler was of the fire tubular type, a
form that had grown into shape in the hands of several inventors, and was three feet in
diameter and six feet long, with twenty-five three-inch tubes, extending from end to
end of the boiler. The steam-blast was carefully adjusted by experiment, to give the
best effect. Steam pressure was carried at fifty pounds per square inch. The average
speed of the Rocket on its trial was fifteen miles per hour, and its maximum was nearly
double that, twenty-nine miles an hour; and afterwards, running alone, it reached a
speed of thirty-five miles.
"In America the locomotive was set at regular work on railroads, for the first time,
on the 8th of August, 1829. This first locomotive was built by Foster, Rastrick & Co.,
at Stourbridge, England, and was purchased by Mr. Horatio Allen for the Delaware &
Hudson Canal Company's road from Carbondale to Honesdale, Pennsylvania."