The Train

A New England writer, in a communication to an English  engineering periodical, described
the new machinery which was built at Newport, R. I., by  John Babcock and Robert L. Thurston,
for one of the first steamboats that ever ran between that city and New York. He prefaced his
description with a frequently-quoted remark to the effect that, as Minerva sprang, mature in mind,
in full stature of body, and completely armed, from the head of Jupiter, so the steam-engine came
forth, perfect at its birth, from the brain of James Watt, who was born January 19, 1736

The history of the STEAM-ENGINE goes back ancient Egyptian civilization where we find the
first records in the early history of the steam-engine. In Alexandria, the home of Euclid, the
great geometrical, and possibly contemporary with that talented engineer and mathematician,
Archimedes, a learned writer called Hero, produced a manuscript which he entitled "Spiritalia
seu Pneumatica."

The well known mathematician, pinter, writer, and poet, Leonardo da Vinci, of the sixteenth
century, describes, it is said, a steam-gun, which he calls the "Architonnerre, and ascribes to
Archimedes. It was a machine composed of copper, and seems to have had considerable power.
It threw a ball weighing a talent.  The steam was generated by permitting water in a closed vessel
to fall on surfaces heated by a charcoal fire, and by its sudden expansion to eject the ball.

In 1825 John Stevens, then seventy-five years old, had constructed a locomotive with a multi-
tubular boiler, which he operated over a circular track on his estate at Hoboken. This was the
first locomotive in America driven by steam upon a track, but it was unsuitable for commercial use.
A locomotive, the "Stourbridge Lion," was imported from England and used on the Delaware and
Hudson Company's coal road in 1829, but it was found to be too heavy for the track and was
discarded.  The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered in 1827, four years after the first
charter of the Philadelphia and Columbia line, but it was not until about 1830 that the first twelve
miles were completed. In August of that year the, "Tom Thumb" locomotive, designed by Peter
Cooper, a New York inventor, made a successful trip of thirteen miles from Baltimore to Ellicott's
Mills, Maryland. Subsequently an attempt was made to propel the cars by sails. The first loco-
motive to run on any railway which is now part of the Pennsylvania Railroad was the "John Bull,"
also imported from England, and first run in America in 1831.

Then in the summer of 1832 the road received its second locomotive, built by Phineas Davis, of
York, Pa., in 1829. This crude engine , drawing two small cars, was unsuited to the work for
which it was intended. In September, 1832, a third locomotive was tried, without success. It was
not until July, 1834, that there was found an engine capable of hauling the cars, so making it
possible to dispense with the horses. It was during the year 1835 that the line reached Washington,
and by 1842 it was extended to Cumberland, a few months after Dickens sailed for England.
There were four inclined planes on this railway. The first, about forty miles from Baltimore, was
2,150 ft. long, rising 80 ft.; the next was 3,000 ft. long, with 100 ft. rise. The line then descended
by an incline 3,200 ft. long, with a fall of 160 ft.; the fourth incline was 1,900 ft. long, with a fall of
81 ft. For the most part the rails were laid on granite sills, though some timber sleepers were used.

A considerable number of other railways were chartered, and many constructed, between 1820
and 1840. The Delaware and Hudson Canal and Railroad Company has a charter dated April 3,
1823, but no railway except gravity tracks from a coal mine was contemplated or built in the early
years. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad has a section, the Ithaca and Owego,
which was chartered on January 28, 1828; but this was not opened until April 1, 1834. The
Paterson and Hudson line was completed in 1834, and the Boston and Providence Railroad in
1835.

to be continued

© 1998-08 Benford E. Standley. All Rights Reserved.
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