A Neglected Railway Centenary
From The Advance Advocate, published by The
International Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Detroit, Mich., October 1,
1913 No.
10 VOL. XXII
We have been busy
of late in celebrating the memory of many events of importance in the world’s
history, from the birth of great men to the development of great industries.
Curiously enough, we seem to have overlooked one event, whose centenary occurs
this year, and which was surely second to none in its influence on the development
of our civilization. Just one hundred years ago, we are reminded by Railway and Locomotive
Engineering (New
York, August), the first
locomotive to do regular train-hauling was set at work, and we might very properly,
therefore, have celebrated in 1913 the centenary of the steam locomotive—if we had not forgotten all
about it. Is it possible that the recent development of electric traction has
caused us to think of steam as a back number? Nobody dreams now of celebrating
the invention of
the ox-cart, or even of the buggy. Have we come to think of steam-traction also
as old-fashioned before it is respectably of age? Says a writer in the paper
named above:
“The invention of the locomotive engine, whose
successful operation first imparted vitality to railway enterprise, can
scarcely be said to belong to one nation, certainly not to one man. The
elements which made the locomotive a successful machine have been devised and applied by a great many different
inventors and mechanics. The idea of applying steam to the propulsion of
land-carriages was discussed in dilettante fashion by the philosophers who
flourished so vaingloriously toward the end of the French monarchy. Some small
fruit came from much wordy seed, for about the year 1770 an officer of the
French army, named Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, built a steam-carriage intended for
military purposes. The engine used high-pressure steam and had two cylinders receiving
steam from a small boiler about the size of a kitchen chaldron. The machine
worked and moved about three
miles an hour. His invention was the first automobile. The apparatus is preserved
in a Paris museum.
“Following
details of attempts to construct a land transportation steam-engine, we find
that in 1784 William Murdock, an assistant to Boulton & Watt, the engine-builders,
made a working model of a road-engine and ran it about the country roads in
England. The development of the high-pressure, high-speed engine was largely
due to the labors of Oliver Evans, the well-known American inventor. In 1804
Evans built a dredging scow weighing about two tons, which he mounted on wheels and propelled through the streets of Philadelphia by
the power of its own steam engine. While many crude attempts were made from
Cugnot’s time on to apply steam propulsion to road vehicles, the first attempt
to put into operation a steam-driven vehicle which was designed to run on rails
was made by Richard Trevithick in 1803. An engine was constructed to do work in
this line, and it pulled some cars, but was too complex for regular work and
was abandoned after a few trials.
“For the next ten years after
Trevithick’s experiment there was considerable effort made to produce a
locomotive that would work satisfactorily. Trevithick’s engine was exceedingly
slippery, due to the power being too great for the weight available for adhesion.
This led to inventions intended to prevent the slipping of the driving wheels,
and much ingenious labor was wasted in overcoming this imaginary defect.
*
* *
“There were in the employ of Christopher
Blackett, principal owner of the Wylam colliery, in the north of England, two workmen
much above the common mechanics, who took a keen interest in mechanical
traction. One was William Hedley, superintendent (viewer was his title), a man
who studied scientific problems, and the other was Timothy Hackworth, foreman
blacksmith. Hedley superintended a series of experiments to prove the extent of
traction of wheels turning on a smooth rail, and found that the ordinary weight
carried by a locomotive would prevent slipping. He then designed a locomotive,
which was built by Hackworth in the blacksmith shop. That engine was put to work
in 1812 and hauled coal cars as far as its capacity went, but it proved
deficient in boiler. This was remedied in a second engine which Hedley had
constructed in 1813. That locomotive was called the ‘Puffing Billy’ and is now
preserved in the South Kensington museum in London.
“The ‘Puffing Billy’ was the beginning
of a grasshopper type of locomotive, which, under a variety of modifications,
became largely used until, in 1829, the directors of the Liverpool &
Manchester Railway offered a prize of £500 for a locomotive which would meet
certain requirements. The ‘Rocket,’ built by Robert Stephenson, won that prize
and introduced a new form of locomotive, whose principal novelty was a
multitubular boiler and cylinders set at an angle, connecting with a single
pair of driving wheels.
“The success of the ‘Rocket’ turned the attention
of locomotive designers to the simplified form of engine, but before that time
hundreds of grasshopper locomotives were at work, the coal hauling connected
with most collieries having been done by engines of that character, so it is
fair to say that Hedley’s locomotive led to the introduction of steam power
upon railways. George Stephenson, who was superintendent of a large colliery,
copied one of Hedley’s locomotives and began building similar engines, but they
never proved so successful as those turned out by Hedley.
“George Stephenson became chief engineer
of the Stockton & Darlington railway, the first line opened for general
traffic, which gave him prominence in the railway world and afterward led to
his appointment to a similar position on the Liverpool & Manchester
railway, now a part of the London & Northwestern railway system. He was a
strong-minded, positive man and a warm advocate of locomotives at a time when
such engines were far from being popular. On that account he came to be called
the Father of the Locomotive, although he never invented a single thing that
became a permanent attachment to the locomotive. The ‘Rocket’ engine, for whose
construction he received much credit, was built by his son, Robert, the most
important improvement, the multitubular boiler, having been the invention of
Secretary Booth, of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway Company.
* * *
Through the construction of railroads a
vast wilderness on the American continent has been changed from gloomy,
untrodden forests, dismal swamps, and pathless prairies into the abode of high
civilization. The invention of the locomotive engine brought about this
magnificent change, so it seems highly commendable that the people of North
America should join in a great celebration of the centenary of the locomotive.”
Frank L. Packard (1877-1942)
was a Canadian novelist, most famous for his Jimmy Dale action mystery novels.
Below is a list of all of his books:
The
adventures many and desperate of Dave Henderson and his redemption accomplished
by the influence of a sweet woman.
With
his old-time dash and breath-taking courage Jimmie Dale appears again, engaged
in a new adventure.
