CHAPTER XI.

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