The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-19 00:00:00

THE RAILWAY PIONEER.

A claimant to the invention of the railway system has
lately risen from the obscurity to which his want of suc-
cess seems, unfortunately, to have doomed him. It ap-
pears that so early as 1816 a project then in contempla-
tion for making a canal from Charleroi to the mining
districts of Belgium, first suggested to one Mr. Thomas
Gray the superior alternative of a railway, a proposal
which, it is curious to observe, has lately received the
sanction of the Belgian Government, as " the Entire
Sambre and Meuse Railway." From this period (1816),
the idea of general railway communication took entire
possession of Gray's mind ; and he shortly afterwards
published a volume of " Observations on a General Iron
Railway, or Land Steam Conveyance, to supersede the
necessity of horses in all public vehicles." This publi-
cation was followed by several petitions from the author
to the various Ministers of State, from 1820 to 1823;
yet, although the book went through five editions, the pe
titions were disregarded both by the Government and the
commercial and mercantile interests to which they were
addressed. Gray's first recommendation was, to make the
railway experiment between Liverpool and Manchester;
which shows how well he appreciated, both the merits of his
scheme, and the want of rapid communication between
manufacturing and export towns. In his work he mi-
nutely details the advantages derivable from railway
transit for cheap supplies of fish, and other pe-
rishable produce, to the interior of the country
—the regulation and acceleration of post-office
carriage, by morning and evening mail-trains,
so as to insure two deliveries and dispatches in each day.
Yet poor Gray's book was ridiculed by a writer in the
Edinburgh Review, and the author pronounced to be a
madman, who ought to be shut up in Bedlam !
The book, however, penetrated into Germany ; and,
not long since, a well known German writer re-
marked of it as Gray,
who wrote upon ironrail
follows:—"There was Mr. Graway
s—how exact his prog-
nostications of the immense
advantages and yhe
turn to it to see how truly
I read this beok, and I tveenaified,
not only with regard
sure progress of his railwayof system. Twenty years ago
his predictions have been
wix4,o
of the civilised world."
Gray's idea
wasabgranches to the smaller places, which
large towns, and rand trunk system between all the
the best railway authorities have since asserted would
been originally
a o with six wheels, the central ones
d byd p t feadr ; t hhei s b epslta
assy ssthe
show
lhottedo
moi
fives as now used, .
portion of the projec ee th b n perfected
in-
clines ; but this
D, the great practical improver
by Mr. George
StePise Poor Gray is, however, left
being toothed to work into racks., to ascend steep
ot the locomotive engine.
without any reward for his
Wilson, of Haarlem, to whom
, as,
" Grand Trunk System" as early as 1816 the pu hblic ihowever, sucn h a
ingenuity uictey ;
mumMnri. eaTtehdomhaiss
lately placed Gray's claims before
Ipigehnztaanse,ewGe
Gazette
will insure the inventors requital.—

FIRE AT POPLAR.—Late in the
the
fire was discovered burning upon
premises,
at 2, King-
occupation of Mr. Wm. Maunder, situated
time of the
stteet, West India-road, Poplar.
Atthe
tid there being
outbreak, no person was on the premises, a
no one to attack the fire, it travelled with surprising
ra-
pidity,build-
ing, so that in the space of a few minutes the
:n
last eveninge,maniseasl,arming
which contained eight rooms, became wrapped
flames. The parish engines, with a. couple from the
dock, were early in arriving, but owing to the scarcity
of water, the engines for some time were of very little
service. The brigade engines from Jeffrey and Well-
close-square stations followed in rapid succession, but
owing to the want of water, the fire w as not extinguished
until the building and the contents were all but destroyed.
How the fire originated could not be learned. Unfortu-
nately the occupier was not insured. Mr. Saunderson, a
lodger, has likewise lost the whole of his furniture; and
Mr. James Ray, who occupied the adjoining house, has
likewise received some damage by fins, &c. The former
is insured in the West of England ()ace, but the latter
was not so fortunate.
ALARMING FIRE NEAR THE Wi3ST INDIA DOCKS.
—At a few minutes before six o'clock last evening a fire,
which, while it raged, occasioned much anxiety in the
vicinity of the above docks, broke out; ,on the premises in
the occupation of Mr. Silvester, beer—shop proprietor and
lodginghouse•keeper, situate adjacent tto the West India
Dock station of the Blackwall Railway. Though several
engines were in attendance the house was wholly de.
stroyed, and damage done to two of the adjacent houses,
though not to any considerable extent. :It was late when
the fire was entirely subdued.
THE WHEEL Or FORTUNE.—A_ gentleman from
Strasburg won no less a sum than 150,,000 francs at the
gaming-house in Hamburg on the 28th of November,
and on the following day lost it all bw4 again, together
with as much more.