The Iowa patriot. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1839-1839, 1839-06-13

see It spinning along past the stage coach
es,' added he, with knowing chuckle,
''won't they!"
This brought us to the door of ;sn old
clapboarded, dingy, long one-story build
ing, with window or two in the roof,
the knot-holesand cracks all carefully stuff
led with old rags, and over the door he
was unlocking, was written, in bold let
tiers, ''No Admittance." This was his
''sanctum sanctorum. There it stood,
occupying the centre of all previous
conceptions, rat-traps, churns, apple-pear-
ers, pill-rollers, cooking-stoves, and shin
gle-splitters, which hung or stood around
it, or, as my lord Byron says with refer
ence to more ancient but not more i'm
portant invention:
Where each conception was heav efily guest
A ray OF immortality. and stood
Star-like around, until they gathered toa Cod
And there it stood, .'the concentrated TO-
GUS of all previous rays of inventive gen
us, CHE FIRST LOCOMOTIVES
An implanted, unpublished, unadorned,
oven shaped mass, of double rivited,
sheet-iron, with cranks, and pipes, and
trunnel heads, and screws, and all firmly
braced on four firmly made travelling
wheels.
s'It's curious critter to look att saws
Jabez, shut you'll like it better, when
you see it in notion
He was by this time igniting quantity
of charcoal, which he had stuffed under
the boiler. 81 filled the billr,'' says he
"arter stopped working yesterday, and
it ha'nt leaked drop since. It will
soon bile up; the coal is first rate
Sure enough the boiler soon. gave evidence
of ''troubled waters, wheli, by pushing
one slide, and pulling another, the whole
machine, cranks and piston was in mo-
ton.
SIT works slick. don't it, said Jabez.
But" l replied, sit don't move"
s'You mean,' said he, 'sthe travelling
wheels don't move; well, I don't mean
they shall, till Igetmy patent. Yousee,'
he added, crouching, down, 'that trunnel
head, there-that small cog-wheeI-
Well, that's out Of gear just yet; when l
turn that into gear, by this crank, it fits,
you see, on the main travelling wheel;
and then the hull scrape will move, as
nigh as | can calculate, little slower
than chain lightnin' ard darn'd leetle,
too! But it won't do to give it try afore
| get the patent. There is only one thing
yet" he continued, ''tllat ha'nt contriv-
ed-but that is simpla matter-and that
is the shortest mode of stoppin' on her.
My first notion is, toSsee how fast [ can
make her. work, without smashing all to
! bits, and that's done by screwing down
this upper valve; d-l,ll show YOU
And with that he clambered up on the
top, with turning screw in one hand,
and horn of soap fat in the other and
commenced screwing down the valves,
and oiling the piston rod and crank joints;
and the motion of the mysterious mass
increased, until all seemed BUz.
s'It is nigh about perfection, amt it!''
said he.
l stood amazed in contemplating the
object before me, which confess could
not fully understand; and hence with the
greater readiness, permitted my mind to
bear off to other matters more compre-
hensible; to the future, which is always
more clear than the present, under similar
circumstances. needed not, for the very
best reason in the world, because under
stood not, the complicated description
that Jabez was giving of his still more
complicated invention. All | knew was,
that here was machine on four good
sturdy well braced wheels, and it only
required a recorded patent, to authorize
that small connecting cogwheel or trun-
nel-head to be thrown ssinto gear when
it would off, without oats, hay, or horse
shoes, and distance the mail coaches. As
| was surrounded with notions, it was not
extraordinary that one should take full
possession of me. 1t dawned upon me
when l saw the machine first in motion,
and was now full orbed abovethe horizon
of my desire, it was to see the first loco
motive move off. The temptation was If.
resistible. s'And who knows thought |,
but some prying scamp may have been
peeping through the key-hole, while ia.
bez was at work, and catching the idea
may be at work at some clumsy imitation?
and if he does not succeed in turning
the first trick, may at least divide the
honors with my sfriend?'
"Jabez,' said I, elevating my voice
above the buzzing Of the machine, ssthere
is only one thing wanting
"What is that said he eagerly.
Immortality said I, '.and you shall
have it, patent or no patent. - And with
that, pulled the crank that twisted the
connecting trunnel-head into the travelling
wheels, and in an instant away went the
machine, with Jabez on top Of it, with
the whiz and rapidity Of a flushed part
ridge. The side Of the old building pre-
scented the resistance Of wet paper. One
orach and tho ss6rct Locomotives >, x.,.cl