Middletown transcript., 1868-01-04

| the track, and draw the carriages with
ropes from station to station. A premium
of 9500 was offered for the best engine not
producing smoke, e,-weight, if ON four
wheels, not more than four and a hall
tons, and not more than six tons in any
event-drawing three times its own weight
ten miles an hour, and costing not above
E55O. In 1929 four locomotives were
presented for trial, and the prize awarded
to machine weighing four tons five cwt.
running fourteen miles an hour with O
gross load OF seventeen tons, and capable,
under certain circumstances, of double
that speed. 1t was called the Rocket. In
1880 steam carriages were regularly in
troduced on this road. The small engines
soon gave place to those of more power,
some having since attained the enormous
proportions and power of forty eight tons
weight, on the English road The ''fsh-
belly" form of rail was used with these
fist locomotives. They were spiked down
to square stone blocks, weighed thirty
three pounds to the yard, and were four
feet eight and half inches apart, which
has come to be the national guage.
The first railroad in America was COM
menced in 1926, and finished in 1927, for
the transportation of granite from the
quarry at Quincy to the tide-waters of Ma
ponset river. Including branches it was
four miles in length, with single track,
iron rails fastened to stone sleepers seven
and half feet long, and eight feet apart.
The rails were pine, foot deep, covered
with oak plank, plated with iron. The
guage was five feet. The stones were
conveyed on an inclined plain 1856 it.. long,
down an elevation of S5 feet, to the rail
way. The cars were drawn by horses.
The second railroad in this country was
commenced in January, and completed in
May, 1927, from the coal mines of Mauch
Chunk, Pennsylvania, to the Lehigh river,
a distance of nine miles, and, with turn
outs and branches, the length was thir-
teen-and-a-half miles. The elevation of
the mines above the river where the boats
received the coal was 936 feet, and down
this continued descent the loaded cars were
carried by gravitation, and drawn by mules.
Fourteen cars, each containing half ton
of coal, were connected together, and
hOhNNStpi AOhS Oh OnC vi tu0 CdTS anu
regulated their movements, ono of the cars
being used to convey down the mules, who
drew back the empty cars. The rails were
of wood, strapped with iron. In 1928 the
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company
built a railroad from their coal mines in
Luzernc county, Pa. to Honesdale, a dis
tance of twenty-four miles.
The first railroad, either in this or any
other country, constructed exclusively for
the use of locomotives as motive power,
was road to connect Charleston, S. G.
with the Savannah river. Six miles of this
road was finished in 1929, 1t was built
on piles, often very high above the ground,
and this fact is conclusive that horses were
not intended for the motive power. Their
engineer was Horatio Allen, who had been
also the engineer of the Delaware and
Hudson Road in 1927, and who was sent
abroad in the autumn of that year by the
Delaware and Hudson Company to pur-
chase the railroad iron and three locomo-
tives.
The first land carriage propelled by
steam in America was constructed by
Oliver Evans, in 1904, in Philadelphia. |
1t originated as follows: In 1902 the |
Board of Health of that city authorised
Mr.. Evans to construct the first steam |
iredging-machine ever used III America.
1t was flat scow, with small engine to
work the machinery for raising the mud.
When the machine was ready to be
launched upon the Schuylkil, Mr.. Evans,
as an experiment, fitted it upon wheels,
and, steaming up the engine. the establish
nent propelled itself mile and a half to
thc river. 1t was there placed afoat, and
with paddle wheel in the stern, it steamed
down the river to the junction of the Della
ware. The machine was named the Eruc-
ion Amphibolis. Mr.. Evans at this period |
was confidently predicting the time when
such carriages would be propelled on
railways, and urging upon capitalists
20 build a railroad from New York to
Philadelphia. He was native of New
port, Delaware, and died in New York
,ity in, 1919, at the age of GA years. The
of II land carriage. to be pro-
oelled without animal power, was the sub
ect OF his thoughts, and employed his
great inyentiy powers throughout his en-
ire manhood, commencing when he was
In apprentice boy to wheelwright. 1t
vas not until about 1893 1900, however,
hat his means and circumstances permit
ed him to embark in earnest to build
team engine. IN n, f..@5=x.#
The name of John Stevens, who in the
anne year in which Evans built his dredg-
at Philadelphia constructed
team propeller at New York, deserves
special mention in this connection. In
S12 he published pamphlet urging the
Government to make experiments in rail-
Fays trayersed by steam carriages, and it
5 astonishing to read the details of con-
truction of the railway, the locomotives,
nd the carriages, and their operation,
ghile we remember that the whole thing
ad an existence only in his. far-seeing,
INVENTIVE mInd. -, ..5s. &. t..l.s
The engines, he thought, might trav-
rse the Hoad at speed of fifty miles an