Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1874-11-26
From the Scientific American.
An Early History of Wheeled Nc-
hicIeS and Railways.
ST&HEE .

HrNnEE =.
Men OF genius have hard time preeeive:
and must expect contradictions next 10 nnendur-
abie-the plurality Of hlOckhea.i> being "a eN-
treme!''-CAR ARLYLE-
The struggle, however, bet ween the
friends and enemies OF Improvement
was by no means over. One hundred
and fifty years after John Crassett
wrote his reasons, new motive
power, which was to produce an un-
precedented revolution in human af-
fairs. TO enable immense navies to al
vance iii the face of wind and Tide,
and vast armies to traverse under
lofty mountains and across deep riv-
ers at a pace which far Outstrips the
fieetest race horse. made lis appear
anee, and the conflict was again re-
newed with increased vigor In truth,
the opposition made to the railroad IN
its early years stands peculiarly alone
On the one side was little band of
merchants and manufacturers headed
by George Stephenson the self eluca-
ted ,'Killingworth brakeman On
the other hand were the rich monopO-
lies whose interests were about to be
affected hy the railway; the coach
companies now about to he ruined, the
canal companies about to aVeuge on
the railroad the opposition they hal
experienced in time past; the nobility.
the prcservers of game, the celebrated
engineers and famous doctors, the
landed gentry, the small farmers, the
public press backed hy the opinion
of the nation, every profession from
the clergy to the engineer, every trade,
every rank of society from the peer
to the thumbrian miner, was bit
terly hostile to the steam railway
Against this array of public spirits
Obstructives ready to choke the new
invention at its birth on the ground
of the public goo |, it struggled hard
to gain 4 footing, scarcely daring to
lift itself into notice for fear of ridi-
Guile The civil engineers to Il man
rejected the idea Of locomotive
railway" The idea Of travelling at a
rate of speed double that of stage
coach was too preposterous for any
engineer to risk his reputation by sup
porting it. Such n thing, they said
did not fall within their general eX
perience Mr. Nicholas Wood, c. f
Of London, in 1925, speaking OF the
powers of the locomotive, remarks
cit is not my wish to promnlgate to
the world that the ridiculous expecta
tions, or rather professions, Of the
enthusiastic speculator will be realized
and that we shall see engines travcl
-
eighteen or twenty miles an hour
Nothing could do more harm toward
their general adoption and improve
ment than the pro mitigation Of sucl
nonsense" What" says n writer il
the Quarterly Review for March 1925
; "ean be more palpably absurd ant
: ridiculous than the prospect held out
e of locomotives travelling twice as fas
as stage coaches We will back oil,
= Father Thames against the WOolwicl
railway for any sum No engine, i
was claimed, could be made to move
when attached to heavy load. '.Thl
besides, even admitting that the en-
gine would move, ''no railroad coul
be so constructed as to bear the weigl
of forty tons running at the rate G
twelve miles an hour; because tn
more rapidly body moves the great
er the momentum generated, and n
railroad could stand this increase {
momentum" Moreover, it was W
hemently asserted that the engine rur
y ming at twelve miles an hour cOul
never be made to srun round curves
~ yyoul5 hon
straight, or the machine leap the trac
t. When engineers, high in their prt
fession, whose experience had bee
large and whose opinions on sue
matters was held to be Of great m
ment, advanced such ruinous view
with nothing to refute them but Il
u evidence of q self educated mechan
of Northumberland, it is not surpri
ing that men of other professions b
gan to find objections based on the
own professional learning. Santa
objections were now urged again
Ith railways and many wise doctors (ne
est er to be outdone at such q time )stron
3 ly inveighed against tunnels. Sir A
thony Carlisle insisted that ''tunnc
would expose healthy people to cold
catarrhs and consumption" and OF
IS. ers believed the noise would be I'M
ON rious to hearing. But worst OF
i've i've was the obstruction OF atmosphe
I'VE air. as DIR, Lander termed it. TT
in learned gentleman made elaborate C
ene ene culations to prove that the provisi
pc Of ventilating shafts wo uld be al
Sy gether insufficient to prevent the 4:
gers arisi ing from combustion of col
. producing carbonic acid gas, viii
was fatal to life. There was not, ,ho
ever, the same unanimlty among (
e doctors as among the engineers.
deed, the proverbial disagreement
the doctors was, in this case, produ
i've of much good. Solemn docume
and in the form Of certificates, signed
many of the most distinguished pi
sicians of the day, attesting the p
II feet wholesomeness of tunnels, W
- prepared and published. There W
not wanting some, however, who,
default Of reasons Of their own, {
ried the statements made by others
the last extreme, and asserted that
air along the routes OF the rairo
would become unhealthy, that hi
would drop dead as they flew over
locomotive in consequence of
c o. discharged; and that the nj
would cause COWS to cease Civ
milk and women to miscarry
Nor did the clergy and country g
tlemen fail in this extreme so Y
lent was the antagonism of many
tient and long suffering men "of
cloth to even survey being m
on their grounds, that the exped
1 was fesOrted to of performing
{ piece of work while the clergy