The daily gazette., 1875-11-20
THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE AND
PASSENGER CAR.
Stephenson had been called a lunati,

Stephenson had been called lunatic
when he had said that his locomotive
could run twelve miles an hour. One
very distinguished officer of the En-
glish Government, whose duty it was
to see that the mails were carried as
rapidly rs possible, laughed at the
i1ea, and said that " If ever a locomo-
tive ran ten miles an hour with n mail
bag behind it, he would est stewed
engine wheel for his breakfast
There was some little excuse for
this belief, for the first locomotive
was very clumsy machine. 1t was
called the "Locomotion. Stephenson,
when be built it, was the only man be-
sides his son Robert who believed it
would go az all; and some of the
learned members of the English Parlia-
me- declared that it could not run
against Il strong wind, twas a small,
clumsy affair, weighing not more than
one dftl AS much as an engine of the
present time.
The first improvement on 1.-THE
Rocket was even more ridiculous
in appearance; but it was found to be
faster and stronger. Before it was
accepted by the railroad company, it
was put in "A race with three other
engines manufactured by other engi-
neers; and of the judges and thousands
of persons who witnessed the race,
"nlne-tenths were against the Rocket
because of its appearance. But Steph.
enson received the prize over the other
competitors, one OF whom was Captain
John Ericsson. His locomotive could
actually drew thirteen tons at u speed
of twenty-nipe miles an hour. That
performance decided the fate of loco
motives, and engineers at once went
to work to improve the new motive
power.
The first railroad passenger car was
simply an old box Oh wheels, with
seats running along the sides, a door
at tho rear end, and seat in front for
the driver like the box of an omnibus.
1t was called by Stephenson, who in
vented it, the Experiment, because
it was not generally believed that peo.
Pile would travel on the railway. In
1925, about the time the first line was
finished, one of the principal papers of
England said that nothing could be
more ridiculous than the prospect of
locomotives travelling twice as fast rs
stage coaches And it added that
people would as soon suffer them
selves to be fired oil upon one of Con
greve's rockets as trust themselves
10 the mercy of such machine going
at such a rate Stephenson, how
ever, firm in his belief that passengers
would traysl by rail, declared that the
time would come, and he hoped to live
to see it, when it would be cheaper tor
n man to ride than to walk. This
prophecy threatens to be more than
fulfilled in 4 few years 1t is proposed
in England to send passengers by rail
at ordinary English letter rates, and
under system of tickets like postage
stamps-a six cent stamp emitting the
holder to go by any route to any part
of Great Britain. But George Steph-
enson was not believed then, and the
people continued to call him daft
Geordy,' which means Crazy
George" 1t was not long after the
Stockton and Darlington road was
opened that more passenger cars were
needed. The first improvement on the
Experiment wasa double car, made
out of two mourning coaches" This
car was lighted at night by single
candle.-St. Nicholds for Der.