The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-12-02
The First Locomotive and Passenger
Car


Stephenson had been called lunatic
when he said that his locomotive could
run twelve miles an hour. One very
distinguished officer of the English Gov
eminent, whose duty it was to see that
the mails were carried as rapidly as pos
sible, laughed at the idea, and said that
" If ever a locomotive ran ten miles an
hour with mail bag behind it, he
would eat a stewed engine wheel for his
breakfast.
There was some little excuse for this
disbelief, for the first locomotive was
very clumsy machine. It was called the
Locomotion. 5" Stephenson, when he
built il, was the only man besides his
son Robert who believed it would go at
all and some of the learned members of
the English Parliament declared that it
could not run against a strong wind 1t
was small, clumsy affair, weighing not
more than one-tifth 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 ac-
cepted by the railroad company it ives
put in a race with three other engines,
manufactured by other engineers and
of the judges and thousands of persons
who witnessed the race, IS nine-tenths
were against the Rocket, because of it's
appearance" But Stephenson received
the prize over the other competitors, one
of whom was Capt. John Ericsson. His
locomotive was run fifteen miles an hour,
and once actually drew thirteen tons at a
speed of twenty-nine miles an hour.
That performance decided the fate Of
locomotives, and engineers at once
went to work to improve the new motive
power.
The first railroad passenger-car was
simply an old box on wheels, with seats
running along the sides, a door at the
rear end, and seat in front for the
driver, like the box of an omnibus. It
was called by Stephenson, who invented
it, the " Experiment. because it was
not generally believed that people would
travel on the railway. In 1926, about
the time the first line was finished, one
of the first papers of England said that
nothing could be more ridiculous than
the prospect of locomotives travelling
twice as fast as stage-coaches !" And it
added that people would as soon ''suffer
themselves to be fired off upon one of
Congreve's rockets as to trust themselves
to the mercy OF such a machine going at
such rate" Stephenson, however, firm
in his belief that passengers would travel
by rail, declared that the time would
come, and he hoped to live to see it,
when it would be cheaper to ride than to
walk. This prophecy threatens to be
more than fulfilled in a few years. It is
proposed in England to send passengers
by rail at ordinary English letter-rates,
and under system of tickets like post
age stamps six-cent stamp emitting
the holder to go by any route to any part
of Great Britain. But George Stephen
son was not believed then, and, the peo-
pie continued to call him ''Daft Geor-
dy," which means GO Crazy George" Ii
was not long after the Stockton and Oar
ington road was opened that more pas
senger-cars were needed. The first i'm
provement on the Experiment " was a
double car, made out of two 81 mourning
coaches" This car was lighted at night
by single candle. st. Nicholas for
December.