The Red Cloud chief., 1880-11-11

-
70 what man and TO what Nation Il
NE world indebted for the invention oi
fthe locomotive eng neP The fhitpfe-
1 phia North amertcdn claims that honor
for the ltttle-known name of Oliver
Evans. of thsf city. and c~oarteolsiy
corrects the 7imcs for 81 recent incl
| dental a~llusion TO the invention a. hay-
ing is origin in England. and being
only afterward brought To higher per-
| lection in the United States b n II has
/ elsewhere reached. We have not a;
hand that number of the North -AD'er-
ican. printed in 1878. in which Evans
claims are set cut at length, but upon
investigation If other authorities IL APP
pears clear that sufficient credit has not
been given to the candidate for Steven
sons or Trevellick's and NiTian's hon.
ors. Thus IL is beyond a question that
so early as 1857 be obtained a paten:
from Maryland for steam carriages on
common roads. aud be thereafter de-
vcloped his idea until his Orgktor Am
phibOIos was complete. Even now II IS
difficult TO see what he could then
have added To IL. IL would. and did.
move itself on land and wafer. and
when not engaged in p~rOpelling itself,
the engine would saw wood or stone,
grind plaster, etc. Another such en-
gine-of-all-work has probably never
been in ex stence before or since.
Thus far it is agreeable to yield W .
yatriotic impulse, and follow The A@A
AMERICAN in claiming recognition fora
neglected countryman. But 1t only
needs a hasty comparison of the Am
phibolos with the Rocket to demon
strate how untenable is the assertion
that Evans invented the modern loco
motive. His machine was 4 most cum
brOus affair. IL resemble nothing so
much as a flat-bJttomed scow, car
ryinr an engine with n vertical cyl
inder, working-bcam and fy-wheel
"a locomotive with "A working
beam and f~y-wheel,) which could
be mounted on wheels, and
which would propel itself 10y an in
genious band connection TO both pairs
of wheels. or To a stern propeller. The
sole and considerable novelty about 1t,
even then. was that il was a high-rres-
sure engine. and one OF the first Of the
kind. On the other hand, il would lie
hard to name a single essential of the
BAANltt IL lttbiiloLltS va ~ IN
bodied in the Rocket of 1899, and.
though there have been numberless I'M
proyements in detail since then, there
has not been we believe the assertion
needs no qualifications single new
principle applied to locomotion since
Stephenson's day, excepting only an
engine now building, and which has not
vet hal its trial trip. Nevertheless. it
is only the rudest Justice TO call either
Stephenson the inventor of the locomo-
tive or Fulton the inventor of the marine
engine. Nothing car excuse it except
the popular demand, which concerns
itself very little with niceties Of detail,
that the honor shall be settled
somewhere. The truth is, and 1t
is now very easy tn see, that after the
discovery of the power of steam Its
application tn Use on both land and wa
ter was only a question of time, and even
Watt, though he never worked out his
idea, added to his specification Il caveat
as to this idea. From that time down
there were endless essays. each one an
improvement on the other, so that land
and marine engines art both a growth.
ana no one man can give to the world
such an enormous gift. Thus, while
it NAV be quite tr1Ie, as it doubtless is,
that Oliver Evans, thrce-quarters of a
century AFRO, planned. in his minds
eve. a double track railroad, sleeping
ears, and a speed equal to a pigeons
flight, the world will, nevertheless.
probably continue to honor Fulton and
Stephenson, next 10 Watt, rs the hui
nan sources of one of the two great
civilizing forces of this century.-NeW
York Times.