Smyrna times., 1883-06-20
For the Smyrna Time
Letter from Chicago.
THE GREAT RAILWAY EXPOSITION.

DEAR TIMEs.-The dispatches to the
associate press two weeks ago told of
the opening of the National Exposition
of Railway Appliances, but we presume
your readers have read nothing from
any one who has seen the monster that
does credit to the whole Yankee nation.
The array is as wonderful as the strides |
railroading has taken in the last half |
century and the management of that |
interest the present day. Labyrin-
fhian aisles through hundreds of arti-
eles of mechanism that unerringly per-
form their part in the construction or
eqHipment of Il road that forms one of
the great arteries of commerce, one of
the Tissues of the great spiderwebb as
it were, let down over the American
continent that two years since over
leaped tho grand attainment of one
hundred thousand miles, more than
double that of some of the most boast
| fIl nations, and our inventions making
| construction more easy as well as more
rapid added 5000 as the triumph of
| 1882. Your readers know the high
estimate of your correspondent on
railroads as civiliZing and energiZing
agency. "C0Wpaths" was the phrase
used in the days of the Knickerbock-
ers, but Indian trail is the more chival-
rous expression of the West, following
which it required years for Gen.
Fremont and his brave party of explor-
ers to make journey over the craggy
Rocky Mountains that is now perform
ed by the locomotive in a few days.
carrying the luxurious hotel car, and
| h. Il in, 70 bo
Golden Gate.
Chicago is emphatically a railroad
town, though her commerce by water
is immense. The arbitrary channels of
the limpid wave cannot compare to
those parallel lines of steel that run
over hill and dale to any mine or Il
plain or inaccessible forest; through
torrid, temperate or frigid zone; ad-
ministering to human wants and wealth,
promoting intelligence and culture in
the far off corners of our land. II
matters but little where a city is pro-
posed to be built only so that it is q
railroad town. 1t will grow as surely
] on the shores of Lake Winnepeg as Oh
the banks of the Rio Grande. OF re
cent years railroads have been the
the pioneers i'm our land. Wise legisla
ton has granted part of the public
domain to assist in their construction
and since the war the frontier ha
been beaten back FIVE hundred miles
. The projection and completion of tn,
railroad from the States to California
is q triumph that would mark any ag
or administration. A few years elapsed
and we now boast of two and in fey
more we expect to rejoice in the com
pletion and driving the last spike G
the Northern Pacific, Distance is IA
longer counted by miles but by hours
the nine hundred and ninety.nine e2
hibitors in this grand unequaled eXh
bitiOn, and if we may be allowed tn
expression, unequaled by any othe
nation, are as so many parts of th
r. great system brought here and place
Pt in those long aisles of competition
l.Hy saying "here is my old idea and hel
ID. is my new," both in working model
OF BY my new propose to secure muC
greater safety and accelerated speet
Another, device to prevent futul
derailments and wreck of trains
another a device to couple cars aut
matieally and save the lives of brak
u.s. u.s. men; another means Of better secu
ar, ing the working parts joints from Ii
me bility to danger on the journey; anoth
=! for heating or Yentilating, and sti
- another for the improvement of Il
w. couch whereon you repose during Il
dark and sombre hours of the mig
while flying over the land to dista
city, refreshed for the duties of the da
eai- AS yet have said nothing of the j
ventions and splendid improvement
RM of the means of producing such fl
''m machinery. Go with me into the sh,
of the man who is studying up impro
ments on machinists tools, and "
show you that work can be easily do
to-day, that fifty years ago was il
aisle two hundred yards or more un
we reach the old George stephens
English locomotives that are now t
centre of attraction, and the object
n the journey thitheP of many pilgr
to see; there they stand on the origiI
rails, fastened on stone crossties. T
moment you see them you are fettere
ond every thing is odd both in design a
dlu manner of application. The boil
cylinder, and crank are there, but
would puzzle modern expert to +
yOrk it, There is no cab to obscure I
NiSlOh' OhC ClbtlpCI 10 dO Onc cHu
the boiler and the fireman at the 9th
an the former at the head and presumal
to better lookout for danger; the bC
er is feet as against modern 80 fe
'rse and tons as against 60 of the pres
day. There is no iron frame to VIII
I-tf the carriage part is built and VIII
- supports the boiler all resting I'll
weight on the drivers aud trucks,
20 <.f has1 ~, 81
boiler for each of the four wheels s
T0 ports its entire weight without true
u The slender size of the piston rod, {
crank shaft, were dire necessity
the days of Stephenson and Hackwoi
cylinders were bored out with [
rG attached to wooden cross head, w
inch iron bars were few and fewer
those who could weld two inche
ids, indeed the, they, existed q all; wish; wish
machinists tools and appliances wi
the steam hammer can forge and v
shaftings or II inches in diam
n with ease.
- The inventors who got up the
proyements in superior mechanical
pliances seem to be kept behind
'om curtain at such time as this, wher
ed reality railroading would have ach
ed no triumphs because of inetiicic
10 ascend or discend necessary gri
B 2lIE wtSh ''n; eng sHfns thson niofs shnh sAet
rY. siye toy, samson IS the nam
----- one of those curious relics of epgip
% to ing antiquity whose driver Is sti
Post living Englishman aud as much an
nk - l.sk Al |.