Morning journal and courier., 1884-08-04

of it's kind in America, claims to have built | the fourth machine made here. This was 1 used on the Philadelphia and Germantown | railroad in 1883. Four years later the Roger works of Paterson N. J., after two years 1 labor completed it's first engine"
 "And you say these were good motorsa'
 Certainly. There have been few minor l improvements on them, not many. They | have added 8 cab for fellows and a pilot 1 (cow-catcher), increased the driving wheels
 from one pair to four or six, and in the in ternal economy added the multitubular boiler and the chimney exhaust. Those are the principal improvements, builders say the en- zines can be made almost without them The
 engine of to-day is marvel of simplicity and beauty.
 ''Take, for instance, the 100 locomotives completed by the Rogers works for the West
 Shore road The engines weigh about fifty
 tons, have steel axles, driving wheels sixty
 eight inches in diameter, or as tall as the
 average man, run on paper trucks, have few
 polished surfaces and are guaranteed to make sixty miles an hour with a train of seven cars. The tanks hold 5000 gallons of water
 Even the minutest parts are Interchangeable and the greatest pieces are made with micro scopical exactness, so that broken or worn part can be immediately replaced. The gauges or standards by which these pieces are measured are made of steel as hard as dia- mond, and when not in are kept in cush- toned cases so as to suffer no inaccuracies from contact with other metal"
 'EHave all attempts at improvements proved futile?'
 ''Most of the money spent in radical changes has been wasted. The Fontaine en- zine, named after it's inventor, which was to make eighty miles an hour with one pair of driving wheels placed above the other, has not it is said, made good it's claim, and the Holland notwithstanding machine, invented by MT. Conant and intended to burn naphtha and water, is now lying idly in the Erieyards at Paterson. Several trials failed it is claim ed, to induce the engine to work satisfactorily. As far as brass and nickeled work goes the machine Is glittering success.
 ''The economizing of fuel has always been aimed at, and on the Reading road dirt-burn- ing machines are used to consume the noun tains of otherwise valualess coal-dust that ac- cumulate at the mouths of the mines. In cities where the smoke is objected to, some companies have been obliged to resort to us1ng expensive coke. There at present sixteen locomotive works in the country, not including the shops owned by the railway companies. Pennsylvania has five of these, New Jersey and Massachusetts three each, New York two, Rhode Island. These works give employment to 14,000 men and every year add about 2,600 locomotives to the 20, GOO now in daily use. At present five men have to work an entire year to complete one of these huge machines. The year just past hes been 8 somewhat dull one for manufac- turers and a majority of the shops are not l now working full time.
 Are all engineers well informed: I I think so It is our business to know the l history of our engine, and we certainly have 1 to know how our locomotive is built You will always find that good mechanic makes 1 a good engineer" And the grimy driver ! disappeared under his engine and squirted ! half pint of oil from the elongated spout of 1 B dinner -pail-looking oiEcan into an invisible aperture.