Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-01-30
THE IRON WAY.
n, IN. VI the Railroad Relieved to Dnts
1..ck to 1870 Mt Observation-Disclosures.

=, 80 the Railroad Believed to Date
TACK to 1877 Mt Newcastlc-on-Tyne.
The origin of the railroad is by some
,v,iters believed to be unknown. There
Is in the British Museum IN Egyptian
bicrorlvphic which represents slaves
drawing stones over q road like a prini-
five tramwav. One writer would have
us believe that a similar device was
known in China many years ago.
While it is admitted that printing. gun
nowdcr, and man. other things were
familiar to the Chinese before thew
we're known to Western civilization. vet
If is highly improbable that anything
approaching a tramway nearer than q
%naiauuuin was known to them. The
nn%,rliest authentic mention of a railway
occurs in the life of Lord Keeper,
ROGER Forth, early i'll the seventeenth
century. About 1870 q double parallel
line of wooden beams was laid at New
ca~stle-on-Tync, ant. 4 large cart, with
four rollers, drawn by horses, was used
TO transport coal from the mine to the
river. A tlange placed at the side of the
beam kept the carts from rolling off the
rail. SO successful was the experiment
that other coal districts in England
and Scotland followed the example. 1t
was a great labor saving scheme, for a
horse thatcould with difficulty draw only
100 without the aid OF this smooth road
could now with ease draw 4. 200 weight.
This was the earliest tramway, the pre-
cursor of the steam railway. The first
improvcment made on this tramwav
Az, 1,,irr nf ;,.>, ,>0,I,, -, ~.
wooden beams; this continuance re-
duced the friction and made less Wear
and tear. In l76S rails made wholly Of
iron were used, and in 1899 when Will
lam Yessop built the first public rail-
way in England, at Loughborough, he
introduced the edge rail of cast iron
and changed the tlange from the rail to
the wheel. Finally, in 1908, the rails
were mad; of malleablc iron.
Up 10 1908 the tramway had used
horses for motors, and in some in
stances stationary engines; but mems
minds had been constantly exercised to
invent solne method of drawing cars by
means of other than cable or anima!
power. Watt seems TO have been the
first to conceive the idea of propelling
wheeled carriages by steam, but he was
80 engaged in pcrfecting the stationary
engine that he did not attempt t o carry
out his idea. William Murdoch, in
l1S2. first constructed a model locomo-
tive. Though little more than Il toy it
worked successfully. and travelled so
fa>t that on II occasion its inventor in
vain tried to keep pace with it. In
1902 Richard Trevethick and Andrew
Vivian. two Cornwall engineers, took
out the first patent ever issued fora To-
comotive. All the steam carriages and
appliances, however, amounted to al
most nothing so far as the public was
concerned, and it was not until 1904
that any really practical locomotive
was used. Trevethickin this y~earbuilt
a second locomotive in south Wales,
which drew a load Of ten tons of iron
ore five miles an hour. From this date,
1904 to 1911, very little, if anything,
was done to advance railroads. Lime
and ingenuity We're employed to invent
some means to keep cars from slipping
when going up an inclined plane. The
first really successful engine was in.
vented by George Stephens, in 1914. Il
ran six miles an hour. drawing thirty
tons. Until 1929 there was little prog.
ress made. Then Robert Stephenson
built the Rocket. which attained a max.
im'm speed of twenty and one-hal1
miles, with, an average of fifteen
brooklyn Eagle.