The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-08-04
THE sTouReRlpoE LION.
Trial Trip Of Americas First Locomotivs
at HOneedAle.

wv. esOtNs
Trial Trip Of America's First Locomotive
1t Honesdale.
Guide-books, as q rule, possess no
interest that Is at all dependent on any
inherent value in the facts that are pre-.
sented in them, but Mr.. j. w. Burdict,
the general passenger agent of the
Delaware and Hudson Canal Com.
pany's railroad, in little pamphlet
just issued, has been at some pains to
present what he deems trustworthy
facts about the first locomotive that
ever ran upon an American railroad.
According to him, the first of these en-.
gines was the Stourbridge Lion, so
called because it bore hon's head on
the front of its boiler and was made by
Foster, Boswick & Co. in Stourbridge,
England. Horatio Allen, young civil
engineer, had been sent to England by
the canal company to buy scrap.iron
for the rails, chains for the inclined
planes and three locomotives for the
level of the projected railroad. He re-
motives reached Now York In May,
4CEOs ~ was ScI v ~ Uu0 w OSU Vitlt
foundry at the foot of Beach street, in
this city. and in the summer was
shipped by boat to Honesdale, where
it was put upon the iron-strapped
wooden rails Of the new road. It was
of the pattern afterward known by the
name Of "grasshoppers." because of
the walking-beams that elbowed up
and down over the boiler, like the leg
joints of those insects. It weighed
seven tons, or less than one of our ele-
waited railroad locomotives, but it had
no such pulling power as they possess.
1t was big and clumsy, with four
wooden wheels, spoked and with iron
tires. 1t had no cab and the cylinders
were upright. The first trip was made
on August 8, 1929, in the presence of
o crowd collected from forty miles
around.
An old Queen Anne cannon was
brought up from New York to add its
voice to those of the people. Predic-
tions of failure were not wanting;
the breaking down of the track, which
was built largely on trestles or piles,
was especially apprehended, and there
was little inclination on the part of
those present to trust themselves on
the new vehicle. Mr.. Allen, declaring
that if there was any danger he was
ready to meet it, took his position on
the locomotive, and, after running
slowly backward and forward few
times before the assembled multitude,
pulled the throttle valve open, and,
shouting loud goodbye to the crowd,
dashed swiftly away around the dam
gerous curve and over the swaying
trestle, setting in motion the first loco
motive that ever turned wheel in the
western hemisphere. The track was
of strap-iron, spiked next the inner
edge to large hemlock sleepers laid on
cross-ties. At the time of the trial
trip the timbcrs and ties, though
securely connected, had beco me
warped, and in some places raised
from the ground. by exposure to
the sun. The road crossed the Lacka.
waxen river over frail hemlock trestle
one hundred feet in height, and as the
locomotive was found to weigh seven
tons instead of four, as the contract
had stipulated, it was feared by every
body that the trestle would not bear ita
weight.
As the Lion passed over the road the
weight pressed every thing underneath
firmly down to its place on the road
bed, with no little creaking and groan.
ing. The locomotive proved to be all
that the engineer had expected. Aftel
running at fair rate of speed as far AZ
Seelyville, the Lion was reversed ant
returned to the dock at Honesdale amiG
the shouts of the people and the boom
ing of the cannon. having met with ne
accident and encountered no difficulty
The trial trip was thus completed. ant
the locomotive was pronounced a sue
cess. Mr.. Allen remained in Honesdalt
three weeks after this experimental
trip, during which time he made some
improvements in the locomotive. Aftel
his departure, however, the company
not being rich enough to purchase iror
rails, and the wooden ones proving
too frail for the engine, it was housed
in a shanty on the canal docks, wher'
it lay for years, a prey to rust and do
cav. The boiler was afterward used il
foundry at Carbondale; the puml
was used for several years by an EN-
ploye of the company, and the rest o
the old hulk was partly hacked to piece
by relic-hunters and partly sold for oil
iron.
On October 8, 1899, less than tw,
months after tho historic ride in tn
Stourbridge Lion, the famous competi
tive test OF locomotives at Liverpoo
took place. The result of this was tn
firm establishment of the steam rail
road ut the head OF all methods of Ian,
transportation. There were four on
gines in competition, and Stephenson
Rocket won the prize. Eleven month
after this the Liverpool and Mancheste
railroad was established, and the Rocke
ran fifteen miles at speed of thirty
seven miles an hour. Then there wer
only twenty-thrce miles of railroads il
this country, and now the number a
miles of track exceed 100, ,000.-N Y
Sun.
PHILOSOPHlC PASTRY.
What an Ancient 0eosebsrry Pie Said