The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-22
AMERICAS FIRST RAILWAY.
The Mechanical Curiosity Out OF
Which Grew Modern Locomotives.

| The Mechanical Curiosity Out OF
Which Grew Modern Locomotives.
Charles H. Roberts. in the February
number of the American Magazine, writes
of the beginnings of railways in this coun-
| try:
Penrose and Bennett, at this date Qs31,
had been students of that pioneer manual
| training school in America which was eStab-
| lished a few years previously by Robert
Dale Owen, at New Harmony, Ind. Bennett,
! absent from the school on some trading or
| peddling excursion into Kentucky, had dis
| covered the plant at Louisville, and,
returning to New Harmony, told Penrose
of it, This plant was a steam locomotive,
passenger car and track-an aggregation OF
| machinery of most striking and captlvat-
| ing features. They had information of two
| tramroads existing in the United States, one
in New England and the other in the South,
but no knowledge of any steam railway
The two students, PenroSe, about 25, and
| Bennett, % years of age, determined to
purchase the steam novelty and exhibit it
about the country as a speculation; the latter
accordingly returned to Louisville to secure
it. This he did, paying its owner, who was
| probably its constructor, $500; and there
uDon these predecessors of Vanderbilt and
Gould entered upon the ownership of, if not
the first, at least one of the earliest, of the
! steam railways Oh LD6IF country.
Their property included shares, rolling
stock, right of way and franchises 1t seems
almost unnecessary to suggest that the
later appendages OF the railway were then
non-eXiStcnt, even in dreams The pride
and pomp of the modern system, the pass.
the porter and the Pullman coach; the
circumstance of "long and short haul"
mortgage and receiver, We're unknown.
Bennett, without embarrassment trans
TO /
The locomotive, car and track complete,
| weighed somewhere from one thousand to
fifteen hundred pounds. The engine is de
scribed as having a highly polished copper
boiler
A description of Stephensons English en-
! CINE of the previous year, III letter from
the bright pen of Mrs. Francis Kemble
Butler, may be taken as aptly illustrating
| the State of the art respecting steam land
locomotion at this time though the letter
| perhaps describes a ruder machine than
that OF Penrose and Bennett Under date
of August 26. 1880, she writes:
I'VE were introduced t. the little engine
that was to drag us along the rails, She
| for they make these curious little fire
| horses all mares consis ed of a boiler, a
stove platform. bench and behind the
bench barrel containing water enough to
prevent her being thirsty for fifteen miles
the whole machine not bigger than a
common fire engine. She goes upon two
wheels, which are her feet, and are
moved by bright steel legs called pistons.
| These are propelled by steam, and in pro-
portion as more steam is applied to the
upper extremities the hip JOINTS, suppose
of these pistonS, the faster they move the
wheels. The Goals, which are it's oats,
were under the bench, and there was a small
glass tube affixed to the boiler which indi-
Gated, by its fullness or emptiness, when
the creature wanted water
The American effort was less pretentious
The circular or elliptical track upon which
Penrose and Bennett ran their machine
was movable and adjustable, or was subse-
quently made so in order to allow of its
being readily set I'D in large hall or upon
open grounds. A hall as long as possible
and at least 20 feet in width was required
for that method of adjustment; but when
set up out of doors the space of exhibition
was usually still more ample.
This was certainly the quaintest train run
since Stephenson attached his first locomO-
tive TO the Old stage-coach, "The Queen
Charlotte" and dragged it as a passenger
car. The coach of our experimenters, holt
ing two persons, was evidently an adapta-
tion of the oldfashioned sleigh, with high.
straight back; but with its "dashboardn
much exagge probably q needed
defense for the passengers against cinders
and smoke.
They started in the fall of 1881, "about
September" upon their projec ed journey,
which, after q circuit, naturally took a
general direction toward New Orleans. then
the important center of Western traffic
OF this machine and the journey to ex-
hibit it, Mark Penrose, now IS years of age.
member of the Society of Friends, residing
at Sterling, H., says, under the date I'D
month Both, 1907"
LII. 4l,;y- l., L
ever run on rails in the United States.
"Wilham.P. Bennett first found it in
Louisville Ky. From there he went back
to New Harmony and told me about it, We
concluded to buy it, so Bennett returned to
Louisville to make the purchase, paying
5000 for it. He then returned with it to
New Harmony, where we set it up and ran
it for few days, then started out to ex-
hibit it, having a conveyance from place to
place We first went to Vincenues, then to
| Terre Haute, Lafayette, Indianapolis and
Richmond; then to Dayton nd Cincinnati,
o., exhibiting at many smaller towns on
the way. AT Cincinnati we bought skiff
and went down the Ohio river At the
canal at Louisville we set it uD in a garden,
under restaurant, built in the branches of
a large tree exhibiting it there for several
days. From there we went to Cairo, stop
ping on the way at the principal towns At
Cairo we sold our skif and took a steam
boat for ST. Louis, exhibiting it there; from
| thereby steamboat down the Mississippi
river TO New Orleans, there running il for
a time and then expecting to go from there
to Mexico, but the Consul told us we could
not on account of there being a war at tho
time. SO then we sold the locomotive for
about the same we paid for it,"
1t is not forgotten that other locomotives
are claimed to have existed III America at
the date given that the late Peter Cooper.
in 1880, on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
way then tram-road operated by horses
and mules, is said to have engaged, with a
locomotive in his possession, in a race with
a horse, which the latter won.
Modest as She is Brave.
From The Omaha (Neb) Bee, Jan. %.
The case of Minnie Freeman, Of the Myra
NalleY school. is an excellent illustration