San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-25
EARLY RAILWAY MOTORS.
WHEN THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE WAS
DOUBTFUL EXPERIMENT.

the Horse Tread Mill Race Between
Cooper's Engine and Horse.
Steam had to show its superiority both to
horses and sails before the steam locomotive
was taken into service on the Baltimore and
Ohio. A car that was among the first put
into operation on the road was run by horse
power A model is exhibited in the National
museum. 1t was tread mill arrangement,
the horse being on the car and treading an
endless apron or belt. An old newspaper
describing the car says:
1.-THE machine worked indifferently well.
but on one occasion, when drawing car
filed with editors and other representatives
of the press, it ran into a COW, and the pas
sengers, having been tilted out and rolled
down an embanknent, were naturally enough
unanimous in condemning the contrivance,
and so the horse power car, after countless
bad jokes had been perpetrated on the cowed
editors passed out of existence and probably
out of mind"
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN."
On the South Carolina road, when the first
experiments were made, it was the sentiment
of the management that they should begin at
least with horses The steam locomotive was
considered then as a very doubtful thing.
The construction Of the road was begun in
1929. Six of the projected 1876 miles we're
completed in year. The company offered
Al premium of $500 for the best locomotive by
horse power, and the prize was awarded to
to C. E. Detmold, who constructed a car
with an endless chain attachment. This car,
known as The Flying Dutchman, ran on the
road some time. A model of it stands in a
case in the National museum, near that of
Al D.l@ ox,l Ia
twelve passengers aboard it achieved a speed
of twelve miles an hour Old pictures repre-
sent it with the horse in the center, persons
sitting about on the sides and a negro driver
or engineer standing behind the horse with a
whip, to stir him up when he Jagged.
After the horse experiment on the Balti-
more and Ohio road recourse was had to the
wind, and sailing car known as the Meteor,
invented by Evan Thomas was run for some
time whenever the wind was favorable. 1t
would travel at COED rate of speed with the
wind abaft or on tuo quarter With the
wind abeam or from the side the .dr was
likely to capsize In a calm, of course, the
car was useless, and passengers depending
upon it might have to wait = long time for it
to start. Among those W no sailed in the car
on one of its experimental trips was Baron
30 much pleased that he sent a model of it to
the car. A sailing car was also tested on
the South Carolina road in 1890.
The first experiment on the Baltimore and
Ohio with a steam locomotive was made by
Peter Cooper. The story of his locomotive,
known as tom Thumb" shows how doubt
full at that time asthe issue of the compet-
ton 'etween horse and steam. Mr.. Cooper
was satisfied that steam could be adapted to
the curved roads, which he saw would be
built in the United States He went to Balti
more to build his engine because that city
possessed then the only railroad on which he
could experiment. His engine when COM
pleted was about the size of an ordinary
hand car. The boiler, no larger than an or
binary kitchen boiler stood upright. The
engine was provided with a cylinder three
half inches in diameter, and a craft was
arranged with blowing apparatus worked
by belt from the engine. This tiny affair
was the first locomotive for railroad pur
poses ever built in America.
THE GRAY HORSE WON.
The first experiment was made at Mount
Clair carhouse in the summer of 1880, and
- was so successful that Tom Thumb soon
afterwards made trip to Ellicott's Mills,
drawing an open car. On this journey it is
recorded that it made a speed of fifteen miles
an hour and more. The passengers were as
tonished at the rapidity with which they
Travelled. a chroniCler of the time notes the
fact that when the locomotive was making
eighteen miles an hour some passengers wrote
their names in their memorandum books ito
prove that even at that greet velocity 1t was
possible to do So" On the return from Eli
A. 4
found waiting for them, on the opposite
track, car, to which fine gray horse had
been harnessed by Stockton 81 Stokes, stage
line proprietors who were interested in show
ing that steam locomotive stood no chance
beside horse. The challenge was accepted
and there was lively race
The following account of the contest was
written by Mr.. H. B. Latrobe, of Baltimore,
who was one of Mr.. Cooper's guests on the
trip:
AT first the gray had the best of it, for his
steam could be applied to the greatest adj
vantage on the instant, while the engine had
to wait until the rotation of the wheels set
the blower to work. The horse was perhaps
quarter of mile ahead when the safety
valve of the engine lifted and the thin blue
vapor issuing from it showed an excess of
steam. The blower whistled, the steam blew
off in vapory clouds, the passengers shouted,
the engine gained on the horse, soon it Tapped
him, the silk was piled, the race was neck and
neck, nose and nose, then the engine passed
the horse and great hurrah hailed the VIC
tory. But it was not repeated, for just at
this time, when the gray's master was about
giving up, the band which drove the pulley
which moved the blower slipped from the
drum, the safety valve ceased to scream and