Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1889-02-15
Reminiscences-No. 8.

But let us turn from scenes OF blood and
rapine to facts OF civilization and social
prosperity. Let us admire the genius by
which the hidden forces OF nature have been
discovered and made subservient to the ne
cessities of the human family. BY these we
may recognize the mercy and benevolence
of God to fallen race.
Since the time of the incompatible Watt,
we know that water when heated generates
steam, that steam when confined can be
utilized as motive power in physics, and
that Robert Fulton successfully applied this
mysterious force to machinery, for the pro-
pulson of ships. In 1907, he ran the first
steamboat from New York to Albany, and
excited universal establishment by the nov
city and complete success of the enterprise.
In this exploit, thinking minds in both
America and in Europe, saw in the near
future, great revolution in commerce, me-
chanics, social pleasures and manual labor
If boat could thus be- propelled up great
river against the current, the same could be
done with ships on any river or lake, aud
possibly on billowy oceans. And il wheels
could be made to revolve in water, they
might by proper adaptation to level surfaces,
be made To do a like thing on land. Nor
were these the idle dreams of fancy, nor of
visionary Imagination, for to day, after the
lapse OF only u long lifetime, steamships are
seen in every open sea, crossing and re-
crossing the burning equator of our globe,
doubling stormy capes, and grinding through
hummack ice fields toward the North pole.
Yet the great Washington never saw Il
steamboat nor railway car. lie probably
never suspected that bells, browning the
machinery OF such vessels, would toll re-
QUEENS to his ashes in n white sarcophagus
at Mount Vernon rs boats glided up and
down the Potomac. But minds peering in
TO the future, become intensely active. Per-
ceptions and conceptions accumulate with
marvellous rapidity, aud soon the idea OF
adapting wheels to tramways on land be-
gan TO throb in English brains Rough car
riages, on wooden sleepers, were made TO
transport coal, by steam power, from mines
TO shipping points.
With another mental deduction, ponder
Gus locomotives were constructed, and
shapely cars laden with passengers or mer-
chandise were seen rushing through the
country, with apparently no power TO draw
or push them. The first railroad of any
practical value, in this country, was the
Baltimore and Ohio, which extended from
Baltimore to Eiicotl's Mills For this, Peter
Cooper built the locomotive alter design
of his own, which was also the first engine
OF the kind in this country. Companies
were organized, almost simultaneously, for
the construction of railroads, both in this
country and in Europe. And travellers and
freight were soon conveyed, for short dis
tauces, by this method of transportation.
But now problem of absorbing consid
Grafton arose, which was how to transfer
the passengers and baggage of long trains
over rivers and mountains, various expedi
ents were resorted to, but the time consumed
in making transfers counterbalanced the
speed gained by steam power. For awhile
transfers We're made over rivers by ferry
boats, as at Hayre De Grace, on the Susquc
hanna or by stages across mountains, as
between Cumberland, Md, and Uniontown,
Pa. myself had no less than half dozen
night rides by this uncomfortable way of
making connections On the Pennsylvania
road, begun soon after the b, 81 o., trains
were drawn over the Alleghanies,on inclined
planes, in sections, by wire ropes, separated
by stationary engine at the head OF each
plane There were ten of these planes be.
tween Altoona in the East and Johnstown in
the West. This method of passing the great
mountain ridge was easy enough to travel
ers, as | had occasion to experience by sew
erai trips between Philadelphia and Pitts
burg but it was too expensive Tor stock
holders, and it was given up as soon AZ
cheaper and more convenient method had
peen invented. Nec'sS'ty, as mas 'eo' ,
well Salu' Is tne hiotiier vi 'nso".'oh' anu
tne genius Oh the clVl' engineers soo" pro-
Vlded more eiigioie way
1t is questionable, think, il the nine
tenth century has produced as good archi-
tects, or artists in painting and scu pture, as
existed in Greece, Italy and some other coun
tries; but 1t has gwen us military and civil
engineers of the highest rank. Michael An
gelo ,Brunelleschi and Sir Christopher w rem
have had no equals rs architects IN our day;
nor have PhiuIas, Raphael and Titan rs
artists but the Great Eastern, the largest
ship in the word since Noah's Ark the
Thames Tunnel, at London; the Suez Ca
nal in Egypt, and the magnificent bridges
over the Mississippi at ST. Louis, the East
River at New York, and the Niagara below