The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-01
EARLIEST RAILROADS.
a,.Ms OF OLIVER EVANS AND
OH John STEVENS.

had its prophets AoNH - =, -. -
-,-,,lts were realized, and' IKE most men
- came into the world ahead Oh their
- tbav were looked upon as Vislonarles
-, rare 10 be listened to, but OUT Oh "hOSe
- 80 nothing could come. The powers
'ee-- we're understood and appreciated
- -, the advent Of the locomotive;
iO"s ., an interesting fact that the early
Ai-O = -,u,onts in steam ira lsportation were
ca 20, coward the use of steam carriages
80 the common highway, the special
~a;1-oad tracks for its accommodation com
ing at a later day.
xiv as 1856 that American genius,
oi;1-ar Evans. had worked great anc novel
10 ont to his own satisfaction, ana was
arvious TO confer it upon the world, out
the world. as usual, was inclined 10 llsCeh 10
him at first, TO laugh at MN IaIer, anu
6naIlv TO dismiss him as insane. w men ne
n,l,1aerad before the Pennsylvania Ieglsla-
s.,ra and asked for an exclusive
TI1 to his improvements in flour
1a7I1S and ''steam wagons"-the ma
tional natent office had not yet been es-
tabl;sbed-his hearers were willing to aid
MIN as to the mills, but when he came to
the wagons they thought him mentally un-
balanced. When no attention was pald TO
this portion of the application ne went
across TO Maryland and made similar re-
a,,sSt which was granted in 1887, giving
Eva1s and his heirs for fourteen years the
right TO make and use his improvements IN
-four mills and steam wagons.
The inventor felt himself in honor bound
IN nroduce one of his wagons as soon as
possible. He approached a number OF per
sons in the hope that the needed capital
might be provided, but one after another
turned away because of the risk. lie finally
laid aside the wagon for time and gave
his time TO the invention and construction
of a stationary engine, which was reason
able success and was set to grinding plaster
and saving stone in Philadelphia.
In 1904 Evans again returned to his first
love. and endeavored to persuade the Lam
caster Turnpike Company into putting his
idea into use, presenting a statement "of the
cost aud profits of steam carriage to carry
100 barrels of flour fifty miles in twenty
four hours his figures tending TO show
that one such steam carriage would make
more net profits than ten wagons drawn by
ten horses each on good turnpike road. "
In 1912 Evans made use of these suggestive
words IF the present generation shall
adopt canals the next may try the
railways with horses, and the third
generation use the steam carriage"
Yet a more remarkable declaration was
made by this same prophet one year later,
when he declared that the time would come
when people would Gravel in stages moved
by steam engines from one city to another,
almost as fast as birds can fly, fifteen or
twenty miles an hour" To do this two sets
of railways would be laid of wood or iron,
on smooth paths of broken stone or gravel,
with a rail to guide the carriage, so that
they may pass each other III different direc-
tions, and travel by night as well as by day {;
and the passengers will sleep in these stages
as comfortably as they now do in steam
stage boats"
Another American genius, John Stevens
of Hoboken, did not leave the field of steam
invention upon this side of the sea alto
gether to Oliver Evans, for as early as 1909
he had defined the proportions of the
locomotive, compared the advantages of a
railroad with those of canal, and had
urged his ideas in several unresponsive
quarters In 1912 he published a littla work
in which he not only advanced plan for a
railroad, but urged the national govern
ment to develop his idea. He laid the
matter before the commissioners for the
Improvement of inland navigation of New
York-Messrs. Livingston, Morris and
Clinton-and failed to gain encouragement
in any sense of the word. He
was sure that upon such steam roads
'SASSAbJ VA IOO lilllCS ali
hour could be attained, although
practice would probable demonstrate from
twenty to thirty miles an hour to be more
convenient The plan of his proposed road
was ouellned: line to be formed from
Albany to Lake Erie, the tracks to be sup
ported on pillars and raised from three to
SIX feet above the ground, the carriage
wheels to be of cast iron and the motive pow
er steam engine. In 1917 HenryIMeigs pro-
IN ha Nnxr L. I'll
Tor 'propeling loaded boats on dry land by
steam, and beca use of this absurd idea lost
al influence In the body, and was, as a con-
temporary writer informs us, considered
SUBJECT tit for a strait-jacket, like Col.
Stevens in lis day.
tnese Ideas, it must be remembered, were
NOT presented to q world entirely unac-
qualnted with the locomotive, for Trevi-
thlck as early as 1904 had run his little loco
motive upon the Merthyr railway. Blenkin-
90p mad made his Improvement in 1911, and
piackett and sHedley sand Stephenson had
aluei tnelr contributions. But no great
practical result had been yet obtained, and
.ue steam engine stood in relation to the
.oiIl something as does the photograph
Hn-uay. 30 true was this that when the
10 ls ION ana Stockton company, in 1928.
Aea the British parliament for permission
rnt o.tnploy steam power, the proposal was
pI. torWard with some doubt as to the re-
sun, ana the first act authorizing the con-
.oiauce on passe gers by locomotives on a
named. Al 'N0 Soai
~ ~ return to the steam carriage. In 1924
", l. Conn OF Virginia came forward with
inc ueclaratlon that he had completed au
nareiIh That would enable him to propel
w. iageS on any road without difficulty.
B ueSi.eu 10 run steam coach between
fneAandrla and Washington. and wonId
~ Gr dleh his invention against a canital of
SS!,EoO, which no one could be found 70
NotiS ou a year later. The New York
coma tbo Aooocdte was prepared to well
Ieved 4 az locomotive in America, and be-
tried , n!aD the experiment would soon be
maek WIN success. One Matthew Brorr-
VENT Danish mathematician, had in
euide1 steam carriage that could be easily
Of and ana would make record
The iPp on leagues per hour.
its n remniSyivania legislature, that
dernorlto'.IlIDers might have ocular
yardo .' tatlon, ordered railroad of 900
HarrisGLo oe constructed on Capitol Hill
for a1h;Gi g'and locomotive placed thereon
in nanllOiiCion. When it was announced
to he ,1aIef, 1875, that an application was
araiI, niaue 10 the New York legislature for
the Iva" "iy right betweed Schenectady and
FebrI,utIISs0o son the New Y ork Statesman of
had NO y, iozo, gravely declared that it
found 10y uouot but such a road would be
panv ,uI peu useful aud profitable to a COM
same wno might construct it,n while the
nonno1 piS 1, IN the May following. an
had ..at I vnaC Col. Stevens, already quoted.