The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-12-04
Our Locomotives
Lead the World.
One Avenue i'm Industrial Activity i'm
Which Americans Clearly Are Unequaled

the insurgents. Meanwhile the Ameri-
can builders had got good money for
the engine.
The business which American loco
motive builders have done in foreign
countries during the last two or three
years of hard times has, of course,
been Of considerable assistance to them
Individually. 1t has also been of great
help to the United States in furnishing
labor at a period when domestic bust
ness was almost dead. Even these
facts however, are comparatively un-
! important beside the much greater fact
{ that locomotives of American make
have during these two years secured a
fOotEold in countries where they had
been comparatively unknown, and in
sufficient numbers to admit OF an iu-
tclligcnt comparison being made be-
tween their performance and that OF
their English predecessors. The con-
ditiors of roadbed, which are response
BILE for many important differences be-
tween English and American locomo-
tive construction, are i'm most Of these
foreign countries SO much more like
those prevailing in this .ountry than
those of England that the result OF
reasonable trial may we'll he a matter
of confident prediction.
| INTRODUCED INTO JAPAN.
From purely technical point of
/ view. in the ewes of railway men ana
! locomotive builders the most interest
| ing engines which have been built in
/ this country for foreign use are pro-
/ badly those which have been exported
/ tn China and Japan And the story of
/ thBip in ,pII,fti,D a. thtCt countries if
! it could be written in fun, would be
J wonderful one. In Japan, the chief
difficulties which railways have had to
contend with have been earthquakes.
] Japanese architecture has consisted
chiefly of bamboo and paper ana when
an earthquake came along ii used to
/ find these materials rather disappont-
/ ing to deal with. But railways cannot
/ he built Of bamboo and paper. They
have to have solid rOadbeds and mas
! sivc bridges with stout abutmentS.
These things rciuiCed the soul of the
earthquake. and, from time to time, he
has had great fun with them.
In China the obstacles to the intro
/ duction of the railways were of another
! kind The first piece of track that was
! laid produced, firstly, a plague; second
/ ly, an eclipse of the sun, and, thirdly
hlighting Of the rice crop through
/ succession. while the track was being
. laid by the foreign devils" Was it not
! evident that the railway caused them?
/ Therefore, the people rose and tore up
the track. killed a native minor Off
cial or two and hunted the foreign dew
lis to such an extent as they We're able
to get at them. There is every pros
pect. however that from now on the
,l.N 81. Of all lV
TEN will proceed rapidly, and while
Russians, Belgians. Germans and Eng
lishmen are all straining every nerve
| to catch the trade that is coming, it is
, more than probable that American To-
connective builders will get at least their
share Of the business
GREAT BRITAIN SUFFERS.
! Recent United States consular re-
ports, especially from our consulS IN
! Great Britain, have made not infre-
uuent reference to the growing uneasi-
ness which is felt in England over the
! competition of American manufacture
ers in fields which the self-satished
British manufacturer has heretofore
cOmplacently considered his own per.
sonal property. Adaptability to the
wants of a customer has ALWAYS been
Nl'' AMI II an man d'luItl ; SlibllS
point. For this reason the engines built
/ here in our own locomotive works for
China or Japan bear small resemblance
! to the grand monsters that hur us
across the continent here at home. They
are rather in our eyes the production
| Of early times, when men We're expert.
+ menting in locomotives; but that is be-
cause the Japanese ana Chinese Gus
toners, for whom the engines are built,
4 want those particular machines. The
. English manufacturer has a preference
! for making the oriental take the en-.
ginas that he himself wants TO build.
The English locomotive is as unmis-
! takahly meXcelled in its aptitude for
the absorption OF details. The Japan
/ anese are by no means fools, and their
. engineers have a pretty accurate know
ledge Of what is demanded in the con-
! structiou of a locomotive to fit the Pc
Culiar natural conditions of the c0un-
| Try. They prefer to submit their own
general specifications, with a rea sOnable
| assurance that they will he carried out
consistently from the beginning but
| when they buy in England they have
found that there is no assurance that
this viii be done. To American locomo.
tive builders, on the other hand. it is
| required 10y their foreign customers
! so long as they get the business.
EXTENSION OF TRADE.
+ The Brooks Locomotive Works %
/ Dunlurk is now at work on an order
, for forty engines for Japan and Cored.
! which are to be delivered this coming
! Dcccmhcr and January, The vice
president Of the company, in reply to
m inquiry from the writer expresses
! himself as follows:
I'VE believe if the proper efforts are
made that large portion of this busi-
ness, which has heretofore gone to
Great Britain and continental Eurupe,
could be diverted 10 the locomotive
manufacturers of this country. The
| llrgc increase in railway mileage i'm
Russia, China, Japan, India, Australia,
South America, etc, will, if we under
stand the conditions correctly. compcl
I those countries to look to the United
states for a portion of their motive
IpoWer, for the reason that the EurOpe-
an manufacturers on account Of their
small concerns. and their methods of