The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-20
MINING AND THE LOCOMOTIVE,
F'rom the PottsYille Chronicle.

FROM the PottSVllle Chronicle.
1t may not be generally known, but it
is nevertheless a fact that this great
country is indebted to coal mining for
the advent of the steam railway locomo-
tive. This fact has been brought out by
Alfred Matthews, who has been con-
tributing a series of papers ON Pioneer
Locomotives in England and America"
to the Engineering Magazine. Mr. Mat
thews' article is most interesting, espe-
cially in the coal region. He says: ut
is one of the curiosities of railroad and
locomotive history that it was not in,
or near, any one of the great cities that
this first locomotive was put upon the
rails, but far away in the then raw
region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, in
the woods and among a few scattered
newly-settled farmers.
"rhe manner in which it came about
that the pioneer locomotive in America
was to be set at work in so remote a
spot was this: Two Philadelphia Quak-
ers, John and Maurice Wurts, about ten
| years prior to 1929, penetrated that will
derness, and heroically began and
pushed onward the great work which
| later was assumed and carried to COM
| pletion by the Delaware and Hudson Ca
| nal company-that of getting coal from
the Lackawanna valley into New York.
| From the Lackawanna Cat Carbondale)
| the company had built railroad over
| the Moosic mountains to the forks of the
| Dyberry the site of Honesdae), and
| from that point they had a canal to
| Rondout on the Hudson. 1t had been
| their original purpose to use horse power
| on the railroad, with stationary engines
| at the planes Gas at presenD, but the
| successful experiments with the railroad
| locomotive in England led them to try
that new form and application of power.
|
| THE 'Stourbridge Lion, as the locomo-
| tive was called which first turned a
| wheel upon a track in America, was one
of three personally ordered by the COM
| pany's civil engineer, Horatio Allen, in
| England. The Lion was built by Foster
Rastrcli & Co. at Stourbridge, and the
| other two We're built by Stephenson, who
extended many courtesies to the Ameri-
can engineer. Thus it happened that
early in 1928 the first order placed in Eng.
land for locomotives, after the successful
working of those on the Stockton anc
| Darlington road, was from far-away
| America. The 'Stourbridge Lion arrived
on the ship John Jay, and was landed al
| the West Point Foundry company:
wharf at the foot of Beech street, New
| York, where it was set upon blocks ant
given trial on June II, 1929, as appears
from the Morning Courier and New Yorl
Enquirer of June ~, which, after describ
with the performance of the engine ant
have no doubt but that the enterprisins
company to whom it belongs will reap {
rich harvest for their enterprise and per
severance 1t was noted as matter o
interest, because anthracite coal was thei
being introduced to the public, that tn
locomotive was fired with that substance
from the Delaware and Hudson com
pany's Lackawanna mines. 1t was TO pu
this coal in the market that the com
pany's operations were inaugurated an'
carried on"
OF greater interest at the present day /
the fact that this country not only sooi
learned to build its own locomotives bu
American skill and ingenuity have en-
abled us to successfully compete VIII
England the first locomotive builder, II
the worlds markets. There have been Il
locomotives exported from the Unite
States during the past year, or one 10
every working day in 1896. Already thl
year Japan has ordered forty-hve loco
motives and further orders are to FOL
low. In the line of railway equipmen
this country is also forging rapidly to IN
front. Fifty thousands tons of steel ran
were exported abroad last year 1t be
comes more apparent every day that for
eign competition with this country in tn
manufacture of steel and iron Is out q
the question.