Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-02

his attention to the subject of steam nav-
igation and six years later he Launched
his boat on the Seine. He expected great
results from this craft. blu 1t sank the
moment 1t touched the water. Still the
inventor was not discouraged. Again ana
again he constructed his boats and IN
cases he was able to operate them
successfully, but 1t was not until lsV|
that he perfected his invention.
This boat, which was called he Cler-
mont, was built at a shipyard on the
East river, in New York city. and its
first trip. which occurred on August IL,
1907, was made up the Hudson to Alban
It required just thirty-two hours. This
was the beginning of steam navigator
and from that day the advancement IN
the art of ship-building has never ceased.
The first ocean going vessel to De
driven by steam was = the
which made the Atlantic trip eighty
years ago, in the remarkable time OF
twenty-six days. but the real era OF prog
ress in transatlantic navigation did not
open until 1870. when the first regular
line of Atlantic steamships was inaugu-
rated.
fhe pioneer in this vast ocean traffic
was the Britannia, which was OF OF a
fleet of four wooden ships with side
wheels, but her appearance in Boston,
after having made the trip across the
ocean in the unprecedented time OF four
teen days and eight hours, created almost
as profound a sensation as the Great
Eastern did later. 1
The queer. old side-wheel steamships
of this time We're used until 1862. when
the China, the first vessel to be propelled
by a screw, was put on. From that day
the progress in ocean navigation has been
so phenomenal that vessels like the
Oceanic or the Kaiser Wilhelm DER
! Crosse no longer attract attention. and
it is considered an inordinate waste OF
time to spend = ore thar six days in max
ing the trip FRI 4 one side of the Atlantic
to the other.
ON LAND.
What has been lone during the past
century on the sea. however, has also
been done on land. 1t is true that there
were railroads in the eighteenth century
but as the steam engine had not then
been invented they were necessarily very
, primitive. 1t was not until 1902 that the
first progressive step was made. At that
time Richard Trevithick took out a pa
tent in England for a high pressure en-
CINE adapted to motion on roads and
twelve years later George Stephenson
built his first engine for the Killing
worth Colliery.
For more thar a dozen years these en-
gines were used. but never as a motive
power for railroads. In 1928 the Liverpool
and Manchester company was chartered.
IT a been the intentions of the cor
poration to use horses as a means Of To-
comotion, but when George Stephenson
persuaded them that it would be possible
to co1struct a locomotive that would car
ry more thar three times it's own weight,
they gave him permission to test MS IN,
vention on their road. Stephenson placed
the contract in, the hands of his nephew,
Robert Stephenson, Jr., and in October,
1929, Athe new engine, the Rocket. made
it's first trip. 1t more than met the ex-
pectations Of the inventors n the rail-
- o.. ,-tas1o 4 rrpos rN7 n6 m ii
sevef and a half tons, it quickly proved
it's ability to draw forty-four tons at the
, rate Of fourteen miles an hour.
The announcement of this achievement
t filed the world with wonder. 1t was
! the talk of every civilized land. and the
ORDERS from companies desiring engines
; for their own use. This country. like
others, heard of the wonderful feat, an6
the Delaware and Hudson Canal com
pany lost no time in getting from Ste
? phenson three locomotive engines, bull
: on the same plan as the Rocket.
! In the spring of 1880 Horatio Allen
6, member of. the American company
I put one Of these engines on a track bull
Z of hemlock timbers and strap rails ant
ran it himself at a good rate of speed fol
: six miles, amid the cheers of a large an
thoroughly amazed crowd of prOminen
{ railroad and business men. 1t was Al
LENS idea to make use of the anthracite
. coal for fuel, the value of that prod
. uct for steam urposes was thus de
. cisively shown at this time.
How railroads nave developed sine
3 the lays of 1880 all the world knows. TIL
= first step toward the electric railway wa;
taken by a Vermont blacksmith, ThOma
Davenport, who devised a ru~dimentar.
electric motor, which he applied to al
electric car supplied by batteries carried
upon it. In 1885 he constructed a littl
circular electric road, that was exhibite'
at Boston Inc Springfield.
ELECTRIC TRAFFIC.
: Davenport's work, however, vas sim
o ply an invention in the air, for, Will
d it was correct in theory, 1T was not prac
a tical. and the first modern traction wa
put in operation at the Berlin Industria
= exposition in 1879, by the firm Of Sieme
y & Halske. This, however, was for eX
hibition purposes, and the first CONNER
not opened to the public until May L
1880, when the Lichterfelde line wa
completed. So
1t The first work in electric railroadin
= to be done in America came after 1855
j. Prior to that time Stephen D. Field ha
suggested that it might be possible t
= have moving electric motors on a ca
connected by electric conductors wit
a stationary dynamo.
At the same time Edison was engage
"a upon his experiments. but the road IL
n stalled in Cleveland, 0, in July, 1884. 9
II the first electric railroad system to /
a operated in competition with street Cal
"a drawn by horses. Even this. howeve
was but about two miles in length. F.
Pope. who is an authority upon stre'
h railway matters, gives Lieutenant Fran
+. ]. Sprague the credit for having designe'
ell carried out and completed the first insta
lation Of electric railroading on a iar(
III scale in the world, in Richmond, Va,