The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-09
INNOVATIONS in TRAVEL
FIRST EXPERIMENTS WITH EN-
GINES: THE EARLY RAILROADS.
The First Sleeping Cars-Fast Records
i'm Amerfca-Travel by Water
Coming of the Automobile.

me caravan was typical OF the Hlluuie
ages and survived even In brand-new Amer
lea until the continent was spanned by
railroads andt the waterways so united that
from the sea we can now in steam yes
sells penetrate the very heart of the new
world. 1t is in this new world that the
most important transportation innovations
have originated and been worked to some
thing near perfection. And the beginnings
of real progress towards present complete
ness are not much older than our national
life. But the experimental stage, without
which nothing could have been accom-
plished, began much earlier. for Sir Isaac
Newton comprehended in some sort the
practical power of steam, and in 1850 sug-
gested a way by which steam locomotion
was really achieved. From then till boats
were propelled by 1t in the water and car
riages driven over the roads the ingenious
minds of the world were busy trying to
carry out in practical ways the suggestion
of this greatest scientist of the seven
teenth century. Indeed, it may be said
with entire truth, that the record of i'm
provements in the steam engine and steam
locomotive is also the history Of travel dur
ing the two centuries just past. The eight
zenith century was that of experiment; the
nineteenth that of accomplishment.
During the century of experiment the
travel by sea was installing vessels: by land
in wagons driven by horses and on horse
back. For more than one-third Of the GEN.
fury of accomplishment these methods were
unchanged, though on the eve of change.
They were not TO any great extent super
seeded till half the nineteenth century was
gone. Now they are all but obsolete. 1t is
quite true that sailing vessels are still
numerous on all the seas, but they are not
used to any extent for travel. So, also, are
horses used in greater Eumbers than ever
before: but they, too, are no longer en-
pioyed in the service of travel in a large
sense. But during all the one hundred and
fifty years, from 1850 to 1880, efforts were
courageously made to so harness steam as
10 make 1t useful in transportation.
EARLY EXPERIMENTS.
The first efforts were to get an engine
to run on the common roads. Even in the
eighteenth century in France, IN England
and in America, were built road engines
automobiles, If you choose-which carried
their own weight up pretty steep grades
and other loads besides. The condition of
the roadways, whether I'm town or in The
country, made it practically impossible for
those heavy machines to do any effective
and lasting service. They racked them
selves TO pieces. Tramways, over which
cars were drawn by horses, were already
used in the mining countries, and just
before the beginning of this century the
inventors, who had been experimenting
with road locomotives, turned their at
tention to trans or railways. Richard
Thevithick. whose road engine, the Puff
er," had made a sensation in England in
lSOl, IN 1903 put a locomotive on a tram
way at Merthyr Tydvil, In Wales, and
went up & heavy grade, winning a wager
of $500. In England they said Thevithick
was mad because he used high pressure
steam, and the influence of James Wat.
was so potent in opposition that capital
repulsed him even in the face of very plain
demonstrations of the sanity of his
schemes. But he is known to the world
to-day as the Father of the locomotives"
and his fame is secure for all time. In
this country Oliver Evans was at work on
the same lines as Thevithick. And he
did wonderful things. But, like Thew
thick, he was quite a generation before a
time when there was enough enlighten-
ment to appreciate him. He agitated for
railroads in every way that was open to
him. and in 1909 said in a public speech:
9Th present generation will use canals,
the next will prefer railroads with horses,
but their more enlightened successors will
employ steam carriages on railways as
the perfection of the art of conveyance"
That was a very conservative prediction.
FORESEEN BY FEW.
Only men of imagination of the first or
der, even in the first decade OF this GEN.
fury, foresaw a tenth part of what was
to be accomplished inc the next seventy
five years. The experiments continued, but
most of those who were at work only hoped
TO carry freight and lake out the product
OF the mines with their steam engines on
railroads. The great steel t~horoughfares
of to-day were undrearIed Of. But when,
in 1880, there was a passenger line opened,
things moved with great rapidly. During
1923 a railroad had been built from Balti-
more to Ellicott's mills. The sure motive
power was the horse; the hoped-for power
was a sail car; the dreamed-of power a
steam locomotive. The line was opened
the beginning of the present great Balti-
more & Ohio system-on the 22d of MAY.
IA odt a was uiOUeTdl6ty success
full, the horse entirely so. BY the 18th of
August Peter Cooper had his very crude
locomotive. TON Thumb ready for trial.
The engineers predicted that the curves
would prevent success. But they were
wrong. The man, who later became Ia
nous as the greatest practical philanthro-
pist of the century, himself stood at the
throttle and drew a train of cars from
Baltimore to Ellicotts mills an back. This
was the first passenger train that was ever
run in the world, and the revolution in
modern methods of travel had begun.
To the men who were identified with the
beginning and the extension of the Balti-
more & Ohio Railroad the whole world
owes a great debt. They were brave. they
were patient. they were resourceful, they
were ingenious, and, above all, they were
American patriots. Progress was making
also in England, where the great Stephen
son was the foremost man in the new work
which was TO bind the world so closely that
Ii has now become as one small neighbor-
hood He had capital at his disposal and
could devote his time to practical work
I without worrying about the money. Not
so these Americans. Their stockholders