Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-08
METHODS s50F TRAVEL
Improvements That Have Been Made
Within the Century.
FROM CARAVANS TO PALACE CARS
Early Experiments With ,Locomo-
tives and Steamboats,.
SOME NOUS PION EER S

Written for The Evening Star by John Gmer Speed.
The caravan was typical of the middle
ages ana survived even in brand-new Amer
lea until the continent was spanned by rail-
roads and the waterways so united that
from the sea we now in steam vessels
penetrate the very heart Of the new world.
1t is in this new world that the most inn
portant transportation innovations have
originated and been worked to something
near perfection. And the beginnings Of real
progress toward present completeness are
not much older than our national life. Iut
the experimental STAGE without which
nothing could have been accomplished, be-
gan much earlier, for Sir Isaac Newton
comprehended in some sort the practical
power of steam and in 1850 suggested a
way by which steam locomotion was really
achieved From then till boats were pro-
PEELED by it in the water and carriages driv
en- over the roads the ingenious minds of
the world We're busy trying to carry out in
practical ways the suggestion of this great
est scientist of the seventeenth century.
Indeed, 1t may be said with entire truth,
that the record of improvements in the
steam engine and steam locomotive is also
the history of travel during the two centu-
r1es Just past. The eighteenth century
was that of experiment. the nineteenth
that of accomplishment.
During the century of experiment the
travel by sea was in sailing vessels; by land
IN wagons drawn by horses and on horse
back. For more than one-third of the CEN
Jury or accomplishment these methods
We're unchanged, though the eve of
change. They were not to any great
extent superseded till half the nine
teehtn century was gone. Now they are all
put obsolete. 1t is quite true that sailing
rA CT
put they are not used to any extent for
travel so, also, are horses used in greater
NUMBERS than ever before: but they too.
.,re no longer employed in the service of
100 years from 1850 to 1890 efforts were
couraSeousiy made to SO harness steam as
10 make 1t useful in transportation
Original Steam Engines.
Inc hrst efforts were to get an engine to
run on the common roads. Even in the eigh-
teehth century in France, in England and
in America were built road engines-auto-
mobiles, If you choose-which carried their
own weight up pretty steep grades and
other loads besides. The condition of tho
road"ays, whether in town or in the coun-
Try, made it practically Impossible for these
heaVy machines to doc any effective and
laStlng service. They racked themselves to
pieces IramWays, over which cars were
ofa"h by horses, were already Used in the
ginning OF this century, the inventors who
mad been experimenting with road locomo-
ives turned their attention to trans or
railways. Richard Thepit hick whose road
engine, the "Puffer" had made a sensation
in England in 1901, in 1893 put Il locomotive
on a tramway at Merthyr Tydfil, in Wales
and went up heavy grade, winning a wager
OF $500. In England they said Thevthick
was mad because he used high pressure
steam, and the Influence of James Watt
was so potent in, opposition that capital
repulSed him even In the face of very pain
demonstrations of the sanity of his schemes.
But he is known to the world today as the
father of the locomotive, and his fame
is secure for all time.
In this country Oliver Evans was at work
on the same lines as Thevithick. And ne
did wonderful things But like i nevithick.
he was quite generation before a time
when there was enough enlightenment to
az preciate him. He agitated for railroads
in every way that was open to him. and in
1899 said in public speech: The 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.
First Passenger Train.
Only men of imagination Of the first order
ever in the first decade of this century
foresaw a tenth part of what was to be ac-
con plished In the next seventy-five years.
The experiments continued, but most Of
those who were at work only hoped to
carry freight and take out the product of
mines with their steam engines on railroads.
The great steel thoroughfares of today We're
undreamed of. But when, in 1880 there
was passenger line opened, things moved
with great rapidity.
During 1879 a railroad had been built
from Baltimore to Ellicotts Mills. The sure
motive power was the horse: the hDped-for
power was a sail car; the dreamed-of power
Il steam locomotive. The line was opened
the beginning Of the present great Bati-
more and Ohio system-on the I'D of May,
1880 The sail car was moderately success
full, the horse entirely SO. BY the 2Sth of
August Peter Cooper had his very crude
locomotive, Tom Thumb ready for trial
The engineers predicted that the curves
would prevent success. But they were
wrong. The man who later became famous
of the greatest practical philanthro-
pists of the century himself stood at the
throttle and Ore" train of cars from Bal
tmore to Ellcotts Mills and back. This
was the first passenger train that was ever
run in the world, and the revolution i'll
modern methods Of travel had begun.
In America and England.
To the men who were identified with the
beginning and the extension of the Balti-
more and Ohio railroad the whole world
owes a great debt. They We're brave. they
were patient, they were resourceful, they
were ingenious, ard, above all, they were
Anne rcan patriots. Progress was making
also in England, where the great Stephenson
was the foremost man in the new work which
was to bind the world so closely that it has
row become one small neighborhood He
had capital at his disposal and could de-
vote his time to practical work without
worrying about the money.
Not so these An,ericans. Their stock old-
crs were impatient and ever on the eve of
giving up. But they petsevered and asked
Americans to make locomotives for them
In New York they sent for Stephenson loco
motives, but in Maryland and South Caro-
lima they preferred home manufactures
And they got them they got what an
swered better than those brought over the
sea. BY 1910 the tide had turned, and the
engineer Norris of Philadelphia sent four
engines to England to use on the Birming-
ham and Gloucester railway. The English
could not make locomotive that was use
full on grade OF one foot in thirty -seven
feet, SO they had to send to us for them
This was the first expectation of locomo-
tives. In 1899, 1t is interesting to record
the manufacturers in America exported To-
cCmotives to the value OF S5,000,O0O.
The First Sleeping Cars.
The Baltimore railway pioneers were also
looking out for the comfort of passengers