The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-13
EARLY RAILROADING
THE ANCIENT ORIGIN OF THE
 STEEL IRA CKS

American Engine Buiit For Run
 ming on Ratis-An Experiment Peter Cooper Which Turned Ou
 Well.
 Railways made of massive ston
 blocks laid parallel and smoothed on tn
 surface for the use of wheels are al
 most as old as wheeled vehicles them
 selves. From that ancient origin Wer
 evolved the steel tracks of to-day.
 careful search would probably revea
 the remains of stone tramWays in Va
 rious lands beginning with the crud
 ones of ancient Egypt and continuing in an improving line down to those O. modern enterprise. l have examined | ways of the carly kind ill Italian cities and the native engineers said that they
 have been used from time immemOrlal Ill various parts of Germany they were
 used in connection with cCaI mines, ant from them the idea and the name | tram Wre carried to England in the seventeenth century. The Wretched l roads of England, due to the moist eli
 mate, made the tramWays d great con Venience to the owners of the coal | mines.
 | Soon the scientific societies got to dis cussng the details of tramWay con struction, and by that means the peo- pie of America learned that the prevail ing want of roads might be remedied by the construction of cheap tramWays. Early in the last century they were in- troduced in the coal mines of Pennsyl- Nania, and the parties who built Bunk CT Hill monument carried stones from Quincy quarries to tide water by means of one of these roads. That was in 1897.
 Two decades before various canals had been constructed, but experience had fully revealed the shortcomings and inconvenience of canals. Even be- fore the thirteenth century began a number of men had advocated the use of steam engines to haul freight and passengers but those men were regard ed as visionaries.
 The steam engine in it's crudest form was invented by Newcomer to meet an emergency. Valuable mines were fall ing into ruins because animal power could no longer pump out the water This success opened the way for the improved engines of Watt and Evans.
 As early as 1894 Evans engine moved a scoW through the streets of Philadel- phia, and the inventor predicted at that time, although canals were then popu- lar, that the next generation would want tramways operated by horses and J1e i,T railways worked by steam locomotives. | He said the time was not far distant l when passengers in steam carriages would leave Washington in the morn | ng, breaking at Baltimore, dine at | and sup in New York, 250 niles distant Evans did not live to see | lis prediction fulfilled, but he prepared f he way for the steam locomotive.
 William Hedley made the first practi- al use of the steam engine for trans purposes in England in 1913 y hauling coal from a mine to the ship ping point. George Stephenson saw this ngine and succeeded in making imita- ions of it which attracted public at- ention. At that time there were being perated many successful tramways in
  ailroad p miles long from Stockton to in the north of England, for he purpose of transporting coal The cheme was violently opposed. The luke of Cleveland alleged that the ailroad would disturb one of his fox + purses. The work was done under f he supervision of George Stephenson 'ho used locomotives An impression prevails that railroads z nd their operating machinery were i 1pied by pioneer American engineers z 'om British models. These engineers g lay have copied the plans of making F anyways, but the rolling stock used r as the product of native ingenuity and il ways bore the stamp of the original V mercan designer. There is good req I m for believing that the American ex- N 'ess train would have resounded q trough our valleys quite as soon as it e q had James Watt, the reputed in- , ,ntor of the steam engine, and George q ephenson, credited with inventing the !, never lived or never built engine. ., In 1880 there were about 2,000 miles of h ilroad projected in America and con 7, fuction had commenced in a great any places. The most ambitious pro- ct of the kind was the Baltimore and E., l1o railroad, begun in 1928, to create =. ade between that city and the west q south. The foundation stone was |. d by the venerable Charles Carroll of trrollton, the last surviving siener of a, ? Declaration of Independence. Tbir- II, en miles of the road were open for ,,' m life May 20, 1890 At that time there u IS no sentiment in the United States p' faVor of anything stronger than rsepoWer for operating railroads Ala Pi lugh there were locomotives operat- S' various tiamways in Great Britain, S' q the stockton and Darlington rail- ol y had locomotives hauling long cu ins, the fame of that kind of motive la yer spread very slowly. Although a pe omtive pulling the first train run on .e
 stockton and Darlington railway III made speed of 15 miles an hour. sl'
 general public in England several VI ITS later, regarded men as demented O. en they talked of hauling trains at ca ed of ten miles an hour eN ne man in Baltimore was opposed to tal use of animals for railroad motive tei yer. This was Peter Cooper, the lie lanthropist who afterward gave he' Y York one of the most valua ble ed cal tional institutions in the world use per Union. He had a small loComo- we
 built at his own expense, a tiny or aratus with an upright boiler and int l,yI