Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-10
TESTING An ENGINE
VI ii,
Interesting Operation at the
st. Lo1lis Fair.
REQUIRES FORTY MEN
DEvELoPMENTfl OF AMERICAN
LOCOMOTIVES.
Progress Of Railway Construction In
This Country-A French
Importation.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago ec0rd-Herald.
ST. LOUIS, September 30. 1904.
The most novel as well as the most in
tricate and the most important piece OF ma
chinery in operation upon the exposition
grounds Is an apparatus for testing the
strength, speed and other qualities of rail-
way locomotives So up by the Pennsylva-
MIA Railroad Company in the transportation
building at cost of $4,000. 1t requires
forty men to operate 1t, who are under
the direction of G. A. Wall, superintendent
of motive power upon the Pennsylvania
lines west of Pittsburg.
This plant is placed here not as a part of
the Pennsylvania railroad. exhibit, but
purely In the interest of science, and the
entire transportation world, including the
corporations which build as we'll as oper-
ate locomotives, has the benefit of the
results, which have great economic value.
because they demonstrate how the great
est amount of work can be obtained
for the least expenditure, and the conse-
quence Is reduction in the cost OF trans
portation. Every new pattern of locomotive
on exhibition here has been or will be test
ed before the close of the exposition under
the direction of commission of experts,
of which Professor Goss of Purdue Univer-
sity of Lafayette. Ind. is the chairman. lie
is recognized as the highest authority in
mechanical engineering in the United States,
and is assisted by three members of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers,
three members of the American Society of
Master Mechanics one German and one
English engineer. The results, which are
automatically recorded-power, speed and
resistance-will be published by the COM
iCcf OF fhn lose Of nctf fnr, 1,a
expense of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany, which bears the cost of all the tests
also.
Several years ago Willard Smith, editor
of the Railway and Engineering Review,
who is chief of the department of trans
portatiol here, as he was at the Chicago
exposition, conceived the idea of establish
ing a laboratory for the purpose of testing
the comparative usefulness of locomotives.
and in the development of the idea received
Hearty cooperation from Prof. GOSS. They
set up small plant at Lafayette, but it
proved inconvenient, and they endeavored
in vain to secure an endowment from the
several traffic associations. When the
Pennsylvania company asked Mr.. Smith for
suggestions concerning It's exhibit at st.
Louis he at once proposed a locomotive
testing plant, and here it is.
Locomotive Tester.
Resting upon secure foundation of solid
concrete is a set of wheels exactly similar
in size and arrangement to those of the
standard locomotive. 1t Is reached by or
binary tracks and switches, and the loco
motive to be tested comes in under it's own
steam ard runs along upon a set of false
rails until Its wheels are poised exactly
above the center of the fixed wheels Of the
testing machine. 1t IS then carefully low
cred until the tires of the locomotive and
the tires of the machine wheels come in
contact. The false rails are then removed,
the engine is coupled to an immoyable wall,
steam Is turned on and the wheels of the
locomotive begin to revOlve upon the sup
Iorting wheels, to which are attached, by
delicate apparatus, thermometers that au-
atically record the speed, the resistance
and the strength of the locomotive upon
rolls of paper ruled for that purpose.
An engineer sits in the cab. a fireman
is constantly shoveiing coal into the fur-
mace columns of black smoke rise from
the stack and the steam Kisses and whis-
ties. and you can feel the throb of the heart
of the powerful creature forty feet away
1t quivers and pants and struggles, and the
wheels revolve at the speed of a mile q
minute but it does not move an inch
twenty-five or thirty men in greasy jump
ers move about observing closely every fea-
ture of the test, and their ears as well as
their eyes are alert, for the slightest change
OF sound is significant. They notice the
valves the oil cups, the indicators; they
inspect the quality of the coal and the man
ner of combustion, and when the test is
completed they can compute the value of
every ounce of fuel that has been con-
sumed and can tell you exactly what the
locomotive can do and what it will cost to
do it. Alden thermometers measure time.
distance, load and consumption of fuel. The
energy which the engine shows Is auto
matically recorded upon a web of paper,
and the testers can regulate the load and
the speed just as If it were actually upon
the track.
During the exposition American. German
hoo will na
tested, and particular interest attaches to
the result of the tests of four types of bal
anced compounds, one from France one
from Germany and two from the United
States. All the recent types of locomotives
for both freight and passenger traffic are
represented by about forty exhibits from
different manufacturers. but this particular
type is new and the transportation world
is anticipating good results from it.
American Locomotive Development.
The development of the locomotive from
the very first Is shown by historical ex-
hibit collected by Major J. G. Pangborn for
the Baltimore and Ohio Company. which is
one of the most striking illustrations of our
national advancement 1t has been assem-
bIed and installed with great taste and
skill.
There is a million dollars worth of To-
comotives on exhibition here. The entire
railroad exhibit is valued at s. 100000. The
Pullman Company has the finest train that
was ever built, and the New York Central
Company has installed locomotive and
a train of cars such are used for the
Empire State Express, the fastest and the
finest train in the world. Beside it Is re-
production of the first train that ran over
the Mohawk Valley railroad in 1881 for
Governor Dewitt Clinton
The first locomotive to run on tracks was
the "Trevitic." used on the Mythr-Tydvale
in the coal regions of Wales in 1S03 but the
first to haul a load was the ''Cugnot" in
1860 in Paris. The first locomotive to draw
a load in the United States was the "Stour-
bridge Lion,"7 brought over from England
in a sailing vessel for the Honesdale road.
now a part of the Delaware and Hudson.
1t was a tram road with wooden rails and
small cars drawn by horses to haul coal,
but the new locomotive was a failure. 1t
was too heavy for the track, people were
afraid of 1t, and 1t was abandoned
Peter Cooper built the first real locomo-
tive in this country for the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad, which was then being oper-
ated by horses. 1t was called ''Tom
Thumb" 1t ran from Baltimore to ELL
colt City, distance Of thirteen miles, in
one hour and twelve minutes, and its boiler
tubes were made of the barrels of muskets
which had been used in the war of the rev.
olution. This was the first successful ex-
pertinent for the use of steam for hauling