The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1906-09-26

THE FiRsT cRUDE METHODS USED
,.,-e .te,,-s-r i-,ef-rrfst

ULnVlie Hooks OF 8eome-t1o hl1nl1fo
Wa Invented Toward the Ead 81
ne seventeenh cenf1ry.
vyhen the frst pair OF parallel tricks
for wheeled trafiie Wns laid down In
Great Brifain or whether It was OF
wood or OF stone. Perhaps the former
d the more probable. the material be
Ing found everywhere and its long
shane belug much moro suggestive or
illness for such n purpose than stone.
But 30 Ion. rs each ncieiiborEood pro-
duced everything it wanted suc.i things
were not needed. At last the desrruc-
tion of timber near London made the
use of coal Indispensable. This could
only be conveyed by sea and one OF
the Few places where 1t could be got
with the limited appliances md SKIN
OF those days was the valley or the
Tyne. Just above and below ewcastle.
About 300 years ago Considerable
trade in coal FOR shipment began there.
which soon led to difficulties as to get
ting II from the mines into the boats
The distances were small. bun the art
OF roadma king had died out and In
bad veat te- pack horses could not
carry enough TO render their use profit
able. Some unknown bencfactor TO his
species ut last laid down two parallel
lines OF timber for carts to run on
Probably they were merely stout
pIanlss at first. but the sinking at the
Joints would soon suggest that other
pIanks should be placed under them,
the structure then becoming fairly eff
acIent. When hanges, either on the
wheels or the rails, were first invented
Or by whom Is not known, but It was
apparently toward the end OF the
seventeenth century.
Those wooden railroads seem TO have
survived throughout the greater part
Of the following. century. and even into
he nineteenth in some cases. The Mid
dleton colliery railroad ut Leeds for
Instance, was OF wood until IL was
reIaid for the use OF BienlSinsop's rack
rail engines. These were started in
1872 and were unqucstionably the first
commercially successful locomotives.
Many other wooden railroads had ex-
lsted In the same ncIShborhood for
fifty or sixty years previously. and no
doubt in other colliery districts as
well. one was laid down near Shelf
field. for instance. so early as about
i712 from the Iuse OF No-snllS's col |
llery at The Manor into the town, near
ly one aud oue-Lalf miles down lin. 1t |
lasted till 1TT5. when It WAS destroyed |
In riot Next year Il VAS reconstruct /
ed with tie 6rst cast iron Hanged rails /
by James Outran. their inventor. \ /
wooden railroad long existed ut Bath 1
It was laid down In 1T31 10y Ralph |
Allen, who. having gained a fortune by |
postonice contracts. acquired and de- /
extensive quarrics OF the cele-
brated Bath Oolite stone on COmbc
down These being at n great height .
and away from any regular mode OF
transit, It became necessary to devise
1 means of bringing down such u heavy |
The wooden rnilroad Occu-
pied the site of what IS now called .
Prior Park road and was laid partly |
upon low walls and partly on the |
like the wagon ways belong
ing to the collleries in the north OF
England"
The coIliery lines about Newcastle
lsed in the eighteenth century rails
II beech wood. carefully planned on the
.op and peEged down to crOsspieeesr
which were even then termed sleep
rs" Longitudinal timbers in addition
we're sometimes used, the extra height
being Of use in enabling the cross
ileepers to be well covered mp and
from the action OF the horses
'eet. There We're usually two lines
4 rails, the descending one being called
he main way, the other the bywuy.
The cars held n Newcastle chaJdron,
n afty-three hundredweIEht. $3.50
pounds They were built OF hr planks,
with iron straps, and had
AK or ash soIes. They sloped forward
IavIng slightly larger wheels at that
md, which was found to ease the
lraft These wheels were of cast
ron, the rear pair being made solid OF
,leccs of beech wood dovetniled and (
lamped together. 1t was supposed !
hat brakes held better on wood than
N iron. Some or these wooden lines /
nded Ia n short timber vInduct. where .
he land sloPed much to the river, {
radlns to shipping quay. from which
Inc coal could either be discharged at {
nee down II chute into the keel" '
r barge which carried it 10 the ships q
r stored IL no kccIs were at hand '
he wagons opened below to eject
his. 8
In going down hill with u lunded
-nEon the horse followed behind. so s
nat he might not he knocked down II o
got beyond control. which is said TO {
ave happened rather frequently. The c
rivers generally owned the horses,
rtcn or n miserable description, and e
ere paid by the trip or "gait"-Raii-
lad Gazette. d