The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-18
RAILROAD NEWS.
First Locomotive in America
Seventy-Eight Years Ago.
Named "Best Friend" Turned
Ont of West Point Foundry.
OVER FROM ENGLAND.
First Engine From Old Country
Failure.
Other Items of General Interest
in Railroad Circles.

Upon this day in 1881 was success
fully demonstrated the practicability
of using the locomotive on the road In
America. During the year previous
Peter Cooper, the eminent New York
philanthropist, constructed his famous
locomotive engine called the Tom
Thumb" which was tried on the Bal
timore & Ohio railroad, but it was too
small to be of much service. However,
when the BEST Friend" was turned
out a the West Point foundry. New
York in 1881, it was found to meet all
requirements of those days.
The vast network of railroads that
now cover the United States had its
beginning at this time. John Stevens
q n inventive genius of the highest or
DER. who had done almost. il not fully
rs much as Robert Fulton for the
steamboat was now the CHIEF adVo-
cate of steam railways.
A road was soon built from Philadel-
phia to the Susquehanna, but the cars
first used were drawn by horses. The
action of Pennsylvania in projecting
canals and railways alarmed the peo-
lie of Baltimore lest Philadelphia steal
its western trade and they decided to
build a railroad to some point on the
Ohio river. Work on it was begun in
July, 1928. and this was the origin of
the Baltimore & Ohio railroad.
The first steam locomotive was
brought from England in 1929, where
experiments in steam railways had
been in progress for ever ten years,
but it proved a failure. In 1881, how
ever, the locomotive was successfully
used in South Carolina, and within a
few years others were in operation in
various parts OF the country. But for
years after this beginning many of the
cars. even on the steam roads, were
still drawn by horse power. The roads
We're owned by the state and the cars
and engines by individuals and corpor-
atoms.
Anyone owning a car or an engine
had the use of the road. The engines
were rude machines compared with
those of our own times. but they went
faster than the horses, and This caused
much confusion. Eventually the rail-
roads passed into the hands of private
corporations, and horses were every
where supplanted by the steam engine.
The railway as a dominating factor
of modern civilization dates distinctly
from the construction of the Liverpool
& Manchester railway and the trial on
1t of the Rocket on October 6, 1880,
The Rocket" was the first engine to
cmbody the necessary elements of 4
successful locomotive. The Rocket"
weighed less than Az tons, and hauled
l" lOAS VI AiO1SAl at - AhllCS pei nun
for l hour and 48 minutes, then I'M
precedented performance.
The most recent compilation of rail-
road statistics shows that in the Uni
ted States there is a mileage of 220. 633
operated, with more than 5000 locomo-
tves and more than 100000 cars in
use.
Another important event in history
that occurred on this day was the OPP
ening of the British Museum in 1859,
one of the most. if not the most import
ant institution of its kind in the world.
which originated in a bequest of Sir
Hans Sloane.