Evening journal., 1912-07-03
NEw NEWS NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Story Of the Birth of
the Railroad Spike
By Holland

Henry Burden was for forty years
regarded as one of the great business
forces of the United States. He was
really the creator Of the city of Troy,
n. Y. as a manufacturing and in
dustrial center. The products OF his
mandatory we're known all over the
world, and he gained a great reputa-
tation as the inventor Of a machine
which practically supplanted the hand
made horse shoe. His inventions
and his business brought him a very
great fortune, and as great a repu-
tation as any American manufacturer
between 1850 and 1871 possessed.
A few years before his death in 1897,
Austin Corbin, then the owner of the
Long Island Railroad, said to the late
John NJ Francis of Troy, who served
as Minister to Portugal and later to
Austria, that he had very interst-
ing relic Of Mr.. Franciss old friend,
Henry Burden. 1T Is one of the
first railroad spikes ever made" said
Mr.. Corbin, "and il was made by
Henry Burden at was one of a con-
signment of fifteen tons of spikes
which were used in the building Of the
Long Island Railroad about 1870. the
first railroad anywhere in the world
TO use the spike. And the spike
possess is as good today as it ever
was.
Il can tell you the story of the
origin of the railroad spike, as | Of
ten got the story from Henry Burden
said MIR. Francis.
about the year 1886 Mr. Burden
went to England for the purpose of
studying the manner on which rail-
roads were being built there. The
first thing that struck him when he
looked at the railroad running from
Liverpool to Manchester was the fact
that it did not have the strap rail,
as our first railroad had That con-
sisted OF fiat strip of iron. nailed
10 wooden beams; and IT. was proving
I'm the United States very unsatisfac-
tory. In England they were using
what Mr.. Burden called a Trail. He
liked the rail but he did not like the
manner in which II was attached to
the sleepers. II was screwed down.
"On his way back to the hotel In
Liverpool Mr.. Burden suddenly
thought Of a way in which the rail
could be spiked to the sleepers so as
10 hold It securely and yet not make
It too solid, or inelastic.
AS he lay in bed that night the idea
occurred TO him of the kind Of
machine with which he. could make
the spikes very rapidly. I dom
need to describe the spike to gous i
was exactly the kind ofsspike that Is
used to this day. .oili-F "'-
$50 impressed was Mr.. Burden viii
his idea that he hurried home. Withir
few weeks after his arrival he haC
the model of his machine for makinl
these spikes completed. He went t
New York and showed to some OF thu
men who were building the New
York and Harlem Railroad sampler
Of these spikes. stating that they woul,
make the use of the new Trail prac
tioable; but they only laughed at him
Then he went over to Long lslani
and showed samples of his spike 4
the men who we're building the Lon
Island Railroad He--went out. ol
the line. OF The road. and. with
sledge-hammer, gave an JlnIstratim n
the manner IN which the spike coulc
with few blows, be driven into tn
sleeper and thus attach the Trail Z
the sleeper.
A few days later he was delighte
10 receive an offer from the Lon
tSidNh idilbdN lNNlit NHD hhN w
cided in favor of the Trail after MI
Burdens demonstration. for fftee
tons of spikes. Their perfect fitnes
for their work was speedily demon
strated by their use on the Lon
Island road The result was tina
within two or three years. every raj
road IN the United States, complete
or contemplated, decided to. use th
spike; and 7 nave heard it said ths
, they did quite as much as any oths
, one thing 10 make possible the rapi
construction of railways in the Unite
, States. They certainly made it POI
sible to abandon the strap rail and us
; the Trail. And IL is an interestin
p fact that there has been no chang
from that day to this. either I'm II
spike OF IN the manner of adjustir
1t, or, furthermore. in the manner
h manufacturing t. regard Hem
l. Burden, therefore. as one Of the gre
- forces which made American railw;
. construction possible.
V Copyright 1912. by p. J. Edward