The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-08-05

suit was the construction of the fam
Gus Putting Billy" The history of
this locomotive, which was destined
to work such a mighty revolution in
human affairs, is one of the romances
of industry.
Railways long antedated the loco
motive, and although the exact date
of their origin is difficult to deter
mine, they were in the early part of
the eighteenth century in common
use at the collieries in the North of
England, horse traction being the
means of propulsion. For a long
time his method sufficed, and when
the French engineer Cugnot, to
whom belongs the honor of building
the first locomotive, produced his
steam carriage in 1863, and con-
structed a larger one in 1771, Eng
lish colliery proprietors do not seem
to have considered the practical util-
ity of his invention. But Boulton
and Watts development of the sta
tionary steam engine, whose original
use on a larger scale was to drive
pumping plant in mines, led many
engineers to experiment with steam
do a lhOllNS pOWtl lOl NShlSlCSs iC
credit of constructing the first Eng
lish locomotives belongs to Richard
Trevithick, the real " grandfather of
the locomotive" who in 1903 demon
strated at Merthyr Tydfil that a load
beyond the capacity of any horse
could be hauled a considerable dis
tance by steam. Trevithick construct
ed several locomotives, including the
| 90 10 +ol r,,la - 1xyhinh
hibited for some months in an en-
closure on the site of the present
Euston Station, London, but the in
stability of his temperament made
him lose interest in the idea, and he
failed to reap the fruits of his enter
prise.
Other engineers, however, SCI to
work along the same lines, and the
decade from 1902 to 1912 was fruit
full in the construction of locomo-
tives. At the time, however, and in
spite of Trevithick having proved the
contrary, there was d general con-
sensus of opinion on the part Of en-
gineers that a smooth-wheeled en-
gine running on smooth rails could
not develop sufficient adhesion-i.e.,
that the wheels would slip round
without advancing. Many and
strange were the devices adopted to
overcome this supposed lack of ad-
hesion. One designer proposed a To-
cmotive whose propulsion was to be
effected by jointed pieces of metal
acting after the fashion of a horse s
legs, and in 1912 Blenkinsop, Lame
famous in the history of the locomo-
tive, built an engine for a North
Country colliery in which cog wheels
worked on a rack rail, device since
utilized in a different form on many
mountain railways. Hedley was one
of the first to question this adhesion
theory, and one day he had a sudden
inspiration. 1t struck him that by
connecting the wheels of vehicle
g any tendency of any particular SCI
of wheels to surge or revolve on theil
axles, without moving forward, nigh
be overcome by the remaining
wheels" Within "a hours he hat
put his theories into practice by the
construction of an experimental mod
ell, which proved his ideas to be cor
rect.
The result of the experiments with
this model which was propelled by
manuel power, was the decision tc
build a steam locomotive for the wy
lam Colliery, and the outcome wa:
the construction of Putting Billy
now in the South Kensington Mus
cum. The credit for it's construction
does not belong to Hedley alone
Timothy Hackworth, the foreman
of the smiths" or engineer, as We
should call him nowadays, was alst
concerned in it's design. Both mel
have had their partisans, and it il
impossible, in the absence of docu
, mentary evidence, to allocate to eacl
his exact share in the building of thu
engine. But it is definitely estab
lished that collaboration existed
, between the two.
George Stephenson, who was als'
: native of Wylam, and who had be
come alive to the possibilities of tn,
locomotive while employed at th
Killingworth Colliery, had ample op
portunity for watching Puffini
= Billy" at work, and in 1914 himsel
: designed a locomotive. For SOM
years afterwards there was a rivalr,
between him and Hackworth, VIII,
! became the locomotive engineer o
the Stockton and Darlington Rail
way, opened in 1879, and the hrs
public railway in the world. Steph
enson's triumph came four years la
ter, when his Rocket won tn
} prize offered by the directors of tn
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
beating Hackworth's Sanspareil
among other competitors. TIL
Rockets" " victory led to the adop
' tion the steam locomotive for pub
= lie railways throughout the worl
: Until its powers had been demon
, strated, the directors of the Liver
5 pool and Manchester Railway had no
! definitely decided whether to emplo
locomotives or fixed steam engines
STATEMENT OF HONE,