Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-05-21
RECORD OF PROGRESS
LOCOMOTIVE DEVELOPMENT is
SHOWN IN MUSEUM.
Series of Models Going Back to the
Earliest Idea of Steam Propulsion
-Trevithck's Engine Also
In the Collection.

Probably no museum collection in
the world better illustrates the devel-
opment of the steam engine, particu-
larly the locomotive, than the exhibit
of the United States National museum
at Washington, which includes two Of
the earliest original locomotives and
numerous models and accessories.
The museum possesses model of
a very early machine designed by Sir
Isaac Newton in 1880, which was pro-
PEELED by jet of steam projected
backward against the air, md model
of Denis Papin's invention of about
the same time. The investigations of
Slavery and Papin and the successful
experimental engine of Thomas New
comen in 1705, with his piston and
cylinder, soon followed. Newcomers
ideas were improved by James Watt
in 1863, who also introduced the high
pressure engines, the condenser and
later the double acting engine. The de-
velopment of the engine was advanced
by Cugnot, Evans, Hornblower and
n ulOuSl VI ln6 ldJICl .
CINE is on display in the museum.
AS the result of wager made by
resident of Merhyr-Tydvil, an import
ant iron town OF South Wales, that he
could convey a load of iron nine miles
by the power of steam alone, Richard
Trevithick made the first engine to
run on rails in 1903 and won the
wager for his employer the next year.
Trevithick, it has been claimed,
copied the stationary engine built in
1900 by Oliver Evans, an American,
who was later ingenious enough to
attach wheels to a scow and propel it
by steam through the streets of Phila-
delphia in 1904 This curious creation,
called the "Orukto Amphibolis," was
the first motor car to run on Ameri-
can soil.
A model of Trevithick's engine is TO
be seen in the National museum, as
is also the model of the engine en-
ployed by John Stevens in 1925, and
his original tubular boiler, Other
models. illustrate nearly all the types
which began to put in their appear
ance soon after 1928, when the "Stour-
bridge Lion" was built in England and
shipped to America, where it was the
first engine to run on full sized rails
The museum possesses not only the
model of this historic engine, but the
original engine itself The other orig
inal full sized locomotive to be seen
in the museum Is the John Bull, ;"
built by George Stephenson & Son of
England and shipped to America for
use in 1881 on the Camden & Amboy
railroad 1t is interesting to recall
that this old relic of early railroading
in America made round trip under
it's own steam in 1863 from New York
to Chicago where it was exhibited at
the Worlds Columbian exposition
Among the models of early and his
toric locomotives are: George Ste
phensons Rocket" built in 1929;
the B. G. o. engine, tom Thumb
built by Peter Cooper in 1929; the
grasshopper type engine. arabian" of
1881; the BEST Friend" used in 1890
81; Baldwin's "Old Ironsides," con-
structed in 1892; the "Sandusky," con-
structed in 1897; and models of en-
gines made by Asa Whitney in 1910
and G.. A. Nichols in 1S48. Besides
the two locomotives and the numerous
engine models, there are in the exhib-
it coach and car models, sections of
rails. spikes, wheels and models and
parts of valves, pistons and other
patented accessories pertaining to
locomotives and railroads, all of which
go far toward completing an absorbing
chapter of graphic history in connec'
ton with this interesting and import
ant commercial development