Evening star., 1915-12-26

Notwithstanding. for the crude Tom
Thumb" has gradually developed into
the iron horses of today that can travel
more than a mile a minute.
In patent case, tried many years
afterward, the boiler of the Tom
| Thumb became. in some connection,
important as a piece of evidence. After
months of searching it \ was found
among some old rubbish at Mont
clair. n. j.. The experts who examined
1t declared it difficult to imagine that
IT had ever generated steam enough
TO drive a coffee mil much less pull
train. Rescued from the rubbish
pile, the little boiler now occupies
place of honor in the museum.
While the museum will shortly cele-
brate the one hundredth birthday of
the locomotive. it will not. one of its
officials pointed out, celebrate the one
hundredth. nor yet the one thousandth
birthday of railroads. SO great is their
antiquity that their exact age has never
been determined. 1t is only known that
it probably dates back 70 the time
when wheel carriages were first used
for facilitating the movement over
tbe ground.
Those first devices were not the iron
and steel rails of today. but they were
constructed along the same general
principle. The early Egyptians in
transporting the immense stones they
used in building the pyramids formed
tracks by laying blocks of smooth
stones close together. Remnants of
these tracks were found about a quar-
road constructed especially for the pur-
pose. The ancient Romans also made
some approach to the present day rail-
roads in the celebrated Appian Way.
This was also constructed of blocks of
stone. fitted closely together, the sur
face presenting a smooth and hard
track for the wheels. A few centuries
later similar tracks were constructed
in several European cities-London,
Pisa, Milan and number of others
The fiCst instance of rails being used
on highways was as early as $50. They
were invented by a man named Beau
mont and We're built and used for the
TRANSPORTATION of coal from the mines
near Newcastle, England
Roger North. writer and statesman,
a1ludes TO RAILWAYS being in use in the
neighborhood of the River Tyne, Eng
/ land. in the year 1876.
Century old documents tell of rail-
WAYS existing in Scotland in 17+J. at the
time of the Scotch rebellion. For twen-
ty years these roads were steadily i'm
proved until. in 1865. they began to as
sumo the forms of the roads i'm use at
present, even to the use of flanges on the
face was ever heard of.
The first iron rails of which there Is
any written account were used at
Whitehaven. EneIand. They were cast
wooden holdings. They were spike
down upon the wooden rails to receive
the weight and pressure of the hol-
lowed out wheel. which, pressing en-
tirely upon the molding of wood, sool
rendered it unfit for use.
The method at that time was aban-
doned as too expensive. but thirty years
later five SIX tons of the same de-
scription of rails were cast at Shrop-
shire. St. Froud. a French traveller of
that time. describes the result as Civ
ing a road "far superior to all other
kinds-so much SO that one horse. with
perfect ease. can draw wagon loaded
with five or six hundred bushels of
COAL
The first rails made entirely of iron
were cast in the year of the birth Of
the United States-1776. While the
signers were drawing up the Declara-
ton of Independence the Duke of Nor
folk was equipping the roads of his col
liery. near Sheffield. with cast-iron
rails, cast with perpendicular ledge
upon the outer side in order to keep
the wheels from running off the track
This was the first real railroad in the
meaning of the word as used today in
all history. but not a trace of il re-
mains. 1t was destroyed by the labor
ers of the colliery during a riot. The
men foresaw some scheme to keep some
builder and protector of the road a
Mr.. Curr. had to flee for his life and
hide in the woods three days and
nights to escape the fury of the rioters.