Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1915-06-15
The STEAM ENGINE.
Its History Romance of PhiIoso-
ply and Mechanics.
UNCLE SANS FINE EXHIBIT.

The National Museum at Washington
Shows the First Crude Machines
Made as Well as Originals and Mod
els of the First Locomotives.
Probably no museum collection in the
world better illustrates the develop
ment of the steam engine, particularly
the locomotive, than the exhibit of the
United States National museum at
Washington, which includes two of the
earliest original locomotives and nu-
merous models and accessories.
The history of the steam engine is a
materialistic romance without parallel
in the record Of human achievements.
1t covers the stupendous and persist
ent efforts Of many early philosophers
and mechanics who found steam
mysterious uncomfortable force and
left it a comprehensive comfortable
| factor Of public service.
No one knows how long after it was
observed that by holding down the lid
of kettle Of boiling liquid a certain
force was created, due to the coma
preston of the steam, before any use
was attempted with this newly discov-
cred force. 1t is certain, however, that
sort Of steam engine was exhibited
in Alexandria, Egypt, about 200 years
before our era began, and it was de-
| scribed In work on pneumatics by
Hero of Alexandria, written between
100 and 100 B. G. This machine was
rotary affair, more theoretical than
practical, as were many of the results
Of philosophy in those days. A recon
struction of this engine in model form
is in the museum exhibits.
Nothing more is to be found concern
ing the steam engine for centuries, a
fact which Is no doubt due to the lack
Of interest in anything which did not
have to do with war or warlike nipple
ments. A book published in Rome in
1929 gives a description of Giovanni
Branca's crude steam engine, showing
it to have been an elementary steam
turbine, with the sole defect that it
lacked any appliances for making the
steam follow the vanes, or buckets, of
the revolving wheel, so that more of
its energy might have been converted
into useful work. One author in a
treatise on locomotives claims that had
some genius improved upon this early
device the reciprocating engine would
probably never have been invented, but
that we would have had the advantage
of our modern turbines much sooner.
The museum possesses a model of a
very early machine designed by Sir
Isaac Newton in 1850 which was pro-
PEELED by a jet of steam projected
backward against the air and "a model
of Denis Papin's invention of about
the same time. The investigations of
Savery and Papin and the successful
experimental engines 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
development of the engine was advanc-
ed by Cugnot, Evans, Hornblower and
Murdoch. A model of the latters en-
CINE is on display in the museum.
AS the result of wager made by
resident Of Merthyr Tydfil, an impor-
tant 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 en-
CINE 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 at
tach wheels to scow and propel it by
steam through the streets of Philadel-
phia in 1904. This curious creation,
called the OruktOr Amphibolis, was the
first motorcar to run on American 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 1926 and
his original tubular boiler. Other mod
els illustrate nearly all the types which
began to put in their appearance soon
after 1926, when the Stourbridge
Lion was built in England and ship
ped 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 orig
inal engine itself. The other original
full sized locomotive to be seen in the
museum is the John Bull, built by
George Stephenson & Sons of England
and shipped to America for use in 1881
on the Camden and Amboy railroad.
1t is interesting to recall that this old
relic Of early railroading in America
made a round trip under its own steam
in 1893 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 Stephen
sons Rocket. which was built in 1929;
the B. and 0. engine Tom Thumb, built
by Peter Cooper in 1929; the grasshop-
per type engine Arabian of 1881; the
Best Friend. used in 1901; Baldwin's
Old Ironsides, constructed in 1892;
the Sandusky. built in 1887, and
models of engines made by Asa Whit
ney in 1910 and G. A. Nichols In
1S4S Besides the two locomotives and
the numerous engine models, there are
in the exhibit coach and car models,
sections of rails, spikes. wheels and
models and parts of valves. pistons
and other early accessories pertaining
50 locomotives and railroads.