The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-08-25

in America during the last 200
years.
Indians afoot on horseback, in
birchbark canoe and on dragging travoix lead
the way Close behind them presses the on
coming white man-in creaking, numbering two
wheeled carts, in Concord stage coaches, in
chaises, in Conestoga wagons in steamboats, and
canalboats in fast packet boats and swift Yam
kee clipper ships Now the covered wagons are
"rolling out to Oregon" and the pony express
rider dashes up and as quickly speeds away.
The pages of history turn rapidly and the
horse-drawn wagons and carriages are succeeded
by new marvel, the ''horseless carriage" or
automobile And almost before man has
tered this new form of quick travel across the
land, the Wrights leap up from the sand dunes
of Kitty Hawk, in North Carolina, and the dream
of Icarus is a reality. Man is now travelling
through the air.
In the midst of all this splendid pageantry OF
the conquest of water, land and air there is one
chapter which stirs your imagination as perhaps
no other one does. That is the parade of the
Iron Horse" You view approximately the his
toricay authentic costumes of more than
hundred actors in the pageant. You are amused
and delighted by the pantomime of some of these
actors as they reproduce the thoughts and feel
ings and actions of past generations of Amer
leans. And at times you are deeply stirred as
you say to yourself, 81 am seeing history In the
making"
But when those locomotives from Peter Coo
per's little '"Tom Thumb" on down to one Of the
modern Titans, come rolling across the stage
with ringing bells, putting smokestacks and
screaming whistles, then-ah, then! it's hard
for you to stife that littleboy urge to stand up
and yell For in these black monsters you see
the inventive genius Of America; you see the
symbol of the final conquest of the wilderness;
you see the instrument which first bound to-
gether the broad expanse of these United States
of America; you see whole century of the
development of the machine age.
The first "iron horse" paradoxically enough,
was more horse than iron. The first railroad
built in America for carrying passengers and
freight was the Baltimore & Ohio. Chartered in
1927 1t began laying the rails for its IL miles
of road from Baltimore to Ellicotts Mills on
July 4, 1929 with Charles Carroll of Carroll
ton, the only living signer of the Declaration
of Independence, lifting the first shovelful OF
dirt incidentally. this historic scene is graphic
ally reproduced in the Baltimore & Ohios ex-
hibit in the Travel and Transport building)
The road was opened in May, 1880. In the
meantime the promoters had been experiment.
ing with various sorts of cars. One was horse
drawn passenger car. (Such as is shown in Illus
tration No. l above.) Another was a hat car
fitted with treadmill operated by horse but
upon its trial trip it came to grief-a COW on
the track upset it Another experiment, which
was also unsuccessful, was made with sail
boat on wheels, called the Meteor"
Then the inventive genius of Peter Cooper
came into the picture He built tiny locomotive
with boiler about the size of the one which
stands behind your kitchen stove and with iues
made of gun barrels. To this he gave the ap-
propriate name of "Tom Thumb" and made some
trial runs on the partly-fnished railroad in 1890
From this experience he reconstructed his To-
connective and on August %, 1880, the TON
Thumb" pushed instead of pulled car with
"a passengers the entire IL miles OF the
road, attaining a speed of four miles an hour.
A few days later occurred the famous race
between the TON Thumb" and horse-drawn
car over the double track between Baltimore &
Ellicott's Mills. At the start the gray morse
leaped into the lead and held it for awhile. Then
the putting TON Thumb began to catch up
it drew abreast the straining animalEthen
passed it. But just as shouts of triumph went
up from Cooper's passengers belt slipped on
the mechanism Of "Tom Thumb! So the gray
horse won the race to Baltimore.
But despite this victory the officials of the
new railroad had enough confidence in the fu-
ture of steam locomotives to offer prize or
$4,000 for the best engine which should be de-
livered to the road for trial before June 1. 1881.
This prize was won by Phineas Davis OF YORK,
Pa, matchmaker He called his locomotive
the york but the pioneer railroad men TOOK
one look at the queer machine with its drivers
moving up and down in the air like the legs
of grasshopper and promptly christened it the
"Grasshopper." But the york" proved its worth
and as late as 1883 three of these early "Grass-
hopper" type of engines still in service on
the Baltimore Ohio.
Down In the South the Charleston and Ham,
burg railroad had been chartered In 1929 and
In November. 1880. it gave a trial run to To-
connective to which had been given the imposing
name Of 1.-THE Best Friend of Charleston"
whereupon the BEST Friend" promptly ran of
the track. But after 1t was put back and some
changes made In certain marta IL deyeloDed the