FIRST TRIAL OF THE LOCOMOTIVE.
Mr. Dripps informs me that, after many attempts, he succeeded in putting the parts of the engine together, and when it was placed in position upon the track he notified Robert Stevens of the fact. Mr. Stevens came at once to Bordentown, as his anxiety to see it in operation was very great. Upon his arrival the boiler was pumped full of water, by hand, from the hogshead in which it was brought. Benjamin Higgins made the fire with pine wood, and when the scale[5] showed thirty pounds steam pressure, Isaac Dripps opened the throttle, Robert Stevens standing by his side, and the first locomotive on this great highway moved. It would be difficult to describe the feeling of these three men as they stood upon the moving engine—the first human freight drawn by steam on what was afterward destined to be the great highway connecting the two most populous cities of the American continent; a most important link in the chain of intercommunication between the North and South and West. What possibilities must have dawned upon them if they cared to lift the veil of the future!
During the next few days after this preliminary trial the engine was again taken apart, and as a few of the parts needed modification some time intervened before it was again in running order. It will be remembered that young Dripps had never seen a locomotive before and there were no "old engineers" to consult in regard to the construction or management of the engine.