It is said that Lord Worcester in the reign of Charles II. was one of the first scientists to experiment with steam engines, and about a century later James Watt improved and utilised this invention. We have all heard of the little Scotch boy who used to sit watching the steam coming from the spout of a boiling kettle, who puzzled his head over its power and who, when he grew up, worked hard in order to earn money and be able to carry out his experiments.
The first railway was opened in 1825, but before that the steam engine invented by Watt had been in use for some time in collieries. One of these early engines, which was called "Puffing Billy," can still be seen in a London museum.
The railway trains of ninety years ago, wonderful as they were considered then, were very different from those of to-day, for there were no comfortable carriages with windows and cushioned seats, and the passengers had to travel in open wagons. There were no waiting rooms or platforms either, and the speed was very moderate, fifteen to twenty miles an hour being thought marvellous and even dangerous.
This is what a writer says in the year 1837:
"The length of the Liverpool railway is thirty-one miles, and the fact that passengers are regularly conveyed that distance by locomotive engines in one and a half to two hours produced an extraordinary sensation."
EARLY ENGINE.
As the years went on, railways and the trains which ran on them improved very quickly and stage coaches became hopelessly old-fashioned, but for some time a railway journey was something of an adventure and many strange plans were made in order to prevent accidents.
One of the most eccentric of these ideas was that the last carriage or van on a train should have a roof sloping backwards towards the ground and fitted with railway lines, so that if the train to which it was attached were overtaken by another, there would be no collision, for the second engine would run up the sloping roof and travel along on the top of the slower train.