The weakness in all the early British engines was that they could not produce steam as rapidly as they used it up, nor did they have sufficient power to move quickly, or pull more than their own weight. It remained for George Stephenson to overcome these weaknesses and prove the practicability of the movable steam locomotive. Stephenson, born in 1781, was the son of a fireman at the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle. Stirred by the story of James Watt’s achievements in the domain of steam, George enrolled in a night school to study mechanics.
Steam traction continued to absorb the attention of many British inventors, so Stephenson turned to it. He constructed an engine called “Blucher,” which made a successful trial run July 25, 1814.
George Stephenson was a persistent fellow. To his doggedness of purpose we owe the beginning of the steam railroad. In 1822 he “sold,” as we would say today, the directors of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, which had planned to use horses on its trams, on the idea of using a steam locomotive. He was appointed engineer of the road and given authority to carry out his plans.
The age of railroading in this country began with the chartering in 1827 of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the first road constructed in the United States to carry passengers and freight. The first rails were laid on July 4, 1828, with Charles Carroll, the only living signer of the Declaration of Independence, turning over the first spadeful of dirt. The first section of thirteen miles from Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills was opened in May, 1830. The man who jolted the Baltimore & Ohio directors out of their horse fixation was the renowned Peter Cooper.
Cooper built a locomotive which he called Tom Thumb. The name was apt because it was quite a small affair. In its construction he used odds and ends of mechanical parts. The barrels of muskets, for example, provided the tubes for the upright boiler.
The directors of the Baltimore & Ohio decided to have a competition. In January, 1831, they advertised for locomotives to be entered in a series of contests. They offered to give a $4,000 prize for the locomotive that best met the test, and $3,500 for the second best engine.
Four engines entered the competition, one of which was built by Phineas Davis, a watchmaker of York, Pennsylvania. The Davis entry fulfilled all the requirements of the competition and won first prize. Soon after its adoption the Baltimore & Ohio directors named that type of locomotive the Grasshopper. This was due to its grasshopper-like construction. From that parent engine sprang a fleet of Grasshoppers that operated for nearly a century and made railroad history.
Phineas Davis and his partner, Gartner, now began to develop the Grasshopper type. The next venture was the Atlantic which went into service on the B & O in the summer of 1832. Once the Grasshoppers demonstrated their utility, the steam locomotive idea spread rapidly.
The saga of the American Railroad is a stirring narrative of triumph over obstacles. The road of the iron horse is part of the larger highway over which progress has marched. In that drama of achievement the Grasshopper locomotive played its full part. As such, it merits a niche in the Transport Hall of Fame.