The increase in steam power in the United States has been from 3,500,000 horse power in 1860, to 16,940,000 horse power in 1895, or about five fold within thirty-five years.
Prof. Thurston says that in 1890 the combined power of all the steam engines of the world was not far from 100,000,000[2] horse power, of which the United States had 15,000,000, Great Britain the same, and the other countries smaller amounts. Taking the horse power as the equivalent of the work of five men, the work of steam is equivalent to that of a population of 500,000,000 working men. It is also said that one man to-day, with the aid of a steam engine, performs the work of 120 men in the last century.
[2] Prof. Thurston’s estimate doubtless includes war vessels, which Mulhall’s later estimate does not (see Mulhall’s “Industries and Wealth of Nations,” 1896, pages 4 and 379).
The influence of the steam engine upon the history and destiny of the world is an impressive subject, far beyond any intelligent computation or estimate. It has been the greatest moving force of the Nineteenth Century. The labor of 100,000 men for twenty years might build a great pyramid in Egypt, and it remains as a monument of patience only, but the genius of the modern inventor has organized a machine with muscles of steel, far more patient and tireless than those of the Egyptian slave. He gave it but a drink of water and making coal its black slave, and himself the master of both, he has in the Nineteenth Century hitched his chariot to a star and driven to unparalleled achievement.
[CHAPTER XI.]
The Steam Railway.
[Trevithick’s First Locomotive]—[Blenkinsop’s Locomotive]—[Hedley’s “Puffing Billy”]—[Stephenson’s Locomotive]—[The Link Motion]—[Stockton and Darlington Railway, 1825]—[Hackworth’s “Royal George”]—[“Stourbridge Lion”]—[“John Bull”]—[Baldwin’s Locomotives]—[Westinghouse Air Brakes]—[Janney Car Coupling]—[The Woodruff Sleeping Car]—[Railway Statistics].
The fact that more patents have been granted in the class of carriages and wagons than in any other field, shows that means of transportation has engaged the largest share of man’s inventive genius, and has been most closely allied to his necessities. The moving of passengers and freight seems to be directly related to the progress of civilization, and the factor whose influence has been most felt in this field is the steam locomotive. Sir Isaac Newton in 1680 proposed a steam carriage propelled by the reaction of a jet of steam. Dr. Robinson in 1759 suggested the steam carriage to Watt. Cugnot in 1769 built a steam carriage. Symington, in 1770, and Murdock, in 1784, built working models, and in 1790 Nathan Read also made experiments in steam transportation, but the Nineteenth Century dawned without any other results than a few abandoned experiments, and the criticism and disappointment of the inventors in this field.