“THE ROCKET.”
The cylinders were not placed at the top of the boiler, but at the sides in a slanting direction, one end being about level with the boiler roof. They occupied a position mid-way between the old situation upright on the roof and their present position below, or at the lower portion. The pistons acted directly on the driving wheels by means of a connecting rod, and the entire weight of the engine with water supply was but 4½ tons.
On the day of trial only four engines competed. Many had been constructed, but either were not completed in time, or for various reasons could not be exhibited. The famous four were:—The “Novelty” by Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson; The “Rocket” by Messrs. R. Stephenson & Co.; The “Perseverance” by Mr. Burstall; and The “Sanspareil” by Mr. Timothy Hackworth. Each engine seems to have run separately, and the length of the course was two miles. The test was that the engine should run thirty miles, backwards and forwards, on the two mile level course, at not less than ten miles an hour, dragging three times its own weight.
The “Novelty” at first appears to have beaten the “Rocket,” for she ran at times at the rate of twenty-four miles an hour; while the first trip of the “Rocket” covered a dozen miles in fifty-three minutes. The engineers of the “Novelty” used bellows to force the fire, but on the second day these bellows gave way, and the engine could not do its work. The boiler of the “Sanspareil” also showed defects, but Stephenson’s “Rocket” calmly stood the strain. Practicable as usual, Stephenson’s work was as good in its results, nay, even better than before, for he hooked the “Rocket” to a carriage load of thirty people, and rushed them along at the then surprising speed of between twenty-four to thirty miles an hour. Mr. Burstall’s “Perseverance” could not cover more than six miles an hour.
The competitions continued, but the “Novelty,” although running at the rate of twenty-four and even twenty-eight miles an hour, broke down again and yet again; its boiler plates appear to have gone wrong on one occasion; while the “Sanspareil” also failed, and furthermore blew a good deal of its fuel into the air because of the arrangement of its steam-blast.
But the more the “Rocket” was tried, the more practicable and reliable the engine appeared to be. On the 8th of October it gained a speed of 29 miles an hour, its steam pressure being about 50 lbs. to the square inch, and its average speed was fifteen miles an hour—that is, five miles an hour over the conditions required. These results appear to have been accomplished with a weight of waggons of thirteen tons behind it. When detached it ran at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour.
In short, the “Rocket” was the only locomotive which fulfilled all the conditions specified for the competition, and the prize was duly awarded to Stephenson and Booth.
The battle of the locomotive was won. Men could see that the machine was feasible and practicable; that it was a new force with immense possibilities before it.
How have those possibilities been realised?