In the summer of 1832, an engine built by Messrs. Davis & Gartner, of York, Pa., was put on the Baltimore & Ohio road, which at times attained a speed, unloaded, of 30 miles an hour. The engine weighed 31∕2 tons, and drew, usually, 4 cars, weighing altogether 14 tons, from Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills, a distance of 13 miles, in the schedule-time, one hour.
Horatio Allen’s engine on the South Carolina Railroad is said to have been the first eight-wheeled engine ever built.
It was at about the time of which we are now writing that the first locomotive was built of what is now distinctively known as the American type—an engine with a “truck” or “bogie” under the forward end of the boiler. This was the “American” No. 1, built at the West Point Foundery, from plans furnished by John B. Jervis, Chief Engineer, for the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad. Ross Winans had already (1831) introduced the passenger-car with swiveling trucks.[56] It was completed in August, 1832, and is said by Mr. Matthew to have been an extremely fast and smooth-running engine. A mile a minute was repeatedly attained, and it is stated by the same authority,[57] that a speed of 80 miles an hour was sometimes made over a single mile. This engine had cylinders 91∕2 inches diameter, 16 inches stroke of piston, two pairs of driving-wheels, coupled, 5 feet in diameter each; and the truck had four 33-inch wheels. The boiler contained tubes 3 inches in diameter, and its fire-box was 5 feet long and 2 feet 10 inches wide. Robert Stephenson & Co. subsequently built a similar engine, from the plans of Mr. Jervis, and for the same road. It was set at work in 1833. In both engines the driving-wheels were behind the fire-box. This engine is another illustration of the fact—shown by the description already given of other and earlier engines—that the independence of the American mechanic, and the boldness and self-confidence which have to the present time distinguished him, were among the earliest of the fruits of our political independence and freedom.
These American engines were all designed to burn anthracite coal. The English locomotives all burned bituminous coal.
Fig. 63.—The “Stevens” Rail. Enlarged Section.
Robert L. Stevens, the President and Engineer of the Camden & Amboy Railroad, and a distinguished son of Colonel John Stevens, of Hoboken, was engaged, at the time of the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railroad, in the construction of the Camden & Amboy Railroad. It was here that the first of the now standard form of T-rail was laid down. It was of malleable iron, and of the form shown in the accompanying figure. It was designed by Mr. Stevens, and is known in the United States as the “Stevens” rail. In Europe, where it was introduced some years afterward, it is sometimes called the “Vignolles” rail. He purchased an engine of the Stephensons soon after the trial at Rainhill, and this engine, the “John Bull,” was set up on the then uncompleted road at Bordentown, in the year 1831. Its first public trial was made in November of that year. The road was opened for traffic, from end to end, two years later. This engine had steam-cylinders 9 inches in diameter, 2 feet stroke of piston, one pair of drivers 41∕2 feet in diameter, and weighed 10 tons. This engine, and that built by Phineas Davis for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, were exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in the year 1876.
