A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine

by Robert Henry Thurston

The success of the railroad and the locomotive in Great Britain led to its rapid introduction in other countries. In France, as early as 1823, M. Beaunier was authorized to construct a line of rails from the coal-mines of St. Étienne to the Loire, using horses for the traction of his trains; and in 1826, MM. Seguin began a road from St. Étienne to Lyons. In 1832, engines built at Lyons were substituted for horses on these roads, but internal agitations interrupted the progress of the new system in France, and, for 10 years after the opening of the Manchester & Liverpool road, France remained without steam-transportation on land.

In Belgium the introduction of the locomotive was more promptly accomplished. Under the direction of Pierre Simon, an enterprising and well-informed young engineer, who had become known principally as an advocate of the even then familiar project of a canal across the Isthmus of Darien, very complete plans of railroad communication for the kingdom were prepared, in compliance with a decree dated July 31, 1834, and were promptly authorized. The road between Brussels and Mechlin was opened May 6, 1837, and other roads were soon built; and the railway system of Belgium was the first on the Continent of Europe.

The first German railroad worked with locomotive steam-engines was that between Nuremberg and Fürth, built under the direction of M. Denis. The other European countries soon followed in this rapid march of improvement.

In the United States, public attention had been directed to this subject, as has already been stated, very early in the present century, by Evans and Stevens. At that time the people of the United States, as was natural, closely watched every important series of events in the mother-country; and so remarkable and striking a change as that which was taking place in the time of Stephenson, in methods of communication and transportation, could not fail to attract general attention and awaken universal interest.

Notwithstanding the success of the early experiments of Evans and others, and in spite of the statesmanlike arguments of Stevens and Dearborn, and the earnest advocacy of the plan by all who were familiar with the revelations which were daily made of the power and capabilities of the steam-engine, it was not until after the opening of the Manchester & Liverpool road that any action was taken looking to the introduction of the locomotive. Colonel John Stevens, in 1825, had built a small locomotive, which he had placed on a circular railway before his house—now Hudson Terrace—at Hoboken, to prove that his statements had a basis of fact. This engine had two “lantern” tubular boilers, each composed of small iron tubes, arranged vertically in circles about the furnaces.[55] This exhibition had no other effect, however, than to create some interest in the subject, which aided in securing a rapid adoption of the railroad when once introduced.

The first line of rails in the New England States is said to have been laid down at Quincy, Mass., from the granite quarry to the Neponset River, three miles away, in 1826 and 1827. That between the coal-mines of Mauch Chunk, Pa., and the river Lehigh, nine miles distant, was built in 1827. In the following year the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company built a railroad from their mines to the termination of the canal at Honesdale. These roads were worked either by gravity or by horses and mules.

The competition at Rainhill, on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, had been so widely advertised, and promised to afford such conclusive evidence relative to the value of the locomotive steam-engine and the railroad, that engineers and others interested in the subject came from all parts of the world to witness the trial. Among the strangers present were Mr. Horatio Allen, then chief-engineer of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, and Mr. E. L. Miller, a resident of Charleston, S. C., who went from the United States for the express purpose of seeing the new machines tested.

Mr. Allen had been authorized to purchase, for the company with which he was connected, three locomotives and the iron for the road, and had already shipped one engine to the United States, and had set it at work on the road. This engine was received in New York in May, 1829, and its trial took place in August at Honesdale, Mr. Allen himself driving the engine. But the track proved too light for the locomotive, and it was laid up and never set at regular work. This engine was called the “Stourbridge Lion”; it was built by Foster, Rastrick & Co., of Stourbridge, England. During the summer of the next year, a small experimental engine, which was built in 1829 by Peter Cooper, of New York, was successfully tried on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, at Baltimore, making 13 miles in less than an hour, and moving, at some points on the road, at the rate of 18 miles an hour. One carriage carrying 36 passengers was attached. This was considered a working-model only, and was rated at one horse-power.

Ross Winans, writing of this trial of Cooper’s engine, makes a comparison with the work done by Stephenson’s “Rocket,” and claims a decided superiority for the former. He concluded that the trial established fully the practicability of using locomotives on the Baltimore & Ohio road at high speeds, and on all its curves and heavy gradients, without inconvenience or danger.

This engine had a vertical tubular boiler, and the draught was urged, like that of the “Novelty” at Liverpool, by mechanical means—a revolving fan. The single steam-cylinder was 31∕4 inches in diameter, and the stroke of piston 141∕2 inches. The wheels were 30 inches in diameter, and connected to the crank-shaft by gearing. The engine, on the trial, worked up to 1.43 horse-power, and drew a gross weight of 41∕2 tons. Mr. Cooper, unable to find such tubes as he needed for his boiler, used gun-barrels. The whole machine weighed less than a ton.