Evans's Non-Condensing EngineFig. 46.—Evans’s Non-condensing Engine, 1800.
Fig. 46.—Evans’s Non-condensing Engine, 1800.
This engine, which he called the “Columbian Engine,” was of a peculiar form, as seen inFig. 46. The beam is supported at one end by a rocking column; at the other, it is attached directly to the piston-rod, while the crank lies beneath the beam, the connecting-rod, 1, being attached to the latter at the extreme end. The head of the piston-rod is compelled to rise and fall in a vertical line by the “Evans’sparallelogram”—a kind of parallel-motion very similar to one of those designed by Watt. In the sketch (Fig. 46), 2 is the crank, 3 the valve-motion, 4 the steam-pipe from the boiler,E, 5 6 7 the feed-pipe leading from the pump,F.Ais the boiler. The flame from the fire on the grate,H, passes under the boiler between brick walls, and back through a central flue to the chimney,I.
Subsequently, Evans continued to extend the applications of his engine and to perfect its details; and, others following in his track, the non-condensing engine is to-day fulfilling the predictions which he made 70 years ago, when he said:
“I have no doubt that my engines will propel boats against the current of the Mississippi, and wagons on turnpike roads, with great profit....”
“The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by steam-engines from one city to another, almost as fast as birds can fly, 15 or 20 miles an hour.... A carriage will start from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup in New York the same day....
“Engines will drive boats 10 or 12 miles an hour, andthere will be hundreds of steamers running on the Mississippi, as predicted years ago.”[45]
Oruktor AmphibolisFig. 47.—Evans’s “Oruktor Amphibolis,” 1804.
Fig. 47.—Evans’s “Oruktor Amphibolis,” 1804.
In 1804, Evans applied one of his engines in the transportation of a large flat-bottomed craft, built on an order of the Board of Health of Philadelphia, for use in clearing some of the docks along the water-front of the city. Mounting it on wheels, he placed in it one of his 5-horse power engines, and named the odd machine (Fig. 47) “Oruktor Amphibolis.” This steam dredging-machine, weighing about 40,000 pounds, was then propelled very slowly from the works, up Market Street, around to the Water-Works, and then launched into the Schuylkill. The engine was then applied to the paddle-wheel at the stern, and drove the craft down the river to its confluence with the Delaware.
In September of the same year, Evans laid before the Lancaster Turnpike Company a statement of the estimated expenses and profits of steam-transportation on the common road, assuming the size of the carriage used to be sufficient for transporting 100 barrels of flour 50 miles in 24 hours,and placed in competition with 10 wagons drawn by 5 horses each.
In thesketchabove given of the “Oruktor Amphibolis,” the engine is seen to resemble that previously described. The wheel,A, is driven by a rod depending from the end of a beam,B′ B, the other end of which is supported atEby the frame,E F G. The body of the machine is carried on wheels,K K, driven by belts,M M, from the pulley on the shaft carryingA. The paddle-wheel is seen atW. Evans had some time previously sent Joseph Sampson to England with copies of his plans, and by him they were shown to Trevithick, Vivian, and other British engineers.
Among other devices, the now familiar Cornish boiler, having a single internal flue, and the Lancashire boiler, having a pair of internal flues, were planned and used by Evans.
At about the time that he was engaged on his steam dredging-machine, Evans communicated with Messrs. McKeever & Valcourt, who contracted with him to build an engine for a steam-vessel to ply between New Orleans and Natchez on the Mississippi, the hull of the vessel to be built on the river, and the machinery to be sent to the first-named city to be set up in the boat. Financial difficulties and low water combined to prevent the completion of the steamer, and the engine was set at work driving a saw-mill, where, until the mill was destroyed by fire, it sawed lumber at the rate of 250 feet of boards per hour.
Evans never succeeded in accomplishing in America as great a success as had rewarded Watt in Great Britain; but he continued to build steam-engines to the end of his life, April 19, 1819, and was succeeded by his sons-in-law, James Rush and David Muhlenberg.
He exhibited equal intelligence and ingenuity in perfecting the processes of milling, and in effecting improvements in his own business, that of the millwright. When but twenty-four years old, he invented a machine for makingthe wire teeth used in cotton and woolen cards, turning them out at the rate of 3,000 per minute. A little later he invented a card-setting machine, which cut the wire from the reel, bent the teeth, and inserted them. In milling, he invented a whole series of machines and attachments, including the elevator, the “conveyor,” the “hopper-box,” the “drill,” and the “descender,” and enabled the miller to make finer flour, gaining over 20 pounds to the barrel, and to do this at half the former cost of attendance. The introduction of his improvements into Ellicott’s mills, near Baltimore, where 325 barrels of flour were made per day, was calculated to have saved nearly $5,000 per year in cost of labor, and over $30,000 by increasing the production. He wrote “The Young Steam-Engineer’s Guide,” and a work which remained standard many years after his death, “The Young Millwright’s Guide.” Less fortunate than his transatlantic rival, he was nevertheless equally deserving of fame. He has sometimes been called “The Watt of America.”
The application of steam to locomotion on the common road was much more successful in Great Britain than in the United States. As early as 1786, William Symmington, subsequently more successful in his efforts to introduce steam for marine propulsion, assisted by his father, made a working model of a steam-carriage, which did not, however, lead to important results.
In 1802, Richard Trevithick, a pupil of Murdoch’s, who afterward became well known in connection with the introduction of railroads, made a model steam-carriage, which was patented in the same year. The model may still be seen in the Patent Museum at South Kensington.[46]
In this engine, high-pressure steam was employed, and the condenser was dispensed with. The boiler was of the form devised by Evans, and was subsequently generallyused in Cornwall, where it was called the “Trevithick Boiler.” The engine had but one cylinder, and the piston-rod drove a “cross-tail,” working in guides, which was connected with a “cross-head” on the opposite side of the shaft by two “side-rods.” The connecting-rod was attached to the cross-head and the crank, “returning” toward the cylinder as the shaft lay between the latter and the cross-head. This was probably the first example of the now common “return connecting-rod engine.” The connection between the crank-shaft and the wheels of the carriage was effected by gearing. The valve-gear and the feed-pumps were worked from the engine-shaft. The inventor proposed to secure his wheels against slipping by projecting bolts, when necessary, through the rim of the wheel into the ground. The first carriage of full size was built by Trevithick and Vivian at Camborne, in 1803, and, after trial, was taken to London, where it was exhibited to the public.En route, it was driven by its own engines to Plymouth, 90 miles from Camborne, and then shipped by water. It is not known whether the inventor lost faith in his invention; but he very soon dismantled the machine, sold the engine and carriage separately, and returned to Cornwall, where he soon began work on a railroad-locomotive.
In 1821, Julius Griffiths, of Brompton, Middlesex, England, patented a steam-carriage for the transportation of passengers on the highway. His first road-locomotive was built in the same year by Joseph Bramah, one of the ablest mechanics of his time. The frame of the carriage carried a large double coach-body between the two axles, and the machinery was mounted over and behind the rear axle. One man was stationed on a rear platform, to manage the engine and to attend to the fire, and another, stationed in front of the body of the coach, handled the steering-wheel. The boiler was composed of horizontal water-tubes and steam-tubes, the latter being so situated as to receive heat from the furnace-gasesen routeto the chimney, and thus toact as a superheater. The wheels were driven, by means of intermediate gearing, by two steam-engines, which, with their attachments, were suspended on helical springs, to prevent injury by jars and shocks. An air-surface condenser was used, consisting of flattened thin metal tubes, cooled by the contact of the external air, and discharging the water of condensation, as it accumulated within them, into a feed-pump, which, in turn, forced it into the lowest row of tubes in the boiler.
The boiler did not prove large enough for continuous work; but the carriage was used experimentally, now and then, for a number of years.
During the succeeding ten years the adaptation of the steam-engine to land-transportation continued to attract more and more attention, and experimental road-engines were built with steadily-increasing frequency. The defects of these engines revealing themselves on trial, they were one by one remedied, and the road-locomotive gradually assumed a shape which was mechanically satisfactory. Their final introduction into general use seemed at one time only a matter of time; their non-success was due to causes over which the legislator and the general public, and not the engineer, had control, as well as to the development of steam-transportation on a rival plan.
In 1822, David Gordon patented a road-engine, but it is not known whether it was ever built. At about the same time, Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney, who subsequently took an active part in their introduction, stated, in his lectures, that “elementary power is capable of being applied to propel carriages along common roads with great political advantage, and the floating knowledge of the day places the object within reach.” He made an ammonia-engine—probably the first ever made—and worked it so successfully, that he made use of it in driving a little locomotive.
Two years later, Gordon patented a curious arrangement, which, however, had been proposed twelve years earlier byBrunton, and was again proposed afterward by Gurney, and others. This consisted in fitting to the engine a set of jointed legs, imitating, as nearly as the inventor could make them, the action of a horse’s legs and feet. Such an arrangement was actually experimented with until it was found that they could not be made to work satisfactorily, when it was also found that they were not needed.
During the same season, Burstall & Hill made a steam-carriage, and made many unsuccessful attempts to introduce their plan. The engine used was like that of Evans, except that the steam-cylinder was placed at the end of the beam, and the crank-shaft under the middle. The front and rear wheels were connected by a longitudinal shaft and bevel gearing. The boiler was found to have the usual defect, and would only supply steam for a speed of three or four miles an hour. The result was a costly failure. W. H. James, of London, in 1824-’25, proposed several devices for placing the working parts, as well as the body of the carriage, on springs, without interfering with their operation, and the Messrs. Seaward patented similar devices. Samuel Brown, in 1826, introduced a gas-engine, in which the piston was driven by the pressure produced by the combustion of gas, and a vacuum was secured by the condensation of the resulting vapor. Brown built a locomotive which he propelled by this engine. He ascended Shooter’s Hill, near London, and the principal cause of his ultimate failure seems to have been the cost of operating the engine.
From this date forward, during several years, a number of inventors and mechanics seem to have devoted their whole time to this promising scheme. Among them, Burstall & Hill, Gurney, Ogle & Summers, Sir Charles Dance, and Walter Hancock, were most successful.
Gurney, in the year 1827, built a steam-carriage, which he kept at work nearly two years in and about London, and sometimes making long journeys. On one occasion he made the journey from Meksham to Cranford Bridge, a distanceof 85 miles, in 10 hours, including all stops. He used the mechanical legs previously adopted by Brunton and by Gordon, but omitted this rude device in those engines subsequently built.
Gurney’s engine of 1828 is of interest to the engineer as exhibiting a very excellent arrangement of machinery, and as having one of the earliest of “sectional boilers.” The latter was of peculiar form, and differed greatly in design from the sectional boiler invented a quarter of a century earlier by John Stevens, in the United States.
Gurney's Steam-CarriageFig. 48.—Gurney’s Steam-Carriage.Large scale image(241 kB).
Fig. 48.—Gurney’s Steam-Carriage.
Large scale image(241 kB).
In the sketch (Fig. 48) this boiler is seen at the right. It was composed of bent◁-shaped tubes,a a, connected to two cylinders,b b, the upper one of which was a steam-chamber. Vertical tubes connected these two chambers, and permitted a complete and regular circulation of the water. A separate reservoir, called a separator,d, was connected with these chambers by pipes, as shown. From the top of this separator a steam-pipe,e e e, conveyed steam to the engine-cylinders atf. The cranks,g, on the rear axle were turned by the engines, and the eccentric,h, on the axle drove the valve-gearing and the valve,i. The link,k l, being moved by a line,l l, led from the driver’s seat, the carriage was started, stopped, or reversed, by throwing the upper endof the link into gear with the valve-stem, by setting the link midway between its upper and lower positions, or by raising it until the lower end, coming into action on the valve-stem, produced a reverse motion of the valve. The pin on which this link vibrated is seen at the centre of its elliptical strap. The throttle-valve,o, by which the supply of steam to the engine was adjusted, was worked by the lever,n. The exhaust-pipe,p, led to the tank,q, and the uncondensed vapor passed to the chimney,s s, by the pipe,r r. The force-pump,u, taking feed-water from the tank,t, supplied it to the boiler by the pipe,x x x, which,en route, was coiled up to form a “heater” directly above the boiler. The supply was regulated by the cock,y. The attendant had a seat atz. A blast-apparatus, 1, was driven by an independent engine, 2 3, and produced a forced blast, which was led to the boiler-furnace through the air-duct, 5 5; 4 4 represents the steam-pipe to the little blowing-engine. The steering-wheel, 6, was directed by a lever, 7, and the change of direction of the perch, 8, which turned about a king-bolt at 9, gave the desired direction to the forward wheels and to the carriage.
This seems to have been one of the best designs brought out at that time. The boiler, built to carry 70 pounds, was safe and strong, and was tested up to 800 pounds pressure. A forced draught was provided. The engines were well placed, and of good design. The valve was arranged to work the steam with expansion from half-stroke. The feed-water was heated, and the steam slightly superheated. The boiler here used has been since reproduced under new names by later inventors, and is still used with satisfactory results. Modifications of the “pipe-boiler” were made by several other makers of steam-carriages also. Anderson & James made their boilers of lap-welded iron tubes of one inch internal diameter and one-fifth inch thick, and claimed for them perfect safety. Such tubes should have sufficient strength to sustain a pressure of 20,000 pounds per squareinch. If made of such good iron as the makers claimed to have put into them, “which worked like lead,” they would, as was also claimed, when ruptured, open by tearing, and discharge their contents without producing the usual disastrous consequences of boiler explosions.
The primary principle of the sectional boiler was then well understood. The boilers of Ogle & Summers were made up of pairs of upright tubes, set one within the other, the intervening space being filled with water and steam, and the flame passing through the inner and around the outer tube of each pair.
One of the engines of Sir James Anderson and W. H. James was built in 1829. It had two 31∕2-inch steam-cylinders, driving the rear wheels independently. In James’s earlier plan of 1824-’25, a pair of cylinders was attached to each of the two halves into which the rear axle was divided, and were arranged to drive cranks set at right-angles with each other. The later machine weighed 3 tons, and carried 15 passengers, on a rough graveled road across the Epping Forest, at the rate of from 12 to 15 miles per hour. Steam was carried at 300 pounds. Several tubes gave way in the welds, but the carriage returned, carrying 24 passengers at the rate of 7 miles per hour. On a later trial, with new boilers, the carriage again made 15 miles per hour. It was, however, subject to frequent accidents, and was finally withdrawn.
Walter Hancockwas the most successful and persevering of all those who attempted the introduction of steam on the common road. He had, in 1827, patented a boiler of such peculiar form, that it deserves description. It consisted of a collection of flat chambers, of which the walls were of boiler-plate. These chambers were arranged side by side, and connected laterally by tubes and stays, and all were connected by short vertical tubes to a horizontal large pipe placed across the top of the boiler-casing, and serving as a steam-drum or separator. This earliest of “sheet flue-boilers”did excellent service on Hancock’s steam-carriages, where experience showed that there was little or no danger of disruptive explosions.
Hancock’s first steam-carriage was mounted on three wheels, the leading-wheel arranged to swivel on a king-bolt, and driven by a pair of oscillating cylinders connected with its axle, which was “cranked” for the purpose. The engines turned with the steering-wheel. This carriage was by no means satisfactory, but it was used for a long time, and traveled many hundreds of miles without once failing to do the work assigned it.
By this time there were a half-dozen steam-carriages under construction for Hancock, for Ogle & Summers, and for Sir Charles Dance.
In 1831, Hancock placed a new carriage on a route between London and Stratford, where it ran regularly for hire. Dance, in the same season, started another on the line between Cheltenham and Gloucester, where it ran from February 21st to June 22d, traveling 3,500 miles and carrying 3,000 passengers, running the 9 miles in 55 minutes usually, and sometimes in three-quarters of an hour, and never meeting with an accident, except the breakage of an axle in running over heaps of stones which had been purposely placed on the road by enemies of the new system of transportation. Ogle & Summers’s carriage attained a speed, as testified by Ogle before a committee of the House of Commons, of from 32 to 35 miles an hour, and on a rising grade, near Southampton, at 241∕2miles per hour. They carried 250 pounds of steam, ran 800 miles, and met with no accident. Colonel Macerone, in 1833, ran a steam-carriage of his own design from London to Windsor and back, with 11 passengers, a distance of 231∕2miles, in 2 hours. Sir Charles Dance, in the same year, ran his carriage 16 miles an hour, and made long excursions at the rate of 9 miles an hour. Still another experimenter, Heaton, ascended Lickey Hill, between Worcester and Birmingham, on gradients ofone in eight and one in nine, in places; this was considered one of the worst pieces of road in England. The carriage towed a coach containing 20 passengers.
Of all these, and many others, Hancock, however, had most marked success. His coach, called the “Infant,” which was set at work in February, 1831, was, a year later, plying between London “City” and Paddington. Another, called the “Era,” was built for the London and Greenwich Steam-Carriage Company, which was mechanically a success. The company, however, was financially unsuccessful. In October, 1832, the “Infant” ran to Brighton from London, carrying a party of 11, at the rate of 9 miles per hour, ascending Redhill at a speed of 5 miles. They steamed 38 miles the first day, stopping at night at Hazledean, and reached Brighton next day, running 11 miles per hour. Returning with 15 passengers, the coach ran 1 mile in less than 4 minutes, and made 10 miles in 55 minutes. A run from Stratford to Brighton was made in less than 10 hours, at an average speed of 12 miles an hour running time, the actual running time being less than 6 hours. The next year another carriage, the “Enterprise,” was put on the road to Paddington by Hancock for another company, and ran regularly over two weeks; but this company was also unsuccessful. In the summer of 1833 he brought out still another steam-coach, the “Autopsy” (Fig. 49), which he ran to Brighton, and then, returning to London, manœuvred the carriage in the crowded streets without difficulty or accident. He went about the streets of London at all times, and without hesitation. The coach next ran between Finsbury Square and Pentonville regularly for four weeks, without accident or delay. In the sketch, a part of the side is broken away to show the machinery. The boiler,A B, supplies steam through the steam-pipe,H K, to the steam-engine,C D, which is coupled to the crank-shaft,F.Eis the feed-pump. The rear axle is turned by the endless chain seen connecting it with the engine-shaft, and the rearwheels,S, are thus driven. A blower,T, gives a forced draught. The driver sits atM, steering by the wheel,N, which is coupled to the larger wheel,P, and thus turns the forward axle into any desired position. In 1834, Hancock built a steam “drag” on an Austrian order, which, carrying 10 persons and towing a coach containing 6 passengers, was driven through the city beyond Islington, making 14 miles an hour on a level, and 8 miles or more on rising ground. In the same year he built the “Era,” and, in August, put the “Autopsy” on with it, to make a steam-line to Paddington. These coaches ran until the end of November, carrying 4,000 passengers, at a usual rate of speed of 12 miles per hour. He then sent the “Era” to Dublin, where, on one occasion, it ran 18 miles per hour.
Hancock's AutopsyFig. 49.—Hancock’s “Autopsy,” 1833.
Fig. 49.—Hancock’s “Autopsy,” 1833.
In 1835 a large carriage, the “Erin,” was completed, which was intended to carry 20 passengers. It towed three omnibuses and a stage-coach, with 50 passengers, on a level road, at the speed of 10 miles an hour. It drew an omnibus with 18 passengers through Whitehall, Charing Cross, and Regent Street, and out to Brentford, running 14 miles an hour. It ran also to Reading, making 38 miles, with the same load, in 3 hours and 8 minutes running time. The stopsen routeoccupied a half-hour. The same carriage made 75 miles to Marlborough in 71∕2hours running time,stopping 41∕2hours on the road, in consequence of having left the tender and supplies behind.
In May, 1836, Hancock put all his carriages on the Paddington road, and ran regularly for over five months, running 4,200 miles in 525 trips to Islington, 143 to Paddington, and 44 to Stratford, passing through the city over 200 times. The carriages averaged 5 hours and 17 or 18 minutes daily running time. A light steam-phaeton, built in 1838, for his own use, made 20 miles an hour, and was driven about the city, and among horses and carriages, without causing annoyance or danger. Its usual speed was about 10 miles an hour. Altogether, Hancock built nine steam-carriages, capable of carrying 116 passengers in addition to the regular attendants.[47]
In December, 1833, about 20 steam-carriages and traction road-engines were running, or were in course of construction, in and near London. In our own country, the roughness of roads discouraged inventors; and in Great Britain even, the successful introduction of road-locomotives, which seemed at one time almost an accomplished fact, finally met with so many obstacles, that even Hancock, the most ingenious, persistent, and successful constructor, gave up in despair. Hostile legislation procured by opposing interests, and the rapid progress of steam-locomotion on railroads, caused this result.
In consequence of this interruption of experiment, almost nothing was done during the succeeding quarter of a century, and it is only within a few years that anything like a business success has been founded upon the construction of road-locomotives, although the scheme seems to have been at no time entirely given up.
The opposition of coach-proprietors, and of all classes having an interest in the old lines of coaches, was most determined,and the feeling evinced by them was intensely bitter; but the advocates of the new system of transportation were equally determined and persevering, and, having right on their side, and the pecuniary advantage of the public as their object, they would probably have succeeded ultimately, except for the introduction of the still better method of transportation by rail.
In the summer of 1831, when the war between the two parties was at its height, a committee of the British House of Commons made a very complete investigation of the subject. This committee reported that they had become convinced that “the substitution of inanimate for animal power, in draught on common roads, is one of the most important improvements in the means of internal communication ever introduced.” They considered its practicability to have been “fully established,” and predicted that its introduction would “take place more or less rapidly, in proportion as the attention of scientific men shall be drawn, by public encouragement, to further improvement.” The success of the system had, as they stated, been retarded by prejudice, adverse interests, and prohibitory tolls; and the committee remark: “When we consider that these trials have been made under the most unfavorable circumstances, at great expense, in total uncertainty, without any of those guides which experience has given to other branches of engineering; that those engaged in making them are persons looking solely to their own interests, and not theorists attempting the perfection of ingenious models; when we find them convinced, after long experience, that they are introducing such a mode of conveyance as shall tempt the public, by its superior advantages, from the use of the admirable lines of coaches which have been generally established, it surely cannot be contended that the introduction of steam-carriages on common roads is, as yet, an uncertain experiment, unworthy of legislative attention.”
Farey, one of the most distinguished mechanical engineersof the time, testified that he considered the practicability of such a system as fully established, and that the result would be its general adoption. Gurney had run his carriage between 20 and 30 miles an hour; Hancock could sustain a speed of 10 miles; Ogle had run his coach 32 to 35 miles an hour, and ascended a hill rising 1 in 6 at the speed of 241∕2miles. Summers had traveled up a hill having a gradient of 1 in 12, with 19 passengers, at the rate of speed of 15 miles per hour; he had run 41∕2hours at 30 miles an hour. Farey thought that steam-coaches would be found to cost one-third as much as the stage-coaches in use. The steam-carriages were reported to be safer than those drawn by horses, and far more manageable; and the construction of boilers adopted—the “sectional” boiler, as it is now called—completely insured against injury by explosion, and the dangers and inconveniences arising from the frightening of horses had proved to be largely imaginary. The wear and tear of roads were found to be less than with horses, while with broad wheel-tires the carriages acted beneficially as road-rollers. The committee finally concluded:
“1. That carriages can be propelled by steam on common roads at an average rate of 10 miles per hour.
“2. That at this rate they have conveyed upward of 14 passengers.
“3. That their weight, including engine, fuel, water, and attendants, may be under three tons.
“4. That they can ascend and descend hills of considerable inclination with facility and safety.
“5. That they are perfectly safe for passengers.
“6. That they are not (or need not be, if properly constructed) nuisances to the public.
“7. That they will become a speedier and cheaper mode of conveyance than carriages drawn by horses.
“8. That, as they admit of greater breadth of tire than other carriages, and as the roads are not acted on so injuriously as by the feet of horses in common draught, such carriageswill cause less wear of roads than coaches drawn by horses.
“9. That rates of toll have been imposed on steam-carriages, which would prohibit their being used on several lines of road, were such charges permitted to remain unaltered.”
The Railroad, which now, by the adaptation of steam to the propulsion of its carriages, became the successful rival of the system of transportation of which an account has just been given, was not a new device. It, like all other important changes of method and great inventions, had been growing into form for ages. The ancients were accustomed to lay down blocks of stone as a way upon which their heavily-loaded wagons could be drawn with less resistance than on the common road. This practice was gradually so modified as to result in the adoption of the now universally-practised methods of paving and road-making. The old tracks, bearing the marks of heavy traffic, are still seen in the streets of the unearthed city of Pompeii.
In the early days of mining in Great Britain, the coal or the ore was carried from the mine to the vessel in which it was to be embarked in sacks on the backs of horses. Later, the miners laid out wagon-roads, and used carts and wagons drawn by horses, and the roads were paved with stone along the lines traversed by the wheels of the vehicles. Still later (about 1630), heavy planks or squared timber took the place of the stone, and were introduced into the north of England by a gentleman of the name of Beaumont, who had transferred his property there from the south. A half century later, the system had become generally introduced. By the end of the eighteenth century the construction of these “tram-ways” had become well-understood, and the economy which justified the expenditure of considerable amounts of money in making cuts and in filling, to bring the road to a uniform grade, had become well-recognized. Arthur Young, writing at this time, says thecoal wagon-roads were “great works, carried over all sorts of inequalities of ground, so far as the distance of nine or ten miles,” and that, on these tram-ways of timber, “one horse is able to draw, and that with ease, fifty or sixty bushels of coals.” The wagon-wheels were of cast-iron, and made with grooved rims, which fitted the rounded tops of the wooden rails. But these wooden rails were found subject to rapid decay, and at Whitehaven, in 1738, they were protected from wear by cast-iron plates laid upon them, and this improvement rapidly became known and adopted. A tram-road, laid down at Sheffield for the Duke of Norfolk, in 1776, was made by laying angle-bars of cast-iron on longitudinal sleepers of timber; another, built by William Jessup in Leicestershire, in 1789, had an edge-rail, and the wheels were made with flanges, like those used to-day. The coned “tread” of the wheel, which prevents wear of flanges and reduces resistance, was the invention of James Wright, of Columbia, Pa., 40 years later. The modern railroad was simply the result of this gradual improvement of the permanent way, and the adaptation of the steam-engine to the propulsion of its wagons.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, therefore, the steam-engine had been given a form which permitted its use, and the railroad had been so far perfected that there were no difficulties to be anticipated in the construction of the permanent way, and inventors were gradually preparing, as has been seen, to combine these two principal elements into one system. Railroads had been introduced in all parts of Great Britain, some of them of considerable length, and involving the interests of so many private individuals that they were necessarily constructed under the authorization of legal enactments. In the year 1805 the Merstham Railway was opened to traffic, and it is stated that on that occasion one horse drew a train of 12 wagons, carrying 38 tons of stone, on a “down gradient” of 1 in 120, at the rate of 6 miles per hour.
TrevithickRichard Trevithick.
Richard Trevithick.
Richard Trevithickwas the first engineer to apply steam-power to the haulage of loads on the railroad. Trevithick was a Cornishman by birth, a native of Redruth. He was naturally a skillful mechanic, and was placed by his father with Watt’s assistant, Murdoch, who was superintending the erection of pumping-engines in Cornwall; and from that ingenious and accomplished engineer young Trevithick probably acquired both the skill and the knowledge which, with his native talent, enterprise, and industry, enabled him to accomplish the work which has made him famous. He was soon intrusted with the erection and management of large pumping-engines, and subsequently went into the business of constructing steam-engines with another engineer, Edward Bull, who took an active part, with theHornblowers and others, in opposing the Boulton & Watt patents. The termination of the suits which established the validity of Watt’s patent put an end to their business, and Trevithick looked about for other work, and, not long after, entered into partnership with a relative, Andrew Vivian, who was also a skillful mechanic; they together designed and patented the steam-carriage already referred to. Its success was sufficiently satisfactory to awaken strong confidence of a perfect success on the now common tram-roads; and Trevithick, in February, 1804, had completed a “locomotive” engine to work on the Welsh Pen-y-darran road. This engine (Fig. 50) had a cylindrical flue-boiler,A, like that designed by Oliver Evans, and a single steam-cylinder,B, set vertically into the steam-space of the boiler,and driving the outside cranks,L, on the rear axle of the engine by very long connecting-rods,D, attached to its cross-head atE. The guide-bars,I, were stayed by braces leading to the opposite end of the boiler. No attempt was made to condense the exhaust-steam, which was discharged into the smoke-pipe. The pressure of steam adopted was 40 pounds per square inch; but Trevithick had already made a number of non-condensing engines on which he carried from 50 to 145 pounds pressure.
Trevithick's LocomotiveFig. 50.—Trevithick’s Locomotive, 1804.
Fig. 50.—Trevithick’s Locomotive, 1804.
In the year 1808, Trevithick built a railroad in London, on what was known later as Torrington Square, or Euston Square, and set at work a steam-carriage, which he called “Catch-me-who-can.” This was a very plain and simple machine. The steam-cylinder was set vertically in the after-end of the boiler, and the cross-head was connected to two rods, one on either side, driving the hind pair of wheels. The exhaust-steam entered the chimney, aiding the draught. This engine, weighing about 10 tons, made from 12 to 15 miles an hour on the circular railway in London, and was said by its builder to be capable of making 20 miles an hour. The engine was finally thrown from the track, after some weeks of work, by the breaking of a rail, and, Trevithick’s funds having been expended, it was never replaced. This engine had a steam-cylinder 141∕2inches in diameter, and a stroke of piston of 4 feet. Trevithick used no device to aid the friction of the wheels on the rails in giving pulling-power, and seems to have understood that none was needed. This plan of working a locomotive-engine without such complications as had been proposed by other engineers was, however, subsequently patented, in 1813, by Blackett & Hedley. The latter was at one time Trevithick’s agent, and was director of Wylam Colliery, of which Mr. Blackett was proprietor.
Trevithick applied his high-pressure non-conducting engine not only to locomotives, but to every purpose that opportunity offered him. He put one into the Tredegar Iron-Works,to drive the puddle-train, in 1801. This engine had a steam-cylinder 28 inches in diameter, and 6 feet stroke of piston; a boiler of cast-iron, 63∕4feet in diameter and 20 feet long, with a wrought-iron internal tube, 3 feet in diameter at the furnace-end and 24 inches beyond the furnace. The steam-pressure ranged from 50 to 100 pounds per square inch. The valve was a four-way cock. The exhaust-steam was carried into the chimney, passing through a feed-water heateren route. This engine was taken down in 1856.[48]
In 1803, Trevithick applied his engine to driving rock-drills, and three years later made a large contract with the Trinity Board for dredging in the Thames, and constructed steam dredging-machines for the work, of the form which is still most generally used in Great Britain, although rarely seen in the United States—the “chain-and-bucket dredger.”
A little later, Trevithick was engaged upon the first and unsuccessful attempt to carry a tunnel under the Thames, at London; but no sooner had that costly scheme been given up, than he returned to his favorite pursuits, and continued his work on interrupted schemes for ship-propulsion. Trevithick at last left England, spent some years in South America, and finally returned home and died in extreme poverty, April, 1833, at the age of sixty-two, without having succeeded in accomplishing the general introduction of any of his inventions.
Trevithick was characteristically an inventor of the typical sort. He invented many valuable devices, but brought but few into even experimental use, and reaped little advantage from any of them. He was ingenious, a thorough mechanic, bold, active, and indefatigable; but his lack of persistence made his whole life, as Smiles has said, “but a series of beginnings.”
It is at about this period that we find evidence of the intelligent labors of another of our own countrymen—onewho, in consequence of the unobtrusive manner in which his work was done, has never received the full credit to which he is entitled.
Colonel StevensColonel John Stevens.
Colonel John Stevens.
Colonel John Stevens, of Hoboken, as he is generally called, was born in the city of New York, in 1749; but throughout his business-life he was a resident of New Jersey.
His attention is said to have been first called to the application of steam-power by seeing the experiments of John Fitch with his steamer on the Delaware, and he at once devoted himself to the introduction of steam-navigation with characteristic energy, and with a success that will be indicated when we come to the consideration of that subject.
But this far-sighted engineer and statesman saw plainlythe importance of applying the steam-engine to land-transportation as well as to navigation; and not only that, but he saw with equal distinctness the importance of a well-devised and carefully-prosecuted scheme of internal communication by a complete system of railroads. In 1812 he published a pamphlet containing “Documents tending to prove the superior advantages of Railways and Steam-Carriages over Canal-Navigation.”[49]At this time, the only locomotive in the world was that of Trevithick and Vivian, at Merthyr Tydvil, and the railroad itself had not grown beyond the old wooden tram-roads of the collieries. Yet Colonel Stevens says, in this paper: “I can see nothing to hinder a steam-carriage moving on its ways with a velocity of 100 miles an hour;” adding, in a foot-note: “This astonishing velocity is considered here merely possible. It is probable that it may not, in practise, be convenient to exceed 20 or 30 miles per hour. Actual experiment can only determine this matter, and I should not be surprised at seeing steam-carriages propelled at the rate of 40 or 50 miles an hour.”
At a yet earlier date he had addressed a memoir to the proper authorities, urging his plans for railroads. He proposed rails of timber, protected, when necessary, by iron plates, or to be made wholly of iron; the car-wheels were to be of cast-iron, with inside flanges to keep them on the track. The steam-engine was to be driven by steam of 50 pounds pressure and upward, and to be non-condensing.
Answering the objections of Robert R. Livingston and of the State Commissioners of New York, he goes further into details. He gives 500 to 1,000 pounds as the maximum weight to be placed on each wheel; shows that the trains, or “suits of carriages,” as he calls them, will make their journeys with as much certainty and celerity in the darkest night as in the light of day; shows that the grades of proposedroads would offer but little resistance; and places the whole subject before the public with such accuracy of statement and such evident appreciation of its true value, that every one who reads this remarkable document will agree fully with President Charles King, who said[50]that “whosoever shall attentively read this pamphlet, will perceive that the political, financial, commercial, and military aspects of this great question were all present to Colonel Stevens’s mind, and that he felt that he was fulfilling a patriotic duty when he placed at the disposal of his native country these fruits of his genius. The offering was not then accepted. The ‘Thinker’ was ahead of his age; but it is grateful to know that he lived to see his projects carried out, though not by the Government, and that, before he finally, in 1838, closed his eyes in death, at the great age of eighty-nine, he could justly feel assured that the name of Stevens, in his own person and in that of his sons, was imperishably enrolled among those which a grateful country will cherish.”
Without having made any one superlatively great improvement in the mechanism of the steam-engine, like that which gave Watt his fame—without having the honor even of being the first to propose the propulsion of vessels by the modern steam-engine, or steam-transportation on land—he exhibited a far better knowledge of the science and the art of engineering than any man of his time; and he entertained and urged more advanced opinions and more statesmanlike views in relation to the economical importance of the improvement and the application of the steam-engine, both on land and water, than seem to be attributable to any other leading engineer of that time.
Says Dr. King: “Who can estimate if, at that day, acting upon the well-considered suggestion of President Madison, ‘of the signal advantages to be derived to the United States from a general system of internal communication andconveyance,’ Congress had entertained Colonel Stevens’s proposal, and, after verifying by actual experiment upon a small scale the accuracy of his plan, had organized such a ‘general system of internal communication and conveyance;’ who can begin to estimate the inappreciable benefits that would have resulted therefrom to the comfort, the wealth, the power, and, above all, to the absolutely impregnable union of our great Republic and all its component parts? All this Colonel Stevens embraced in his views, for he was a statesman as well as an experimental philosopher; and whoever shall attentively read his pamphlet, will perceive that the political, financial, commercial, and military aspects of this great question were all present to his mind, and he felt that he was fulfilling a patriotic duty when he placed at the disposal of his native country these fruits of his genius.”
William Hedley, who has already been referred to, seems to have been the first to show, by carefully-conducted experiment, how far the adhesion of the wheels of the locomotive-engine could be relied upon for hauling-power in the transportation of loads.
His employer, Blackett, had applied to Trevithick for a locomotive-engine to haul coal-trains at the Wylam collieries; but Trevithick was unable, or was disinclined, to build him one, and in October, 1812, Hedley was authorized to attempt the construction of an engine. It was at about this time that Blenkinsop (1811) was trying the toothed rail or rack, the Messrs. Chapman (December, 1812) were experimenting with a towing-chain, and (May, 1813) Brunton with movable legs.
Hedley, who had known of the success met with in the experiments of Trevithick with smooth wheels hauling loads of considerable weight, in Cornwall, was confident that equal success might be expected in the north-country, and built a carriage to be moved by men stationed at four handles, by which its wheels were turned.
This carriage was loaded with heavy masses of iron, and attached to trains of coal-wagons on the railway. By repeated experiment, varying the weight of the traction-carriage and the load hauled, Hedley ascertained the proportion of the weight required for adhesion to that of the loads drawn. It was thus conclusively proven that the weight of his proposed locomotive-engine would be sufficient to give the pulling-power necessary for the propulsion of the coal-trains which it was to haul.
When the wheels slipped in consequence of the presence of grease, frost, or moisture on the rail, Hedley proposed to sprinkle ashes on the track, as sand is now distributed from the sand-box of the modern engine. This was in October, 1812.
Hedley now went to work building an engine with smooth wheels, and patented his design March 13, 1813, a month after he had put his engine at work. The locomotive had a cast-iron boiler, and a single steam-cylinder 6 inches in diameter, with a small fly-wheel. This engine had too small a boiler, and he soon after built a larger engine, with a return-flue boiler made of wrought-iron. This hauled 8 loaded coal-wagons 5 miles an hour at first, and a little later 10, doing the work of 10 horses. The steam-pressure was carried at about 50 pounds, and the exhaust, led into the chimney, where the pipe was turned upward, thus secured a blast of considerable intensity in its small chimney. Hedley also contracted the opening of the exhaust-pipe to intensify the blast, and was subjected to some annoyance by proprietors of lands along his railway, who were irritated by the burning of their grass and hedges, which were set on fire by the sparks thrown out of the chimney of the locomotive. The cost of Hedley’s experiment was defrayed by Mr. Blackett.
Subsequently, Hedley mounted his engine on eight wheels, the four-wheeled engines having been frequently stopped by breaking the light rails then in use. Hedley’sengines continued in use at the Wylam collieries many years. The second engine was removed in 1862, and is now preserved at the South Kensington Museum, London.