A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine Part 13

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 pa.s.sengers, 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 Hanc.o.c.k 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, man[oe]uvred 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_. _E_ is the feed-pump. The rear axle is turned by the endless chain seen connecting it with the engine-shaft, and the rear wheels, _S_, are thus driven. A blower, _T_, gives a forced draught. The driver sits at _M_, 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, Hanc.o.c.k built a steam "drag" on an Austrian order, which, carrying 10 persons and towing a coach containing 6 pa.s.sengers, 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 pa.s.sengers, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 49.--Hanc.o.c.k's "Autopsy," 1833.]

In 1835 a large carriage, the "Erin," was completed, which was intended to carry 20 pa.s.sengers. It towed three omnibuses and a stage-coach, with 50 pa.s.sengers, on a level road, at the speed of 10 miles an hour. It drew an omnibus with 18 pa.s.sengers 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 stops _en route_ occupied a half-hour. The same carriage made 75 miles to Marlborough in 7-1/2 hours running time, stopping 4-1/2 hours on the road, in consequence of having left the tender and supplies behind.

In May, 1836, Hanc.o.c.k 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, pa.s.sing 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, Hanc.o.c.k built nine steam-carriages, capable of carrying 116 pa.s.sengers in addition to the regular attendants.[47]

[47] For a detailed account of the progress of steam on the highway, _see_ "Steam on Common Roads," etc., by Young, Holley, & Fisher, London, 1861.

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 Hanc.o.c.k, 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 cla.s.ses 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 subst.i.tution 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 r.e.t.a.r.ded by prejudice, adverse interests, and prohibitory tolls; and the committee remark: "When we consider that these trials have been made under the most unfavorable circ.u.mstances, 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 engineers of 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; Hanc.o.c.k 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 24-1/2 miles. Summers had traveled up a hill having a gradient of 1 in 12, with 19 pa.s.sengers, at the rate of speed of 15 miles per hour; he had run 4-1/2 hours 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 pa.s.sengers.

"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 pa.s.sengers.

"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 carriages will 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 the coal 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 f.l.a.n.g.es, like those used to-day. The coned "tread" of the wheel, which prevents wear of f.l.a.n.g.es 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 antic.i.p.ated in the construction of the permanent way, and inventors were gradually preparing, as has been seen, to combine these two princ.i.p.al 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Richard Trevithick.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 50.--Trevithick's Locomotive, 1804.]

RICHARD TREVITHICK was 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 a.s.sistant, 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 the Hornblowers 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-s.p.a.ce 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 at _E_. 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.

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 14-1/2 inches 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, 6-3/4 feet 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 c.o.c.k. The exhaust-steam was carried into the chimney, pa.s.sing through a feed-water heater _en route_. This engine was taken down in 1856.[48]

[48] "Life of Trevithick."

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--one who, in consequence of the un.o.btrusive manner in which his work was done, has never received the full credit to which he is ent.i.tled.

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Colonel John Stevens.]

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 plainly the 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 "Doc.u.ments tending to prove the superior advantages of Railways and Steam-Carriages over Ca.n.a.l-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."

[49] Printed by T. & J. Swords, 160 Pearl Street, New York, 1812.

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 f.l.a.n.g.es 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 proposed roads 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 doc.u.ment 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 a.s.sured 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."

[50] "Progress of the City of New York."

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 and conveyance,' 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 ma.s.ses 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.