LOCOMOTIVE INDUSTRY, The Un like many of the great American industries the history of the inception and growth of loco motive engineering in the United States may be clearly traced from the day when the first loco motive was run upon the rails of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Other lines of rails had previously been laid but they had been con structed for special purposes, and it was not until 1828, when both the Baltimore and Ohio and the South Carolina railroads were started, that there was any system constructed with the definite object of conveying both passengers and freight. The first American built loco motive was operated upon the Baltimore and Ohio tracks, and although it was nothing more than the mere working model which was con structed by Peter Cooper in 1829, and was not intended for permanent service, it demonstrated the practicability of the invention so conclu sively as to prove to the world that railway lines might be operated by locomotive power. In fact, it was largely due to this successful demonstration that the road was finally com pleted. If the experiment had failed, the proj ect would have been abandoned.
The Peter Cooper model was a little engine with a single cylinder three and a half inches in diameter, with a boiler that was scarcely larger than that of an ordinary kitchen range, and with tubes that were improvised from gun barrels. In spite of all the crudities in its con struction, however, its trial run was completed so successfully that Peter Cooper, who himself was the engineer, was able to drive his loco motive, which hauled 41 persons, including him self, at a speed of 18 miles an hour. Slight as such speed would seem at the present time, it was a great achievement for those days, when the locomotive was so generally regarded as the dream of an impracticable visionary. Moreover, it meant the beginning of the great development of the American locomotive and engine industry.
The first locomotive to be constructed in the United States for actual work was made in 1830. In 1829, however, Horatio Allen had im ported a locomotive from Stourbridge, England, for the use of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. It was known as the aStourbridge Lion," and was the first areal" locomotive ever used in this country. The first distinctively American locomotive, the °Best Friend," was manufactured to the order of the South Caro lina Railroad by the West Point Foundry. Both of these machines were operated success fully.
It was in 1831 that Matthias W. Baldwin, a manufacturer of bookbinders' tools in Philadel phia, was employed by the proprietors of Peale's Museum, in that city, to construct a model loco motive for exhibition purposes. This was the
time when the public excitement over the Rain hill contests that had been held in England was at its height, and Robert Stephenson's victory with his °Rocket') had made the people very curious to witness the operations of such an engine. To gratify this craving for novelty the museum managers built a circular track, and, upon this, the Baldwin locomotive was operated. His model worked so well that the officials of the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad Company engaged him to construct a larger machine for use upon their lines. This locomotive, which was completed in November 1832, was named °Old Ironsides.° It was a four-wheeled engine, very similar in design to that of the English make, and weighed, when placed on the tracks, a little more than five tons. The rear, or driving wheels, which were 54 inches in diameter, were placed on a crank axle; while the cylinders, which were nine and a half inches in diameter, by 18 stroke, were attached horizontally to the smoke box. The frame was made of wood, while its wheels, which had wooden spokes and rims, were strengthened by the wrought-iron tires and heavy cast-iron hubs. There was no cab, and the tender, which also ran on four wheels, had wooden sides and back to hold the wood that was required for fuel, and an iron tank, used for carrying water. Roughly made as this locomotive would seem if compared to the engines of this day, the speed which it was able to attain, with its train of cars attached, was frequently over 30 miles an hour. In September 1832, the firm of Davis and Gart ner of York, Pa., built three locomotives of the type for the use of the Balti more and Ohio Railroad. They were made from designs prepared by Phineas Davis and Ross Winans, and were so serviceable that several of them were in use for fully 60 years. Thus, step by step, the locomotive industry was developed. By '1834, the building of such en gines had extended to many works in several parts of the country, and such pioneers of railway mechanics as Cooper, Allen, Baldwin, Rogers, Norris, Winans, Campbell and others paved the way for the greater achievements of Mason, Cooke, Milholland, McQueen and Hudson, to say nothing of the countless geniuses whose accomplishments represent the modern development of the art of engine building. In the old days, of course, there was no guide that anybody could follow. There was no such teacher as experience. Moreover as there were fe;ar skilled workmen, and practically no shop facilities, the pioneer locomotive builders labored under difficulties which make their suc cess remarkable as the extraordinary achieve ment of indomitable perseverance.