Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 262, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1915 — AS THE WORLD MOVES [ARTICLE]

AS THE WORLD MOVES

ADVANCE OF RAILROADING IN ONE CENTURY. Something Very Close to Perfection Has Been Reached in the Compaq atively Short Time of a Hundred Years. One hundred years ago the first locomotive in the world to successfully haul a load of freight upon rails made its maiden trip. Invented by George Stephenson, the “father of locomotives,” it made its first run at Killingworth colliery in England. It had so many rods strapped to its boiler that it had the appearance of a huge grasshopper. It weighed about six tons. A pair of “walking-beams,” resembling those of a modern side-wheel steamer, turned the four wheels. There being no cab, the engineer had to stand while the engine was in operation. It pulled eight loaded cars, which aggregated a weight of 30 tons, up a track that had a grade of one foot in an eighth of a mile. The test was a “grand” success, the engine running about six miles an hour. The first locomotive to draw a train of cars in the United States made its experimental trip in the Lackawanna coal district fifteen years later. This locomotive also was the product of Stephenson. It was called the Stourbridge Lion, after the place of its manufacture" in England. Its American engineer, Horatio Allen, ran the engine over a track of hemlock rails for a preliminary test. Then he invited any gentleman in the gathering of spectators to accompany him. His invitation was not only refused, but he was urged to give up his foolhardy ambition. Laughing at his advisers, he pulled the throttle wide and “dashed” away at ten miles an hour. , Today more than 65,000 locomotives are in motion over the 250,000 miles of trackage in the United States. They consume about 150,000,000 tons of coal, and carry more than 1,000,000,000 passengers and 1,800,000,000 tons of freight annually. After adopting the English-born child of civilization, the United States took the lead in its development and application, until today it stands as the world’s greatest manufacturer of locomotives. Besides making enough to meet the domestic demand, the American manufacturers are shipping locomotives abroad at the rate of a dozen a week to South America and Africa; they are disturbing the calm of the Orient, and are dashing from one end of Europe to the other, and have invaded the land of the locomotive’s birth, England. Like the steamship, the locomotive is growing larger and more powerful every year. The largest reported to be in use today is a huge compound engine, which measures 120 .feet over all, and weighs 850,000 pounds. It is an oil-burher and carries 4,000 gallons of oil and 12,000 gallons of water. It cost $43,830 to build. These giants have reached a point where onh locomotive is so long that it is hinged in the middle with a flexible joint so that it can turn a curve without upsetting. Thus the locomotive has become the modern Atlaa that carries the burden of the world’s trade and population across the continents.