Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1908 — Changes In Locomotives. [ARTICLE]

Changes In Locomotives.

When one looks at the fleet, powerful locomotives of today, one can but smile when he remembers that they are the direct progeny of the little IqcomotiveS that were the astonishment of America 75 years ago, says Leroy Scott In the American Illustrated Magazine. The Best Friend made its trial trips in the autumn months of 1830 on a railroad that ran out of Charleston, S. C. One day, the next year, while the engineer was* attending to some freight (for the engineer Of that time was also the train crew) the fireman, a negro, became annoyed at the buzzling steam that escaped through the safety valve. He first tried to cure the nuisance, by holding the valve down with his hand, but the steam pressure was stronger than his arm. Then he sat down on the lever of the valve. That was better; the steam devil quieted. The negro was content for a few minutes'—then came the explosion, and the negro and the Best Friend were wrecks.