THE GROWTH OF THE STEAM-ENGINE. 



269 



Four engines competed, and the "Rocket," built by Stephenson, 

 received the prize. 



63. This engine (Fig. 33) weighed four and one-fourth tons, with 

 its supply of water. Its boiler was of the fire-tubular form, a form 



Fig. 32. Stockton & Darlington Engine No. 1, 1825. 



that had grown into shape in the hands of several inventors, 1 and was 

 three feet in diameter, six feet long, with twenty-five three-inch tubes, 

 extending from end to end of the boiler. The steam-blast was care- 

 fully adjusted by experiment, to give the best effect. Steam-pressure 

 was carried at fifty pounds per square inch. 



The average speed of the 

 Rocket on its trial was fifteen 

 miles per hour, and its maxi- 

 mum was nearly double that, 

 twenty-nine miles an hour; 

 and afterward, running alone, 

 it reached a speed of thirty- 

 five miles. 



The shares of the com- 

 pany immediately rose ten 

 per cent, in value. Thus the 

 combination of the non-con- 

 densing engine with a steam- 

 blast and the multitubular 

 boiler, designed by the clear 

 head and constructed under 

 the watchful eye of an ac- 

 complished engineer and mechanic, made steam-locomotion so evident 

 and decided a success that thenceforward its progress has been un- 

 interrupted and wonderfully rapid. 



1 Barlow and Fulton, 1795; Nathan Read, Salem, United States, 1796; Booth, of Eng- 

 land, and Seguin, of France, about 1827 or 1828. 



Fig. 33. The Rocket, 1829. 



