CATALOGUE OF THE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING COLLECTION. 93 



Model of Cast Rail, Patented by Losh and George Stephenson of Killings- 

 worth, England, in 1816. 



A half lap joint is used through which a horizontal pin is passed 

 transversely to join the rails together, at the same time fastening 

 them to the cast-iron chair. A large portion of the Stockton and 

 Darlington Railroad was laid with this rail in 1825. 



Cat. No. 180,213 U.S.N.M. 



Early in the eighteenth century inventive genius increased the 

 power of the stationary engine and the efficiency of the steam blast 

 and of the machinery for working and handling iron. The puddling 

 furnace, first used in 1784, was radically improved by Henry Cort 

 about the beginning of the century. He also invented and introduced 

 the rolling mill about the same time, so that it became possible to 

 roll iron rails cheaply. These were at first rolled in lengths of 

 about 12 feet. Models in the collection of the early English rolled 

 rails are : 



Bar Rail Laid in Lord Carlisle's Cluarries, 1811. 



Cat. No. 180,212 U.S.N.M. 



Wrought-iron Edge Rail with Fish-bellied Web. 



Rails used by Stephenson in 1829 in laying the Liverpool & Man- 

 chester Railway. Chairs were used at joints; rails were 15 feet long 

 and supports 3 feet apart ; the weight of rail was 35 pounds a yard. 



Cat. No. 180,216 U.S.N.M. 



THE AMKEICAN KAIL AND TEACK. 



During 1825-27 a few isolated coal tramroads existed in the mining 

 regions in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and in the stone quarries in 

 Massachusetts. These roads were laid with wooden rails, capped 

 with thin merchant bar iron. About this time the Pennsylvania 

 Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvement sent an engineer 

 abroad to examine English railways. The fully illustrated report 

 made by William Strickland, published during the year 1826, shows 

 that rapid advances in track construction had been made in Great 

 Britain during the preceding decade notwithstanding the fact that 

 comparatively few locomotives were at work and only one railway 

 for general traffic had been opened. 



This report, without doubt, contained the most trustworthy in- 

 formation obtainable at that time by American railway projectors. 

 But America presented a very different problem from England to 

 the pioneer railway builders. England was an old country, rich in 

 commerce and foremost in manufactures, of comparatively small 



