1 868. An attempt in 1890 to establish a works for the construction 

 of the Strong patent locomotive was unsuccessful. 



Still, traces of its locomotive industry are not entirely absent in 

 present-day Cincinnati. In December 1961 I visited Cincinnati in 

 search of any remains of the Niles or Harkness plants. No trace 

 of the former could be found; however, at 506 East Front Street 

 stands an antique brick structure now occupied by the Reliance 

 Foundry Company. While I could not say with complete assurance 

 that the building is the original Harkness foundry, its general 

 appearance is nearly identical to the building shown in the 1848 

 daguerrotype (fig. 8). I was told by an officer of the Reliance firm 

 that the present company took over the works in about 1921 and 

 that two foundries had previously occupied the same buildings. 

 To the best of his knowledge the buildings had always been a foundry. 

 Apparently, then, a foundry business has been in continuous or 

 nearly continuous operation on this site since Anthony Harkness 

 opened his firm in 1828. 



The preparation of the history of technological subjects is fre- 

 quently made difficult by the fragmentary and often contradictory 

 information available. Rarely do the records of engineers or com- 

 mercial enterprises survive. This is certainly the case with the 

 Cincinnati locomotive industry. Although I was able to find a sur- 

 prising amount of manuscript material, it was necessary to depend, 

 in greater degree than is desirable, on newspapers and the technical 

 press. There was little choice, however, since the companies in- 

 volved have been out of business for nearly a century and their 

 records lost or destroyed many years ago. 



This work would have been impossible without the encourage- 

 ment and assistance of a number of persons. My first thanks must 

 go to Thomas Norrell, whose precise and wide knowledge of loco- 

 motive builders was invaluable in the preparation of this study. 

 Others who generously provided information or illustrations were 

 Harry Eddy and John McCloud of the Bureau of Railway Economics 

 Library; Mrs. Alice P. Hook of the Historical and Philosophical 

 Society of Ohio; Charles E. Fisher of the Railway and Locomotive 

 Historical Society; and L. W. Sagle and M. D. Thornburg of the 

 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. My thanks also to the following 

 institutions and their staffs: Cincinnati Public Library, Connecticut 

 Historical Society, Ohio Historical Society, American Philosophical 



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