A description of the Best Friend by David Matthew, who in 

 1830 had been foreman of the West Point Foundry Associa- 

 tion, is contained in a letter he wrote in 1859 to the historian 

 William H. Brown. Later quoted by Brown in his "History 

 of the First Locomotives in America," the letter says in part: 

 The Best Friend was a four-wheel engine, all four wheels drivers. 

 Two inclined cylinders at an angle, working down on a double 

 crank, inside of the frame, with the wheels outside of the frame, 

 each wheel connecting together outside, with outside rods. The 

 wheels were iron hub, wooden spokes and felloes, with iron tire, 

 and iron web and pins in the wheels to connect the outside rods to. 

 The boiler was a vertical one, in form of an old-fashioned 

 porter-bottle, the furnace at the bottom surrounded with water, 

 and all filled inside full of what we called teats, running out from 

 the sides and top, with alternate stays to support the crown of the 

 furnace; the smoke and gas passing out through the sides at 

 several points, into an outside jacket; which had the chimney on 

 it. The boiler sat on a frame upon four wheels, with the connect- 

 ing-rods running by it to come into the crankshaft. The cylinders 

 were about six inches in the bore, and sixteen inches' stroke. 

 Wheels about four and a half feet in diameter. The whole machine 

 weighed about four and a half tons. 



Figure 1 9. — In 1 833 the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road was the longest 

 continuous railroad in the world. 



28 



