The locomotive was completed early in the summer of 

 1831 and was shipped from Liverpool on the ship Allegheny, 

 which sailed for Philadelphia on July 14. It had been disas- 

 sembled for shipping, as were most of the early locomotives, 

 and it is interesting to note that the freight charge was only 

 £l9, or a little under $100. The total cost of the locomotive, 

 incidentally, was £784 7s. Od., or a little under $4,000. 



The engine arrived at Philadelphia about the middle of 

 August, and was then transshipped by sloop to Bordentown, 

 near Trenton, whence a few miles of rail were soon to head 

 northeastward toward South Amboy. The mechanics who 

 assembled the locomotive found it a mysterious and com- 

 pletely unfamiliar device. After considerable experimenta- 

 tion the task was successfully accomplished under the leader- 

 ship of Isaac Dripps, a local youth who later rose to a position 

 of importance in the Pennsylvania Railroad. 



In its first test the locomotive was fired up to 30 pounds 

 steam pressure, and Dripps, with Stevens by his side, opened 

 the throttle of the first locomotive of what was to become 

 part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. The engine was dis- 

 assembled for a few minor modifications shortly after this 

 trial, and a few weeks later, on November 12, the official first 

 trip was made. 



The John Bull as it appeared when first placed in service in 

 1831 was described in detail by J. Elfreth Watkins in his 

 "Camden and Amboy Railroad," published in 1891. He 

 wrote: 



The engine originally weighed about ten tons. The boiler was 

 thirteen feet long and three feet six inches in diameter. The cylin- 

 ders were nine inches by twenty inches. There were four driving 

 wheels four feet six inches in diameter, arranged with outside 

 cranks for connecting parallel rods, but owing to the sharp curves 

 on the road these rods were never used. The driving wheels were 

 made with cast-iron hubs and wooden (locust) spokes and felloes. 

 The tires were of wrought iron, three-quarters of an inch thick, 

 the tread being five inches and the depth of flange one and a-half 

 inches. The gauge was originally five feet from center to center of 

 rails. The boiler was composed of sixty-two flues seven feet six 

 inches long, two inches in diameter; the furnace was three feet 

 seven inches long and three feet two inches high, for burning 

 wood. The steam ports were one and one-eighth inches by six and 

 a-half inches; the exhaust ports one and one-eighth by six and 



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