Three Grasshoppers 



As a result of the success of Phineas Davis' Tork on the 

 Bahimore and Ohio (see p. 24), about 18 more small loco- 

 motives with vertical boilers were built for the B & O be- 

 tween 1832 and 1837, the first few by Davis- and his partner 

 Israel Gartner," several by Charles Reeder, and the remain- 

 der by George Gillingham and Ross Winans. These ma- 

 chines, with their vertical cylinders and their walking beams, 

 earned the name "grasshopper" because of their peculiar 

 appearance when under way. 



Of the many "grasshoppers" constructed, three have sur- 

 vived. The earliest, the John Quincy Adams, was built in July 

 1835 and is now exhibited in Carillon Park at Dayton, Ohio, 

 where it has been for several years, the gift of the Baltimore 

 and Ohio. The remaining two, the Andrew Jackson and the 

 John Hancock, were built in 1836 and are now housed in the 

 B & O Museum at Baltimore. 



The history of these three locomotives is somewhat com- 

 plicated. All were in use at the Mount Clare station in Balti- 

 more as recently^as 1892, then serving as switching engines. 

 At that time, with a fourth, the Martin Van Buren of 1836, 

 they were retired from active service so they could be 

 modified for the exhibit the B & O was planning for the fol- 

 lowing year at the World's Columbian Exposition. 



As it was the desire of the B & O to show in this exhibit 

 some earlier "grasshoppers," the Andrew Jackson (figure 38) 

 was altered to resemble the first "grasshopper" built. Davis' 

 Atlantic of 1832 (figure 39); while the John Quincy Adams was 

 rebuilt to resemble the Traveller (originally named the Indian 

 C%/^) of 1833. 



The John Hancock, unaltered, was merely renamed the 

 Thomas Jefferson (figure 40), a "grasshopper" of 1835. Why 

 the John Quincy Adams, itself built in 1835, was not used for 



- Davis and Gartner ha\ e an earlier claim to engineering fame, for in conjunction 

 with John Elgar they had constructed in York, in 1825. the first American-built 

 vessel with a metal hull, the sheet-iron steamboat Codorus. 



' Although he spelled hi.s name Gartner, and it appears in that form in the early- 

 annual reports of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Co.. and in all subsequent his- 

 tories of that road, his tombstone (in lot 34. section H of the Prospect Hill Cemetery- 

 in York. Pa.) bears the name in its Anglicized form. Israel Gardner. 



353689 O -56 -4 



47 



