
Figure 29.—Tue Pennsylvania WAS THE LARGEST STEAM LOCOMOTIVE IN THE WORLD when constructed by 
Millholland in 1863; this 50-ton locomotive was in service until 1885. One pair of driving wheels was 
removed in 1870. 
fireboxes. These were pronounced superior to any 
other coal burners tested on that road and were said 
to have saved 7 cents a mile over the road’s wood 
burners.*®? The Erie purchased a large number of 
Mogul freight locomotives between 1862 and 1865, 
all of which were built with Millholland fireboxes. 
The New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Com- 
pany also acquired three engines similarly equipped. 
The Lancaster Locomotive Works in 1865 advertised 
that it would build locomotives with the **. . . cele- 
brated coal burning boiler of Mr. James Millhol- 
land.” *° Probably the most impressive testament to 
Millholland was the trial of his firebox by the Paris 
and Orleans Railway.** Millholland sent his chief 
assistant Levi B. Paxson to France to supervise the 
reconstruction of the French engines. 
Incidental to the use of the boiler by other com- 
panies was Millholland’s injector for supplying water 
to boilers. The injector had been invented by Henri 
Giffard of France and was introduced in this country 
35 American Railway Review (February 28, 1861), vol. 4, p. 118. 
38 American Railroad Journal (August 12, 1865), vol. 18, p. 774. 
37 Engineer (February 8, 1861), vol. 11, p. 92. 
PAPER 69: JAMES MILLHOLLAND AND EARLY RAILROAD ENGINEERING 
about 1860.°° While most master mechanics agreed 
that feedwater pumps were troublesome, early in- 
jectors were expensive and unreliable. Millholland 
sought to remedy these complaints with a simplified 
design. In his patent specification (No. 35,575) of 
June 10, 1862, the inventor claimed his injector could 
be made at }soth the cost of an equal Giffard injector. 
Millholland’s son James carried the argument even 
further by stating that an injector made by his father 
for $4 was equal to a $180 Giffard injector.*? The 
actual cost and success of Millholland’s injector 
remains a question, but the Reading was one of the 
first railroads to use injectors on its locomotives. The 
device did not gain universal acceptance in loco- 
motives, however, for another 20 years. 
In March 1863 Millholland completed a large 10- 
wheel freight locomotive called the Nevada. This 
machine was the first of the Reading’s famous Gun- 
boat class, of which 134 were constructed. The 
design was so sound that it was still being used many 
38 For a survey history of the injector, see FRANK A. TAYLOR, 
A Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering 
(U.S. National Museum Bulletin 173, 1939), pp. 125-133. 
39 Letter from James A. Millholland to J. E. Watkins of the 
Smithsonian Institution, May 18, 1888. 
31 
