Figure 59. — Detail of Philadelphia 

 and Columbia Railroad's "Clarence" 

 rail. The rail was secured by wedges to 

 cast-iron chairs, which in turn were 

 fastened to stone blocks. The blocks 

 were laid in a carefully prepared rock- 

 filled trench. Stone blocks were 

 spaced more closely than indicated in 

 this sketch, however. Compare with 

 figure 63. 





Schuylkill and walked to the head of the inclined 

 plane, there we found a large collection of citizens 

 who had come in carriages, on foot, and in skiffs by 

 way of the Schuylkill, all greatly interested in work so 

 new to them. Major Wilson, then chief engineer, 

 stood in the center of quite a crowd; he seemed to be 

 a good deal annoyed by the questions he was plied 

 with; many of them no doubt of a character to annoy, 



dent in which a Pennsylvania canal engineer, who was experi- 

 menting with hydraulic cement, was visited by Trautwine and 

 Sellers: "Mr. Trautwine's note-book, which was his constant 

 companion, even during his school-boy days, was out at once, 

 and he eagerly noted all of Mr. Huffnagle's formulas and the 

 results, as far as he had gone with his experiments. It is to 

 this peculiarity of Mr. Trautwine of not allowing anything to 

 escape being fixed in his note-book that the engineers of the 

 present day are indebted for their constant companion, his 

 'Civil Engineer's Pocket-Book,' with its vast stores of useful 

 information on every subject that can possibly come within 

 the range of their profession." American Machinist, (March 14, 

 1885), vol. 8, p. 5. 



183 Sellers's nomenclature is confused. The Stephenson rail 

 was a wrought-iron edge-rail with a fish-belly web. Robert 

 Livingston Stevens (1 787-1856) is credited with designing the 

 T-rail, now the standard section of American railroad rails. 

 The rails actually laid between the Schuylkill River and Broad 

 Street were of the Clarence pattern, in 1831 called "edge rails" 

 by W. H. Wilson. See his manuscript notebook, dated 1831 

 (no pagination), in Pennsylvania Railroad Library, Philadel- 

 phia. Carefully documented and beautifully illustrated, this 

 notebook is a primary source for details of construction of the 

 Philadelphia and Columbia. The Clarence pattern apparently 

 took its name from the Clarence Railway in Durham County, 

 England. 



but the high standing and character of the questioners 

 were such that civil answers must be given. 



While this was going on my attention was called to 

 a group slowly advancing toward us; among them 

 was my father. He and the others seemed much 

 amused at the quaint actions of a respectable farmer, 

 a broad-brimmed and broad-skirted member of the 

 Society of Friends, who was known to be as level 

 headed a man as was to be found. He would go 

 down on one knee, put his head near the ground 

 and look along the line of the road, then he would 

 straighten up, hold his cane, that had a cross-head 

 handle, between his thumb and finger; making the 

 cane a plumb bob, he would look along its cross-head, 

 evidently making his own observations and com- 

 menting on them; which, together with his quick 

 and quaint actions, was the cause of merriment to 

 those with him; when they joined the group around 

 Major Wilson, to whom our Friend was formally 

 introduced, and at once began, "Friend Wilson, I 

 notice that thee has run the road between here and 

 Friend — — 's farm, first to right, then to the left and 

 again to the right and left, much like a long letter S 

 or a dollar mark ($), where the straight lines would 

 be the shortest; what is thy object for doing so?" 



The Major, either knowing or suspecting his 

 questioner to be a farmer, chose in answering him, a 

 familiar illustration. He said, "If you take a potato 

 in your hand in a few minutes you could learn the 

 number of its eyes, and all its lumps and irregularities. 

 Our potato is bigger, but, as engineers, we have to 

 make ourselves as well acquainted with it before we 



149 



