hensive that the wood felloes, subjected to the heat 

 of the tire, after it had shrunk and seated on the iron 

 rims so as to prevent the escape of the gases, would 

 lose their tenacity, in fact, be converted into red 

 charcoal, that I had the core boxes and joints altered, 

 to so narrow the recess for the felloes that the tire 

 would have sufficient bearing on the iron rim, even 

 if the wood was left out; in fact coming to my original 

 proposition of simply recessing; to lessen as much as 

 possible the injurious effects of the confined heated 



gases on the wood, the holes for the tire-fastening 

 bolts were drilled as escape holes. Years afterwards 

 I was shown a section of one of these tires that had 

 been worn and turned down to about %-inch in 

 thickness. 



It showed a very perceptible setting or sinking into 

 the recess; as to the wooden felloes, I was informed 

 that very little of them was left, and what was, was in 

 loose pieces falling about, the greatest bulk having 

 escaped in dust through a bolt hole. [59] 



23. John Brandt, 



Master Mechanic 



Sellers was some 20 years junior to John Brandt, 

 the Lancaster blacksmith who, after a sojourn in 

 Philadelphia, became well known in his day as a 

 builder of locomotives. 



As a partner in Sellers, Brandt, & Company, 

 formed in 1828 to exploit his card machine, 

 Brandt went to live in the "first stone mill put up 

 at Cardington the east end of which was finished 

 as a dwelling for Brandt and his family . . . ." 

 George Escol and his brother Charles boarded 

 with the Brandts while the mill was getting under 

 way. 213 



As related below, Brandt stayed in Philadelphia 

 only about a year. He was with the Philadelphia 

 and Columbia Railroad in the Parkesburg shops 

 from 1833 until 1838, at least. 214 He went from 

 the Philadelphia and Columbia to the New York 

 and Erie Railroad, but the dates are uncertain. 

 In 1854, he was superintendent of the New Jersey 



Locomotive and Machine Company, in Paterson, 

 and while there built locomotives for the Phila- 

 delphia and Columbia, New York Central, and 

 other railroads. 215 In 1857, he was back in 

 Lancaster. According to the Lancaster Whig, 

 the "celebrated locomotive works" of that town 

 were "under the supervision of Mr. J. Brandt, 

 one of the widest known and most successful 

 constructors of engines in this country." 2le 



In the view of the present editor, who is a 

 member of the generation that has seen the 

 passing of the steam locomotive, Mr. Brandt is 

 representative of the hundreds of lesser-known 

 men who helped raise the impressive giants of the 

 rails to their zenith. The boldness and audacity 

 of these men, tempered by a finely developed 

 intuitive sense of fitness, are aspects of the 

 American character that we would do well to 

 hold onto. 



213 Memoirs, book 4, pp. 66-67, ar| d book 1, p. 14. 



214 American Railroad Journal (August 15, 1838), vol. 7, pp. 

 134-136. 



215 American Railroad Journal (January 7, 1854), vol. 27, p. 2. 



216 Quoted in American Railroad Journal (April 4, 1857), vol. 

 30, p. 217. The Lancaster Locomotive Works built some 8 or 



10 locomotives a year from its founding in 1853 to 1857. 

 John Brandt apparently had two sons, John, Jr., and Abe. 

 See M. Luther Heisey, "Locomotives — Made in Lancaster," 

 Papers of the Lancaster County Historical Society (1940), vol. 44, 

 no. 1, pp. 1-10. 



166 



