Figure 69. — Charles and George 

 Escol Sellers's device for "Increasing 

 the adhesion of the Wheels of Loco- 

 motives." A lever arrangement, 

 terminating in the draw bar (G, at 

 right in lower view) has its pivot near 

 the axle of the driving wheels, but 

 neither the drawing nor the specifi- 

 cation is entirely clear. In the words 

 of the patent specification, the load 

 being hauled "shall tend to raise the 

 fore end of the Locomotive in any 

 desired degree, and thus to lessen the 

 pressure upon the fore, and transfer 

 the same to the behind wheels." 

 The draw bar is adjustable up and 

 down to change the leverage. From 

 U.S. patent, May 22, 1835, restored 

 drawing. National Archives photo- 

 graph. 



About this time we had a visit from Mr. Rogers, 228 

 the founder of the Rogers Locomotive Works, of Pater- 

 son, N.J. He was accompanied by Mr. Danforth 229 of 

 the same place. Our business connection with Mr. 

 Rogers was of long standing, having furnished him 

 with card-clothing for cotton machinery. As he ex- 

 pressed a desire to visit our works, I drove him and his 

 friend out to them. The locomotive then in the hands 

 of the painter preparative for delivery, seemed to be 

 the chief attraction, particularly the iron frame, 

 outside connections, and the driving-wheels. The ar- 

 rangement for securing counter-weights was com- 

 mented on by Mr. Rogers, he asking why they were 

 not cast solid with the wheel? During this visit Mr. 

 Rogers said his friends John B. Jervis and Horatio 

 Allen had long been urging him to try his hand at 



228 Thomas Rogers (1792-1856). The Rogers, Ketchum & 

 Grosvrnor Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey, made rail- 

 road car wheels and fittings at this time. See Dictionary of 

 American Biography. A Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor adver- 

 tisement was carried in nearly every issue of vol. 4 of American 

 Railroad Journal (1835). The first Rogers locomotive was 

 completed in 1837. 



229 Charles Danforth (1797-1876), inventor and builder of 

 cotton spinning machinery, entered the locomotive business in 

 1852. See Dictionary of American Biography. 



locomotive building, and that he had serious thoughts 

 of doing so. I have related this as evidence that coun- 

 terbalancing was not only under discussion but in 

 actual course of experiment prior to Mr. Rogers 

 commencing locomotive building. 



As I was at that time residing at the works, 230 I did 

 not return to the city with these gentlemen, but. in the 

 evening sent them with a trusty and intelligent driver, 

 who on his return seemed to have been much amused 

 at the conversation between Mr. Rogers and his 

 friend; he said they both spoke in praise of the char- 

 acter of the workmanship on the engine; that Mr. 

 Rogers had remarked that he had noticed a strong, 

 broad-wheel truck that he supposed was intended to 

 move the locomotive over the country roads to the 

 railroad. He had also noticed that the engine was 

 set up opposite the widest door in a substantial stone 

 building; he had measured the doorway, and the 

 engine across the cylinders, and found it some two 

 feet or more wider than the opening after taking out 

 the wooden door-frame, and the way the engine was 



230 "After Fred was born [February 26, 1834] and I was 

 adding to the little house at Cardington ... I was with 

 Rachel, the baby and nurse boarded with Bonsall . . . ." 

 (Memoirs, book 1, p. 39.) 



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