DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN RAIL AND TRACK. 653 



farther iu 1832, aud for many years paid a dividend of 5 per cent, upon 

 a capitalization of $10,000 a mile, being subsequently increased to a 

 length of 130 miles in 1839. 



The modern horse railways in our cities and their suburbs earn hand- 

 some dividends by carrying passengers at a lower fare per mile than 

 the steam, railway companies find profitable. 



THE IRON COAL ROAD. 



The circumstances connected with the origin of the iron railroad, 

 and particularly the relations which existed between coal, iron and the 

 railway in the beginning, are of the greatest interest. Man's physical 

 necessities exert a powerful influence upon the inventive faculties, and 

 the trite proverb arising therefrom is nowhere better exemplified than 

 in the history of the conception, birth, aud growth of the railroad. 



The demand for a new fuel to replace the faggot and the log was 

 the necessity that became more and more urgent as the forest disap- 

 peared to satisfy the demands of a dense population. This condition 

 of affairs directed thought toward devising improved methods for 

 transporting pit coal from the collieries of Great Britain to the adja- 

 cent navigable streams or near seaports. 



Although coal had been mined in England as early as the middle of 

 the ninth century, it was not until 1259 that Henry III granted the 

 privilege of digging coal to certain persons in Newcastle. By the be- 

 ginning of the fourteenth century it had become an important article 

 of export, and was called " sea cole," owiug to the fact that it was 

 shipped by vessels to various ports. 



EARLY USE OF IRON. 



Several methods of iron making were understood and practiced by 

 the ancients. 



The Bible bears evidence iu many texts to the high esteem in which 

 the iron worker was held. Tubal Cain is described in Genesis iv as 

 "an instructor of every artifice in brass aud iron." In alluding to the 

 Israelites in Deuteronomy iv is the statement: "For the Lord hath 

 taken you and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of 

 Egypt." 



Processes of making iron were known to the Babylonians and Assyr- 

 ians. The stones in the celebrated bridge said to have been built by 

 Nitocris were held together by bands of iron kept in place by molten 

 lead. "Among the ruins of Sargon's palace objects of iron aud bronze, 

 such as hooks and rings, chains, pickaxes, hammers, ploughshares, 

 weapons, fragments of chariots, and tools of all sorts were picked up." 



The Phoenicians, Persians, and even the Chinese were acquainted 

 with processes of forging iron centuries before the Christian era; and 

 in India, iu the temple of Kuttub at Delhi, there stands a pillar of solid 



