RAILWAYS 



11 foot in length ; the prevailing colours of the 

 plumage are olive-brown <>ii the U|>|MT, ash-gray on 

 the under part -. The tints of the female are <luller 

 than those of the mule, while tin* \OUIIL' l>ird has 

 the under parts creamy -white, kirred with brown. 

 Nearly allied to the water-rail are the Moor-hen 

 and the Corn-crake (ij.v.). Typical of the Ameri- 

 can rails ia the Virginian Rail (it. virginianus). 



Railway*. The addition to tractive power 

 through the diminution of friction to be obtained by 

 the am of rails upon a roadway i a,.,,,*, ,,. ,,. 

 is so obvious a fact in mechanic* IMO ' '* ''* h r J " 

 that it in not surprising to find I UwU * 

 records from very early times of the employment of 

 various materials with this object (see TRAM WAV'S). 

 Stone or wood was first used, but towards the end 

 of the 18th century the improvements in the pro- 

 duction of iron permitted the substitution of that 

 metal on lines laid down in collieries and quarries. 

 The employment of steam-power for locomotion 

 on ordinary roadways was the subject of numerous 

 experiments in various countries during the 18th 

 century, but the credit of producing the first prac- 

 tical working engine is ascribed to Nicolas Joseph 

 Cugnot ( 1725-1804), a native of Void in Lorraine. 

 His carriage, constructed in 1709 at the French 

 National Arsenal at the cost of the Comte de Saxe, 

 ran on three wheels, and had two single-acting 

 cylinders turning the front wheel. In the United 

 States Oliver Evans ( 1755-1819) in 1804 constructed 

 a steam dredging-machine which profiled itself 

 on wheels to the river, a distance of H mile. The 

 improvements of the steam-engine effected by the 

 inventions of James Watt soon led to better forms 

 of locomotives, and comparatively successful me M!C|* 

 were produced by William M unlock ; by William 

 Symington of Dumbarton, the pioneer of steam 

 navigation ; and later by Richard Trevithick, 

 whose steam -carriage was exhibited in London in 



1803. The development of the high-pressure engine 

 was largely due to Trevithick's numerous experi- 

 ments and Inventions. The fir- 1 railway locomotive 

 was tried, it is said, on the Merthyr tramroad in 



1804, but the experiment was not successful, and 

 to the venerable ' Puffing Billy,' patented in 1813 

 by William lledley, and now to be seen in the 

 museum of the Patent Office, must be ascribed the 

 honour of being the progenitor of the enormous 

 stud of iron horses now existing in all quarters of 



Fig !.- Puffing Hilly.' 



the world. In previous experimental lines rack 

 rails and toothed wheels had been provided under 

 the mistaken notion that the adhesion of a smooth 

 wheel to a smooth rail would not IM- siitlieient. 

 ' Pulling Hilly.' after many trials and alteration-, 

 commenced regular working at the \Vylam Colliery, 

 near Newcatle-U]x>n-Tyne, in 1813, and was kept 



in constant use until 1*7--'. when it was purchased 

 by the government. 



A standing difficulty with the earlier forms of 

 engine was the want of adequate and uniform 

 steam-power, various devices being employed to 

 secure the requisite draught to the furnace. The 

 problem was first solved by George Stcphenson. 

 In 1815, after many previous experiments made 

 while acting as colliery engineer, it occurred to him 

 that the waste steam might be utilised as a blast 

 to stimulate combustion, and from ibi- idea, with 

 the subsequent invention of the multitubular 

 1 "liter (by Booth), securing enormously increased 

 bf.-it ing surface, the present form of locomotive was 

 evolved. Other improvements made by Stephenson 

 comprised the direct communication l>et ween the 

 cylinders and the wheels, and joint adhesion of all 

 the wheels by the use of horizontal connecting-rods. 

 An engine constructed by him was the first to run 

 on the Stockton and Darlington line, opened for 

 public traffic on 27th September 18-25. Tne engine 

 weighed about 8 tons, and could make a speed of 

 nearly 16 miles an hour. The Stockton and Dar- 

 lington line was constructed for mineral traffic ; and 

 it was not until the opening of the Liverpool and 

 Manchester Railway that the vast possibilities of 

 the new form of transport were proved beyond 

 cavil. The directors of that company, with a view 

 to settle the method of traction on the line then 

 approaching completion, offered a 500 prize for the 

 best locomotive engine. Stephenson's Rocket.' 

 comprising the improvements above mentioned, 

 was the only one that complied with the conditions 

 laid down, and at the competition which took 

 place at Rainhill in October 1829 its superiority 

 was at once manifest. It drew a coach with thirty 

 passengers along the prescribed course at the rate 



Fig. 2. The ' Rocket.' 



of 30 miles an hour. The 'Rocket' went into 

 regular ser\ ice on the o]M-ningof the railway in the 

 following year. It weigheil, with its supply of 

 water, only 44 tons, ami long after it had been 

 superseded by heavier engines, on one occlusion ran 

 4 miles in 4\ minutes. All the many changes 

 which have since been effected in the appearance 

 and i-i/e of the locomotive have been more matters 

 of detail than of principle: The 75-ton express 

 |>assenger-engine, which runs at a speed of a mile 

 per minute for miles together, does not differ 

 materially in construction from George Stephen- 

 son's pioneer engines. 

 A modern development, however, of importance 



