IV 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 



MODERN railroads are the outcome of the in- 

 vention of the locomotive ; yet the invention 

 of the practical locomotive was the outcome 

 of iron railroads which had been in existence for half a 

 century. These iron railroads were a development 

 from wooden predecessors, which were the direct de- 

 scendants of the smooth roadways of the Greeks and 

 Romans. Indeed it is quite reasonable to suppose that 

 the ancients may have been familiar with the use of 

 parallel rails with grooved or flanged wheels to fit 

 them; but if so there seems to be no definite record of 

 the fact, and our knowledge of true railroads goes back 

 only to the seventeenth century. 



As early as 1630, it is recorded that a road built of 

 parallel rails of wood upon which cars were run was 

 used in a coal-mine near Newcastle, England; and 

 there is no reason to suppose that this road was a 

 novelty at the time. Half a century later there was a 

 railroad in operation near the river Tyne which has 

 been described by Roger North as being made of "rails 

 of timber placed end to end and exactly straight, and in 

 two parallel lines to each other. On these rails bulky 

 cars were made to run on four rollers fitting the rails, 



["9) 



