THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 



eighteenth century was practically the same as at 

 present. 



It is probable that if the first inventors had attempted 

 to make locomotives to run upon the railroads then in 

 existence they would have been successful many years 

 before they were, but the advantages of railroads was 

 not as evident then as now. and the inventors' efforts 

 were confined to attempts to produce locomotive 

 wagons — automobiles — to operate upon any road 

 where horses and carts could be used. 



Some of their creations were of the most fanciful 

 and impractical design, although quite a number of 

 them were "locomotives" in the sense that they could 

 be propelled over the ground by their own energy, but 

 only at a snaiPs pace, and by the expenditure of a great 

 amount of power. Several inventors tried combining 

 the principle of the steamboat and the locomotive in 

 the same vehicle, and in 1803 a Philadelphian by the 

 name of Evans made a steam dredge and land-wagon 

 combined which was fairly successful in both capaci- 

 ties of boat and wagon. He called his machine the 

 "Gruktor Amphibious," and upon one occasion made 

 a trip through the streets of Philadelphia, and then 

 plunged into the Schuylkill River and continued his 

 journey on the water. But as he was unable to arouse 

 anything but curiosity, the financiers refusing to take 

 his machine seriously, he finally gave up his attempts 

 to solve the problem of steam locomotion. 



The year before this, in 1802, Richard Trevithick, 

 in England, had been more successful in his attempts 

 at producing a locomotive. He produced a steam loco- 



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