THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



not be considered here; but the Novelty and the 

 Rocket were close competitors. The Novelty y indeed, 

 made such a good showing, and afterwards proved to 

 be such a good locomotive, that although it lost the 

 contest, many competent judges have since regarded 

 it as equal to the Rocket, if not superior, in principle. 

 Be that as it may, later experiments proved conclu- 

 sively that the cause of failure on the final day of the 

 prize contest was due to defects in workmanship rather 

 than to defective principle of construction. 



The Novelty has been described as having the ap- 

 pearance of "a milk-can set in the rear end of a wagon, 

 with a httle smokestack in front looking like a high 

 dashboard." It carried its supply of fuel and water 

 in the ''wagon-box'^ part of the engine frame, in front 

 of the boiler, so that it required no tender. On its 

 first trial, running without any load, it reached a speed 

 of twenty-four miles an hour — a speed more than 

 double the "stewed engine- wheel" limit. But at each 

 subsequent trial, although it hauled loads for short 

 distances, some part of its machinery became dis- 

 abled, so that it was necessarily regarded as inferior 

 to its more stable rival, the Rocket. 



The Sans-pareil was considerably over the maxi- 

 mum weight and according to a strict interpretation 

 of the stipulations, should not have been allowed to 

 contest; but although this question of over- weight 

 was waived by the judges, and the engine given a fair 

 trial, it showed such a capacity for consuming fuel 

 without any corresponding abiHty to perform work, 

 that it was decided inferior to the Novelty and the 



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