THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



from all over the world — by an unofficial trial of the 

 Rocket. He coupled the little engine to a car, loaded 

 on thirty-six passengers, and took them for a spin over 

 the road at the rate of from twenty-six to thirty miles 

 an hour. 



The following day some of the competing locomo- 

 tives were still unable to exhibit, and again the Rocket 

 was given a semi-official trial. Hauling a car loaded 

 with thirteen tons' weight, it ran back and forth over 

 the two-mile road, covering thirty-five miles in one 

 hour and forty-eight minutes including stoppages. The 

 maximum velocity attained was about twenty-nine 

 miles an hour. As this performance was duplicated 

 on the day of the official trial, the Rocket was declared 

 the winner, and awarded the prize. 



Naturally there were many minor defects in the con- 

 struction of this first locomotive, although most of 

 them were too trivial and unimportant to affect the 

 excellence of the machine as a whole. But it had one 

 serious defect: the incHnation of the cylinders caused 

 the entire machine to rise and fall on its springs at 

 every double stroke, producing great unsteadiness 

 when running at any considerable speed. This was 

 corrected a few months later by the suggestion of 

 Timothy Hack worth, who drew plans for a locomo- 

 tive having horizontal cylinders to be used on the 

 Stockton &■ Darlington Railway. His plans were sub- 

 mitted to Stephenson, who constructed an engine from 

 them called the Globe, which differed from the Rocket 

 in having the cylinders not only horizontal, but placed 

 on the inside of the wheels. A little later Stephenson 



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