THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



demonstrations with the Rocket, a locomotive running 

 on rails, which attained a speed of thirty miles an hour, 

 contrary to all the predictions of the wiseacres, who 

 had declared the inventor a lunatic for hoping to attain 

 even ten miles. We have already noted that the rail- 

 way on which the test was made was not built with the 

 expectation of utilizing steam power, that being regarded 

 as a dreamer ^s vision. Lord Darlington prevented the 

 construction of the road for a time because it chanced 

 to run near his fox covers; and legislative permission 

 was finally secured only with the proviso that the rail- 

 way was to avoid the region of the preserves. Ste- 

 phenson with difficulty secured permission to make an 

 experiment on the railway with his engine, in compe- 

 tition with other would-be inventors; and it was his 

 unexpected success that turned the scale in favor of 

 steam power. But even the startling success of the 

 Rocket did not make a great impression upon the 

 British public, the incident being given but slight no- 

 tice in the periodicals of the day, and no mention 

 being made of it in the Annual Register. 



All this is of interest as showing the attitude of a con- 

 servative public toward the steam locomotive running 

 on a railway, and as partially explaining the antag- 

 onism to self-propelled road vehicles which found, 

 most unfortunately, an exponent in no less a personage 

 than the Duke of Wellington, then prime minister. 

 The opinion and attitude of the duke were made evi- 

 dent in 1829, in connection with a steam automobile 

 invented by a Mr. Gumey, which was capable of run- 

 ning on an ordinary road at a rate of at least ten miles 



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