CHAP. VIII. IMPROVEMENT OF THE KOAD. 131 



rendered more efficient as well as economical, was never 

 out of Steplienson's mind. He was fully conscious of 

 the imperfections both in the road and the engine ; and 

 gave himself no rest until he had brought the efficiency 

 of both up to a higher point. Thus he worked his way 

 inch by inch, slowly but surely ; and every step gained 

 was made good as a basis for further improvements. 



At an early period of his labours, or about the time 

 when he had completed his second locomotive, he began 

 to direct his particular attention to the state of the road ; 

 as he perceived that the extended use of the locomotive 

 must necessarily depend in a great measure upon the 

 perfection, solidity, continuity, and smoothness of the 

 way along which the engine travelled. Even at that I 

 early period, he was in the habit of regarding the road/ 

 and the locomotive as one machine, speaking of the railj 

 and the wheel as " man and wife." 



All railways were at that time laid in a careless and 

 loose manner, and great inequalities of level were 

 allowed to occur without much attention being paid to 

 repairs. The consequence was a great loss of power, 

 as well as much wear and tear of the machinery, by 

 the frequent jolts and blows of the wheels against the 

 rails. His first object therefore was, to remove the 

 inequalities produced by the imperfect junction between 

 rail and rail. At that time (1816) the rails were mad 

 of cast iron, each rail being about three feet long ; an 

 sufficient care was not taken to maintain the points o 

 junction on the same level. The chairs, or cast-ironi 

 pedestals into which the rails were inserted, were flat at 

 the bottom ; so that, whenever any disturbance took 

 place in the stone blocks or sleepers supporting them, 

 the flat base of the chair upon which the rails rested 

 being tilted by unequal subsidence, the end of one rail 

 became depressed, whilst that of the other was elevated. 

 Hence constant jolts and shocks, the reaction of which 



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