370 ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAYS. CHAP. XVII. 



nious American. Scientific gentlemen, Dr. Lardner 

 and Mr. Clegg amongst others, advocated the plan ; 

 and an association was formed to carry it into effect. 

 Shares were created, and 18,000. raised; and a model 

 apparatus was exhibited in London. Mr. Yignolles 

 took his friend Mr. Stephenson to see the model ; and 

 after carefully examining it, he observed emphatically, 

 " It wont do : it is only the fixed engines and ropes 

 over again, in another form ; and, to tell you the truth, 

 I don't think this rope of wind will answer so well as 

 the rope of wire did." He did not think the principle 

 would stand the test of practice, and he objected to the 

 mode of applying the principle. After all, it was only 

 a modification of the stationary-engine plan ; and every 

 day's experience was proving that fixed engines could 

 not compete with locomotives in point of efficiency and 

 economy. He stood by the locomotive engine ; and 

 subsequent experience proved that he was right. 



Messrs. Clegg and Samuda afterwards, in 1840, 

 patented their plan of an atmospheric railway ; and 

 they publicly tested its working on an unfinished por- 

 tion of the West London Eailway. The results of the 

 experiment were so satisfactory, that the directors of 

 the Dublin and Kingstown line adopted it between 

 Kingstown and Dalkey. The London and Croydon 

 Company also adopted the atmospheric principle ; and 

 their line was opened in 1845. The ordinary mode of 

 applying the power was to lay between the line of rails 

 a pipe, in which a large piston was inserted, and 

 attached by a shaft to the framework of a carriage. 

 The propelling power was the ordinary pressure of the 

 atmosphere acting against the piston in the tube on one 

 side, a vacuum being created in the tube on the other 

 side of the piston by the working of a stationary engine. 

 Great was the popularity of the atmospheric system ; 

 and still George Stephenson said, " It won't do : it's but 



