496 KOBEKT STEPHENSON'S NAKKATIVE. APPENDIX. 



the celebrated competition which took place a little prior to the 

 opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. 



" At this stage of the locomotive engine we have in the multi- 

 tubular boiler the only important principle of construction 

 introduced, in addition to those which my father had brought to 

 bear at a very early stage (between 1815 and 1821) on the 

 Killing-worth Colliery Eailway. In the "Rocket" engine the 

 power of generating steam was prodigiously increased by the 

 multitubular system. Its efficiency was further augmented by 

 narrowing the orifice by which the waste steam escaped into the 

 chimney ; for by this means the velocity of the air in the 

 chimney, in other words the draught of the fire, was increased 

 to an extent that surpassed the expectations even of those who 

 had been the authors of the combination. 



"From the date of running the "Rocket" on the Liverpool 

 and Manchester Railway, the locomotive engine has received 

 many minor improvements in detail and especially in accuracy 

 of workmanship, but in no essential particular does the existing 

 engine differ from that which obtained the prize at the celebrated 

 competition at Rainhill. 



" In this instance as in every other important step in science 

 or art, various claimants have arisen for the merit of having 

 suggested the multitubular boiler as a means of obtaining the 

 necessary heating surface. Whatever may be the value of their 

 respective claims, the public, useful, and extensive application 

 of it must certainly bear date from the experiments made at 

 Rainhill. M. Seguin, for whom engines had been made by 

 my father some few years previously, states that he patented a 

 similar multitubular boiler in France some years before. A still 

 prior claim is made by Mr. Stevens of New York, who was aL 

 but a rival to Fulton in the introduction of steamboats on the 

 American rivers. It is stated that so early as 1807 he used the 

 multitubular boiler. These claimants may all be entitled to 

 great and independent merit, but certain it is, that the perfect 

 establishment of the success of the multitubular boiler is more 

 immediately owing to the suggestion of Mr. Henry Booth, the 

 Secretary to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and to my 

 father's practical knowledge in carrying it out." 



