Victory of the " Rocket " Locomotive 



inch thick, by which plan we not only obtain a 

 very much larger heating surface, but the heat- 

 ing surface is much more effective, as there in- 

 tervenes between the fire and the water only a 

 thin sheet of copper or brass, not an eighth of an 

 inch thick, instead of a plate of iron of four times 

 the stibstance, as well as an inferior conductor 

 of heat. 



"When the conditions of trial were published, 

 I communicated my multitubular plan to Mr. 

 Stephenson, and proposed to him that we should 

 jointly construct an engine and compete for the 

 prize. Mr. Stephenson approved the plan, and 

 agreed to my proposal. He settled the mode in 

 which the fire-box and tubes were to be mutually 

 arranged and connected, and the engine was con- 

 structed at the works of Messrs. Robert Stephen- 

 son Co., Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



44 1 am ignorant of M. Seguin's proceedings in 

 France, but I claim to be the inventor in Eng- 

 land, and feel warranted in stating, without 

 reservation, that until I named my plan to Mr. 

 Stephenson, with a view to compete for the prize 

 at Rainhill, it had not been tried, and was not 

 known in this country. " 



From the well-known high character of Mr. 

 Booth, we believe his statement to be made in 

 perfect good faith, and that he was as much in 

 ignorance of the plan patented by Neville as he 

 was of that of Seguin. As we have seen, from 

 the many plans of tubular boilers invented dur- 

 ing the preceding thirty years, the idea was not 

 173 



