362 



MEMOIK OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



plain, but the restrictive system in which they are confined. Restriction and em- 

 barrassment in our intercourse is the theme of our complaint." 



With the exception of Mr. Nathan Hale, editor of the Boston Daily Adver- 

 tiser, and Mr. David Moody, an eminent mechanic, no director of the Association 

 was in favor of the plan. Mr. Hale, who saw its advantages from the first, was 

 President of the Worcester road, and modelled it upon the principle indicated and 

 explained in Mr. Treadwell's ingenious paper. Mr, Patrick T. Jackson did the 

 same for the Lowell, of which he was President ; it was also adopted by the Direc- 

 tion of the Providence road. These roads were opened for travel in 1834. 



In the month of October following the publication of these reports came the 

 neat competitive trial of locomotives at Rainhill, on the Liverpool and Manchester 



• 



Railway, for the prize of £500, offered by the directors " for the best locomotive 

 engine which should, on a certain day, be produced on the railway," and, if of six 

 tons' weight, draw after it day by day twenty tons' weight (including the tender 

 and water-tank) at ten miles an hour, with a pressure of steam in the boiler not 

 exceeding fifty pounds to the square inch." George Stephenson's "Rocket," which 

 weighed only about four tons, met the prescribed conditions and received the prize. 

 It eclipsed the performances of all locomotive engines that had been constructed, 

 and at the same time established the superiority of the locomotive for the working 

 of railways. This motive power was adopted here, and with it Mr. Treadwell's plan 

 of fixed times and regulated velocities. 

 Writing many years after, he remarks : 



" It may be said that the use of steam necessarily collected the carriages in trains, and this 

 being done, everybody would at once perceive that a single track might be used, after the 

 American manner. Now this is so far from being the case that the method has not been 



mi 



been saved by its use, and all the travel and intercourse upon half the roads of England carried 

 on as perfectly as they are now. A single case may be cited to show that the English en- 

 gineers are not yet possessed of the knowledge of our system, or that it does not influence 

 them in the plans of their works. The great tubular bridge at the Straits of Menai has been 

 constructed double, that is, two tubes or bridges have been thrown over the Strait, one for the 

 up, and another for the down trains. Now it is evident, as the length of the bridge is less 

 than 2,000 feet, that it would have been the easiest thing in the world to have arranged the 

 travel in the two directions, so that any meeting of trains at the Menai bridge should have 

 been, if not impossible, at least so certain not to happen as to be practically quite out of the 

 question. Had this occurred to the mind of the engineer, and been acted upon by him, it 

 would hare saved the company at least a million of dollars. It cannot be said that this sum 

 was of small consequence to the company, because the whole road has been a most unfortunate 

 speculation, the stock before its completion selling at seventy per cent discount. 



