364 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL TEEADWELL. 



population in proportion to the territory accommodated than in Great Britain, and 

 with less than one fifth of the number of passengers per mile conveyed on the prin- 

 cipal lines of railroad. 



" The obvious cause," says Mr. Hale, " of the greater success of these works in this country 

 is their comparative cheapness. But another question arises, What is the cause of this greater 

 cheapness ? A reply which may be naturally given to this inquiry is the inferiority of the 

 works. Such a reply would doubtless be to a certain extent founded in truth ; yet to a very 

 limited extent only, so far as the perfection of the respective works is to be measured by their 

 adaptation to the objects designed to be attained in each case. To a certain extent it may be 

 admitted, in regard to the general character of these works, including even those which are 

 most thorough in their construction, that they are inferior in their style and finish, so far, at 

 least, as embellishment is concerned, and often the permanency of their structure. In some 

 of these cases this course was consistent with a judicious policy, as a choice between attaining 

 an object in only an imperfect degree instead of being deprived of it entirely. Of most of the 

 works, however, it may be said that, in the degree of finish and permanency of their structure, 

 they are adapted to their purpose, and this purpose has been sooner and more effectually 

 accomplished than it could have been had more costly works been attempted. 



" The most prominent features of American railroads involving a difference of principle in 

 the plan of construction and management which marked them from their first introduction 

 into this country are, first, the system of management of a public railway so as to constitute a 

 complete work, by means of a single track, on all routes on which the amount of travel *and 

 business is insufficient for the support of a double track ; and, secondly, the free adoption of 

 steeper gradients than have been deemed admissible in England through all tracts of country 

 where natural features do not admit of their reduction without an excessive cost. In the out- 

 set, as no such thing as a railroad with a single track for public use had been named in England, 

 it was naturally imagined that double railroads would be essential to the success of any enter- 

 prise of the kind ; but at an early period, a gentleman, then of this city, to whose mechanical 

 genius the public are indebted for a number of important improvements, and who since that 

 period for many years filled with distinction the office of Kumford Professor in Harvard 

 University (we allude to Mr. Daniel Treadwell, now of Cambridge) first suesested the idea that 

 a railroad for public accommodation might be constructed on a single track." 



In the following article, which appeared in the Boston Courier of June 6, 1851 

 Mr. Treadwell bears equal testimony to his just appreciation of the value of th< 

 labors of his associate in the introduction of railroads into Massachusetts, and his owi 

 kindly personal relation. 



To the Editor of the Boston Courier : 



In the leading article of the Daily Advertiser of Wednesday 



of 



D . WWM t for having first proposed, 



and for having advocated and defended, in various ways, the system of performing the whole 

 business of a great public railway by a single set of tracks. As he probably thought that it 

 would not be seemly for him, in such a place, to allude to his own labors, either in procuring 





