May 8, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



735 



One of the earliest efforts of the Amer- 

 ican engineers, after locomotion had been 

 secured, was to adapt the construction of 

 the wheel jDase of the locomotive and cars 

 to the track, so that in their movements 

 they would produce as little destructive 

 action as possible. That became the guid- 

 ing feature in the construction of the early 

 railroads. 



The track being a flexible construction, 

 an effort was made to utilize a portion of 

 the wheel base to stiffen a portion of the 

 track for the heavier wheel loads. 



Each type of locomotive would make a 

 distinct general depression in the super- 

 structure, as well as specific deflections 

 under the individual wheel loads. 



Mr. John B. Jervis, the chief engineer 

 of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, in 

 1831, after the trials with the English loco- 

 motives, and also with the 'DeWitt Clin- 

 ton, ' observed that the motion, particularly 

 of the English locomotives, of two pairs 

 of wheels for the wheel base, was very 

 unfavorable not only to the track, but 

 severe for the engineer and fireman. Mr. 

 Jervis was formerly the chief engineer of 

 the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., and 

 had imported some English engines for 

 use upon that road, when it was to be 

 opened in 1829. The first locomotive 

 made by E. Stephenson & Co., the 'Amer- 

 ica,' was landed in New Tork in May, but 

 for some unexplained reason was never 

 sent to the road. Later the 'Stourbridge 

 Lion' arrived, which was constructed by 

 Foster & Rastrick, of Stourbridge, Eng- 

 land. This was sent to Honesdale, Pa., and 

 a trial made with it on August 8, 1829. 

 Mr. Horatio Allen, who had formerly been 

 associated with Mr. John B. Jervis, and 

 supervised its construction in England, 

 acted as the engineer. No one else was 

 upon the locomotive. The engine was 

 started and run across the trestlework over 



the Laxawaxen Creek, and returned with- 

 out accident. This completed its running, 

 but not its service to American railroads. 

 The engine was too heavy for the track, 

 the weights upon the axles being greater 

 than had been anticipated or prescribed 

 by Mr. Jervis, and the structure was not 

 capable of sustaining the locomotive. 



Messrs. Jervis and Allen, after noticing 

 the injury to the track by the ' Stourbridge 

 Lion,' eventually devised entirely different 

 mechanisms for application of the prin- 

 ciple of subdividing and distributing the 

 total load of the locomotive to the track. 

 Mr. Horatio Allen designed an eight-wheel 

 engine for the purpose. Each pair of 

 driving wheels was driven by a separate 

 cylinder, but they were not connected so 

 as to keep the cranks at right angles to 

 each other. Mr. Jervis designed, in place 

 of one pair of driving wheels, a flexible 

 four-wheel truck to support the front end 

 of the engine, which served to subdivide 

 the total load of the engine, and connected 

 a pair of driving wheels to the main frame 

 which supported the boiler and machinery 

 of the engine. 



While Mr. Allen and Mr. Jervis both 

 had the idea of distributing the total load 

 of the locomotive to a longer portion of 

 the track, each used a different mechanism 

 for applying the principle. The mechan- 

 ical application of Jervis still survives and 

 is in general use on most of the locomotives 

 in the railroad world. 



After three score and ten years of ser- 

 vice and experience, the mechanical appli- 

 cation of Jervis is the best. Mr. Allen's 

 system was confined to three or four loco- 

 motives, and was succeeded on the same 

 railroad by locomotives with the Jervis ' 

 truck, the first one being named the 'E. 

 L. Miller,' constructed by Mr. Mathias 

 Baldwin, the founder of the Baldwin Loco- 

 motive Works. 



