A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF RAILROADS IN MISSOURI. 167 
and developed from it the theory of elements and atoms, which is the basis of 
modern chemistry. They found the Babylonians building terraced temple^ to the 
seven planets in the order of their periods, and this conception again they transferred 
from religion to science, founding on it the doctrine of planet spheres which grew 
into mathematical astronomy. It may moderate our somewhat overweening esti- 
mate of our powers to remember that the white races cannot claim to be the 
original creators of Hterature and science, but from remote antiquity they began 
to show the combined power of acquiring and developing culture which has made 
them dominant among mankind. — Nature. 
ENGINEERING. 
A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF RAILROADS IN MISSOURL 
HON. GEORGE C. PRATT. 
The year 1830 is called the railroad era. The adhesion of the driving-wheel 
of the locomotive to the iron rail, necessary to give the requisite tractive force, 
had then been demonstrated ; the rapid generation of steam by means of the 
multitubular boiler, had proved that high speed was attainable, and the track 
had been made sufficiently substantial to bear the strain of rapidly moving 
heavy m'achinery. During that year the Liverpool & Manchester road was 
opened to the use of locomotive power; Peter Cooper's trial engine, the Tom 
Thumb, appeared on the Baltimore & Ohio, and the West Point foundry of New 
York turned out a serviceable engine called The Best Friend of Charleston, 
for the South Carolina road. During the same year, ground was broken in Mis- 
souri for a tram-road from New Franklin, in Howard County, to the Missouri 
River. 
On the 20th of April, 1836, a railroad convention met in St. Louis, at which 
a plan was agreed upon for three railroads, radiating from that city northwest, 
west, and southwest; a committee was appointed to memorialize Congress for a 
grant of public land to aid in their construction, and it was recommended that 
the faith and credit of the State be pledged to the amount of $10,000,000, for 
the same purpose. The Hon. John B. Clark, Sr., of Howard County, and the 
Hon. James S. Rollins, of Columbia, were members of that convention. Rollins 
offered the resolution in regard to the land grant, and was made chairman of the 
committee to draw up the petition to Congress. In the autumn of the same year, 
the Louisiana & Columbii Railroad line was surveyed by Lieut. Guion, of the 
U. S. Army, assisted by an engineer named Webster. On the completion of 
this survey to Columbia, the engineering party were treated to a supper and ball 
given at the house of Gen. Richard Gentry, who was killed the very next year, 
