SECTION OF STEAM TRANSPORTATION. 121 



tionaiy steam-engine and the beginning of invention of the steam-boat, 

 locomotives, passenger and freight ears, etc. 



It was not until November, 1885, that any space in the Museum was 

 assigned to this section. In that month the locomotive u John Bull," 

 engine No. 1, Camden and Amboy Eailroad Company, 1831, was placed 

 upon exhibition. While by no means the first, this is the oldest loco- 

 jpiotive in America. It ran the first train on any road owned, leased, or 

 operated by the Pennsylvania Eailroad Company, and was presented 

 by that corporation to the National Museum. The locomotive in PI. I 

 is drawn from a tracing made by Isaac Dripps, of Philadelphia, the 

 first person on this side the water to run No. 1, from the original 

 working drawing, which accompanied this locomotive from the works 

 of Stephenson & Company, Newcastleon-Tyne, England, in 1831. 

 This tracing is on a reduced scale; the tender is from a drawing by 

 Mr. Dripps, and the two cars are from a cut which was used by the 

 manufacturers, M. P. & M. E. Green, of Hobokon, N. J., as an adver- 

 tisement in 1832. The whole was put together and was reduced to the 

 same scale under the supervision of Mr. Dripps. A section of the origi- 

 nal track, consisting of stone blocks, iron rails with a base, iron joint 

 " tongues " (PL II, fig. 1), " book headed spikes " (PI. n, fig. 2), rivets 

 (PI. ii, fig. 3) through the stem of the rail, has been presented to the 

 Museum. This relic was originally collected by the late Col. I. S. Buck- 

 elew, for many years superintendent of the Amboy Division of the Penn- 

 sylvania Eailroad until his death, November 24, 1884, and given by him 

 to the curator, who has presented it in his name to the Museum. It is 

 a most valuable relic, since it exemplifies the earliest period of the in- 

 ventions which have since developed into the American system of per- 

 manent way. 



In 1831 the track of this company was unique. After a lapse of half 

 a century the cross-tie has superseded the stone block, it is true, but 

 the rail with the base, the " hook-headed" spike, the " tongue" length- 

 ened and strengthened into the splice-bar or fish-plate, and the " rivet" 

 changed into a bolt and nut, is found in all standards of American 

 track. This section of track was examined by the late Ashbel Welch, 

 C. E., past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, who 

 was present at the opening of this portion of the road, and afterwards 

 became chief engineer and president of the system to which the Cam- 

 den and Amboy Eailroad was attached. From memory and notes he 

 pronounced it and the description authentic. 



Sections of " fish-bellied" rail, with chair, imported from England in 

 1832 by the New Jersey Eailroad Company, and laid near Newark, 

 have also been obtained, together with cross-sections of various pat- 

 terns of rail experimented with between 1835 and 1845. 



By a careful search through the files of the Patent Office for plans of 

 switches, frogs, signals, splices, etc., in which work I received the 



