REPORT ON THE SECTION OF TRANSPORTATION IN THE U. S. NATIONAL 



MUSEUM, 1887. 



By J. Elfreth Watkins, Honorary Curator. 



During the year, work in the section of Steam Transportation has been 

 conducted during such brief periods and irregular intervals that it has 

 not been possible to make any systematic attempt to increase the col- 

 lection or to install objects already obtained. 



By correspondence I have been able to ascertain the whereabouts of 

 considerable material which will naturally be deposited in the National 

 Museum when the section shall be fully organized. 



I have also succeeded in collecting a mass of information which I 

 hope to make use of in preparing a series of models to illustrate the 

 beginnings and the development of the English and American systems 

 of track. 



While illustrated histories of the steam-boat and locomotive are nu- 

 merous, I am not aware that any systematic attempt has been made to 

 preserve the history of the development of the systems of permanent 

 way, which, after many years of experiment, are now being reduced to 

 a series of standards depending on the traffic. 



My connection with the. Amboy division of the Pennsylvania Rail- 

 road Com pan y, of which the famous old Camden and Amboy Eailroad 

 is a part, has made it possible for me to make a most interesting col- 

 lection of rail sections, which I shall deposit in the Museum as soon as 

 space for the purpose can be assigned. 



A section of the first rail rolled with a base, which has ever since 

 been known as the American rail, has been installed in the collection. 

 This rail was designed by Robert L. Stevens, president of the Camden 

 and Amboy Railroad Company, and was manufactured in Wales under 

 his supervision in 1830-'31. A fac-simile of his letter (and draft of the 

 cross-section first proposed)* to the English iron-masters soliciting pro- 



*This fac-simile having been reduced, the section is not full size. The original 

 rail was 3^ inches high ; base 3 inches wide. 



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