The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, with a locomotive, the _Rocket_, which made twenty-nine miles an hour, may be taken as the completion of the period of experiment, and the beginning of the railroad era. =349. Early period of the railroad.=—Though steam locomotion after 1830 was a proved success, and though railroads were rapidly extended, and 1,600 miles had been brought into operation in 1835, the men of the time had still much to learn concerning their new instrument of transportation. Some men expected from it a speed of 75 or 100 miles an hour, while the State Engineer of Virginia took it as an admitted fact “that a rate of speed of more than six miles an hour would exceed the bounds set by prudence, though some of the sanguine advocates of railways extend this limit to nine miles an hour.” In certain localities the steam railroad, from the start, performed great service in freight carriage. At the Pennsylvania coal mines, for instance, it reduced the cost of hauling a ton nine miles to the river from $4.00 to $.25. Still the cost in general was high; a charge of ten cents per ton-mile was authorized in some early charters; and few people believed that the railroad could compete successfully with the canal in the transportation of ordinary freight. =350. Improvements in locomotives.=—The technical improvements which have extended the usefulness of the railroad far beyond the dreams of its earlier promoters have been comparatively simple. Mere increase in size of locomotives and cars has been the greatest factor in increased efficiency. The engine which Peter Cooper constructed for experiment on the Baltimore and Ohio, about 1830, had a boiler the size of a flour barrel, weighed less than a ton, and was about the size of a modern hand-car. It was of little practical use. The development from early engines of the class of the _Rocket_, to those of modern American practice, is shown in the following figures: ===========+=============+======================= | Weight | Hauling Power on Level -----------+-------------+----------------------- Early | 5 to 6 tons | 40 tons Improved | 25 | 1,200 Modern | 50 | 2,400 ===========+=============+======================= In 1914 the average weight of the simple locomotive in the United States was 82 tons. Not only does a large locomotive put to more economical use the heat applied; the large train, also, costs far less in proportion for the services of men employed in running it.