Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 44604-h.htm or 44604-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44604/44604-h/44604-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44604/44604-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through the Digital Library of the Falvey Memorial Library, Villanova University. See http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:267659 Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). HOW TO BECOME AN ENGINEER. Containing Full Instructions How to Proceed in Order to Become a Locomotive Engineer; Also Directions for Building a Model Locomotive; together with a Full Description of Everything an Engineer Should Know. Profusely Illustrated. BY AN OLD ENGINEER ON THE NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD. New York: Frank Tousey, Publisher 29 West 26th Street. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1898, by Frank Tousey, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL. CHAPTER II. DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCOMOTIVE. CHAPTER III. HOW TO BECOME AN ENGINEER. CHAPTER IV. DUTIES OF AN ENGINEER. CHAPTER V. HOW TO RUN A TRAIN. CHAPTER VI. HOW TO BUILD A MODEL LOCOMOTIVE. CHAPTER VII. CONCLUSION. How to Become an Engineer. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL. To begin a subject properly you must begin at the beginning. Boys who don't like history need not read this chapter, for in it we tell how the steam engine began, and if it never had begun, you know, there would never have been any engineers, nor any necessity for writing this book. For two or three generations we have had the story of James Watt told us; how when a boy and watching his mother's tea-kettle one day he saw the steam lift the lid, and that suggested the idea that if a little steam could lift the lid of a kettle, a great deal would lift still heavier weights and revolutionize the world. Now they tell us that Watt was not the first one to have this idea by several, that it was first suggested by the Marquis of Worcester, in his book called the "Century of Inventions," as "a way to drive up water by fire," A. D. 1663. This was about a hundred years before Watt came on deck, but the marquis never put his idea into practice, and Watt did, so to the latter the credit belongs. Here are a few dates: Watt's invention of the separate condenser, 1765; Watt's first patent, 1769; Watt's first working engine introduced into a manufactory, 1775; first steam engine erected in Ireland, 1791; first steamboat run on the Hudson, 1797; first steamboat abroad, 1801. First regular steamboat ever run was from Albany to New York. The name of the boat was the North River, her builder was Robert Fulton, and she made the passage in 33 hours.