Little Masterpieces of Science: Invention and Discovery
History
Little Masterpieces of Science: Invention and Discovery
Inventions
The other arrangements of the "Rocket" were briefly these: the boiler
was cylindrical, with flat ends, six feet in length, and three feet four
inches in diameter. The upper half of the boiler was used as a reservoir
for the steam, the lower half being filled with water. Through the lower
part the copper tubes extended, being open to the fire-box at one end,
and to the chimney at the other. The fire-box, or furnace, two feet wide
and three feet high, was attached immediately behind the boiler, and was
also surrounded with water. The cylinders of the engine were placed on
each side of the boiler, in an oblique position, one end being nearly
level with the top of the boiler at its after end, and the other
pointing toward the centre of the foremost or driving pair of wheels,
with which the connection was directly made from the piston-rod to a pin
on the outside of the wheel. The engine, together with its load of
water, weighed only four tons and a quarter; and it was supported on
four wheels, not coupled. The tender was four-wheeled, and similar in
shape to a waggon--the foremost part holding the fuel, and the hind part
a water cask.
When the "Rocket" was finished it was placed upon the Killingworth
Railway for the purpose of experiment. The new boiler arrangement was
found perfectly successful. The steam was raised rapidly and
continuously, and in a quantity which then appeared marvellous. The same
evening Robert despatched a letter to his father at Liverpool, informing
him, to his great joy, that the "Rocket" was "all right," and would be
in complete working trim by the day of trial. The engine was shortly
after sent by waggon to Carlisle, and thence shipped for Liverpool.
The time so much longed for by George Stephenson had now arrived, when
the merits of the passenger locomotive were about to be put to the
test. He had fought the battle for it until now almost single-handed.
Engrossed by his daily labours and anxieties, and harassed by
difficulties and discouragements which would have crushed the spirit of
a less resolute man, he had held firmly to his purpose through good and
through evil report. The hostility which he experienced from some of the
directors opposed to the adoption of the locomotive was the circumstance
that caused him the greatest grief of all; for where he had looked for
encouragement, he found only carping and opposition. But his pluck never
failed him; and now the "Rocket" was upon the ground to prove, to use
his own words, "whether he was a man of his word or not."
On the day appointed for the great competition of locomotives at
Rainhill the following engines were entered for the prize:
1. Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson's "Novelty."
2. Mr. Timothy Hackworth's "Sanspareil."
3. Messrs. R. Stephenson & Co.'s "Rocket."
4. Mr. Burstall's "Perseverance."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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