The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and AppliancesClarke, Thomas Curtis
History
The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances
Clarke, Thomas Curtis
Railroads -- United States
In 1834, Ross Winans, of Baltimore, patented the application of the
principle which Mr. Allen had proposed and adopted for locomotives
"to passenger and other cars." He afterward brought a number of
actions at law against railroads for infringement of his patent,
which was a subject of legal controversy for twenty years. Winans
claimed that his invention originated as far back as 1831, and was
completed and reduced to practice in 1834. The dispute was finally
carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, and was decided
against the plaintiff, after an expenditure of as much as $200,000
by both sides. It involved the principle on which nearly all cars
in this country are now and were then built; and, as one of the
counsel for the defendants has said, "It was at one time a question
of millions, to be assured by a verdict of a jury."
In 1836, Henry R. Campbell, of Philadelphia, patented the use of
two pairs of driving-wheels and a truck, as shown in Figure 10. The
driving-wheels were coupled by rods, as may be seen below. This
plan has since been so generally adopted in this country that it
is now known as the "American type" of locomotive, and is the one
almost universally used here for passenger, and to a considerable
extent for freight, service. An example of a modern locomotive of
this type is represented by Figure 11.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Campbell's Locomotive.]
From these comparatively small beginnings, the magnificent
equipment of our railroads has grown. From Peter Cooper's
locomotive, which weighed less than a ton, with a boiler the
size of a flour-barrel, and which had difficulty in beating a
gray horse, we now have locomotives which will easily run sixty
and can exceed seventy miles an hour, and others which weigh
seventy-five tons and over. A comparison of the engraving of Peter
Cooper's engine with that of the modern standard express passenger
locomotive (Fig. 11) shows vividly the progress which has been made
since that first experiment was tried--little more than half a
century ago. In that period there have been many modifications in
the design of locomotives to adapt them to the changed conditions
of the various kinds of traffic of to-day. An express train
travelling at a high rate of speed requires a locomotive very
different from one which is designed for handling heavy freight
trains up steep mountain grades. A special class of engines is
built for light trains making frequent stops, as on the elevated
railroads in New York, and those provided for suburban traffic
(Fig. 12)--and still others for street railroads (Fig. 13), for
switching cars at stations (Fig. 14), etc. [Pp. 110 and 113]. The
process of differentiation has gone on until there are now as many
different kinds of these machines as there are breeds of dogs or
horses.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--A Typical American Passenger Locomotive.]
[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Locomotive for Suburban Traffic. By the
Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia.]
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