The boiler was a vertical one, in form of an old-fashioned porter-bottle, the furnace at the bottom surrounded with water, and all filled inside full of what we called teats, running out from the sides and top, with alternate stays to support the crown of the furnace; the smoke and gas passing out through the sides at several points, into an outside jacket; which had the chimney on it. The boiler sat on a frame upon four wheels, with the connecting-rods running by it to come into the crankshaft. The cylinders were about six inches in the bore, and sixteen inches’ stroke. Wheels about four and a half feet in diameter. The whole machine weighed about four and a half tons. [Illustration: Figure 19.—In 1833 the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road was the longest continuous railroad in the world.] [Illustration: Figure 20.—Old locomotive wheel at Redwood Library, Newport, R. I., claimed to be “wheel of first locomotive used on first railroad of any length in America,—Charleston, S. C., to Augusta, Ga., 1835.”] The _Best Friend_, as such, was short-lived. It gave service that was entirely satisfactory up to the moment its boiler exploded on June 17, 1831, when one of the helpers on the locomotive deliberately held the safety valve closed. According to the statement in 1869 of Nicholas W. Darrell, first engineer of the _Best Friend_ and later superintendent of machinery of the South-Carolina Canal and Rail-Road, the salvageable parts were used in constructing another locomotive which was appropriately named the _Phoenix_. Darrell’s recollection is confirmed by the early reports of the company, which also reveal that the machinery and new boiler were arranged differently on the _Phoenix_, the cylinders being placed outside the frame, and the weight being much more evenly distributed. The _Phoenix_ was put in service on October 18, 1832. Although no documented relics of either of these two locomotives remain, the Redwood Library at Newport, R. I., now exhibits an all-metal wheel (figure 20) claimed to be from the “first locomotive used on first railroad of any length in America. Charleston, S. C., to Augusta, Ga., 1835.” Quite probably it is a replacement wheel from the _Phoenix_, for Darrell also stated in 1869 that cast wheels with wrought tires were used to replace the original wooden wheels with iron tires that were on the _Best Friend_ when it was salvaged to construct the _Phoenix_. [Illustration: Figure 21.—Full sized operable replica of _Best Friend of Charleston_, built in 1928 by Southern Railway System.]