Steve and the Steam Engine Page 6

  CHAPTER VI

  MR. TOLMAN'S SECOND YARN

  For a day or two it seemed to Stephen that he would never cease to behaunted by the shame and regret that followed his confiscation of thebig red touring car, or forget the good resolutions he made inconsequence; but within an incredibly short time both considerationswere thrust into the background by the rush of life's busy current.School and athletics kept him occupied so that he had little leisure forthought, and when he was in the house his father and mother smiled onhim as affectionately as before, which did much to restore to him hisnormal poise. Long ago the boys had dropped the motor-car episode fromtheir memories and even Bud Taylor did not refer to it when he and Stevecame together to organize the hockey team for the approaching matches.

  In the meantime the Thanksgiving holidays were drawing near and Mr.Tolman suggested that he and Stephen should run over to New York for ashort visit. With the prospect of so much pleasure was it strange theboy ceased to dwell on the unhappiness of the past or the possibility ofdisaster in the future? The coming journey to New York was, to be sure,no great novelty, for Stephen had often accompanied his father there onbusiness excursions; nevertheless such an outing was a treat to which helooked forward as a sort of Arabian Nights adventure when for a shorttime he stayed at a large hotel, ate whatever food pleased his fancy,and went sight-seeing and to innumerable "shows" with his father. He waswont to return to Coventry after the holiday with a throng of happymemories and many a tale of marvels with which to entertain the boys.

  Therefore when he and his father boarded the express Thanksgiving weekthe lad was in the highest spirits.

  "Motor-cars are all very well," observed Mr. Tolman, as the porterstowed their luggage away, "but on a cold night like this a Pullman caron a well-laid track is not to be despised. Eh, son?"

  "I don't believe that I should want to travel to New York in atouring-car at this time of year," agreed Stephen, smiling.

  "It is getting too late in the season to use an open car, anyway,"rejoined his father. "I have delayed putting the car up because I havebeen hoping we might have a little more warm weather; but I guess thewarm days have gone and the winter has come to stay now."

  "But there is no snow yet, Dad."

  "No. Still it is too chilly to drive with any comfort. The Taylorsshipped their car off last week and when I get home I shall do thesame."

  Stephen looked disappointed.

  "I don't mind the cold when I'm wrapped up," he ventured.

  "You are not at the wheel, son," was his father's quick retort. "The manwho is has his fingers nipped roundly, I can assure you. It is a pity wehave become so soft and shrink so from discomfort. Think what ourforbears endured when they went on journeys!"

  "Neither the English stagecoaches nor Stephenson's railroad could havebeen very comfortable, to judge from your descriptions of them," laughedSteve.

  "Oh, don't heap all the blame on the English," his father replied. "Ourown modes of travel in the early days were quite as bad as were those onthe other side of the water."

  "I wish you would tell me about the first American railroads," said theboy. "I was wondering about them the other night."

  Mr. Tolman settled back in his seat thoughtfully.

  "America," he answered presently, "went through a pioneer period ofrailroading not unlike England's. Many strange steam inventions weretried in different parts of the country, and many fantastic scientificnotions put before the public. Even previous to Watt's steam engineOliver Evans had astonished the quiet old city of Philadelphia bydriving through its peaceful streets in a queer steam vehicle, halfcarriage and half boat, which he had mounted on wheels. Evans was aningenious fellow, a born inventor if ever there was one, who worked outquite a few steam devices, some of which Watt later improved andadopted. Then in 1812 John Stevens of New York got interested in thesteam idea and urged the commissioners of his state to build a railroadbetween Lake Erie and Albany, suggesting that a steam engine not unlikethe one that propelled the Hudson River ferryboats could be used aspower for the trains. He was enthusiastic over the scheme but the NewYork officials had no faith in the proposition, insisting that a steamlocomotive could never be produced that would grip the rails withsufficient tension to keep cars on the track or draw a heavy load."

  "They'd better have given the plan a showdown," interrupted Stevegrimly.

  "No doubt that is true," admitted his father. "However, it is very easyfor us, with our knowledge of science, to look back and laugh at theirmistakes. The world was very new in those days and probably had we livedat that time and been equally ignorant of railroads and engines weshould have been just as cautious and unbelieving. The railroad wasstill a young invention, you must remember, and to many persons itseemed a rather mad, uncertain enterprise."

  "When was the first American railroad built?" inquired the lad.

  "If by a railroad you mean something which moved along rails like atram-car, the first such road was built at Quincy, Mass., in 1826; butit was not a steam railroad. It was merely a train of cars drawn byhorses along a track that spanned a series of stone ties. Nor was itvery extensive in length. In fact, it was only three miles long andprobably would not have been built at all if the question had not arisenas to how the heavy blocks of granite necessary for the construction ofBunker Hill monument were to be carried from the quarries to theNeponset River, the point from which they were to be shipped toCharlestown. Bryant, the builder of the road, had heard of Stephenson'ssuccessful use of tracks at the Newcastle coal mines and saw no reasonwhy a road of similar pattern could not be laid from the quarries to theship landing. If such a plan could be worked out, he argued, it would bea great saving of time and labor. Accordingly the railroad was built ata cost of more than ten thousand dollars a mile and it unquestionablyperformed the service required of it even if it did necessitate theexpenditure of a good deal of money. Since the grade sloped toward theriver the heavily loaded cars moved down the tracks very easily and asthey were empty on their return the ascent was made with equal ease. Allthe year round this quaint railroad was in constant use, a snowplowbeing attached to the front car in winter to clear the deep snow fromthe tracks."

  "I suppose that was the first railroad snowplow, too," observed Stephen.

  "I suppose it was," his father agreed. "For some time afterward thisold road with its granite ties was the model from which Americanengineers took their inspiration, it being many years before railroadbuilders realized that wooden ties were more flexible and made a better,even though less durable roadbed."

  "Were any more railroads like the Quincy road built in America?"questioned Steve.

  "Yes, a railroad very much like it was built in the Pennsylvania miningcountry to transport coal from the mines at Summit down to the LehighValley for shipment. An amusing story is told of this railroad, too. Itextended down the mountainside in a series of sharp inclines betweenwhich lay long stretches of level ground. Now you know when you coastdownhill your speed will give you sufficient impetus to carry you quitea way on a flat road before you come to a stop. So it was with thisrailroad. But the force the cars gained on the hillside could not carrythem entirely across these long levels, and therefore platform cars werebuilt on which a number of mules could be transported and laterharnessed to the cars to pull them across the flat stretches. At the endof each level the mules would be taken aboard again and carried down tothe next one, where they were once more harnessed to the cars. Now thetale goes that to the chagrin of the railroad people the mules soon grewto enjoy riding so much that they had no mind to get out and walk whenthe level places were reached and it became almost impossible to makethem. All of which proves the theory I advanced before--that too muchluxury is not good for any of us and will even spoil a perfectly goodmule."

  Steve chuckled in response.

  "I'm afraid with railroads like these America did not make muchprogress," he said.

  "No very rapid strides," owned his father. "Nevertheless men wereconstantly ham
mering away at the railroad idea. In out-of-the-waycorners of the country were many persons who had faith that somehow,they knew not how, the railroad would in time become a practical agencyof locomotion. When the Rainhill contest of engines took place inEngland before the opening of the Liverpool-Manchester road, andStephenson carried off the prize, Horatio Allen, one of the engineers ofthe Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, was sent over to examine thelocomotives competing and if possible buy one for a new railroad theyhoped to put into operation. Unluckily none of the engines were for salebut he was able to purchase at Stourbridge a steam locomotive and thishe shipped to New York. It reached there in 1829--a ridiculous littleengine weighing only seven tons. Before its arrival a track of hemlockrails fastened to hemlock ties had been laid and as the Lackawanna Riverlay directly in the path of the proposed road a wooden trestle about ahundred feet high had been built across the river. This trestle was ofvery frail construction and calculated to sustain only a four-tonengine and therefore when the seven-ton locomotive from Stourbridgearrived and was found to weigh nearly double that specification therewas great consternation."

  "Did they tear the trestle down and build another?" asked Steve withmuch interest.

  Mr. Tolman did not heed the question.

  "Now in addition to the disconcerting size of the engine," he continued,"the wooden rails which had been laid during the previous season hadwarped with the snows and were in anything but desirable condition. Soaltogether the prospect of trying out the enterprise, on which a gooddeal of money had already been spent, was not alone disheartening butperilous."

  "The inspectors or somebody else would have put an end to such a crazyscheme jolly quick if it had been in our day, wouldn't they?" grinnedthe boy.

  "Yes, nobody could get very far with anything so unsafe now," his fatherresponded. "But all this happened before the era of inspectors,construction laws, or the _Safety First_ slogan. Hence no one interferedwith Horatio Allen. If he chose to break his neck and the necks of manyothers as well he was free to do so. Therefore, nothing daunted, he gotup steam in his baby engine, which was the more absurd for havingpainted at its front a fierce red lion, and off he started--along hishemlock railroad. The frail bridge swayed and bent as the locomotiverumbled over it but by sheer miracle it did not give way and Allenreached the other side without being plunged to the bottom of theriver."

  Steve drew a long breath of relief.

  "Did they go on using the railroad after that?" he asked.

  His father shook his head.

  "No," he replied. "Although every one agreed that the demonstration wasa success the wooden rails were not durable enough to last long and thecompany was not rich enough to replace them with metal ones. Therefore,in spite of Allen's pleas and his wonderful exhibition of courage, theroad fell into disuse, the engine was taken apart, and the enterpriseabandoned."

  "What a pity!"

  "Yes, it was, for had New York persevered in this undertaking therailroad might have made its advent in the United States much soonerthan it did. As it was, once again, like a meteor, the experimentflashed into sight and disappeared with success well within reach."

  "And who was the next promoter?"

  "Peter Cooper was the next experimenter of note," Mr. Tolman answered,"and his adventure with railroading was entertaining, too. He lived inBaltimore and being of a commercial trend of mind he decided that if arailroad could be built through the Potomac Valley and across theAlleghany Mountains it might win back for his state the trade that wasrapidly being snatched away by the Erie and Pennsylvania Canal. Withthis idea in mind Cooper built thirteen miles of track and afterexperimenting with a sort of tram-car and finding it a failure he had acar made that should be propelled by sails."

  "Sails!" gasped Steve.

  His father smiled at his astonishment.

  "Yes, sails!" he repeated. "Into this strangely equipped vehicle heinvited some of the editors of the Baltimore papers, and little sensingwhat was before them the party set forth on its excursion."

  "Did the car go?"

  "Oh, it went all right!" chuckled Mr. Tolman. "The trouble was not withits _going_. The difficulty was that as it flew along the rails a cowsuddenly loomed in its pathway and as she did not move out of the way ofthe approaching car she and the railroad pioneers came into collision.With a crash the car toppled over and the editors, together with theenraged Peter Cooper, were thrown out into the mud. Of course the affaircaused the public no end of laughter but to Cooper and his guests itproved convincingly that sails were not a desirable substitute for steampower."

  "I suppose Cooper then went to work to build some other kind of arailroad," mused Steve.

  "That is exactly what he did," was the rejoinder. "He did not, however,do this deliberately but rather fell into a dilemma that left him noother choice. You see a group of men coaxed him to buy some landthrough which it was expected the new Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was topass. These prospectors figured that as the road was already started anda portion of the wooden track laid the railroad was a sure thing, and byselling their land to the railroad authorities they would be enabled toturn quite a fortune for themselves. In all good faith Cooper had joinedthe company and then, after discovering that the railroad men hadapparently abandoned their plan to build, in dastardly fashion, oneafter another of the promoters wriggled out of the enterprise and leftpoor Peter Cooper with a large part of his money tied up in a worthless,partially constructed railroad."

  "What a rotten trick!" cried Steve.

  "Yes; and yet perhaps Cooper deserved a little chastisement," smiled Mr.Tolman. "Instead of making money out of other people as he hadintended--"

  "He got stung himself!" burst out the boy.

  "Practically so, yes," was the reply. "Well, at any rate, there he wasand if he was ever to get back any of his fortune he must demonstratethat he had profound faith in the partly constructed railroad.Accordingly he bought a small engine weighing about a ton--"

  "One ton!"

  "So small that it was christened the 'Tom Thumb.' He now had his woodenrails and his pygmy engine but was confronted by still anotherperplexity. The railroad must pass a very abrupt curve, it wasunavoidable that it should do so--a curve so dangerous that everybodywho saw it predicted that to round it without the engine jumping thetrack and derailing the cars behind would be impossible. Poor PeterCooper faced a very discouraging problem. There was no gainsaying thatthe curve was a bad one; moreover, his locomotive was not so perfect aproduct as he might have wished. It had been built under his directionand consisted of the wee engine he had bought in New York connected withan iron boiler about the size of an ordinary tin wash boiler; and as noiron piping was made in America at this time Cooper had taken some oldsteel musket barrels as a substitute for tubing. With this crude affairhe was determined to convince the public that a steam railroad was aworkable proposition."

  "He had a nerve!"

  "It took nerve to live and accomplish anything in those days," returnedMr. Tolman. "In the first place few persons had fortunes large enough toback big undertakings; and in addition America was still such a youngcountry that it had not begun to produce the materials needed byinventors for furthering any very extensive projects. In fact the worldof progress was, as Kipling says, 'very new and all.' Hence humaningenuity had to make what was at hand answer the required purpose, andas a result Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb engine, with its small iron boilerand its gun-barrel tubing, was set upon the wooden track, and an opencar (a sort of box on wheels with seats in it) was fastened to it. Intothis primitive conveyance the guests invited for the occasion clambered.Ahead lay the forbidding curve. Stephenson, the English engineer, hadalready stated mathematically the extreme figure at which a curve couldbe taken and the locomotive still remain on the track, and Peter Cooperwas well aware that the curve he must make was a far worse one. However,it would never do for him to betray that he had any misgivings.Therefore, together with his guests, he set out on his eventful tripwhich was either to demol
ish them all, or convince the dignitaries ofthe railroad company that not only was a steam railroad practical butthat the Baltimore and Ohio Road was a property valuable enough to bebacked by capital."

  Steve leaned forward, listening eagerly to the story.

  "Slowly the little engine started, and nearer and nearer came theterrible curve. The train was now running at fifteen miles an hour, aspeed almost unbelievable to the simple souls of that time. Round thecurve it went in safety, increasing its velocity to eighteen miles anhour. The railroad officials who were Cooper's guests were frantic withenthusiasm. One man produced paper and pencil and begged those presentto write their names, just to prove that it was possible to write evenwhen flying along at such a meteoric rate of speed. Another man jotteddown a few sentences to demonstrate that to think and write connectedphrases were things that could be done, in spite of the fact that onewas dashing through space with this unearthly rapidity."

  "So the railroad men were converted, were they?"

  "They were more than converted; they were exultant," said his father."Of course it was some time after this before the Baltimore and OhioRailroad became a reality. Capital had to be raised and the projectstably launched."

  "Oh, then this was not the first railroad in the country, after all,"observed the boy in a disappointed tone.

  "No. South Carolina boasts the first regular passenger locomotivepropelled by steam," returned Mr. Tolman. "This road ran from Charlestonto Hamburg and although a charter was obtained for it in 1827 it tookall the first year to lay six miles of track. In fact it was not until1830 that the railroad began to be operated to any extent. When it was,a locomotive, every part of which had been produced in this country, wasemployed to draw the trains. This was the first steam locomotive ofAmerican make in history. It was dubbed 'The Best Friend' and, like theengines that had preceded it, had a series of interesting adventures.Since it was the only locomotive in the possession of the road and wasin use all day any repairs on the hard-worked object had to be made atnight."

  "Humph!" ejaculated Stephen.

  "Nevertheless 'The Best Friend' might have gone on its way prosperouslyhad it not been for the ignorance of those who ran it. The engineer, tobe sure, understood more or less about a steam locomotive although hewas none too wise; but the fireman, unfortunately, understood next tonothing, and one day, on being left alone in the cab and seeing thesteam escaping from the safety valve, he conceived the notion that aleak was causing unnecessary waste. Therefore he securely screwed up thespace through which the steam had been issuing, and to make preventionmore certain he himself, a large and heavy man, sat down on the escapevalve."

  "And presto!" exclaimed Steve, rubbing his hands.

  "Exactly so! Presto, indeed! Figuratively speaking, he blew sky-high and'The Best Friend' with him," replied Mr. Tolman. "It was an unfortunatehappening, too, for people were still ill-informed about the uses ofsteam and very nervous about its mysterious power and this accident onlyserved to make them more so. For some time afterward many personsrefused to patronize the railroad in spite of all the authorities coulddo to soothe them. In time, however, the public calmed down, although inorder to reassure them it was found necessary to put a car heaped withbales of cotton between them and the engine, not only to conceal themonster from their view but also to convince them that it was somedistance away. Whether they also had a vague notion that in case theywent skyward the cotton might soften their fall when they came down, Ido not know."

  "Railroading certainly had its troubles, didn't it?" Steve commentedwith amusement.

  "It certainly had, especially in our own country," was the reply. "InEngland Stephenson and other experimenters like him had materials athand which to some extent served their purpose; moreover, thanks to Wattand other inventors, there were definite scientific ideas to work from.But in America the successful railroad which might serve as a model wasunknown. Therefore for some time English engines continued to be shippedacross the sea, and even then it was a long time before our Americanengineers understood much about their mechanism. Only by means ofrepeated experiments, first in one part of the country and then inanother, did our American railroads, so marvelous in their construction,come into being."

  Mr. Tolman paused a moment, yawned, and then rose and beckoned to theporter.

  "We still have much to perfect in our modern railroad, however," he saidwith a touch of humor. "The sleeping car, for example, is anabomination, as you are speedily to have proved to you. Here, porter!We'd like these berths made up. I guess we'd better turn in now, son.You have had enough railroading for one day and are tired. You must geta rest and be in the pink of condition to-morrow for, remember, you aregoing to wake up in New York."

  "If it will make to-morrow come any quicker I am quite ready to go tobed," retorted Stephen, with a sleepy smile.