delphia for the promotion of internal improvement, to which end they published information concerning canals, roads, and railways, and otherwise agitated the subject. In January, 1825, this body resolved to send an engineer to England to collect information concerning these matters, and for this work William Strickland, architect and engineer, was chosen. In 1826 the results of his investigations were printed by subscription. In the list of subscribers' names appears this item: "House of Representatives of the United States, 25 copies." In the report some ten pages were devoted to railways,-construction of road-bed, rails, locomotives, and car-wheels being minutely treated, and suggestions for adaptations to conditions in the United States made.28 Strickland came to the conclusion that locomotives might be employed on railways that were nearly level; otherwise inclined planes with stationary engines would be necessary. On the whole, he would seem to favor railways.29 His report will be referred to in the section on structure and utility. THE FIRST RAILWAY COMPANIES; THE SOUTH CAROLINA RAILROAD The five years which followed were years of rapid progress in the railway world. In England steam was successfully applied to the transportation of passengers on the Stockton & Darlington railroad, and by 1830 the Liverpool & Manchester railroad, begun in 1826, was in operation. In 1827 Stephen 28 Strickland, William, Reports on Canals, railways, roads, and other subjects. (Phila., 1826.) Since writing the above, the writer has found the following reference. In the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society for 1854 (Vol. 30) apr pears an obituary read by Judge Kane before that Society-of which Strickland had been a member. Of Strickland's report he says: "He had witnessed the great experiment of the first locomotives on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad; and in closing his report upon this performance, he prophesied that railroads were destined to supersede canals; and when I was about to remit this passage to the printer, the Society's committee, and I think the Society itself, remonstrated strenuously against so perilous a committal on the part of a gentleman, whose opinions might be corresponded with their own. In the end, I rewrote the closing paragraph of the report at their instance, and SO saved Strickland from declaring in advance what a large part of the world knows now to be true." son established works for manufacturing locomotives, and in 1829 three English engines were imported into America. Nor was this country backward. In 1826 John Stevens demonstrated the feasibility of steam locomotion on a small experimental scale. In the same year a short railway was used to transport stone for the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston, Mass., and in 1827 at Mauch Chunk, Pa., coal was transported nine miles from the mine to water over a railway operated by gravity and mules. The year 1827, however, is marked by more important events than the completion of this short and crude coal railway, for it was in this year that the first railways for general commercial purposes and for passengers were chartered,-the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company and the South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company was chartered by Maryland in April, 1827, and in the same month applied to Congress for assistance in surveying its route. This is the first case in which a railway company ever approached the Congress of the United States for aid; and, indeed, is the first appearance of a railway company in Congress. The early history of the Baltimore & Ohio will be treated at greater length in the following chapters. The South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company is of more direct interest in this chapter of our Congressional history, inasmuch as a full report of its structure and purpose was laid before Congress. The proposed railway extended from Charleston to Hamburg, a distance of about one hundred and thirty-six miles.30 It was the first railway in the United States planned for steam power, and upon it was run the first practical locomotive constructed in this country (1830). Work upon the road was begun in 1829, and it was in August, 1828, that the railway company applied for the assistance of goverment surveyors.31 30 It was completed in 1834, and was for a short time the longest railroad under a single management in the world. Hamburg is on the Savannah river -opposite to Augusta, Ga. 1 State Documents, 1828-29, I, No. 1, p. 47. On August 27, 1829, a United States civil engineer, detailed to this duty, made a report to the president and directors of the South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company concerning the Charleston & Hamburg railroad, which was in turn reported by the secretary of war to President Jackson, who submitted it to Congress. The substance of this report follows. The topography of the region to be traversed was described as eminently suited to the work, from the level character of the land. The use of wood was advocated in the construction of the road, the rails to be of yellow pine and to rest upon sills of lightwood33 or live-oak. These sills were to be eight feet apart, and the rails to measure at least six by nine inches, the rail and sill being let into each other sufficiently to secure them in their places and made fast by a locust or live-oak key. In place of embankments, it was proposed to raise the road on posts or piles. When it became necessary to replace the road, sills of stone might be used, to which the wooden rails would be fastened by iron chains; or, if a still more durable track were desired, the rails might be covered with plates of iron, as used in Massachusetts, or by "rails entirely of iron, according to the English plan." The report also stated that it would be unwise not to make the road adaptable to both horse power and steam locomotives, and, as has been already stated, this was the first road in the United States built with the idea of using the locomotive engine. It was suggested that the weight of locomotives be reduced as much as possible, and that a premium be awarded for the "best model of a locomotive engine, combining lightness and power, and adapted to the use of light wood." The laying of a single track was advised, on the ground that the traffic did not warrant a double track. In conclusion, the military advantages of the railway were pointed out. The plan set forth in this report was followed, except that 82 State Papers, 1829-30, I. No. 7, p. 26. 83 Lightwood is a pine wood abounding in pitch, found in the South. the rails were covered with flat iron bars from the outset, and it should be observed that it was essentially identical with the construction proposed by John Stevens in 1812, who would have raised his track above the ground in order to protect it from snow and dust. Both plans adopted wooden rails, although contemplating the possible necessity for iron, and both were designed for steam power. CHAPTER II THE RAILWAY ENTERS CONGRESS: EARLY IDEAS AS TO “A railroad,” wrote Latrobe in 1808, "consists of two pairs of parallel ways, one pair for going and the other for returning carriages." Among the documents submitted to Congress in 1832 was a report of the New York railway commissioners which gravely propounds that "the principle on which the railway operates differs essentially from that of a canal. In the latter, the body to be moved is sustained by the greater gravity of the fluid on which it is placed. * In the former, the weight to be transported is sustained on rollers or wheels, and is made to move along the hard and even surface of planes, either level or partially inclined. ''2 Little more need be written to indicate that the railway was in its infancy. (a) Track. Of the various parts that go to make up a modern railway system, the way or track first came to the attention of Congress. Latrobe described the construction deemed suitable to this country in 1808. The rails were to be of cast iron from three to six feet long, five-eighths of an inch thick, and fifty-six pounds in weight, i. e., twenty-eight pounds per yard. The cross section of this rail would have been in the shape of the letter L, a two-inch "flanch" or projection on the outside serving to keep the wheels upon the track. The ends of the rails were to be fastened to cross-pieces of wood, though the use of stone 1 See above, p. 182. 2 Executive Documents, 1831-32, No. 101, p. 222. |