Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN RAIL AND TRACK, AS ILLUS- TRATED BY THE COLLECTION IN THE U. S, NATIONAL MUSEUM. By J. Elfreth Watkins, Curator of the Department of Transportation and Engineering. In the brief report upon the section of steam transportation for the year 1887, a statement was made to the effect that considerable in- formation had been secured which it was hoped to use "in preparing- a series of models to illustrate the beginnings and development of the English and American systems of track. "While illustrated histories of the steamboat and locomotive are numerous, I am not aware that any systematic attempt has been made to preserve the history of the development of the systems of permanent way which, after many years of experiment, are now being reduced to a series of standards depending on the traffic." (Report of U. S. National Museum, 1887, p. 79.) These expectations were realized to a sufficient extent to warrant the preparation of the series of original rail sections, models, and drawings to illustrate the origin and development of American permanent way for the Exposition at Cincinnati in 1888. The interest manifested in that collection led me to present a paper entitled "The Development of the American Rail and Track" at the annual convention of the American Society of Civil Engineers, at Sea Bright, New Jersey, June 21, 1889. This will appear in the transactions of that society during the coming year.* At the conclusion of that paper I took occasion to state that in its preparation " I preferred to confine myself to a description of such rails as are represented by original sections, models, or drawings in the section of transportation and engineering in the U. S. National Museum." " I am fully conscious that I have been compelled to overlook many things which are of great historical interest, owing to the fact that our collection is small—only a nucleus in reality." *See Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, April, 1890, p. 209- 232. C51 — 652 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. Although some additions to the collection have since been made, a large portion of the facts here stated, together with many of the illus- trations, also appear in the original paper. GOOD TRACK AS IMPORTANT AS THE LOCOMOTIVE. As the improved wagon roads in the past made it practicable to transfer the burden from the pack mule to the wheel vehicle, and the traveler from the saddle horse to the light, comfortable, and rapidly moving carriage, so the development of the iron railway of the nine- teenth century has made it possible for us to enjoy the safety, speed, and comfort of the express train of to-day, drawn by the fleet and powerful locomotive. In considering the improvement in methods of transportation, I am led to think that there is a tendency to overestimate the benefits arising from the invention and improvement of the locomotive, and to overlook what has been done by those who devoted time aud thought to the development of the various systems of permanent way. The improvement made in track construction in England during the first quarter or the century made the introduction of the locomotive there possible. Trevithick's locomotive of 1804, crude as it was, would have been much more successful, and might have brought him much greater fame as one of the first inventors of the locomotive, had the track upon which it ran been constructed according to modern methods. Long before the locomotive was a practical machine the advantages of the cast-iron tramroad were fully appreciated. By careful calculation a distinguished London engineer, in 1802, found that while it cost 3s. 4tf. per ton per mile to transport bulky freight over turnpikes, the cost on iron horse tramroads was only one- tenth, M. George Stephenson, while president of the "British Carrying Com- panies," stated "that by the introduction of the horse tramroad the monthly expense of that company for coal carriage alone had been reduced from £1200 to £300. An edition of " Wood's Treatise of Railroads," published in 1830, which was one of the earliest and most reliable standard works on railroad subjects, calls attention to the economical operation of the coal railroad, miles loug, near Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, then operated by horse power, and states that by this method "it has re- paid its whole cost since 1827." On a large proportion of the American railways projected before 1830, it was intended that horse power should be used. In Austria the advantages of a horse tramway were also understood. In 1828 thirty-nine miles of the horse railway from Budweis to Lintz constructed across the mountains which separate the Moldau and the Danube—was opened to traffic. This road was extended 41 miles DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN RAIL AND TRACK. 653 farther iu 1832, aud for many years paid a dividend of 5 per cent, upon a capitalization of $10,000 a mile, being subsequently increased to a length of 130 miles in 1839. The modern horse railways in our cities and their suburbs earn hand- some dividends by carrying passengers at a lower fare per mile than the steam, railway companies find profitable. THE IRON COAL ROAD. The circumstances connected with the origin of the iron railroad, and particularly the relations which existed between coal, iron and the railway in the beginning, are of the greatest interest. Man's physical necessities exert a powerful influence upon the inventive faculties, and the trite proverb arising therefrom is nowhere better exemplified than in the history of the conception, birth, aud growth of the railroad. The demand for a new fuel to replace the faggot and the log was the necessity that became more and more urgent as the forest disap- peared to satisfy the demands of a dense population. This condition of affairs directed thought toward devising improved methods for transporting pit coal from the collieries of Great Britain to the adja- cent navigable streams or near seaports. Although coal had been mined in England as early as the middle of the ninth century, it was not until 1259 that Henry III granted the privilege of digging coal to certain persons in Newcastle. By the beginning of the fourteenth century it had become an important article of export, and was called " sea cole," owiug to the fact that it was shipped by vessels to various ports. EARLY USE OF IRON. Several methods of iron making were understood and practiced by the ancients. The Bible bears evidence iu many texts to the high esteem in which the iron worker was held. Tubal Cain is described in Genesis iv as "an instructor of every artifice in brass aud iron." In alluding to the Israelites in Deuteronomy iv is the statement: "For the Lord hath taken you and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt." Processes of making iron were known to the Babylonians and Assyr- ians. The stones in the celebrated bridge said to have been built by Nitocris were held together by bands of iron kept in place by molten lead. "Among the ruins of Sargon's palace objects of iron aud bronze, such as hooks and rings, chains, pickaxes, hammers, ploughshares, weapons, fragments of chariots, and tools of all sorts were picked up." The Phoenicians, Persians, and even the Chinese were acquainted with processes of forging iron centuries before the Christian era; and in India, iu the temple of Kuttub at Delhi, there stands a pillar of solid 654 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUxM, 1889. forged iron over 16 inches in diameter and nearly 60 feet high, supposed to have been erected in the third century. But these methods must be included among the lost arts—arts lost in the great abyss of the middle ages, which swallowed up so many of the results of the skill and ingenuity of the ancient world. But among the Greeks and the ancient nations of the Orient, as we learn from Homer, the early historians, and the latest inscriptions and archaeological discoveries, iron was once regarded as a precious metal. Homer's elaborate description of the shield of Achilles, forged by Vul- can, undoubtedly shows that the art of working iron was fully understood in that semifabulous epoch.* Iron first came into use in the arts and manufactures when Spain flourished under the Visigoths, who are said to have derived it from their ancestors, the Scythians, of whose history so little is definitely known. Spanish iron brought high prices for many years. THE IRON INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND. Early in the fifteenth century many blast furnaces were in existence in France, and soon afterward they were introduced in Sussex, Kent, and Surrey, in England, and this gave impetus to the iron industry of England. As the processes of extracting iron from various ores became more fully understood, the demand increased, and in order to keep up the supply great inroads were made each year upon the forests for fuel. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) the iron industry increased so rapidly that the consumption of wood became a most seri- ous matter, as iron was then smelted exclusively by charcoal. The destruction of the forests was so rapid that Parliament passed acts in 1558, 1581, and 1584 restricting the cutting of wood for charcoal, and thus the iron industry languished for over a century. In the mean time thought had been directed to the processes of smelt- ing iron with pit coal. Sturdevant's method, although patented in 1611, was not practicable; and Dudley, who eight years after solved the prob- lem with some success, was so much abused by the charcoal smelters, that fearing bodily injury he too abandoned the business.

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