Chapter 4

He was familiar with the Berkenshaw rail, with which the best English roads were then being laid, but he saw that, as it required an expensive chair to hold it in place, it was not adapted to our country, where metal workers were scarce and iron was dear. He added the base to the T rail, dispensing with the chair. He also designed the "hook-headed" spike (which is substantially the railroad spike of to-day) and the "iron tongue" (which has been developed into the fish bar), and the rivets (which have been replaced by the bolt and nut) to complete the joint.

A fac-simile of the letter[2] which he addressed to the English iron masters a short time after his arrival in London is preserved in the United States National Museum. It contains a cross section, side elevation and ground plan of the rail for which he requested bids.

The base of the rail which he first proposed was to be wider where it was to be attached to the supports than in the intervening spaces. This was afterward modified, so that the base was made the same width (three inches) throughout.

[Footnote 2: This letter reads:

LIVERPOOL, November 26th, 1830.

GENTLEMEN,--At what rate will you contract to deliver at Liverpool, say from 500 to 600 tons of railway, of the best quality of iron rolled to the above pattern in 12 or 16 feet lengths, to lap as shown in the drawing, with one hole at each end, and the projections on the lower flange at every two feet, cash on delivery?

How soon could you make the first delivery, and at what rate per month until the whole is complete? Should the terms suit and the work give satisfaction a more extended order is likely to follow, as this is but about one-sixth part of the quantity required. Please to address your answer (as soon as convenient) to the care of Francis B. Ogden, Consul of the United States at Liverpool.

I am Your obedient servant, ROBERT L. STEVENS, _President and Engineer of the Camden and South Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company._ ]

DIFFICULTY OF ROLLING THE AMERICAN RAIL.

Mr. Stevens received no favorable answer to his proposals, but being acquainted with Mr. Guest (afterward Sir John Guest), a member of Parliament, proprietor of large iron works in Dowlais, Wales, he prevailed upon him to have rails rolled at his works. Mr. Guest became interested in the matter and accompanied Mr. Stevens to Wales, where the latter gave his personal supervision to the construction of the rolls. After the rolls were completed the Messrs. Guest hesitated to have them used, through fear of damage to the mill machinery, upon hearing which Mr. Stevens deposited a handsome sum guaranteeing the expense of repairing the mill in case it was damaged. The receipt for this deposit was preserved for many years among the archives of the Camden and Amboy Company. As a matter of fact, the rolling apparatus did break down several times. "At first," as Mr. Stevens in a letter to his father, which I have seen, described it, "the rails came from the rolls twisted and as crooked as snakes," and he was greatly discouraged. At last, however, the mill men acquired the art of straightening the rail while it cooled.

The first shipment,[3] consisting of five hundred and fifty bars eighteen feet long, thirty-six pounds to the yard, arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Charlemagne, May 16, 1831.

Over thirty miles of this rail was laid before the summer of 1832.

A few years after, on much of the Stevens rail laid on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the rivets at the joints were discarded, and the bolt with the screw thread and nut, similar to that now used, was adopted as the standard.

The rail was first designed to weigh thirty-six pounds per yard, but it was almost immediately increased in weight to between forty and forty-two pounds, and rolled in lengths of sixteen feet. It was then three and a half inches high, two and one-eighth inches wide on the head and three and a half inches wide at the base, the price paid in England being £8 per ton. The import duty was $1.85.

The first shipment of rail, having arrived in America, was transported to Bordentown, and here, upon the ground on which we stand, and which this monument is erected to mark forever, was laid the first piece of track (about five-sixths of a mile long) in August, 1831. The Camden and Amboy Company, following the example of the Manchester and Liverpool Railroad, laid their first track upon stone blocks two feet square and ten to thirteen inches deep. These blocks were purchased from the prison authorities at Sing Sing, N.Y. Some of these stone blocks have been used in constructing the foundation for this monument.

[Footnote 3: A list of the vessels chartered to transport the rails, with dates, tonnage, etc., is given below:

No. of Tonnage. Rate of Date. Ship. Bars. tons. cwt. lb. Duty.

May 16, 1831. Charlemagne 550 504 0 14 $1.85 May 19, 1831. Salem 963 744 2 14 1.85 April 7, 1832. Caledonia 38 63 3 07 1.85 April 23, 1832. Armadilla 525 1,000 3 21 1.85 May 4, 1832. George Clinton 624 986 2 14 1.85 June 2-18, 1833. Henry Kneeland 204 377 3 21 1.85 May 8, 1832. Cumberland 1,464 2,790 1 00 1.85 June 2, 1832. Gardiner 601 1,136 0 00 1.85 June 5, 1832. Globe 499 943 1 14 1.85 June 6, 1832. Jubilee 70 130 0 21 1.85 July 18, 1832. Hellen 1,080 2,004 3 21 1.85 July 19, 1832. Nimrod 937 1,745 3 00 1.85 Aug. 2, 1832. Emery 240 454 2 00 1.85 Aug. 7, 1833. Ajax 364 700 0 21 1.85 Aug. 13, 1832. Concordia 622 1,174 3 14 1.85 Aug. 14, 1830. William Byrny 1,120 2,138 1 07 1.85 Aug. 20, 1832. Mary Howland 932 1,755 3 07 1.85 Aug. 23, 1832. Pulaski 488 924 1 00 1.85 Aug. 24, 1832. Robert Morris 1,985 3,732 0 14 1.85 Aug. 27, 1832. Ann 506 961 2 27 1.85 Sept. 3, 1832. Montgomery 1,369 2,959 0 14 1.85 Sept. 4, 1832. Marengo 534 1,004 2 07 1.85 Oct. 12, 1832. Vestal 237 460 2 07 1.85

This iron proved to be of such superior quality that after it was worn out in the track, the company's mechanics preferred it to new iron in making repairs. Some of this rail is still in use in side tracks. It is pronounced equal in durability to much of the steel rail of to-day. ]

FIRST JOINT FIXTURES.

Mr. Stevens ordered the first joint fixtures also from an English mill, at the same time. The ends of the rails were designed to rest upon wrought iron plates or flat cast plates. The rails were connected at the stems by an iron "tongue" five inches long, two inches wide, and five-eighths of an inch thick. A rivet, put on hot, passing through the stem of each rail near the ends of the bar, fastened it to the tongue and completed the joint. A hole oblong in shape, to allow for expunctral contraction, was punched in the stem at each end of the rail.

THE FIRST RAILROAD SPIKES.

The first "spikes six inches long, with hooked heads," were also ordered at the same time. These were undoubtedly the "first railroad spikes" (as they are known to the trade) ever manufactured.

Mr. Stevens neglected to obtain a patent for these inventions, although urged to do so by Mr. Ogden, American Consul at Liverpool, and the credit of being the inventor of the American rail was for a time claimed for others, but the evidence brought forward in late years fully established the fact that he was the originator of the American system of railway construction.

The "Stevens rail and spike" gradually found great favor everywhere in America--all the roads being relaid with it as the original T or strap rail became worn out.

In England the T rail still continues to be used. The London and Birmingham Railway, opened in 1838, was laid with Berkenshaw rails; part with the straight and part with the fish-bellied rail, and the remainder with reversible "bull-headed" rail, both types being supported by chairs.[4]

[Footnote 4: The experiment of laying the Stevens rail in chairs was tried on the Albany and Schenectady road in 1837, on the Hudson River Railroad 1848, but the chairs were soon afterward discarded, nothing but spikes being used to attach the rail to the tie.]

Sixty years have elapsed since this rail was adopted by the Camden and Amboy Company, and with the exception of slight alterations in the proportions incident to increased weight, no radical change has been made in the "Stevens rail," which is now in use on every railroad in America. Many improvements have been made in the joint fixture, but the "tongue" or fish plate improved into the angle splice bar is in general use, and nothing has yet been found to take the place of the "hook-headed" railroad spike which Robert Stevens then designed.

The track upon which we stand was the first in the world that was laid with the rail and spike now in general use.

MR. STEVENS EXAMINES ENGLISH LOCOMOTIVES.

Mr. Stevens divided his time while abroad between arranging for the manufacture of track material and examining the English locomotives that were being constructed or had been in service.

A year had elapsed since the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and the English mechanics had not been idle. The "Rocket," although successful in the Rainhill contest, when put to work had shown many defects that Stephenson & Co. were striving to correct in subsequent locomotives.

The "Planet," built by that firm, was tried in public December 4, 1830, shortly after Mr. Stevens arrived in England, and at that time was undoubtedly the best locomotive in the world.

THE "JOHN BULL" ORDERED.

Mr. Stevens was present at a trial when the "Planet" showed most satisfactory properties, and he at once ordered a locomotive of similar construction, from the same manufacturers, for the Camden and Amboy Railroad. This engine, afterward called the "John Bull" and "No. 1," was completed in May and shipped by sailing vessel from Newcastle-on-Tyne in June, 1831, arriving in Philadelphia about the middle of August of that year. It was then transferred to a sloop at Chestnut Street wharf, Philadelphia, whence it was taken to Bordentown.

THE "JOHN BULL" ARRIVES AT BORDENTOWN.

The following circumstances connected with the arrival of the engine at Bordentown, N.J., are related by Isaac Dripps, Esq., for many years master mechanic of the Camden and Am boy Railroad, and afterward superintendent of motive power of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who is now, after a busy life, enjoying a peaceable retirement at his pleasant home in West Philadelphia.

Mr. Dripps, who is now in the eighty-second year of his age, was employed by Robert and Edwin Stevens in repairing and assisting with their steamboats on the Delaware River and at Hoboken as early as 1829. When the "John Bull" arrived in Philadelphia he was detailed by Robert Stevens to attend to the transportation of the engine to Bordentown, where it was landed safely the last week in August, 1831.

The boiler and cylinders were in place, but the loose parts--rods, pistons, valves, etc.--were packed in boxes. No drawings or directions for putting the engine together had come to hand, and young Dripps, who had never seen a locomotive, found great difficulty in discovering how to put the parts in place, alone and unassisted, as Robert Stevens, who had returned from Europe, was absent at Hoboken at the time attending to other matters.

DIMENSIONS OF ENGINE AND PARTS.

The bronze bass-relief upon the monument, made from the working drawing furnished by Mr. Dripps, is an exact representation of the locomotive when it arrived in America.

The engine originally weighed about ten tons. The boiler was thirteen feet long and three feet six inches in diameter. The cylinders were nine inches by twenty inches. There were four driving wheels, four feet six inches in diameter, arranged with outside cranks for connecting parallel rods, but owing to the sharp curves on the road these rods were never used. The driving wheels were made with cast iron hubs and wooden (locust) spokes and felloes. The tires were of wrought iron, three quarters of an inch thick, the tread being five inches and the depth of flange one and a half inches. The gauge was originally five feet from center to center of rails. The boiler was composed of sixty-two flues seven feet six inches long, two inches in diameter; the furnace was three feet seven inches long and three feet two inches high, for burning wood. The steam ports were one and one-eighth inches by six and a half inches; the exhaust ports one and one-eighth by six and a half inches; grate surface, ten feet eight inches; fire box surface, thirty-six feet; flue surface, two hundred and thirteen feet; weight, without fuel or water, twenty-two thousand four hundred and twenty-five pounds.

After the valves were in gear and the engine in motion, two levers on the engineman's side moved back and forth continuously. When it was necessary to put the locomotive on the turntable, enginemen who were skilled in the handling of the engines first put the valves out of gear by turning the handle down, and then worked the levers by hand, thus moving the valves to the proper position and stopping the engine at the exact point desired.

The reversing gear was a very complicated affair. The two eccentrics were secured to a sleeve or barrel, which fitted loosely on the crank shaft, between the two cranks, so as to turn freely. A treadle was used to change the position of this loose eccentric sleeve on the shaft of the driving wheel (moving it to the right or left) when it was necessary to reverse. Two carriers were secured firmly to the body of this shaft (one on each side of the eccentrics); one carrier worked the engine ahead, the other back. The small handle on the right side of the boiler was used to lift the eccentric rod (which passed forward to the rock shaft on the forward part of the engine) off the pin, and thus put the valves out of gear before it was possible to shift the sleeve and reverse the engine.

Great similarity will be noticed in the American locomotives built for many years after the arrival of the "John Bull," especially in the matter of making the keys, brasses, etc., on the connecting rods, and in the construction of valves, fire box and tubes. Even the old plan of setting the ends of the exhaust nozzle high up in the smoke box, which was discontinued when the petticoat pipe came in use, is now again resorted to in connection with the extended smoke box of modern locomotives.

FIRST TRIAL OF THE LOCOMOTIVE.

Mr. Dripps informs me that, after many attempts, he succeeded in putting the parts of the engine together, and when it was placed in position upon the track he notified Robert Stevens of the fact. Mr. Stevens came at once to Bordentown, as his anxiety to see it in operation was very great. Upon his arrival the boiler was pumped full of water, by hand, from the hogshead in which it was brought. Benjamin Higgins made the fire with pine wood, and when the scale[5] showed thirty pounds steam pressure, Isaac Dripps opened the throttle, Robert Stevens standing by his side, and the first locomotive on this great highway _moved_. It would be difficult to describe the feeling of these three men as they stood upon the moving engine--the first human freight drawn by steam on what was afterward destined to be the great highway connecting the two most populous cities of the American continent; a most important link in the chain of intercommunication between the North and South and West. What possibilities must have dawned upon them if they cared to lift the veil of the future!

[Footnote 5: The dial gauge was not in use at that time.]

During the next few days after this preliminary trial the engine was again taken apart, and as a few of the parts needed modification some time intervened before it was again in running order. It will be remembered that young Dripps had never seen a locomotive before and there were no "old engineers" to consult in regard to the construction or management of the engine.

A TENDER IMPROVISED.

As no tender came with the locomotive, one was improvised from a four-wheel flat car that had been used on construction work, which was soon equipped to carry water and wood. The water tank consisted of a large whisky cask which was procured from a Bordentown storekeeper, and this was securely fastened on the center of this four-wheeled car. A hole was bored up through the car into the barrel and into it a piece of two-inch tin pipe was fastened, projecting below the platform of the car. It now became necessary to devise some plan to get the water from the tank to the pump and into the boiler around the turns under the cars, and as a series of rigid sections of pipe was not practicable, young Dripps procured four sections of hose two feet long, which he had made out of shoe leather by a Bordentown shoemaker. These were attached to the pipes and securely fastened by bands of waxed thread. The hogshead was filled with water, a supply of wood for fuel was obtained, and the engine and tender were ready for work.

STEAM OR HORSE POWER?

At that time the question whether the railroad should be operated by steam locomotives or horse power had already become a political issue. The farmers and other horse owners and dealers, who had made money by selling hay and grain and horses to the stage and freight wagon lines, were discussing the possibilities of loss of business.

TRIAL OF THE ENGINE BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE.

Many of the members of the New Jersey Legislature were farmers. The management of the Camden and Amboy Railroad was anxious to give these gentlemen and other prominent citizens an opportunity to examine a steam locomotive at work and to ride in a railway train.

Sixty years ago to-day, on the 12th of November, 1831, by special invitation, the members of the Legislature and other State officials were driven from Trenton to Bordentown in stages to witness the trial. Among them were John P. Jackson (father of the present general superintendent of the United Railroads of New Jersey division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who afterward took a prominent part in the affairs of the New Jersey Railroad, whose termini were at New Brunswick and Jersey City); Benjamin Fish (director for fifty years for the Camden and Amboy Railroad), afterward president of the Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad; Ashbel Welch, chief engineer and superintendent of the Belvidere and Delaware Railroad for many years, and president of the United Railroads of New Jersey during the years immediately preceding the lease to the Pennsylvania Railroad; Edwin A. and Robert L. Stevens, afterward managers of the road.

FIRST CARS.

Two coaches built so that they might be drawn by horses were attached to the locomotive. These coaches were of the English pattern. They had four wheels and resembled three carriage bodies joined together, with seats in each facing each other. There were three doors at each side. These cars were made by a firm of carriage manufacturers, M.P. and M.E. Green, of Hoboken, and were thought to be very handsome. The New Jersey law makers were somewhat dubious, it is said, about risking their lives in this novel train, but at last they concluded to do so and the train started and made many trips back and forth without accident or delay. Madam Murat, wife of Prince Murat, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was then living in Bordentown, insisted on being the first woman to ride on a train hauled by a steam locomotive in the State.

In the evening a grand entertainment was given to the Legislature by the railroad company at Arnell's Hotel, Bordentown, and it has been whispered that the festivities kept up until a late hour in the night. Whether that be true or not, it is generally conceded that from that time to this the Legislature of New Jersey have always been more or less interested in the affairs of the Camden and Amboy Railroad and its successors, or _vice versa_.

This first movement of passengers by steam in the State of New Jersey was regarded as a success from every point of view, and in commemoration of the important events here enacted the boundaries of this first piece of railway laid between New York and Philadelphia, which were identified and staked out by Isaac Dripps a half century afterward, have been definitely marked for all time by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, who have erected these handsome stones.

EARLY DIFFICULTIES.

Among the earliest troubles of the young engineer and his employer, Robert L. Stevens, was the fact that as there were only four wheels under the engines, they were derailed frequently in going around curves; so it was necessary to provide an appliance to prevent this.

THE FIRST PILOT.

The first pilot was planned, 1832, by Robert L. Stevens. A frame made of oak, eight by four feet, pinned together at the corners, was made. Under one end of it a pair of wheels twenty-six inches in diameter were placed in boxes, and the other end was fastened to an extension of the axle outside of the forward driving wheels, it having been found by experience that a play of about one inch on each side on the pedestals of the front wheels of the pilot or engine was necessary in order to get around the curves then in the tracks. For years afterward there was very little change in constructing the pilots from that originally applied to the "John Bull."

The spiral spring, which held the front wheels of the pilot in place, acted substantially as the center pin of a truck. The turntables in use on the road were so short that it was necessary to unconnect and take off these pilots before turning the engine. After the pilot was adopted the forward large wheel on right of the engine was made loose on the shaft in order to afford additional play in going around curves. Other[6] changes and additions were also made in the locomotive.

[Footnote 6: Changes in the locomotive "John Bull" since date of construction, 1830:

Steam dome changed from rear of boiler forward to a part over what was called the "man-hole," and throttle valve placed therein.

Steam pipes changed to outside of boiler, connecting new dome with smoke box, entering it on each side.

In the beginning the reverse gear was changed from one single eccentric rod on each side to two on each side, connecting on to the same eccentric wheel, and the lifting rod, in pulling back, lifted the forward gear hook off the rocker arm, and the back motion hook then connecting on the rocker arm reversed the engine.

Side rods were never used.

Driver spring was changed from a bearing under the pedestal boxes to a point over the boxes.

The pilot was attached in this manner:

Right forward wheel being loose, forward axle extended eight inches beyond box on each side; to this was attached the beam of the pilot, having play of about one inch between box and pedestal plate to act while going around curves. The weight of forward part of engine rested upon a cross brace of the two-wheel pilot, which took bearing by a screw pin surrounded by a spring, by turning which pin the weight on the drivers could be adjusted.

A brace used as a hand rail was added on top of the frame, bracing frame and acting as a guide to the driving springs.