EARLY AMERICAN RAILWAY PROJECTS.
CONCEPTIONS OF OLIVER EVANS, JOHN
STEVENS, AND ROBERT FULTON.
IT would be difficult to trace each stage of the proceedings
that finally led to the establishment of railways in the United
States. At some periods few things were attempted which were not
imitations of something that had previously been done in Great
Britain. But this rule had notable exceptions, the first of which
was the invention of a high-pressure engine, which, under favorable
circumstances, could presumably have been developed into a successful
primitive locomotive, by Oliver Evans, an able and successful
inventor, at an earlier date than any equally important forerunner
of the locomotive had been devised elsewhere. There were no railways
in America at the period when Evans first conceived his plan of
a steam-road wagon, and he was obliged to look, but in vain, for
a field of practical utility, to turnpikes or a slight modification
of them. He nevertheless was an ardent, although unsuccessful,
advocate of steam railways, and he was the first citizen of the
United States who combined with such advocacy positive proofs
of ability to devise a machine capable of moving itself and additional
weight by steam power, over ordinary streets or roads.
In a letter published in Niles' Register, dated November 13th,
1812, Oliver Evans describes at length the steps he had commenced,
soon after 1772, to construct steam wagons, and to organize methods
for applying them to useful service. He makes this reference to
what was probably his most remarkable original discovery: "At
length a book fell into my hands describing the old atmospheric
steam engine. I was astonished to observe that they had so far
erred as to use steam only to form a vacuum to apply the mere
pressure of the atmosphere instead of applying the elastic power
of the steam for original motion; the power of which I supposed
irresistible. I renewed my studies with increased ardor and soon
declared that I could make steam wagons."
He states that in 1786 he petitioned the legislature of Pennsylvania
for the exclusive right to use his improvements in flour mills
and steam wagons in that commonwealth, and that the committee
to whom his petition was referred heard him very patiently while
he described his mill improvements, but were led to think him
insane by his representations concerning steam wagons. He then
made a similar application to the legislature of Maryland, which
resulted favorably, mainly on the ground that the grant could
injure no one, and the encouragement proposed might lead to the
production of something useful. He describes interviews with various
prominent merchants or other capitalists, in which he explained
his ideas and plans, and unsuccessfully solicited pecuniary assistance
to give them practical effect. He says that in 1800 or 1801 he
constructed a small stationary engine for grinding plaster, which
fully demonstrated the correctness of his theories. As an additional
and unanswerable demonstration, he cites the success of the effort
he made in 1804 to propel by steam through the streets of Philadelphia
his machine for cleaning docks.
Of this he says: "It consisted of a large flat, or scow,
with a steam engine of the power of five horses on board to work
machinery to raise the mud into flats. This was a fine opportunity
to show the public that my engine could propel both land and water
carriages, and I resolved to do it. When the work was finished
I put wheels under it, and, though it was equal in weight to two
hundred barrels of flour, and the wheels fixed with wooden axle-trees
for this temporary purpose in a very rough manner, and with great
friction, of course, yet with this small engine I transported
my great burthen to the Schuylkill river with case; and when it
was launched in the water I fixed a paddlewheel at the stern,
and drove it down the Schuylkill to the Delaware, and up the Delaware
to the city, leaving all the vessels going up behind me at least
half-way, the wind being ahead."
This remarkable demonstration of
THE PRACTICABILITY OF STEAM WAGONS,
as well as steamboats, by a single machine, at that early period,
was one of the greatest triumphs of superior inventive and mechanical
skill ever achieved. But either lack of faith or lack of capital
prevented the immediate fruition which Mr. Evans so richly deserved,
notwithstanding the continuance of appeals, which he forcibly
describes in the following extracts:
"Some wise men undertook to ridicule my experiment of
propelling this great weight on land, because the motion was too
slow to be useful. I silenced them by answering that I would make
a carriage, to be propelled by steam, for a bet of $3,000, to
run upon a level road against the swiftest horse they would produce.
I was then as confident as I am now that such velocity could be
given to carriages. . . . On the 26th of September, 1804, I submitted
to the consideration of the Lancaster Turnpike Company, a statement
of the cost and profits of a steam carriage to carry 100 barrels
of flour 50 miles in 24 hours,tending to show that one such
steam engine would make more net profits than ten wagons drawn
by ten horses each, on a good turnpike road, and offering to build
such a carriage at a very low price."
In a practical test of such a proposition Mr. Evans would,
of course, have been obliged to encounter difficulties similar
to those which confronted other inventors who endeavored to promote
the use of steam engines on turnpike roads, and he recognized
the force of the conclusion which was one of the great secrets
of the extraordinary success achieved by George Stephenson, viz.:
That the rail and the locomotive should be regarded as man and
wife.
Indications of this conviction are furnished by the following
extracts from Mr. Evans' communication of 1812:
"I am still willing to make a steam carriage that will run
fifteen miles an hour, on good, level railways, on condition
that I have double price if it shall run with that velocity, and
nothing for it if it shall not come up to that velocity. . . .
I have been highly delighted in reading a correspondence between
John Stevens, Esq., and the commissioners appointed by the legislature
of New York, for fixing on the site of the great canal proposed
to be cut in that state. Mr. Stevens has taken a most comprehensive
and very ingenious view of this important subject, and his plan
of railways for the carriage to run upon removes all the difficulties
that remained. I have had the pleasure, also, of hearing gentlemen
of the keenest penetration, and of great mechanical and philosophical
talents, freely give in to the belief that steam carriages will
become very useful. Mr. John Ellicott (of John) proposed to make
roads of substances such as the best turnpikes are made, with
a path for each wheel to run on, having a railway on posts in
the middle to guide the tongue of the wagon, and to prevent any
other carriage from traveling on it. Then, if the wheels were
made broad and the paths smooth, there would be very little wear.
Such roads might be very cheaply made. They would last a long
time, and require very little repair. Such roads, I am inclined
to believe, ought to be preferred, in the first instance, to those
proposed by Mr. Stevens, as two ways could be made, in some parts
of the country, for the same expense, as one could be made with
wood. But either of the roads would answer the purpose, and the
carriages might travel by night as well as in the day."
This crude conception of a possible railway is followed by
this striking prophecy of the actual course of events:
"When we reflect upon the obstinate opposition that has been
made by a great majority to every step towards improvement; from
bad roads to turnpikes, from turnpikes to canal, from canal to
railways for horse carriages, it is too much to expect the monstrous
leap from bad roads to railways for steam carriages, at once.
One step in a generation is all we can hope for. If the present
shall adopt canals, the next may try the railways with horses,
and the third generation use the steam carriage. . . . I do verily
believe that the time will come when carriages propelled by steam
will be in general use, as well for the transportation of passengers
as goods, traveling at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, or 300
miles per day."
In a work published in or about 1813 he repeated in a still
more emphatic manner, some of the ideas expressed above. He said:
"The time will come when people will travel in stages moved
by steam engines, from one city to another, almost as fast as
birds fly, fifteen or twenty miles an hour. . . . A carriage will
set out from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast
at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup at New York, the same
day. To accomplish this two sets of railways will be laid, so
nearly level as Hot in any place to deviate more than two degrees
from the horizontal line, made of wood or iron or smooth paths
of broken stone or gravel, with a rail to guide the carriages,
so that they may pass each other in different directions, and
travel by night as well as by day; and the passengers will sleep
in these stages as comfortably as they now do in steam stage boats."
COLONEL JOHN STEVENS, OF HOBOKEN,
whose advocacy of a railroad instead of a canal is referred
to by Oliver Evans, was the first American who combined a very
early championship of railway improvements with persistent, and
judicious efforts that finally led to important practical results.
He commenced advocating the construction of railways in New York
about 1810, and in 1811 applied to the legislature of New Jersey
for the first American railway charter, which was granted in 1815.
When the agitation of schemes for constructing a canal to connect
lake Erie with the Hudson seemed to be assuming a practical shape
in 1812, Colonel Stevens urged the New York commission of inland
navigation, of which Gouverneur K. Morris was chairman, to construct
a railway, instead of a canal, as a connecting link between those
great water channels, and, although his suggestions were rejected,
they helped to direct public attention to the practicability of
improved iron highways, and they embodied the first clear conception
of a lengthy and extensive railway. The comprehensive nature of
his plans may be inferred from the fact that his outline of them,
as furnished in February, 1812, was as follows:
"Let a railway of timber be formed, by the nearest practicable
route, between lake Erie and Albany. The angle of elevation in
no part to exceed one degree, or such an elevation, whatever it
may be, as will admit of wheel carriages to remain stationary
when no power is exerted to impel them forward. This railway,
throughout its course, to be supported on pillars raised from
three to five or six feet above the surface of the ground. The
carriage wheels, of cast iron, the rims flat with projecting flanges,
to fit on the surface of the railways. The moving power to be
a steam engine, nearly similar in construction to the one on board
the Juliana, a ferryboat plying between this city and Hoboken."
This conception closely resembled the New York elevated railways,
and although it differs widely from the method of construction
subsequently adopted by the lengthy steam lines, it was far in
advance of the plans that had then been suggested by other inventors.
He supported his theory of the practicability of such a road
by the following reasons: Its expense would be no greater than
that of an ordinary turnpike road with a good coat of gravel on
it; it could be built in one or two years; its elevation would
remove the timber, of which it was composed, from danger of decay;
and travel could never be impeded on it even by the deepest snows;
it would be free from the casualties to which canals were liable,
and the expense of transportation would be far less than on a
canal.
In discussing the speed that could be obtained by passenger
trains he said that he should not be surprised at seeing steam
carriages propelled at the rate of 40 or 50 miles an hour. In
reference to freight movements be estimated that a train of 160
tons could be drawn at a speed of four miles per hour, and that
the actual expense of transporting a ton over the entire line
would be fifty cents. He also made a detailed estimate of the
cost of such a road as lie proposed, having brick pillars, 400
to the mile, with timber ways and iron bar rails four inches broad
and one-half inch thick. He made the cost per mile as follows:
Bar-iron plates $7,603
Brick pillars $1,600
Timber ways $1,500
Total
$10,703
Or, for the whole 300 miles $3,210,900
For reducing elevations, etc $500,000
Total
$3,710,900
At a much later period, probably about 1835, attempts were
made to build a few railways in accordance with these plans, in
south-western New York and north-eastern Ohio, but such projects
were soon abandoned mainly on account of the perishable and insecure
nature of wood as a supporting material and the inability to secure
a sufficient amount of capital to purchase iron supports.
Thwarted in his attempt to secure a favorable consideration
from the New York commissioners, Mr. Stevens published his suggestions
in pamphlet form in 1812, and made an earnest effort to secure
aid from the Federal Government for the purpose of having an experimental
railway built, by which the feasibility of his plans could be
tested. He claimed that for the moderate sum of $3,000 such a
test could be made. In the introduction to the description of
his plans, be said: "But I consider it (internal improvement
by means of railways), in every point of view, so exclusively
an object of national concern that I shall give no encouragement
to private speculations until it is ascertained that Congress
will not be disposed to pay any attention to it. Should it, however,
be destined to remain unnoticed by the General Government, I must
confess I shall feel much regret, not so much from personal as
from public considerations. I am anxious and ambitious that my
native country should have the honor of being the first to introduce
an improvement of such immense importance to society at large,
and should feel the utmost reluctance at being compelled to resort
to foreigners in the first instance. As no doubt exists in my
mind but that the value of the improvement would be duly appreciated
and carried into immediate effect by transatlantic governments,
I have been the more urgent in pressing the subject on the attention
of Congress. Whatever then may be its fate, should this appeal
be considered obtrusive and unimportant, or, from whatever other
cause or motive, should it be suffered to remain unheeded, I still
have the consolation of having performed what I conceive to be
a public duty."
CHARTER FOR THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD GRANTED IN
1823.
Failing to secure favorable consideration from Congress, he
probably increased his efforts to secure a railway charter from
the state government of New Jersey, authorizing a road from Trenton
to New Brunswick. At all events, his efforts to obtain such a
charter were successful in 1815. But he seems to have been unable
to speedily obtain a sufficient amount of capital to construct
the proposed line, and his next step was to construct a short
experimental railway, at his own expense, at Hoboken in 1820.
In 1818 or 1819 be addressed a memorial to the legislature of
Pennsylvania, recommending the construction of a railway from
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and in 1823 he secured, in conjunction
with other corporators, who were citizens of Pennsylvania, the
passage of an act by the Pennsylvania legislature authorizing
the construction of a line from Philadelphia to Columbia.
The law was approved on March 31st, 1823. It is entitled an
act to incorporate a company to erect a railroad from Philadelphia
to Columbia, in Lancaster county, the terminal points being those
between which the first important turnpike in the United States
was constructed. The proposed title of the corporation to be created
was, "The President, Directors, and Company of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company." The preamble is as follows: "Whereas,
it hath been represented by John Stevens, in his memorial to the
Legislature, that a rail-road from Philadelphia to Columbia would
greatly facilitate the transport between those two places, suggesting
also that
he hath made important improvements in the construction of
railways; and praying that in order to carry such beneficial purposes
into effect, himself and his associates may be incorporated."
The corporators were John Connelly, Michael Baker, Horace Binney,
Stephen Girard, Samuel Humphreys, of Philadelphia; Emmor Bradley,
of Chester county; Amos Ellmaker, of Lancaster city; John Barber
and William Wright, of Columbia."
The section relating to the charges authorized was as follows:
"That on the completion of the said railroad, all transportation
on the same, of whatsoever nature or kind, shall be carried on
and conducted by and under the superintendence and direction of
the said John Stevens, or of his legal representative or representatives;
and it shall and may be lawful for said John Stevens and his legal
representative or representatives to charge and receive for freight,
on and for the transportation of goods, wares, and merchandise,
at a rate not exceeding seven cents per mile on each and every
ton thereof passing westward, and three and a half cents per mile
on each and every ton weight thereof passing eastward on the said
railroad; but on all single and detached articles, weighing less
than a ton, it shall and may be lawful to charge and receive,
on the transport of the same, an advance not exceeding twenty
per cent. on the rates as above established."
The financial scheme contemplated by this charter was novel.
Subscriptions of stock were to be invited in the usual manner;
but the total number was not to exceed six thousand shares of
one hundred dollars each, so that it was probably supposed at
that time that this primitive railroad might be constructed on
a line now occupied by one of the most expensive and profitable
lines in the United States at a cost of about eight thousand dollars
per mile. As it was uncertain whether the cost would exceed the
sum derived from share subscriptions, or fall below it, the charter
contained a section relating to the capital of the company, which
was as follows: "That on the completion of said railroad
the president and directors are hereby required to ascertain precisely
the amount of the sum total of expenses incurred in the construction
of the same, and said sum total shall constitute the existing
capital of said railroad company." Another strange feature
of this charter was a provision which, perhaps on account of a
supposition that Stevens should possess special rights in the
new enterprise analogous to those enjoyed by a patentee, declared
that after dividends on amount of capital stock, amounting to
three per cent. quarterly, or twelve per cent. per annum, were
paid to the stockholders, all profits exceeding that liberal return
should be retained by the said John Stevens or his legal representative
or representatives. If the company did not earn more than twelve
per cent. per annum on cost of road, and thus provide an excess
out of which Stevens was to be paid for his labors, the charter
provided that "in every such case the said John Stevens,
or his legal representative or representatives, shall be paid
such compensation for his or their services, during each year,
as may be agreed upon by the said John Stevens, or his legal representative,
and the said president, directors, and company of the said railroad
company."
This charter led to no immediate practical results, and the
charter was repealed in 1826. But little was known at that time
of railway operations, and the difficulties of procuring the requisite
capital under the plan proposed were insurmountable. The stipulations
mentioned above, however, throw an interesting light upon the
ideas prevailing in regard to railways in the most advanced circles
in 1823.
EARNEST BUT UNSUCCESSFUL ADVOCACY OF THE FIRST PROPOSED
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.
The failure was due mainly to the lack of confidence among
capitalists, which has postponed the completion or prevented the
construction of many other lines proposed at later dates. An evidence
of the persistence and ability with which Colonel Stevens advocated
this project is furnished by the following public letter, published
in 1823, which was doubtless one of the agencies that gradually
prepared the public mind for the effective support of railway
schemes:
"PHILADELPHIA, 1823.
"SIR: It is now generally admitted that a railroad is
not a mere visionary project, but is actually practicable. An
erroneous idea has, however, prevailed among its opponents, that
it is only practicable to short distances, and that the contemplated
extension of a railroad to a distance of 73 miles is ridiculous.
As the railroad will, throughout its course, be, in its construction,
exactly similar, it is only in its deviations from a horizontal
line that any difference in the progressive motion of carriages
thereon can take place. The charter contains a provision that
the railroad in its progress shall in no part rise above an angle
of two degrees with the plane of the horizon.
Now let us suppose that a section of the intended railroad
be constructed in the immediate vicinity of the city, of one mile
in extent, in the progress of which elevations of two degrees
do actually occur. Should it, however, be practicable, on such
section of the intended railroad, to cause loaded carriages to
move forward and backward, without encountering any impediment
or difficulty, would it not be presumable that the effect would
be precisely the same were a similar road to be extended ever
so far? Such an experiment, then, would not fail to produce conviction
in the minds of the most incredulous.
As a further illustration of the practicability of the proposed
railroad, it would be barely necessary to notice the rapid progress
this important improvement has recently made in the island of
Great Britain. If, in the narrow limits of 21 miles in length
and 12 miles in breadth, in the immediate vicinity of Newcastle,
no less than 450 miles of railroad have, within a very short period
of time, been formed, why should it not be practicable to erect
one extending only 73 miles? The contemplated formation of a railroad
from Manchester to Liverpool, between which large towns there
now exists a spacious canal, demonstrates very forcibly its feasibility
and great utility.
The expense of the contemplated railroad is estimated at about
$5,000 per mile. One thousand shares, then, at five dollars each,
would be sufficient for the construction of one mile of the road.
An appeal is now, therefore, made to the enlightened patriotism
and to the enterprising spirit of the good citizens of Philadelphia
to step forward, and, by an advance of five dollars each, to place
the contemplated improvement beyond all possibility of doubt or
uncertainty.
That the stock will, from the start, yield more than legal
interest, there cannot be a shadow of a doubt, that it will, ultimately,
and at no distant period, yield 12 per cent. per annum, is equally
certain.
The contemplated railroad will differ from turnpike roads in
these very important particulars: The actual expense of transportation
on the railroad will be reduced to one-quarter of what it now
is on the existing turnpikes. But the most essential point of
difference, as it regards stockholders, is, that the whole of
the emoluments to be derived from the transportation of commodities,
and from the conveyance of passengers, will go to the railroad
company, whereas the turnpike company receives only a toll. The
expense of repairs will bear no proportion to that incurred on
turnpike roads. The railroad too will be equally good at all seasons
of the year. This circumstance gives to a railroad a decided superiority
also over a canal, which continues, for months, during the winter
season, locked up by frost.
But when, in the progress of improvement, the power of steam
shall be substituted for that of horses, transportation will most
assuredly be afforded at much less than on a canal. However extraordinary
this opinion may appear, by a recurrence to calculation, it is,
nevertheless, capable of demonstrative proof. And when this great
improvement in transportation shall have been extended to Pittsburgh,
and thence into the heart of the extensive and fertile state of
Ohio, and also to the great western lakes, Philadelphia may then
become the grand emporium of the western country.
Should the subscription for the shares be speedily filled the
road from Philadelphia to Columbia may with case be finished before
the next winter, and thus the stockholders will derive an immediate
interest on their stock.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
JOHN STEVENS."
One of the passages of this public letter shows that in addition
to advocacy of lengthy through railway lines extending in New
York from the Hudson to lake Erie and in Pennsylvania from Philadelphia
to Pittsburgh, Colonel Stevens also recommended that railway companies
should furnish cars and motive power. He was the inventor or constructor
of the successful steamboats which entered into rivalry with those
made by Robert Fulton.
ROBERT FULTON'S PROPHECY.
It is a curious fact that Mr. Fulton bad also reached the conclusion
that railways could be made advantageous avenues of lengthy transportation
movements at a very early period. It is reported that when be
was journeying over the Allegheny mountains, in a stage coach,
to Pittsburgh, in 1811, he said:
"The day will come, gentlemen, I may not live to see it though
some of you who are younger will probablywhen carriages
will be drawn over these mountains by steam engines, at a rate
more rapid than that of a stage on the smoothest turnpike."
The fact that the earliest serious advocates of railways in
the United States had been extensively engaged in steamboat or
steam engine operations is suggestive. It indicates a logical
connection between schemes for conducting transportation by steam,
in steamboats, on water, and on railways with the aid of locomotives;
shows that the early, American railway advocates possessed superior
ability; and also foreshadows such transitions of prominent and
active men from one of these fields of activity to the other,
as have occurred.
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