The history of the first locomotives in America. From original ...

104 HISTORY OF THE FIKST LOCOMOTIVES IN AMEBICA.
but otlier considerations prevailed in favor of the aisle,
wliicli has continued to the present d&y.
Horatio Allen, Esq., in one of his letters to the
author, once said, in alluding to the improvements in
every department of railroad machinery, locomotives,
cars, etc.;
" It is generally believed that the railroad system was im-
ported into this country from England, full grown, but such is not
the case. This will be exemplified in no better instance than the
fact that in September, 1832, steel springs were first placed upon
the locomotive ' York ' and tender, as an experiment only, and they
demonstrated their utility and necessity in regulating the motion
and greatly diminishing the jar and consequent injury to the road.
This also suggested the propriety of making a further experiment,
by placing some of the burden-cars on springs, by which it was
found that they admitted of one-third more loading, without any
increase of damage to the road or car."
Two years earlier than this, however, other and im-
portant improvements had been made. One of the great
desideratums in the beginning of raili-oad enterprise in
this country, and to which no example could be applied,
was a plan to reduce the large amount of friction.
In the early period of the Baltimore and Ohio Kail-
road, when no one dreamed of steam, horses were ex-
pected to do the work, and to reduce the friction of the
axles in the boxes'was the object to be achieved. In
this extremity*, Ross Winans, Esq., now living, a vener-
able citizen of Baltimore, came to the rescue with his
inventive genius. Dr. William Howard, an accom-
plished and scientific gentleman, had already patented
the application of the ordinary friction-wheel to a car,
where the main journal revolved on the exterior
periphery ; but Mr. Wiaans suspended his wheel by a
projecting flange, on the interior periphery of which the
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