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

110 HISTORY OF THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVES IN AMERICA.
of the Peter Cooper locomotive, will no doubt be inter-
esting to our readers
:
East Hampton, Long Island, Awgmt 4, 1869.
Wm. H. Beowit, Esq.—
"Dear Sie: Your letter to me, of the 26th July, has been
forwarded to me at this place, where I am on a visit with my
family. It will give me pleasure to give you what information I
can upon the subject upon which you inquire, but I cannot do this
so well here, as I could after my return to Baltimore, and communi-
cating with my brother, who, as counsel of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company, entered its service a couple of years before I
did, as a subordinate in the engineer corps, on the 1st of July, 1830.
" I well recollect the little experimental locomotive of Mr.
Peter Cooper, and also the sailing-car of Mr. Evan Thomas ; but
1 could not give you a reliable sketch of the former at present,
but, as to the latter, it was ' a basket body,' like that of a sleigh,
and had a mast, and, if I recollect, ' a square sail, and was mounted
upon four wheels of equal size.' It ran equally well in either direction,
but of course only in that in which the- wind happened to be
blowing at the time, although it would go with the wind abaft the
beam, but at a speed proportioned to the angle with a line of the
sails. It was but a clever toy, but had its use at the time in show-
ing how little power of propulsion was necessary upon a railway,
compared with the best of the roads that had preceded it. Mr.
Cooper's engine had, I remember, a vertical tubular boiler, and
he was, at the time of its being placed on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad in the summer of 1829, regarded as the first suggester of
that form of boiler,* although Mr. Booth, the treasurer of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, had proposed it for the Rocket
engine about the same time ; upon this point, however, I am not
posted. Were I at home I would refer to some books and memo-
randa there, which, together with an interchange of recollections
with my brother, would enable me to speak more specifically. The
mode of applying the power to the wheels I do not remember. I
had just entered the company's service, and my thoughts were
directed more to learning the use of the levelling instrument and
transit, and how to run curves with the latter, than to the rolling
machinery of the railroad.
* Mr. Cooper has since informed the author that, for want of regular tubes (not
then ever used), he substituted gun-barrels for tubes.
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