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

EXPERIMENTAL LOCOMOTIVES. HI
" I recollect very distinctly, however, a trip which this little
locomotive of ' Alderman Cooper's,' as he was then called, made
to Ellicott's Mills, where I was stationed. It must have heen
in July or August, 1830. It brought out several of the directors,
and my brother was one of the party, and I remember following
it a little distance down the road, after it had started with much
puffing and leaking of steam from some of its joints.
" It was in size (and power too, I might say) about the scale of
Evan Thomas's sailing-car ; yet it was, as the first step in the use
of steam on that road, a highly important one.
" Its fuel, I think, was anthracite coal, the use of which, in the
engines which succeeded it, was a favorite idea with the company,
and influenced the form of the locomotives employed upon the
road for several subsequent years.
" The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, stimulated by the example
of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, next year (1830) offered
a premium of $500 to the constructor of the locomotive which
would draw fifteen tons, gross weight, fifteen miles an hour. This
advertisement brought upon the road an odd collection of four or
five original American ideas, of which it is much to be regretted
that photographs and indeed detailed drawings have not been pre-
served. Among these was a rotary engine, by a Mr. Childs, which,
I believe, never made a revolution of its wheels, certainly not in
the form of the locomotive. The engine which took the premium
was built by Mr. Phineas Davis, which was the mpdel for those
built after it for three or four years.
" I cannot add more just now, and, as I shall not be in Balti-
more (except to post this) for three or four weeks, I must delay
writing until then.
" Respectfully and truly yours,
Digitized by Microsoft®
" Benjamin H. Lateobe."