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

314 HISTORY OP THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVES IN AMERICA.
to place on the road and run it.
This was the first bogie engine
or truck used under the front part, ever built in this country or
any other. The engine had nine and a half inch cylinders, six-
teen-inch stroke, and had two pairs of driving-wheels five feet in
diameter, and set aft the furnace ; had four wheels, thirty-three
inches' diameter, in the truck. This tmck was placed under the
front end of the boiler for support, attached by a strong pin, and
worked upon friction-rollers so as easily to follow the curves of
the road, as the fore-wheels of a carriage upon common roads.
" The boiler-furnace was five feet long, by thirty-four inches
wide, with three-inch tubes, and made to burn anthracite coal;
With this engine I have crossed the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad
from plane to plane, fourteen miles, in thirteen minutes, mak-
ing one stop for water. '
I have tried her speed upon a level, straight
line, and have made one mile in forty-five seconds by the watch.
She was the fastest and steadiest engine I have ever run or seen,
and she worked with the greatest ease.
" The first of this kind of engine, with the truck in front, ever
built in England, was the ' Davy Crocket,' constructed by Robert
Stephenson, for the Saratoga Railroad Company, from drawings
and plans sent out to him by John B. Jervis, Esq., who was the
inventor of this attachment. I never tried this engine at her
speed, but all her movements were with similar ease, and it did
not work us all over to take eighteen to twenty cars over the road.
This machine was placed on the road in 18.33, and run for many
years. She had two driving-wheels aft and four truck-wheels.
The driving-wheels were aft the furnace, which plan was adopted
by M. W. Baldwin, who claims this as the general arrangement.
But the original plans and drawings, from the inventor, John B.
Jervis, Esq., are yet in my possession."
Of this engine Mr. Jervis thus speaks in a letter
addressed to the author, April 20, 1869 :
"Not satisfied with the working of four-wheel engines, in the
fall of 1831 I made a plan with a set of tracks as leading-wheels,
which was executed by the West Point Foundery Association, New-
York City.
" This engine gave rise to the plan of truck-leading, or rather
this engine was made on the plan which is now in general use on
American railways.
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