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

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HISTORY OF THE FIKST LOCOMOTIVES IN AMERICA.
long, requiting frequent joints, tte material was more
liable and subject to break, especiaUy with lieavy
weights passing over it.
Up to this time the motive power was the horse.
Many projects and schemes were talked of and proposed
for propelling the wagons. Sails were suggested, and
various other means were experimented upon, and
speedily abandoned, but steam was the most favored,
yet how to apply it was to be found out.
CHAPTEE III.
riEST HEAD OF STEAM'.
It is recorded, 130 years before the Christian era,
that the elder Hero of Alexandria is the first author
who gives an account of the application of the vapor
of boiling water as a power. Hero expressly ascribes
the sounds produced by the statue of Memnon to steam
generated in the pedestal and issuing from its mouth.
Champollion, who is the highest authority on this
point, declares that the Memnon of the Greeks is iden-
tical with Prince Amenophis II., one of the Egyptians
who reigned at Thebes, 1,600 years before Christ.
Therefore, if Hero's surmises of the Statue of Memnon
are correct, we have an application of steam before the
date of the exodus of the Israelites. Hero himself
constructed a toy, one that would raise water like a
fountain, keep a ball in equilibrium, and another giv-
ing a rotary motion to a ball ; but he does not give the
slightest hint that his invention or discovery could be
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