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

50 HISTORY OF THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVES IN AMERICA.
first effort. The boiler was cylindrical, eight feet long
and thirty-four inches in diameter, with an internal flue-
tube twenty inches wide passing through the boiler.
The engine had two vertical cylinders of eight inches
in diameter and two feet stroke, let into the boiler,
working the propelling gear, with cross-heads and con-
necting rods; the power of the two cylinders was continued
by means of spur-wheels, which communicated
the motive power to the wheels supporting the engine
upon the rails. The adoption of the spur-gear was the
chief peculiarity of this new engine ; it worked upon
what is termed the second motion. The chimney was of
wrought-iron, around which was a chamber extending
back to the feed-pumps, for the purpose of heating the
water previous io its injection into the boiler. The
engine had no springs, was mounted on a wooden
frame upon four wheels. In order, however, to equalize
the jolts and shocks which such an engine would en-
counter, the water-barrel, which served as a tender,
was fixed at the end of a lever and weighted, the other
end being connected with the frame of the carnage.
The wheels of this locomotive were all smooth, and it
was the first engine so constructed. After ten months'
labor, this locomotive was completed and put upon the
Killingwood Railway on the 25th July, 1814, and tried.
On an ascending grade of one in four hundred and fifty
feet, this engine succeeded in drawing after it eight
loaded wagons of thirty tons' weight, at about four
miles an hour, and was the most successful working-
engine that had ever been constructed up to this period.
It was called "Blucher." Although successful, this
improvement over horse-power was not sufficient to
justify the abandonment of the latter. The great trou-
ble with this new machine was the inability of keeping
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