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

53 HISTORY or THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVES IN AMERICA.
communicating from tlie wteels to the piston-heads.
To obviate tMs difficulty, Mr. Steplienson invented and
applied the ball-and-socket joint upon his connectingrods,
where they were attached to the pistons, and
crank-pins upon the crank-axles.
Many other experiments were tried and as quickly
abandoned in England by this accomplished engineer,
whose name and reputation were as well known in
America as they were in England. .These experiments
tended in a great measure to prevent our own countrymen
subsequently from falling into the same errors and
mistakes that would be found in the pathway of the
early developments of this wonder of science and me-
chanics, the locomotive.
We will not believe but that a description, step by
step— from the first experiments by Trevithick, in
1804, on the Merthyr-Tydvjl Kailway, in South "Wales,
when his machine drew after it several wagons contain-
ing ten tons of bar-iron at the rate of five miles an hour,
to the experiments of Stephenson, with his far-famed
Eocket— ^will prove interesting to the machinists and
engineers among our readers, and we will continue our
accounts until we come to the date of our own experi-
ments in America.
It will be remembered by our readers that in the
Blucher the motion was continued by the spur-wheel
system, and its place was supplied by inserting into the
axle two cranks at right angles to each other, and this
method answered extremely Avell; but even here Mr.
Stephenson found obstacles, in the difficulty, at that
early day, of forging cranks of sufficient strength and
accuracy to answer the purpose, and stand the jars and
jolts occasioned by the rough roads, and he tried a sub-
stitute for the requisite object. This new arrangement
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