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

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BISTORT or THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVES IN AMERICA.
roads (as the railroads were called in all the mining
regions throughout England and wherever else they
were used), and which had by this time become general,
and was looked upon as one of the essential necessaries
for such enterprises. But the use of steam-power had
not entered the minds of the warmest advocates of rail-
roads for general purposes, as at the present day.
It was not until 1820 that the first suggestion of
using the locomotive (imperfect as it then was) in the
place of horse-power, was advocated by one Thomas
Gray, who devoted much of his time and money in
publishing articles and pamphlets upon the subject.
He pointed out the importance of such a road between
Liverpool and Manchester and other important points,
all of which have since been carried out. He was so
energetic and pertinacious in his efforts to impress it
upon the minds of the people, and so untiring in his
labors, that many pronounced him a bore, and those
who knew him declared that he was cracked or deranged
—just as, nearly two hundred years before, poor Solomon
de Cause was shut up in a mad-house for advocat-
ing his discovery of a great power in the steam of
boiling water.
While Mr. Gray was advocating the adoption of
railways for general transportation purposes, George
Stephenson was planning locomotives to run upon
them.
CHAPTEE IX.
FIRST TEAINS.
In 1819 the Hatton Colliery, in Durham, was altered
into a locomotive railroad, and Mr. Stephenson ap-
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