The Locomotive Engine and its Development

Abstract

THE author of this work is well known to the railway world as one who has long taken a great interest in everything pertaining thereto. No one probably has a better knowledge of the history and development of the locomotive. It is with much pleasure we welcome the volume before us. The author very properly gives to Trevithick the name of “Father of the Locomotive,” he having used high-pressure steam, the smooth rail, and the blast pipe, some years before either Hedley or Stephenson began to experiment. It is a pity so many men connected with the early progress of the locomotive should have been lost to fame; all did their share—the few only have been handed down to posterity. William James, for instance, certainly should not be forgotten, he having had a large share of the work in proving the locomotive to be a suitable machine for hauling trains, as against the system of fixed engines and rope haulage, and to him is largely due Stephenson's success on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The Locomotive Engine and its Development. By Clement E. Stretton (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1892.)