• Cazin published a picture in an 1866 book showing a tricycle propelled by a jet of steam
• Cugnot's steam powered road vehicle

 Cugnot's Vehicle

• A French artillery officer, Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, built and ran a 3 wheeled carriage powered by a steam engine in 1769, but which ran off the road the first time it went into a curve at its full speed--3 miles and hour.  It was the first self-propelled highway vehicle, but it was no improvement over the horse.
• Some steam powered busses were actually used commercially in England in the first half of the 19th century, but once the railroad took off it was clearly superior.
• The railroad and stagecoach industries succeeded in having a law passed to stop these in 1865 (repealed 1896)--on the ground of the dangers of frightening horses self-propelled vehicles on public highways were limited to a speed of 4 miles an hour and had to be preceded by a man on foot carrying a red flag

• Why did speed become so appealing? (it isn't just human nature, it appears as a strong value at a particular time)
• Jules Verne Around the World in Eighty Days
• J. M. William Turner, Rain, Steam, and Speed:

Steam Boats:

• experiments as early as 1780s both in England and American, but the need was greater in America.
• a lot of varied speculation, including an 1785 paper by Benjamin Franklin in which he concluded that paddlewheels were inefficient and proposed jet propulsion.
• This put John Fitch on the wrong track--his mechanic convinced him not to try water jets but he worked on crank and paddles instead of paddle wheels.  he did demonstrate a boat in 1787 and run boats on the Mississippi in a commercial operation as early as 1790, although he ultimately failed.
• Robert Fulton trained in England and France (he had gone to London originally to study art but ended up studying civil engineering).  He built his first commercially successful steamboat for the Hudson starting operation in 1807 (with a promise of a 20 year monopoly from the NY legislature) with a 133 ft. boat called the Clermont with twin sidewheels.  He used a Watt engine and built his boats for passenger comfort and speed.

  The Clermont, from an early history of steam power

• He also ran boats on the Mississippi, but they didn't do very well.
• Other engineers solved the problems of adaptating the steam boat to western conditions.
• The key innovation was the high-pressure steam engine invented by Oliver Evans in 1801.  Dominated western steamboats because less fouled by muddy water.
• Gradual development of shallow hull and flat bottom, upper decks, horizontal engine (easier to connect to a stern paddlewheel) examples
• Extremely profitable--sometimes 100% a trip.  Henry Shreve did the best job of putting all these innovation together and also invented the snagboat . clearing snags
• The steam boat was the first time the United States took the lead in developing a major new technology
• steamboat race video
  

 removing snags

• Rails are a much earlier innovation than locomotives: horsedrawn carts on wooden rails used in Germany since 16th century, in England since 17th century.  Iron rails about 1770
• mostly these were mine railroads, but by end of 1825 there were 300-400 miles of iron public railroad
• the idea of a moving steam engine was obvious, but there were problems.
  • need for high pressure steam engines
  • widespread belief that there would not be enough friction, that rise would have to be less than 1 foot per 100
  • experiments with steam carriages--eg. Cugnot in France in 1770--had led to English laws to keep steam carriages from scaring horses by requiring a man walking in front of it with a flag or lantern
• early experiments on mine (colliery) railways

  
Penydarren Locomotive

• First experimental locomotive built by Richard Trevithick in 1803-4 for the 10 mile Penydarren colliery railway .  One cylinder, 8 1/2 inches in diamter, 4 1/2 foot stroke, probably 30-50 lb/sq in. working pressure.  It was too heavy for the track so the owners used it as a stationary engine.
• Trevithick tried again in 1805 with no more success, went to South American in disgust
• by 1812 similar locomotives started to be used on colliery railroads (in the north of England--Leeds and on Tyneside) between mine and warf.  Economical because Napoleonic wars increased price of animal feed.
• Locomotives on common carriers
  • 1825 Stockton & Darlington RR--built by George Stephenson using colliery railway technology.  25 miles long, first public railroad built to use steam, but horses were often substituted.  Not a convincing trial.
  • Builders of Liverpool-Manchester railroad were locked in a debate over whether to use horses or locomotives.  Decided to sponsor a contest to see if locomotives were practical at all and pick the best design
  •  held Oct. 1829.  Contest was to pull 20 tons at 10 mph and make 40 trips over a 1 1/2 mile course.
  • 10 entries were expected but only three appeared--Timoth Hackworth, engineer of the Stockton and Darlington RR entered the Sans Pareil, John Braithwaite and John Ericsson entered the Novelty (which had the advantage of being a particularly light weight design), and Robert Stephenson entered the Rocket (animation).

• Sans Pareil failed to complete the course, Novelty also broke down, but Rocket not only completed the course but averaged 15 mph, winning the 500 pound prize
• More important this convinced people of the practicality of locomotives.  It was a major spectator sport--more than 10,000 people saw the trials
• Liverpool-Manchester builders ordered seven locomotives.  They built their rails to the gauge of Stephenson's locomotive--the 4 ft. 8 1/2 inch gauge of the Killingworth Colliery Wagonway.  That is still the standard gauge today.
• This competed for the first time with canals, since it connected an industrial center with its port.  Canal interesters tried to block its building in Pariament.  Speed was the key advantage--unexpectedly 1/2 of revenue came from passengers.
• England saw a railway boom 1831-37.  400-500 miles opened to traffic for a total of 1331 miles by 1840.  After a lull from 1839 to 1843 the boom turned into a mania--2000 miles opened to traffic 1844-1847.  In 1847 more than 1/4 million men were employed in constructing 6,455 miles of railways, with a total expenditure on railways about 10% of national income.