The Locomotive Engine and Its Development

Excerpt from The Locomotive Engine and Its Development: A Popular Treatise on the Gradual Improvements Made in Railway Engines Between 1803 and 1893

As some newspapers often profess to record very extraordinary rates of speed, it may be advisable to point out one possible cause of error. We should beware of speed indicators which take their motion from the driving wheels of engines, as the Author, when the train was running no more than 55 miles an hour, has seen an indicator go up to 90 miles an hour, the increase being simply due to the slipping of the driving wheels.

The power of steam was known to Hero of Alexandria about 200 b.c., or fully two thousand years ago, and a book he then wrote treated of the expansive force of steam, and described the cylinder, piston, slide-valve, and common clack-valve. But although the power of steam was known, no attempts appear to have been made to turn it to useful and practical effect, even in station ary engines, until 250 years ago.

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