do not appear to have been generally understood or appreciated by the country: indeed, so little must have been foreseen by many the present success of railways, that it is remarked, but a few years ago, under the head of Railway, in M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce, when alluding to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, — "we doubt much whether there may be many more situations in the kingdom where it would be prudent to establish one." From the period of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway the prodigious exertions almost exceed credibility which have been made in Britain to extend railway communication; and the commencement of so many new lines will bring the remotest districts of the country to participate in the benefits of this mode of transit. In Britain not less attention is now paid to introduce every improvement which talent can suggest, both in the construction of the locomotive engine and of the railway. In 1831 one locomotive engine drew 50 tons up the inclined plane at Rainhill, 1 foot in 96, or 55 feet per mile, at an average of 7 miles per hour, and a steam engine was capable of drawing on a level 90 tons about the rate of 20 miles an hour. At the present time the power of locomotive engines has been greatly increased. In 1831 the cylinders were used 10 to 12 inches in diameter. In 1832 one engine, the Sampson, had the cylinder of 14 inches; whereas engines are now provided with cylinders 14, 16, and 18 inches in diameter, and the driving wheels also have been enlarged in diameter: thus increase of power and average speed is gained. The distance from Edinburgh to Glasgow, 46 miles, which till lately took two hours fully, is now gone over by the mail trains in an hour and a quarter, and by heavy trains of waggons at 30 miles an hour; but this is little to some of the English railways, on which fifty miles, including stoppages, is the daily speed of swift trains, and a mile per minute, or 60 miles an hour, is frequently gone. An express train on the Great Western has gone 194 miles in 3 hours and 38 minutes, drawing 59 tons: allowing 32 minutes for stoppages, this gives a rate of 63 miles an hour; and even this hardly satisfies the impatient traveller. On the same line 194 miles is gone over in 4 hours, which is the usual rate, including stoppages, and 40 loaded waggons are drawn with great ease. Perhaps nothing has yet been done in railways equal to America. A locomotive, constructed by Norris, Philadelphia, is stated to have drawn on a railway near that city, a train of 158 iron coal-waggons, which weighed 1268 tons, turning curves of 700 feet in radius with facility, and going over a distance of 84 miles in 8 hours and 3 minutes. By successive improvements made in locomotive engines, such as inclosing the cylinder, already noticed, and which was exposed in the Rocket, and by casing with timber the boiler, the fuel, 2.41 lbs. of coke, required to transport a ton per mile by the Rocket at the opening of the Liverpool line, has been reduced to a quarter of a lb., or even less, consuming a gallon of water. The inclosing of the cylinder in the smoke-box at the front of the engine has been a great improvement, as a great waste of heat arose from the rapid motion through the air. The chamber where the cylinder is placed receives heat from the end of the boiler-tubes, while a direct action is attained between the piston rod and the connecting rod to the crank axle and eccentric fixed on it, which works the slide valve. Another great improvement in the construction of the locomotive engine is considered to be the blast pipe. Before the blast pipe was introduced the locomotive engine is stated to have made comparatively little noise, for the steam escaped directly into the atmosphere. The blast pipe receives the steam after its exit from the cylinders at each stroke of the engine, and conducts it to the bottom of the chimney, where it is blown up with the flame and hot air rushing through the tubes in the boiler towards the chimney, the blast pipe being proportionate in diameter to the chimney. DESCRIPTION OF THE MODERN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. The improvements in locomotive engines have of late years followed each other so rapidly that it is barely possible to detail them. The main and distinguishing features, however, remain the same. Having given a sketch of the history of the locomotive engine from the invention of Trevithick till the improvements effected on it by the contest on the Liverpool and Manchester railway, I shall now give a brief description of the engine as at present used in this country, on the continent, and in America. Although it is necessary to observe that, from the frequent alterations making in the details, or different parts of it, any description but of a general kind must be |