Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/26

 the first tramroad or railway locomotive engine was constructed. The name "locomotive" is derived from two Latin words, "locus," a place; and "motio," motion; the locomotive engine being therefore an engine capable of moving itself from place to place.

Richard Trevithick is without any doubt the father of the locomotive engine. He built the first in 1803, with money provided by his cousin VivianAndrew Vivian [sic]. He employed high pressure steam, smooth fat wheels, and conveyed the exhaust steam from the cylinder to the chimney by a pipe. The first engine is naturally a matter of close interest to those who man the giants of to-day, and it may be added that the boiler of Trevithick's engine was six feet in length, and contained a return flue tube, the chimney being at the same end as the fire door. The engine had one cylinder placed horizontally, eight inches diameter, the stroke being extremely long, four feet six inches. It was an extraordinary looking object, with its conspicuous cog wheels and tall chimney.

It was tried on February 24th, 1804, upon the Perrydarran cast-iron plateway, or tramroad, when it conveyed trucks containing ten tons of bar iron and about seventy excited persons for a distance of nine miles to Merthyr Tydvil. This triumph showed that Trevithick had started well, and on sound principles. He did not follow up the perfecting of his machine, leaving that to others, but to him goes the honour of building, and to Merthyr goes the honour of receiving, the first locomotive that ever ran a journey on rails.

The scene is transferred to Leeds in the year 1811, when Mr., proprietor of the Middleton Colliery, near that city, decided to have his coals conveyed from Middleton to Leeds by a locomotive engine instead of by horses. He therefore gave an order to, a Leeds engineer, to construct such an engine. Murray and Blenkinsop agreed that sufficient adhesion could not be obtained between smooth wheels and smooth rails to control loads, and they adopted the rack-rail and cog-wheel gear. The power developed by the steam cylinders was communicated to the large cog or driving wheel, the four ordinary wheels