He called to the coachman to stop
One day, when Handel was seven years old, his father announced his intention of paying a visit to the castle of the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. Handel was most anxious to be allowed to accompany his father, because he had heard that the Duke kept a great company of musicians to perform in his chapel. But the father refused his consent, and the boy turned away with a look of fixed determination in his eyes. 'I will go, even if I have to run every inch of the way!' Handel did not know then that forty miles lay between his home and the castle, but having formed his bold resolution he awaited the moment when his father set forth on his journey, and then, running behind the closed carriage, he did his best to keep pace with it. The roads were long and muddy, and although he panted on bravely for a long distance, the child's strength began at last to fail, and, fearing that he would be left behind, he called to the coachman to stop. At the sound of the boy's voice his father thrust his head out of the window, and was about to give vent to his anger at George's disobedience; but a glance at the poor little bedraggled figure in the road, with its pleading face, melted the surgeon's heart. They were at too great a distance from home to turn back, and so Handel was lifted into the carriage and carried to Weissenfels, where he arrived tired and footsore, but supremely happy at having won his point.
Duryea Automobile
Description of first trip in the car When I got this car ready to run one night, I took it out and I had a young fellow with me; I thought I might need him to help push in case the car didn't work…. We ran from the area of the shop where it was built down on Taylor Street. We started out and ran up Worthington Street hill, on top of what you might call "the Bluff" in Springfield. Then we drove along over level roads from there to the home of Mr. Markham , and there we refilled this tank with water. [At this point he was asked if it was pretty well emptied by then.] Yes, I said in my account of it that when we got up there the water was boiling furiously. Well, no doubt it was. We refilled it and then we turned it back and drove down along the Central Street hill and along Maple, crossed into State Street, dropped down to Dwight, went west along Dwight to the vicinity where we had a shed that we could put the car in for the night. During that trip we had run, I think, just about six miles, maybe a little bit more. That was the first trip with this vehicle. It was the first trip of anything more than a few hundred yards that the car had ever made.
Wendell Bollmans Patent Bridge
Patent Iron Suspension Railroad Bridge. The undersigned would inform the officers of Railroads and others, that he is prepared to furnish Drawings and Estimates for Bridges, Roofs, etc., on the plan of Bollman’s Patent. The performance of these bridges, some of which have been in use for six years, has given entire satisfaction. Their simplicity of construction renders repairs easy and cheap, and by a peculiar connection of the Main and Panel Rods at the bottom of the Posts, all danger from the effects of expansion, which has heretofore been the chief objection to Iron Bridges, is entirely removed. J. H. TEGMEYER, Baltimore, Md.
Pioneer Locomotive
“Pioneer” locomotive. (Drawing by J. H. White.)
The Fury
The “Fury,” built for the Boston and Worcester Railroad in 1849 by Wilmarth. It was known as a “Shanghai” because of its great height.
Pioneer Locomotive
“Pioneer” locomotive, (1) Safety valve, (2) spring balance, (3) steam jet (4) dry pipe (5) throttle lever (6) throttle (7) crown bar (8) front tube sheet (9) check valve (10) top rail (11) rear-boiler bracket (12) pedestal (13) rocker bearing (14) damper (15) grate (16) bottom rail (17) pump heater valve (18) cylinder lubricator (19) reversing lever (20) brake shoe (21) mud ring (22) blowoff cock (23) ashpan (Drawing by J. H. White.)
Rear elevation of Pioneer
Rear elevation of Pioneer and detail of valve shifter; valve face and valve. (Drawing by J. H. White.)
Diagram comparing the Pioneer with the Columbia
Diagram comparing the Pioneer (shaded drawing) with the Columbia, a standard 8-wheel engine of 1851. (Drawing by J. H. White.) Columbia Hudson River Railroad Lowell Machine Shop, 1852 Wt. 271/2 tons (engine only) Cyl. 161/2 x 22 inches Wheel diam. 84 inches Pioneer Cumberland Valley Railroad Seth Wilmarth, 1851 121/2 tons 81/2 x 14 inches 54 inches
Pioneer Locomotive
“Pioneer” locomotive. (1) Air chamber, (2) reversing lever, (3) counterweight, (4) reversing shaft, (5) link hanger, (6) rocker, (7) feedwater line to boiler, (8) link block, (9) link, (10) eccentric, (11) pump plunger, (12) pump steamheater line, (13) feedwater pump, (14) wire netting [bonnet], (15) deflecting cone, (16) stack, (17) stack hopper. (Drawing by J. H. White.)