6 bridges have been used in India and in South America, perhaps we may say from time immemorial; and Ware, in his Tracts on Vaults and Bridges,' refers to Kircher and Ogilby for the details of an iron chain-bridge, called the bridge of Junnan or Yunnan, in China, which is supposed to have been erected about A.D. 65, and the length of which is said to be or to have been 20 Chinese perches, or 200 cubits. A small foot-bridge of iron chains was constructed across the Tees, near Middleton, before the middle of the eighteenth century; and, in 1796, the first iron suspensionbridge erected in America was thrown across Jacob's Creek, between Union Town and Greenburgh, by Mr. Finlay, who subsequently, in 1801, obtained a patent for the construction of such bridges, and erected several in the United States, one of which, over the Schuylkill, was 306 feet long. The project of a bridge across the Menai Strait, which separates the Isle of Anglesey from Carnarvonshire, was suggested as early as 1785, and in 1801, designs were made by Rennie for such a bridge. Some years later the matter was again taken up, and Telford prepared two different designs, one for a bridge of three cast-iron arches, and another, to which he gave the preference, for a single cast-iron arch of 500 feet, at Ynys-y-Moch, where he was eventually, in 1818, directed to construct a suspension-bridge, similar in principle to one which he had proposed a few years before to throw over the Mersey at Runcorn Gap. The difficulties to be overcome in the execution of such a work would hardly be conceived. This important bridge, which, though commenced in July, 1818, was not completed until the beginning of the year 1826, has a principal opening 560 feet wide, with the roadway about 100 feet above highwater mark. Notwithstanding the precautions originally taken to guard against injury from oscillation or vibration, it has been found necessary to stiffen the platform, in consequence of the damage done to the bridge by violent storms; but on the whole this bold and hazardous experiment must be considered as eminently successful, and as being sufficient of itself to immortalize the name of Telford. Other suspension-bridges of minor extent were erected previous to that over the Menai. One, of iron wires, of exceedingly light construction, was thrown across Gala Water in 1816; and another, on a different principle, was built across the Tweed, at King's Meadows, in 1817. The most important fact in the history of this branch of science was, however, the introduction, by Captain, afterwards Sir Samuel, Brown, who had long been engaged in promoting the use of iron chains in shipping in lieu of hemp cables and rigging, of an improved method of forming chains. for suspension-bridges, which has, in its main features, been adopted in all such structures excepting in those formed of wire cables. The peculiarity of his plan consisted in the use of long link-bars, either flat like those used in the Menai Bridge, or of a round section, and connected together by linking-plates and bolt-pins, passing through welded eyes or drilled holes in the ends of the link-bars. Although Captain Brown had tried experiments on the subject, and made models of his invention many years earlier, he did not obtain a patent until 1817, and the first extensive bridge he erected was that over the Tweed, near Kelso, commonly called the Union Bridge, which has a clear span, between the abutments, of about 360 feet, although the distance between the points of support of the chains is 437 feet. The details of this bridge are most ingeniously contrived, and the facility with which it was constructed may be conceived from the fact that it was commenced in August, 1819, and completed in July, 1820, in rather less than twelve months, and that at a cost of only 5000l., although it is adapted for carriages as well as for foot-passengers. The first suspensionbridge thrown across the Thames, in the vicinity of London, was that at Hammersmith, which was commenced in 1824, by Mr. W. Tierney Clark, and in which the extent of roadway suspended exceeds that of the Menai Bridge. In continuation of what has been said in the preceding Book on the subject of railroads,* we have but little to relate either as regards invention or extended application; but the present period, especially the latter part of it, presents some symptoms of the great movement which commenced a few years later, in the application of railways and locomotive steam-engines to the purposes of general commercial intercourse. The number of acts of parliament passed between 1801 and 1820 for the construction of new lines of railway was, on average, one every year; but of these several were not carried into effect. The lines which were executed extend, with their several branches and extensions, many of which were not contemplated in the original acts, to an aggregate length of about 225 miles; but while some of these were intended for the conveyance of agricultural produce and general merchandise, as well as for the accommodation of mines and quarries, they seldom differed in any very material degree from the private undertakings which had long been common in the colliery districts; and horses were, almost without exception, the only moving power employed upon them. Of the total extent of railway in operation at the close of this period we have no account; but Baron Dupin, writing shortly after that date, observes that at the time of his first visit to Great Britain it was calculated that there were 225 miles of iron railways in the neighbourhood of Newcastleupon-Tyne alone, in a space of twenty-one miles long and twelve broad; and he adds that the subterraneous railways in the mines of that district were not less extensive. In Wales, also, iron railways were very much used for conveying ore and coal from the mines to the furnaces, and iron and coal to the canals and ports; and the same Sec ante, vol. iii. pp. 668, 669. quently constructed at Paris, at the public expense a large steam-carriage, which was tried in 1779 and acted with so much power as to lead to a supposition that the steam-engine was not sufficieLL manageable for the purposes of locomotion.* li 1784 Watt described, in one of his patents, a scheme which he had formed for a steam-carriage. but he never carried it into execution; and per haps Mr. Murdoch, a Cornish engineer, to who Trevithick is said to have been a pupil, and who subsequently became connected with Messrs Boulton and Watt, was the first who actually constructed a steam-carriage in this country; his carriage, or model, having been tried near Redruth in 1782 or 1792, which we are not able to ascer tain, both dates being given by different authorities.t In 1786 a model was exhibited in Edinburgh, by William Symington, whose share in some of the early experiments on steam navigation is noticed elsewhere, of a steam-carriage adapted for ese upon common roads; and about the same time Oliver Evans, an ingenious mechanic in the United States, brought forward a scheme for the establish ment of steam-waggons, which appeared then to be so startling a novelty, that he was supposed to be insane. The first practical application of the steam-engine to the propulsion of carriages, however, was effected about the commencement of the present period by Messrs. Trevithick and Vivian, who patented, in the year 1802, an admirably simple kind of steam-engine, which may be considered the original of all high-pressure engines. Shortly after obtaining their patent, they constructed an ingenious steam-carriage for common roads, and exhibited it in London; but the gar writer states that there were about 300 miles of this kind of road in the single county of Glamorgan.* About the close of the reign of George III., however, plans for extended lines of railroad for the promotion of general commerce were beginning to be brought forward; and within five years from that time the rage for such speculations bade fair almost to rival the South Sea mania, and projects were brought forward for the Stockton and Darlington, Liverpool and Manchester, as well as several less important lines, in this country, and also for some of the earliest French railways. As this kind of road became more common, and came to be formed on more perfect and durable principles by joint-stock companies, several improvements in the details of construction were introduced. On the Surrey Iron Railway,† the act for which was obtained in 1801, and which was the first road of the kind in the neighbourhood of London, the expense of repairs, owing to the frequent breakage of the cast-iron tram-plates, led to the introduction of a new form of rail, resembling the old tramplate or plate-rail in form, but having a deep flange on the under side to stiffen the rail; and this serious evil, together with the other disadvantages of the plate railway, led to the increased adoption of edge-rails upon the principal new lines. Another change, of still greater importance, and one which removed, more effectually than any other individual improvement, the difficulties in the way of applying railroads to the rapid transit of passengers, was the introduction of wrought-iron in lieu of cast-iron as a material for rails, in consequence of the invention by Mr. Birkinshaw, of the Bedlington Iron-works, of a process for forming rails and other variously formed bars of wrought-iron by an ingenious ap-erally defective state of the roads caused the paplication of grooved rollers. This process, which was patented in 1820, marks also an important era in the manufacture of wrought-iron. By this By this crowning improvement the iron railway was brought to a state of perfection which fitted it to become the scene of an extraordinary development of the powers of the steam-engine, in the capacity of a locomotive machine, of the energies of which the most sanguine had, at that period, a most imperfect idea. The possibility of applying the steam-engine to the propulsion of carriages, by causing the motion of its piston to be communicated, by the intervention of a crank, to the wheels, was suggested to Watt by his friend Robison, then a student in the University of Glasgow, as early as 1758 or 1759, and not long afterwards, a model of a steamcarriage was exhibited in France by John Theophilus Cugnot, a native of Lorraine, who subse *Commercial Power of Great Britain, i. 207. This railway, which extends from the Thames, at Wandsworth, to Croydon, a distance of nearly ten miles, and was continued by a second company to Merstham, about eight miles farther, was designed by William Jessop, Esq., and is mentioned by Dupin as one of the most beautiful in the south of England. Although forty years have not yet elapsed since this road formed a scientific novelty, the southern part of it may already be classed with things that have been; its neglected ruins forming an interesting contrast, suggestive of the rapid march of engineering science, with the gigantic works of the London and Brighton railway, formed about thirty years later, by the projec tors of which the old tramway was purchased in 1837. Messr tentees to abandon this application of their inver- Stuart's Historical and Descriptive Anecdotes of Steam Eagios. See ante, vol. iii. p. 675. § Anecdotes on Steam-Eugines, p. 460. history of this branch of mechanical science for several years after Trevithick's decisive experiment at Merthyr Tydvil, presents little else than schemes for obtaining progressive motion by means of racks laid along the road, into which cogged wheels attached to the engine might work; chains stretched along the line, to be taken hold of by the engine in like manner; mechanical legs to imitate the action of those of a horse, and thereby to force the machine along; and contrivances for multiplying the number of wheels, so as to obtain increased adhesion. An arrangement of the first-mentioned kind was patented by Mr. Blenkinsop in 1811, and was brought into practical and profitable operation upon a railway connected with the Middleton Colliery, near Leeds, where it was shown to be capable of drawing a load of about a hundred tons upon a dead level, at the rate of three miles and a half per hour, which is a quicker pace than that of an ordinary cart-horse; of travelling, when lightly loaded, at a speed of ten miles per hour; and of performing, in a day's work of twelve hours, the work of sixteen horses. Before the close of this period the erroneous idea which led to Blenkinsop's and other contrivances of the same character, had been so far exploded, that locomotive engines, clumsy and unsightly indeed in their appearance, yet sufficient to show, notwithstanding their numerous imperfections, how important a power was within the reach of the engineer, were regularly established upon several colliery lines in the north of England. Though some of the fanciful prognostications of those who did venture to predict the future triumphs of the locomotive engine have not been, and perhaps never may be, fully realized, yet it is impossible to compare the railway engine of 1820 with that of 1840, without feeling that the author of The Fingerpost,' a pamphlet published not long after the former date, was in the right, when he asked the sceptical opponent of railway travelling "to indulge his imagination with an excursion some twenty or thirty years forward in the regions of time; when the dark, unsightly, shapeless machine, that now offends him, even in idea, shall be metamorphosed into one of exquisite symmetry and beauty, glittering with all the pomp and circumstance the pride of wealth knows so well how to bestow." The aggregate length of canals formed in Great Britain, during the present period, was about 442 miles; and so complete was the system of internal water-communication effected by means of the canals, and navigable streams, brought into operation within a few years after the date to which our survey comes down, that the former alone extended to a length of about 2200 miles; and that no spot in England, south of Durham, is more than fifteen miles from water-communication; while in manufacturing districts the average distance is much smaller, and every considerable town possesses uninterrupted communication with the principal markets for its manufactured goods, and with the VOL. IV.-GEO. III. sources whence its raw materials for manufacture, and the supplies of food and other necessaries for its population, are chiefly derived. The undaunted and progressive spirit of enterprise in this department of engineering is well exemplified in the canals formed during the period embraced in the present Book, to facilitate communication between the ports of Liverpool and Hull, on the western and eastern sides of the island respectively, and between the important manufacturing districts. of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, the great seats of the cotton and woollen manufactures, and the agricultural districts from which the supplies for their dense and constantly increasing population are drawn. A great natural obstacle to such inter-communication exists in the elevated mountain range, popularly styled the "backbone of England;" and notwithstanding every expedient that ingenuity could devise for crossing this barrier at as low a level as possible, it has been found necessary, in the route by the Rochdale canal, to rise to an elevation of at least 600 feet, and to a still greater elevation in the case of the Huddersfield canal. Such, however, are the commercial necessities of the district, that not only one, but three distinct lines of water-communication have been completed through this difficult country. The first of these, by the Leeds and Liverpool canal, was commenced under an act obtained in 1770, though it was not completed until 1816; the Rochdale canal, commenced several years later, affords a shorter but more precipitous line of communication, and, though rising to the great elevation above mentioned, it is formed of sufficient capacity to receive vessels fit for navigating the tideways of the Humber and the Mersey, a circumstance of great importance in the transmission, without change of vessel, of Baltic produce into Lancashire, and of the manufactures of Lancashire to Hull for exportation; and the Huddersfield canal, which was formed under acts of the years 1794, 1800, and 1806, forms the connecting link in a route nearly ten miles shorter than either of the preceding, though of more contracted dimensions. Among the other English canals formed during the period the most important were the Grand Junction Canal, with its numerous branches, especially the Paddington canal and the Regent's canal, which connect the water-communications of a most extensive and important portion of the country with the metropolis and the river Thames; and the Kennet and Avon canal, which completed a navigable communication from the Thames to the Avon, near Bath. In Scotland this period saw the commencement, and almost the completion also, of the grand navigable communication between the eastern and western seas, known as the Caledonian canal. This scheme formed an important feature in the plans for the improvement of the Highlands upon which Telford was engaged in 1801; and in consequence of his suggestions a separate board of commissioners was formed for superintending the construction of the Caledonian canal, and he was ap 4 s pointed engineer to that, as well as the Commission | concluding fact there noticed was the successf of Highland Roads and Bridges. This canal is conducted along a great valley known as the "Glen of Scotland," and is formed by connecting a series of lakes which extends a considerable part of the distance. It is constructed throughout with a navigable channel 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep, and its locks are said to be the largest ever constructed down to that time, being 40 feet wide, and from 170 to 180 feet long, while one of them, near Inverness, was formed in ground naturally so soft, that Telford says an iron rod might be easily thrust into it to a depth of 55 feet. This national undertaking was delayed by several untoward circumstances, and was not opened through its entire length until 1823, though a portion was brought into use three years earlier. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Union canal was also partly executed during this period, and completed in 1822. As nearly as can be ascertained, the aggregate length of canals in use in the British empire at the close of the reign of George III., including a few lines then in a forward state, but not quite finished, was 2160 miles in England and Wales, 212 miles in Scotland, and 250 miles in Ireland. The success of these undertakings was exceedingly variable. English canals have generally been formed for the accommodation of traffic previously existing, though cramped for want of greater facilities; but in Ireland, and in some degree also in Scotland, in the instance of the Caledonian canal, the case has been very different. It was remarked by Mr. Nimmo, in his evidence before a select committee of the House of Commons upon the state of the poor in Ireland, in 1830, that the inland navigations of that country were chiefly remarkable for being undertaken, not to facilitate any existing trade, but chiefly to promote agriculture in the fertile districts of the interior, to create a trade where none had previously existed, and to furnish employment for the poor. "The success in this way," he proceeds, "has been wonderful; and, though the adventurers have not yet been repaid, and perhaps never will be, the benefit to the public and landed property of the kingdom has been great and manifest.".... "The nation has," he adds, "been saved the payment of a bounty of 100,000l. per annum for bringing corn to Dublin; for in place of this being the case, that city has now become one of the first corn ports of Europe." To the period now under consideration belongs the practical application of the powers of the steamengine to the purposes of navigation, an object which had been contemplated by several ingenious men long before it was actually accomplished, and which, as has been seen in the preceding Book,t had been all but effected before the close of the eighteenth century, by the combined talent and energy of Miller, Taylor, and Symington. The The facts from which the above statement of the progress of British experiment of Symington with a steam tug-bua upon the Forth and Clyde canal, under the ptronage of Lord Dundas; an experiment whic appears to have failed to lead to the immediate establishment of steam-vessels for commercia purposes, chiefly owing to the prevalence of exaggerated idea of the injury which would be inflicted on the canal banks by the action d paddle-wheels. Early in the year 1802 the steam tug-boat used in this experiment, having on bouri Lord Dundas and several other gentlemen, took in tow two loaded vessels, each of seventy tons bu den, and, notwithstanding a strong head-wind which prevented the progress of any other vesse in the same direction, accomplished a distance a nineteen miles and a half in six hours; but, owing to the prejudices of the canal proprietors, the ve sel was then laid up in a creek adjoining the cara where it remained exposed to public view for veral years, and was minutely examined by Henry Bell, who had also been an interested spectator i the earlier experiments of Symington in 1789,-and who subsequently introduced steam-boats for the conveyance of passengers on the Clyde. So early as in 1783 and following years crude pr jects of steam navigation had been brought bee the American public by persons named Fitch and Rumsey, which, however, led to no practical result; and the subject was shortly afterwards taken up by the Chancellor Livingstone, who, notwithstanding the ridicule excited by his project, obtained in 179 an exclusive privilege from the legislature of the state of New York for navigating boats by means of the steam-engine. His privilege or patent erpired in consequence of his failure to product, within the stipulated period of twelve months, vessel capable of attaining a mean rate of four miles an hour; but shortly afterwards, being a Paris in the capacity of minister from the United States, he conversed with Robert Fulton, whose mind appears to have been previously directed t the subject, upon the practicability of steam-boats. and expressed his intention to resume his exper ments on his return to America. Fulton and Livingstone then entered jointly upon a series of experiments on the Seine, and early in 1803 they completed a boat of considerable size, which, being too weak in her framing to bear the weight of the machinery, broke through the middle in a gale of wind during the night, and consequently sunk; a accident to which Russell attributes the admirable system of timber-framing by which many American steamers are distinguished. The shattered hull was raised, and the vessel, after being almost wholly reconstructed, acted in so satisfactory a manner as to induce the projectors to order an engine of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, with a view to further experiments in America. Fulton, 800 after the above-mentioned experiments on the Seine, visited England, mainly, it would appear, for the promotion of his schemes for submarine navigation and warfare; but during his visit he F ntroduced himself to Symington, and obtained minute information from him respecting the interasting experiments in which he had been engaged. Before Fulton returned to America, Livingstone wrote thither, and again secured a monopoly of steam navigation in the state of New York, setting forth the claim of himself and Fulton to the invention of steam-boats. FULTON. While his previous failures, and the incontrovertible evidence which exists of his having derived most important information from the successful labours of the Scottish experimentalists, show that Fulton's claim to be considered the inventor of steam navigation is unfounded, it cannot be denied that his perseverance and energy, though, perhaps, accompanied by a want of proper regard to the rights of other labourers in the same field, led to the establishment of the first steam-boat ever brought into practical operation. This vessel, which was called, after Livingstone's residence, the Clermont,' was commenced immediately after Fulton's return to New York, in December, 1806; it was launched in the spring of 1807, and in the following August, the machinery having been fitted by the aid of workmen sent out from the establishment of Boulton and Watt, at Soho, the vessel was, for the first time, put in motion by the aid of her machinery, in the presence of a large assemblage of persons invited to witness the experiment. Colden, the American biographer of Fulton, observes, that nothing could exceed the surprise and admiration of all who were present on this occasion. "The minds of the most incredulous," he says, were changed in a few minutes; before the boat had made the progress of a quarter of a mile, the greatest unbeliever must have been converted." The man," he proceeds, "who, while he looked on the expensive machine, thanked his stars that he had more wisdom than to waste his money on such idle schemes, changed the expression of his features as the boat moved from the wharf and gained her speed; his complacent smile gradually stiffened into an expression of wonder; the jeers of the ignorant, who had neither sense nor feeling enough to 66 repress their contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes, were silenced for the moment by a vulgar astonishment, which deprived them of the power of utterance, till the triumph of genius extorted from the incredulous multitude which crowded the shores, shouts and acclamations of congratulation and applause." Shortly afterwards the Clermont' performed, without accident, her first voyage from New York to Albany, a distance of about 145 miles, at the rate of about five miles per hour, causing, on her way, no small astonishment to the inhabitants of the shores of the Hudson, many of whom had never heard even of a steam-engine, and appearing, to some who saw her in the night, with a great column of flame and sparks, occasioned by the use of dry pine-wood for fuel, escaping from her funnel, like a monster moving on the waters in defiance of wind and tide, and breathing fire and smoke. Owing to the universal employment of mineral fuel in British steam-vessels, these can give but a faint idea of the startling effect of this novelty; but in America, where wood is still commonly burnt, the brilliant column of ignited vapour and galaxy of sparks which occasioned the singular appearance alluded to, still produce a striking, and, to strangers, a somewhat alarming effect. We may therefore conceive the consternation which the appearance of the Clermont' excited in the crews of those vessels which it passed during its first voyage, especially in the dead of night. Colden relates, that those whose attention was first attracted by the extraordinary light, saw with astonishment that though both wind and tide were adverse to its approach, it was rapidly coming towards them; "and when," he says, "it came so near that the noise of the machinery and paddles were heard, the crews in some instances shrunk beneath their decks from the terrific sight; and others left their vessels to go on shore; while others, again, prostrated themselves, and besought Providence to protect them from the approach of the horrible monster which was marching on the tides, and lighting its path by the fires which it vomited." The individual by whom the application of steam navigation to actual use was first effected in this island was Henry Bell, of Helensburgh, on the river Clyde, who was for many years a house-carpenter in the city of Glasgow, and was described by those who knew him as a man of considerable shrewdness, possessing a rich vein of vulgar humour, and fond of what are called schemes. Bell appears to have been well acquainted with the experiments at Dalswinton, and on the Forth and Clyde canal, but to have taken no steps for promoting the introduction of steam navigation until impelled to do so by the success of Fulton, and by the wish to establish regular passage-boats between Glasgow and Helensburgh, which is a wateringplace on the Clyde, opposite to Greenock, in order to promote the success of an hotel there, of which he became proprietor in 1808. It appears by his Russell, on the Nature, Properties, and Applications of Steam, and on Steam Navigation, p. 213. |