said of these trials:[7]

After the said invention of Bissell had been applied the engine was
run out onto a curve which she turned apparently with nearly as much
facility as she would travel on a straight line, and the forward
part of the engine rose on the inclines as the truck entered the
curve and remained fixed while running around said curve and then
resumed its former position on entering a straight track, and the
trial was pronounced by all who saw it as most satisfactory, even by
those who before pronounced that it would be a failure.

At a subsequent trial under a full pressure of steam and a velocity
of about thirty miles per hour the entering and leaving the curve
was equally satisfactory, the same being accurately observed by a
man located on the cow catcher.

... The engine was run at its greatest possible velocity at least
forty miles per hour on a straight track and the previous "shaking
of the head" [oscillation] was found to be entirely overcome, and
the engine run as steadily as a car would have done....

At one of the trials a bar of iron 3/4 x 4 inches was spiked down
across one of the _rails diagonally of the track_, ... and the
employees of the company took the precaution to fill in around the
track to facilitate getting the engine back again, supposing she
must jump off; however on passing over slowly she still kept the
track and the speed was increased until she passed over said bar ...
while under a considerable speed.

Messrs. Moore and Milligan heartily endorsed the truck as a complete
success. Milligan predicted that[8] "the time is not far distant when
locomotives will be considered incomplete and comparatively unsafe
without this improvement particularly on roads which have many curves."

[Illustration: FIGURE 6.--The New Jersey Railroad and Transportation
Company _No. 12_, built in 1868, was equipped with the radius bar truck,
a modification by William S. Hudson of the original Bissell truck. The
_General Darcy_ and several other engines built at the Jersey City shops
of the road, under the direction of John Headden, were fitted with the
Hudson truck. Note that the radius bar is connected to the truck frame
just behind the rear leading wheels. (_Smithsonian photo 46806-l_)]

U.S. Patent Commissioner Charles Mason was so impressed by the evidence
of the New Jersey trials, reinforced by the ar