hilosophy," a steam vehicle. The Glasgow engineer James Watt devoted
himself from 1769 to 1785, with great energy, to the development of the
steam engine, and succeeded in inventing the system which became the
parent of the modern engine. An American, Oliver Evans, constructed at
the beginning of the present century a carriage propelled by steam, and
exhibited it, in 1804, in the streets of Philadelphia, before twenty
thousand spectators. While Evans' invention was never put to any
practical use, he prophesied that the time would come when steam cars
would be considered the most perfect means of transportation. On
Christmas eve, 1801, Richard Trevithick exhibited at Camborne, England,
a steam coach, and soon afterwards he and his cousin, A. Vivian,
obtained an English patent on a "steam engine for propelling carriages."
Seven years later a Mr. Blinkensop, of Middleton Colliery, near Leeds,
constructed another locomotive engine, upon which he obtained a patent
in 1811. These and a number of other inventors of steam engines vainly
expended great ingenuity in attempting to overcome a purely imaginary
difficulty. They believed that the adhesion between the face of the
wheel and the surface of the road was so slight that a considerable
portion of the propelling power would be lost by the slipping of the
wheels. It was not until about the year 1813 that the important fact was
ascertained that the friction of the wheels with the rails was
sufficient to propel the locomotive and even drag after it a load of
considerable weight. On the other hand these inventors failed to provide
in their engines adequate heating-power for the production of steam. In
1814 George Stephenson commenced to apply himself to the construction of
an improved locomotive. When, owing to his invention of the tubular
boiler, he saw, after fifteen years of arduous toil, his labors crowned
with success, the civilized world entered upon a new era of social,
industrial and commercial life. The first line upon which Stephenson's
invention was used was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. In the year
1821, a number of Liverpool merchants formulated a plan for the
construction of a tramway between their city and Manchester. The
question of motive power was left open as between horses and the steam
engine, with which Mr. Stephenson was then experimenting. After much
opposition on the part of Parliament and the public a charter was
obtained in 1826. When the construc