tion of the road was nearly
completed, the directors of the company, after having determined upon
the use of steam engines, offered a prize of L500 for the best
locomotive engine to run at a public trial on the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway. This proposal was announced in the spring of 1829,
and the trial took place at Rainhill on the 6th of October of that year.
The competing engines were the Rocket, constructed by Mr. Stephenson;
the Sanspareil, by Hackworth; the Perseverance, by Burstall, and the
Novelty, by Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson. Both Braithwaite and
Ericsson became subsequently residents of the United States, and the
latter achieved immortal fame as the inventor of the screw propeller and
the builder of the Monitor. The Rocket was the only engine that
performed the complete journey proposed, and obtained the prize. It is
claimed by the biographers of John Ericsson that he had really built a
much faster locomotive than Stephenson, and that, although it had to be
constructed very hastily and therefore broke down during the trial, the
superiority of the principle involved in it was universally recognized
by the engineers of that time. The Stephenson engines became the motive
power of the Liverpool and Manchester road, which was opened for public
traffic on the 16th of September, 1830. This line was, however, neither
the first public railway nor even the first steam railway. The first
railway or tramway act was passed in England in 1758, and in 1824 no
less than thirty-three private railway or tramway companies had been
chartered. In 1824 a charter was granted by Parliament authorizing the
construction of the Darlington and Stockton Railway, to be worked with
"men and horses, or otherwise." By a subsequent act the company was
empowered to work its railway with locomotive engines. The road was
opened in September, 1825, and was practically the first public carrier
of goods and passengers. The Monklands Railway in Scotland, opened in
1826, and several other small lines soon followed the example of the
Darlington and Stockton line and adopted steam traction, but the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first to convince the world
that a revolution in traveling had taken place.

The road was from the very first successful, its traffic and income
greatly exceeding the expectations of its managers. It should also be
noted here that the cost of construction fell largely below the
elaborate estimates made by