trial" of some sort, that it "saved two fifths of
the steam." His discovery, however, was not hailed with immediate
recognition by the mechanical public; and its author, undisturbed in his
faith, bided his time.

This, by the way, points to a characteristic of Peter Cooper,
differentiating him from the numerous enthusiasts whom prudent men are
accustomed to avoid. He was not a man "of one idea." His fertile and
ingenious mind threw out its suggestions in every direction, into fields
untrodden by experience; but when any such plan failed of acceptance, he
turned, with undiminished courage and hope, to something else,
remaining, nevertheless, still steadfast in his former conception, and
ready to seize any opportunity for its realization.

Thus it came to pass that Mr. Cooper's abortive improvement upon the
steam engine was the source of his fame as the builder of the first
American locomotive, as the following chapter will explain.

V

THE TOM THUMB

IN the specification of the patent secured in 1828 by Mr. Cooper for an
improved steam engine, he took pains to declare the suitability of his
invention as a motor for "land carriages." No doubt he had heard of
Stephenson's "Rocket," if not of the engine built by Blenkinsop in 1813,
the sight of which in operation caused Stephenson to resolve that he
would "make a better." The famous competitive trial of the Rocket, the
Novelty, the Sanspareil, and the Perseverance, on a two-mile section of
the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, took place in October, 1827, at
which time Peter Cooper must have been perfecting the application for
his patent.

But other circumstances played their part in the result which we are
about to consider. Some time before 1830 Mr. Cooper had been drawn into
a land speculation at Canton, in the suburbs of Baltimore. Failing of
support from his partners, he had been obliged to buy them out, and to
assume the whole burden of the enterprise. Just at that time there was
great popular expectation of the future importance of Baltimore. A
little earlier, there had been general despair among the merchants of
that city. New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore were seeking the trade
of the region beyond the Alleghanies,--then "the West," but now the
centre of the population of the United States. New York flanked the
mountains with her Erie Canal; Philadelphia got at last a practicable,
though less satisfactory, water line; but Baltimore, though neare