"It took me a week or more to repair the machine; then some one got in
and broke a piece out of the wheel, in experimenting with it; and then
two wheels, cast one after the other, were damaged by the carelessness
of the turner. I was thoroughly disgusted and discouraged; but, being
determined that I would not be balked entirely, I changed the engine so
that the power could be applied through the ordinary connection with a
crank.[5]

"At last all was ready; and, on a Monday, we started,--six in the
engine, and thirty-six on the car which I took in tow. We went up an
average grade of eighteen feet to the mile; made the thirteen miles to
Ellicott's Mills in one hour and twelve minutes; and came back in
fifty-seven minutes. The result of that experiment was that the bonds
of the railroad company were sold at once, and there was no longer any
doubt as to the success of the road."

The Tom Thumb continued for several weeks to make trips to Ellicott's
Mills; and on one occasion (September 18, 1830) ran a race from Riley
House into Baltimore (about nine miles) with a light car, drawn on a
parallel track by a gray horse noted for speed and endurance. The
contest was planned by the stagecoach proprietors of Baltimore, with the
view of demonstrating that nothing could be gained by the substitution
of steam for horse power on the railroad. The gray horse won the race,
but not until after the Tom Thumb had passed him, and only by reason of
a temporary breakdown of the machine, which caused a delay too great to
be subsequently made up. Mr. Cooper's characteristic recollection of the
event, as given fifty-five years later, was that "they tried a little
race one day, but it didn't amount to anything. It was rather funny; and
the locomotive got out of gear."

Mr. Latrobe says of the Tom Thumb:--

"The machine was not larger than the hand cars used by workmen to
transfer themselves from place to place; and as the speaker now recalls
its appearance, the only wonder is that so apparently insignificant a
contrivance should ever have been regarded as competent to the smallest
results. But Mr. Cooper was wiser than many of the wisest around him.
His engine could not have weighed a ton; but he saw in it a principle
which the forty-ton engines of to-day have but served to develop and
demonstrate. The boiler of Mr. Cooper's engine was not as large as the
kitchen boiler attached to many a range in modern mansions. It was of
about the same d