History of the First Locomotives in America - Chapters 18-24



CHAPTER XVIII.
FIRST BRIGADE OF CARS.

Some of the newspaper notices of the events of that day, and the schedules 
advertised by the company, will no doubt be interesting to our readers and 
to railroad men of the present time. We will give them as we copied them 
from old files of the Baltimore newspapers. The Baltimore Americans, May 
20, 1830, said: "We understand that a critical examination of the entire 
line of the first division of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, between 
this city and Ellicott's Mills, was made on Thursday last, by the 
president and engineer of the company, for the purpose of testing the 
solidity of the work. A car was loaded with double the weight intended 
hereafter to be transported on a single wagon, and was passed over the 
whole of the first and those parts of the second track which are finished, 
and it is highly gratifying to learn that, notwithstanding the recent 
heavy rains, which have placed the work in the most unfavorable condition, 
it sustained the pressure to the entire satisfaction of those interested 
in the work. About seven and a quarter miles of the single track are laid 
on wooden sleepers, and the remaining six and three-quarter miles on stone 
slabs. Such is the stability of this mode of construction that, in about 
16,000 blocks, only forty were observed to be the least affected by the 
pressure. The horse-path and 'turn-outs' are finished, and the necessary 
arrangements for horses and drivers having been already made, we 
understand that it is the intention of the company to open the road for 
public travel on Monday next, the 24th inst." 

The Baltimore American, May 24, 1830, said:

"A brigade of cars will run three times a day each way from Baltimore to 
Ellicott's Mills, passage 25 cents. 

"This morning at nine o'clock, in pursuance with previous arrangements of 
the mayor and the members of the two branches of the City Council, the 
president, directors, engineer, and officers, of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad, the editors of the different papers of the city, and a number of 
strangers, left the depot at the intersection of the railroad with Pratt 
Street, on an excursion to Ellicott's Mills. The procession was headed by 
the splendid car Pioneer, in which, together with a number of others, rode 
the venerable Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. Although the brigade was of 
large dimensions and filled with passengers, it was drawn with great ease 
by one horse at a rapid rate. The appearance which they presented was 
novel and interesting in the extreme. A great number of persons, attracted 
by the novelty of the sight, 7 attended at the depot and along the course 
of the road, and all, as far as we could learn, were unanimous in the 
expression of the opinion that the experiment was calculated to dissipate 
the doubts of those (if there be any such) who are yet skeptical as to the 
manifold advantages of this over all other modes of fostering our internal 
commerce. 

"P. S. Since the above was written, we learn that the party of 
excursionists had returned, accomplishing the distance (thirteen miles) in 
one hour and four minutes." 

Another extract reads as follows: 

"The weather yesterday being remarkably mild and pleasant, vast numbers 
availed themselves of the opportunity to examine the road and viaduct, and 
enjoy the gratification of a ride in one of Winans's carriages. The Hon. 
the Postmaster General, having reached the city, and being desirous of 
visiting the road, accompanied the gentlemen attached to the road. Its 
carriage being brought out, the party, consisting of twenty-four ladies 
and gentlemen, including the Postmastcr-General, were drawn to the viaduct 
by one horse, in actually a little less than six minutes. After alighting 
to view the magnificent granite structure, the party again seated 
themselves, and were conveyed back to Pratt Street at the extraordinary 
rate of fifteen miles per hour. In order to show the perfect ease and 
rapidity with which heavy loads can be transported over well- constructed 
railroads, three carriages were attached to each other, and, being filled 
with more than eighty persons, were rapidly drawn by one horse, at the 
rate of eight miles per hour. Average each person at 150 lbs., and 
estimate the carriages at two and a half tons, a single horse actually 
drew a load of eight and a half tons, at a speed of eight miles per hour, 
and this extraordinary result was accomplished without any apparent 
distress to the animal, or indeed uncommon exertion on his part." 

In another number of the Atnerzean, we read that an experiment was made 
for the transportation of two hundred barrels of flour, with a single 
horse, with the most triumphant success. The flour was deposited in a 
train of eight cars, and made, together with the cars and the passengers, 
an entire load of thirty tons. The train was drawn, from Ellicott's Mills 
to the Relay House, six and a half miles in forty-sis minutes. The horse 
was then changed, and the train, having again started, reached the depot 
on Pratt Street in sixtynine minutes, thus accomplishing the thirteen 
miles in one hour and fifty-four minutes, or at the rate of six and three-
fourths of a mile an hour. 

We will close these extracts with the following copy of an advertisement, 
made forty years ago, for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: 

"RAILROAD NOTICE. A sufficient number of cars being now provided for the 
accommodation of passengers, notice is hereby given that the following 
arrangements for the arrival and departure of carriages have been adopted, 
and will take effect on and after Monday morning, the 5th inst., viz.: A 
brigade of cars will leave the depot in Pratt Street at 6 and 10 o'clock 
A. M. and at 3 to 4 o'clock P. M., and will leave the depot at Ellicott's 
Mills at 6 and at 8 o'clock A. M., and at 12 and 6 o'clock P. M. 

"Way-passengers will provide themselves with tickets at the office of the 
company in Baltimore, or at the depot at Pratt Street or Ellicott's Mills, 
or at the Relay House, near Elk Ridge Landing. 

"The evening way-car for Ellicott's Mills will continue to leave the 
depot, Pratt Street, at 6 o'clock as usual. 

"N.B.-Positive orders have been issued to the drivers to receive no 
passengers into any of the cars without tickets. P. S. Parties desirous to 
engage a car for the day, can be accommodated after July 8th." 

When we compare our present mode of travelling from one city to another, 
over hundreds and thousands of miles by railroads, being comfortably 
seated in the most magnificent cars by day, and snugly resting by night in 
commodious sleeping-cars, we cannot refrain from wonder in attempting to 
conceive how our forefathers, Forty years ago, could content themselves to 
make a journey even in the most urgent cases, and at all seasons of the 
year, in the old-fashioned stage-coaches over a rough turnpike, or in 
canal- packets. But at that time nothing better was known; and the fast 
line of stages, and the packet-line on the canal, were the best the 
country could boast of, if we except the beautiful steamers that navigated 
some of our rivers. The early methods of travelling when railroads were 
first brought to notice were only one remove, in convenience and 
improvement, fiom those we have just described. 

In connection with the early operations of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad, as compared with the present, the following "travelling 
memoranda," published in the New- York Gazette, in May, 1831, furnish some 
reminiscences worthy of preservation. 

"Having, last week, business in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the city of 
Washington, I started at six P.M. on Monday. In order to show the 
facilities afforded at the present day to do much business in a short 
time, I send you a sketch of my excursion. 

"Left New York at six A. M. on Monday. Arrived in Philadelphia at five P. 
M. balled on four persons. Settled my business with them by nine. Went to 
bed; and started on Tuesday morning at six for Baltimore, where I arrived 
at five P. M. Got through with my business there at half-past nine. Went 
to bed. Started at four on Wednesday for Washington, and arrived a little 
after nine A. M. Dressed, called on the President, and finished my 
business with him. Dined at Gadsby's. Took a hack in the afternoon, rode 
several miles, and completed my business with four persons. Took tea with 
a friend. Slept at Gadsby's. Started at four A. M. on Thursday, on my 
return. Arrived at Baltimore at ten, visited the cathedral, Washington 
Monument and the waterworks, before dinner. Dined at Barnum's splendid 
hotel. Partook of a bottle of wine with three Albanians; at three mounted 
a car, with seventy-two passengers, on railroad. Visited Ellicott's 
thirteen miles from Baltimore. Returned to Baltimore before dark. Took 
tea, and afterward, in a hack, visited the venerable Mr. Carroll, of 
Carrollton. Returned to Barnum's. Went to bed; and started for 
Philadelphia, where I arrived at half- past six. Made several friendly 
visits. Went to bed. Started on Saturday and reached New York at half-past 
five the same day. Was thus absent nearly six days, traveling about six 
hundred miles, and completing all my business at the expense of forty 
dollars and seventy cents. 

"The observations that I made were, that Baltimore and Philadelphia are 
looking up. In both places the bustle of business reminded me of home, 
that is to say, New York. The canal which connects the Delaware with the 
Chesapeake, through which I passed in two hours, is a great and useful 
work. The railroad, which already passes several miles beyond Ellicott's 
Mills, is a most delightful and useful mode of conveyance. The car in 
which I took my passage to Ellicott's Mills (four others in company) 
contained twenty- two passengers, drawn by one horse, and the time going 
the thirteen miles was one hour and a quarter. By the 1st of July the 
locomotives will be in operation upon the railroad, when the same distance 
will be traveled in thirty minutes. 

Those who have seen and traveled only in the comfortable and convenient 
passenger-cars of the present day cannot comprehend the tedious progress 
with which such improvements have been made. The first passenger-car was 
like a market-car on railroad- wheels. Then came cars resembling the old-
fashioned stage-coach, with the same springs and leather braces, and 
carrying nine passengers each, with a driver's seat perched upon either 
end, as there was no such contrivance as a turntable at that early day. 
For long time the cars were gaudily painted, with a small increase in the 
size. One of those, built by Mr. Richard Imlay, is thus described in the 
Baltimore American, August 4, 1830: 

"A number of persons visited Monument Square, yesterday, for the purpose 
of examining a very elegant railroad passenger carriage, just finished by 
Mr. Imlay, and intended to be immediately placed on the road. 

"The arrangement for the accommodation of passengers is, in some respects, 
different from any other which has yet been adopted. The body of the 
carriage will contain twelve persons, and the outside seats at either end 
will receive six, including the driver. On the top of the carriage is 
placed a double sofa, running lengthwise, which will accommodate twelve 
more. A wire netting rises from two sides of the top of the carriage, to a 
height which renders the top seats perfectly secure. The whole is 
surmounted by an iron framework, with an awning to protect from the snow 
or rain. The carriage, which is named the 'Ohio,' is very handsomely 
finished, and will, we have no doubt, be a great favorite with the 
visitors to the railroad, the number of whom, we are gratified to learn, 
continues to be as great as it was at the opening of the road." 



CHAPTER XIX.
ROSS WINANS'S IMPROVEMENTS.

The road to Ellicott's Mills was opened on May 24, 1830. Trains of cars 
like the above were called brigades, and were continued until Ross Winans, 
Esq., placed upon the track the first eight-wheel car ever built for 
passengers, and called it by the appropriate name of "Columbus." This car 
was a large box, such as any carpenter could make; it had a truck of four 
wheels at either end, the same as the eight-wheel cars of the present 
time; it also had seats on the top, like the other cars hitherto used, 
which were reached by a ladder at one of the corners. This was followed by 
several odd-shaped contrivances; one was nicknamed the "Sea- serpent," 
another was known by the sobriquet of the "Dromedary;" next came the 
Winchester pattern; and this was followed by the "Washington," each an 
improvement on its predecessor. The latter resembled three coach bodies 
combined in one, and divided in the interior into three separate 
apartments, and entered by doors on each side of each apartment. The 
author remembers well, as if but yesterday, riding in cars of this 
construction, in October, 1833, upon the railroad between South Amboy and 
Bordentown, which connected by steamboats both with New York and 
Philadelphia. As the passengers landed and approached the cars to take 
their seats, each car appeared surmounted with the letter A, B. C:, etc., 
in order, and each apartment was numbered 1, 2, or 3. Thus the passenger, 
on examining the ticket furnished to him on the steamboat, entered the car 
and apartment designated thereon. These carriages continued on all the 
roads then operating between the principal cities, as Boston and 
Providence, Philadelphia and New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and 
Baltimore and Washington, until the eightwheel passenger car was brought 
into use, with the passage-way the entire length between the seats, which 
were placed on the sides, as at present. 

When the design for this style of car came before the board of directors 
of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, there was quite a discussion 
whether there should be an aisle in them, with entrances at each end, and 
seats as at present, or whether the cars should be in compartments, with 
entrances at the sides, with a ledge outside for the conductor; and one of 
the arguments against the aisle, verified by the result, as we know, was 
the apprehension that it would often be one long spittoon! The possibility 
of this was admitted; but other considerations prevailed in favor of the 
aisle, which has continued to the present day. 

Horatio Allen, Esq., in one of his letters to the author, once said, in 
alluding to the improvements in every department of railroad machinery, 
locomotives, cars, etc.: 

"It is generally believed that the railroad system was imported into this 
country from England, full grown, but such is not the case. This will be 
exemplified in no better instance than the fact that in September, 1832, 
steel springs were first placed upon the locomotive 'York' and tender, as 
an experiment only, and they demonstrated their utility and necessity in 
regulating the motion and greatly diminishing the jar and consequent 
injury to the road. This also suggested the propriety of making a further 
experiment, by placing some of the burden-cars on springs, by which it was 
found that then admitted of one-third more loading, without any increase 
of demize to the road or car." 

Two years earlier than this, however, other and important improvements had 
been made. One of the great desideratums in the beginning of railroad 
enterprise in this country, and to which no example could be applied, was 
a plan to reduce the large amount of friction. 

In the early period of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, when no one 
dreamed of steam, horses were expected to do the work, and to reduce the 
friction of the axles in the boxes was the object to be achieved. In this 
extremity, Ross Winans, Esq., now living, a venerable citizen of 
Baltimore, came to the rescue with his inventive genius. Dr. William 
Howard, an accomplished and scientific gentleman, had already patented the 
application of the ordinary friction-wheel to a car, where the main 
journal revolved on the exterior periphery; but Mr. Winans suspended his 
wheel by a projecting flange, on the interior periphery of which the main 
axle revolved. This was the ne plus ultra of the friction-wheel, and Mr. 
Winans became immortalized. B. H. Latrobe, Esq., describes a scene in one 
of the upper rooms of the Baltimore Exchange, where the venerable Charles 
Carroll, of Carrollton, who was the great man, on all important occasions, 
was seated in a little railroad car, drawn by a small weight attached to a 
string passing over a pulley and dropping into the hall below. Around him 
were all the prominent men of Baltimore; all were as much pleased as 
children with a new toy. In fact, there was a verdant freshness about all 
railroad objects in those days which it is wonderful to conceive in this 
period of advance and improve ement. 

Not only was friction sought to be avoided, but all sorts of experiments 
were tried, to improve the road.(*) To ride in a railroad- car, in those 
days, was literally to go "thundering" along. The roll of the wheel was 
hammering the iron rails out of existence. When this became known, after 
tens of thousands of dollars had been thrown away, one of the directors, a 
man, too, of general information, proposed to lay a thin slab of lead 
between the iron and the stone, to relieve the concussion. Luckily, this 
costly experiment, which would have furnished the sportsmen of the 
interior with slugs and bullets without cost, was not carried into effect. 
We only mention this now, to show how crude were the notions of the wisest 
men, touching railroads in their infancy, in this country, and to indicate 
the obstacles our forefathers had to contend with in the early days of 
their construction. With no example before them to follow, with no 
experience before them to govern, every thing had to be tested by actual 
experiment.

(* Iron strips were laid, for miles and miles, on stone curbs, on the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.)

The first locomotive ever built in the United States was constructed to 
determine a principle, at that early period, susceptible of a great 
diversity of opinions, even among the engineers and scientific men of that 
day, viz. the ability of a locomotive to keep upon the track in running a 
curve. When steam made its appearance on the Liverpool and Manchester 
Railroad, in England, it attracted much attention in this country, and the 
question of its early adoption became the subject of a great deal of 
speculation and argument. There was this difficulty in the way of 
introducing an English engine upon an American road: In England the roads 
were virtually straight, or with very long curves; but in America they 
were full of curves, sometimes of as small a radius as two hundred feet. 
There was not capital enough in the United States applicable to railroad 
purposes, to justify engineers in setting Nature at defiance in their 
construction. If a tunnel through a spur could be saved, in an American 
railroad, by a track round it, the tunnel would be avoided, and a 
circuitous route adopted, although the distance was increased for miles in 
consequence; so, if embankments could be saved by heading valleys in place 
of crossing them, it was done. This led to sharp curves upon the American 
roads, where there would be straight lines in England. 

No better illustration of this is to be seen than near the Relay House, or 
Washington Junction, of the altimore and Ohio Railroad, where the curve, 
as the road turned into the gorge of the Patapsco, was originally located, 
with less than three hundred feet radius, to avoid the necessity of the 
cut that has since been made through the rocky northern jaw of the gorge. 
A tunnel, too, is now cut at the Point of Rocks, through the hard 
intractable material which is there met with, in a spur.



CHAPTER XX.
EXPERIMENTAL LOCOMOTIVES.

The first locomotive, then built to demonstrate its adaptability to a 
curved road, was constructed by Mr. Peter Cooper, of New York, long and 
most favorably known as the founder of the far-famed Cooper Institute in 
that city. Mr. Cooper's locomotive was built at the St. Clair Works, near 
Baltimore, and was first run upon the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 
summer of 1899, nearly two years before that first really successful 
locomotive (as it was described in the Ledger, and built by Messrs. Tyler 
and Baldwin) was tried upon the Germantown and Norristown Railroad, in 
1832. What success Mr. Cooper's locomotive displayed on its first trial 
trip we will describe: 

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as we have before stated, was the first 
of any extent begun in America; and the first built for the purposes of 
trade and commerce, as nearly all are at the present day. Previous to the 
year 1826, no railroad, even in England, had been constructed for the 
general conveyance of passengers or merchandise between two distant 
points. A few railroads had been constructed for local purposes, such as 
the conveyance of coal or ores from the mines to the points of shipment on 
navigable streams; but, for general purposes of travel or transportation, 
they severe still regarded as an untried experiment, and the question had 
not been settled whether stationary engines or horsepower would be the 
most available. The Stockton and Burlington Railway, the Killingsworth, 
and several others in England, all coal-roads, had experimented with 
locomotives, but no one of them was satisfied that the locomotive would 
ever advantageously supersede horse- power. The Liverpool and Manchester 
Railroad had just been completed, but the question had not been settled 
what power should be used upon it. The same might be said of railroads in 
America, one or two short roads, for mining purposes, having been 
constructed, using horsepower. 

We have devoted the foregoing remarks to the early history of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, not on or from the fact that it was the first 
railroad in the United States, constructed for the actual traffic and 
commerce of the community between two distant sections of the country, the 
far-off West with the East, but because it was the railroad upon which the 
first locomotive built in the United States was successfully introduced. 
We allude to the machine constructed by Mr. Peter Cooper, in 1829; and, 
although this was but a Lilliputian affair, it nevertheless became the 
forerunner of a race of iron giants who sprang into existence as soon as 
the principle was established, for the demonstration of which Mr. Cooper 
had brought forth his "Tom Thumb" locomotive. The cause which led him, at 
this time, to deviate from the path of his legitimate business, to become 
the builder of the first American locomotive, will be better explained by 
the perusal of his letter to the author, in answer to some inquiries upon 
that subject, dated 

MR. WILLIAM H. BROWN

"MY DEAR SIR: In reply to your kind favor of the 10th inst., I write to 
say that I am not sure that I have a drawing or sketch of the little 
locomotive placed by me on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in the summer 
of 1829, to the best of my recollection. The engine was a very small and 
insignificant affair. It was made at a time when I had become the owner of 
all the land now belonging to the Canton Company, the value of which, I 
believe, depended almost entirely upon the success of the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad.

"At that time an opinion had become prevalent that the road was ruined for 
steam locomotives, by reason of the short curves found necessary to get 
around the various points of rocks found in their course. Under these 
discouraging circumstances many of the principal stockholders were about 
abandoning the work, and were only prevented from forfeiting their stock 
by my persuading them that a locomotive could be so made as to pass 
success fully around the short curves then found in the road, which only 
extended thirteen miles, to Ellicott's Mills. 

"When I had completed the engine, I invited the directors to witness an 
experiment. Some thirty-six persons entered one of the passenger-cars, and 
four rode on the locomotive, which carried its own fuel and water; and 
made the first passage, of thirteen miles, over an average ascending grade 
of eighteen feet to the mile, in one hour and twelve minutes. They made 
the return-trip in fifty-seven minutes. 

"I regret my inability to make such a sketch of the engine as I would be 
willing to send you at this moment, without further time to do so."

The following letter from Benjamin H. Latrobe, Esq., the chief engineer of 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad during its construction, addressed to the 
author, and containing a description and sketch of the sailing-car 
invented by Mr. Evan Thomas, and experimented with upon the road, and also 
his promise of a future sketch of the Peter Cooper locomotive, will no 
doubt be interesting to our readers: 

"DEAR SIR: Your letter to me, of the 26th July, has been forwarded to me 
at this place, where I am on a visit with my family. It will give me 
pleasure to give you what information I can upon the subject upon which 
you inquire, but I cannot do this so well here, as I could after my return 
to Baltimore, and communicating with my brother, who, as counsel of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, entered its service a couple of years 
before I did, as a subordinate in the engineer corps, on the 1st of July, 
1830. 

"I will recollect the little experimental locomotive of Mr. Peter Cooper, 
and also the sailing-car of Mr. Evan Thomas; but I could not give you a 
reliable sketch of the former at present, but, as to the latter, it was 'a 
basket body,' like that of a sleigh, and had a mast, and, if I recollect, 
'a square sail, and was mounted upon four wheels of equal size.' It ran 
equally well in either direction, but of course only in that in which the 
wind happened to be blowing at the time, although it would go with the 
wind about the beam, but at a speed proportioned to the angle with a line 
of the sails. It was but a clever toy, but had its use at the time in 
showing how little power of propulsion was necessary upon a railway, 
compared with the best of the roads that had preceded it. Mr. Cooper's 
engine had, I remember, a vertical tubular boiler, and he was, at the time 
of its being placed on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the summer of 
1829, regarded as the first suggester of that form of boiler, although Mr. 
Booth, the treasurer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, had proposed 
it for the Rocket engine about the same time; upon this point, however, I 
am not posted. There I at home I would refer to some books and memoranda 
there, which, together with an interchange of recollections with my 
brother, would enable me to speak more specifically. The mode of applying 
the power to the wheels I do not remember. I had just entered the 
company's service, and my thoughts were directed more to learning the use 
of the leveling instrument and transit, and how to run curves with the 
latter, than to the rolling machinery of the railroad. 

"I recollect very distinctly, however, a trip which this little locomotive 
of 'Alderman Cooper's,' as he was then called, made to Ellicott's Mills, 
where I was stationed. It must have been in July or August, 1830. It 
brought out several of the directors, and my brother was one of the party, 
and I remember following it a little distance down the road, after it had 
started with much puffing and leaking of steam from some of its joints.

"It was in size (and power too, I might say) about the scale of Evan 
Thomas's sailing-car; yet it was, as the first step in the use of steam on 
that road, a highly important one. 

"Its fuel, I think, was anthracite coal, the use of which, in the engines 
which succeeded it, was a favorite idea with the company, and influenced 
the form of the locomotives employed upon the road for several subsequent 
years. 

"The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, stimulated by the example of the 
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, next year (1830) offered a premium of 
$500 to the constructor of the locomotive which would draw fifteen tons, 
gross weight, fifteen miles an hour. This advertisement brought upon the 
road an odd collection of four or five original American ideas, of which 
it is much to be regretted that photographs and indeed detailed drawings 
have not been preserved. Among these was a rotary engine, by a Mr. Childs, 
which, I believe, never made a revolution of its wheels, certainly not in 
the form of the locomotive. The engine which took the premium was built by 
Mr. Phineas Davis, which was the model for those built after it for three 
or four years. 



CHAPTER XXI.
PETER COOPER LOCOMOTIVE.

Mr. Latrobes next letter informed the author that he had then a rough 
sketch of the Peter Cooper machine, taken by his brother, John H. B. 
Latrobe, Esq., counselor for the company; but he desired to submit the 
sketch to Mr. Ross Winans, for his examination and opinion, before he 
translated it. 

I have now seen Mr. Winans, and shown him the rough sketch of the Peter 
Cooper locomotive, referred to in my former letter. I send, upon the next 
page, a copy of the sketch, which presents as near an approach to a 
picture of the machine as at this distant day is possible to exhibit. Mr. 
Ross Winans tells me that Mr. Cooper brought the boiler from New York, in 
the spring or early in the summer of 1829; and it was on a frame, and 
rested on four wheels belonging to the company; the road was then used 
thirteen miles to Ellicott's Mills, and with horsepower. The boiler was 
tubular, and upright in position. Mr. Winans does not recollect the 
dimensions of it, although he says it lay in his shops for several years. 
He thinks it was not more than twenty inches in diameter, and, perhaps, 
from five to six feet high. There was a single cylinder of three and one 
quarter inches in diameter, fourteen and one quarter inches stroke, that 
projected its pistonrod and connecting rod, so as to take hold of the 
crank by direct action. 

"On the crankshaft, which rested on the dame of the car, was a spur-wheel 
which geared with a pinion on the forward roadwheels so as to increase 
speed; the roadwheels being only two and one-half feet in diameter. 

"The fuel was anthracite coal, and an artificial draught, in the firebox 
at the bottom of the boiler, was created by a fan, driven by a belt 
passing around a wooden drum attached to one of the road-wheels, and a 
pulley on the fan-shaft as shown in the sketch. 

"Mr. Winans says that Mr. Cooper at first proposed to communicate the 
reciprocating motion of the piston-rod to the roadwheels by an arrangement 
which I cannot accurately describe, but the experiment did not satisfy Mr. 
Cooper on trial, and the common crank action was substituted, and the 
favorable results obtained, which are described in Mr. Winans's letter of 
August 28, 1830, published in the Railroad Record of Cincinnati, on the 
8th of July last. Mr. Cooper, if applied to, could perhaps furnish some 
interesting additional particulars about this engine, which was 
undoubtedly the very first American locomotive. 

"Mr. Winans, after examining the sketch, pronounces it substantially 
correct as to the general features of the engine; the details, many of 
course ideal, must be very defective. The number, size, and length of the 
tubes are not known, only their position in the boiler. 

"The road-wheels were two and a half feet in diameter; the axles had 
outside bearings upon Winans's friction wheels. The axle on which the 
pinion was fixed was kept from lateral or longitudinal movement, so as to 
preserve its position with respect to the spur- wheel. 

"Your friend's sketch of the horse-car, you sent for my inspection, gives 
the general idea of it, and it is made with a spirit that shows him to be 
a good draughtsman and knowing to the 'points of a horse,' better than 
myself, the thing was as much like one of those horsepowers, of which we 
see so many, along railways at the stations, for cutting-up wood for the 
locomotives. The hinged or slatted platform, on which the horse walked, 
turned round a drum; on this was a spurwheel working in a pinion on the 
road-wheel axle; so that this gearing gave considerable speed to the car, 
with a moderate one to the horse. I remember well the adventure with the 
cow, mentioned by my brother in his lecture, to which you refer. I agree 
with him and Mr. Winans that the successful experiment with the Cooper 
engine was in 1830, as it was the year I entered the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad company's service, and some of the particulars are permanently 
fixed upon my memory. 

In 1829 Mr. Cooper made some experiments with his little locomotive, built 
upon the principle he first adopted; but, as it did not perform as well as 
he espected and desired, he changed his plan, and, after some delays, 
made, as one may say, the first actual experimental trip on Saturday, 
August 28, 1830. A particular account of this experiment has been given 
the author by Mr. Winans himself, who was present on the occasion, and 
took a lively interest in the result. Mr. Winans writes: 

"On Saturday, the 28th of August last, 1830, the first railroad car 
propelled by steam proceeded the whole distance Tom Baltimore to 
Ellicott's Mills, and tested a most important principle that curvatures of 
400 feet radius offer no material impediment to the use of steam-power on 
railroads, when the wheels are constructed with a cone, on the principle 
ascertained by Mr. Knight, chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad company to be applicable to such curvatures. The engineers in 
England have been so decidedly of opinion that locomotive steam-engines 
could not be used on curved rails, that it was much doubted whether the 
many curvatures on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad would not exclude the 
use of steam-power. To congratulate our fellow-citizens on the conclusive 
proof, which removes forever all doubt on this subject, and establishes 
the fact that steam-power may be used on our road with as much facility 
and effect as that of horses, at a very reduced expense. 

"The engine" (Cooper's locomotive-engine) "started from Pratt Street 
depot, taking the lead of a train of carriages. The power of the engine is 
a little, if any, over that of one horse, and it can therefore only be 
regarded as a working model. Immediately on front of, and connected with 
it, was a passenger-carriage containing (including the engine attendants) 
twenty-four persons. The aggregate weight of carriages, persons, fuel, and 
water, as nearly as could be ascertained, was estimated to be from four to 
four and a half tons. Notwithstanding the great disproportion of the 
moving power to the load, the following highly-gratifying results were 
obtained; the time was accurately noted by disinterested gentlemen, of the 
first respectability: 

First mile, performed in six minutes and fifty seconds, the steam in the 
onset not being fully raised. Second mile, performed in five minutes; one 
minute was lost in altering the switch, to pass from one track to the 
other. Third mile, travelled in six minutes; two lost in changing from one 
track to the other, the switch not being in the right place. Fourth mile 
was traveled in four minutes and thirty seconds. Fifth mile, occupied five 
minutes and twenty-five seconds. Sixth mile, travelled in six minutes; one 
minute was lost in changing to the other track. Seventh mile, travelled in 
five minutes and thirty seconds; the engine stopped at the middle depot 
for fifteen minutes to receive a supply of water. Eighth Nile, performed 
in six minutes. Ninth mile, performed in five minutes and forty-five 
seconds, the engine traversing an ascent of thirteen feet per mile, and 
encountering the numerous curves which abound in this part of the road. 
Tenth mile, performed in seven minutes; the engine still ascending at the 
rate of thirteen feet per mile, and the road much curved. Eleventh mile, 
in seven minutes and thirty seconds; the same disadvantages of an 
ascending and curved line of road being still encountered. Twelfth mile, 
in seven minutes and thirty seconds; the ascent here being increased to 
eighteen feet per mile and the line curved. Thirteenth mile, in six 
minutes and thirty seconds, the same disadvantages of an amending and 
curved line being encountered as on the preceding mile. 

"Making the aggregate passage of thirteen miles, under the circumstances 
detailed, in the space of one hour and fifteen minutes. 

"On the return of the locomotive-engine at six o'clock in the evening, the 
following results were realized, there being four acldi tional passengers, 
or thirty in all, seated in the attached carriage: 

First mile, traveled in five minutes. Second mile, traveled in four 
minutes. Third mile, traveled in four minutes six seconds. Fourth mile, 
traveled in four minutes. Fifth mile, traveled in four minutes four 
seconds. Sixth mile, traveled in four minutes five seconds. (Four minutes 
occupied in taking in a supply of water.) Seventh mile, traveled in five 
minutes. Eighth mile, traveled in three minutes fifty seconds. Ninth mile, 
traveled in four minutes twenty-five seconds. Tenth mile, traveled in four 
minutes ten seconds. Eleventh mile, traveled in four minutes forty 
seconds. Twelfth mile, traveled in four minutes fifty seconds. Thirteenth 
mile, traveled in four minutes fifty seconds. 

Making the entire passage of thirteen miles in sixty-one minutes, 
including the four minutes lost in taking in water at the middle depot. If 
this be deducted, it will give precisely fifty- seven minutes in traveling 
the distance. 

"It should also be borne in mind that these are experiments merely, and 
that several material improvements have already suggested themselves to 
the inventor. The result, under all the circumstances, is highly 
satisfactory, and constitutes another triumph of the efforts of American 
genius." 



CHAPTER XXII.
ROSS WINANS'S COMPARISONS.

We will also take pleasure here in laying before our readers the following 
highly-interesting letter from Ross Willans, Esq., the inventor of the 
friction-wheels in general use on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It 
gives a cooperative view of the performance of the locomotive-engine of 
the Alessrs. Stephenson, of Eng land, contrasted with that of Mr. Cooper: 
Philip E. Thomas, Esq. 

"Sir: The performance of the working model of experimental locomotive-
engine of Mr. Cooper has been such today as to induce me to attempt a 
hasty comparison of its dimensions and performances with some of the late 
celebrated English locomotives, having witnessed the grand locomotive 
exhibition at Liverpool in October last, for the £500 purse, and many 
other interesting experiments by the Novelty and Rocket since that time. 
As Mr. Cooper's engine has been got up in a temporary manner, and for 
experiment only, and has been on the road but a few days, it will be no 
more than justice to make the comparison with some of the early 
experiments of the English engines. I have, therefore, selected the 
experiment of the Rocket in October, on the result of which the premium of 
£500 was awarded to Mr. Stephenson, its builder, for having produced the 
most efficient locomotive- engine, etc. 

"The Rocket is professedly an eight horsepower when working at a moderate 
speed, but, when working at high velocities, she is said to be more than 
eight horsepower. Its furnace is two feet wide by three feet high; the 
boiler is six feet long and three feet in diameter. 

"The furnace is outside of the main boiler, and has an external casing, 
between which and the fireplace there is a space of three inches filled 
with water and communicating with the boiler. The heated air from the 
furnace is circulated through the boiler by means of twenty-five pipes of 
two inches internal diameter. It has two working cylinders of eight inches 
internal diameter and fifteen inches in length each, or thereabouts. The 
road-wheels to which the motion is communicated are four feet eight and a 
half inches in diameter. Mr. Cooper's engine has but one working cylinder 
ot three and one-fourth inches diameter, and fourteen and a half inch 
stroke of piston, with a boiler proportionally small, or nearly so. The 
wheels of the engine to which the motion is communicated are two and a 
half feet in diameter, making it necessary to gear with wheel and pinion 
to get speed, by which means a considerable consumption of power is 
experienced. You will perceive by the foregoing that the capacity, or 
number of cubic inches, contained in the cylinder of Mr. Cooper's engine 
is only about one fourteenth part of that contained in the two cylinders 
of the Rocket; consequently, it can only use one-fourteenth the quantity 
of steam under the same pressure when each engine is making the same 
number of strokes per minute, which is nearly the case when the two 
engines are going at equal speed on the road. The total weight moved in 
the experiment above alluded to by the Rocket, including her own weight, 
was seventeen tons on the level road at an average speed of twelve and a 
half miles the hour, thereby exhibiting (agreeably to Vignoles's late 
table of the power of locomotive-engines) a little less than a six-horse 
engine. 

"Mr. Cooper's engine has today moved a gross weight of four and a half 
tons from the depot to Ellicott's Mills and back in the space of two hours 
and ten minutes, which, as you are aware, the distance being twenty-six 
miles, gives an average speed of twelve miles to the hour. As the engine 
returned with its load to the same point whence it started, the 
acclivity's and declivity's of the road were, of course, balanced; and at 
least as much time and power (if not more) were required to traverse the 
whole distance as would have been on a level road; therefore (agreeably to 
the aforesaid tables of M. Vignoles) Mr. Cooper's engine exhibited an 
average force during the time it was running of 1.43 horse power, or 
nearly one and a half, which is more than three times as much power as the 
Rocket exhibited during the experiment above described, in proportion to 
the cylindrical capacity of the respective engines. This, no doubt, 
originated in a consider able degree from the steam being used in Mr. 
Cooper's engine at a higher pressure than in the Rocket. We are, however, 
not able to come to any very correct conclusion as to what extent this 
cause prevailed (Mr. Cooper's steam-gauge not being accurately weighed), 
which prevents a more minute comparison being made. It may be said that 
subsequent practice and experience with the Rocket have enabled her 
constructor to produce more favorable results, which is no doubt the case; 
but we have every reason to expect a similar effect with regard to Mr. 
Cooper's engine, judging from what we have witnessed, each exhibition of 
its power being, as yet, an improvement upon the one that preceded it. It 
is, however, too small and too temporary in its construction to expect a 
great deal, from the friction of the parts; the heat lost in a small 
engine being much greater in proportion to the power than in a large one. 
But today's experiments must, I think, establish, beyond a doubt, the 
practicability of using locomotive steam-power on the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad for the conveyante of passengers and goods at such speed and with 
such safety (when compared with other modes) as will be perfectly 
satisfatory to all parties concerned, and with such economy as must be 
highly cattering to the interests of the company. It has been doubted by 
many whether the unavoidable numerous short curves on the line of your 
road and inclined planes would not render the use of locomotive-power 
impracticable; but the velocity with which we have been propelled today by 
steam-power round some of the shortest curves (to wit, from fifteen to 
eighteen miles per hour) without the slightest appearance of danger, and 
with very little, if any, increased resistance's as there was no 
appreciable falling off in the rate of speed, and the slight diminution in 
speed in passing up the inclined planes, some of which were nearly twenty 
feet to the mile, must, I think, put an end to such doubts, and at once 
show the capability of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to do much more 
than was at first anticipated or promised by its projectors and 
supporters. 

As much as we have written and quoted respecting this first experimental 
locomotive of Mr. Peter Cooper, we still cannot leave the subject without 
giving our readers a description of that first trip, from the pen of H. B. 
Latrobe, Esq., the counselor of the company, who was one of the passengers 
on that occasion. In a lecture before the Maryland Institute, in 1868, Mr. 
Latrobe, after speaking of the numerous curves that existed on the line of 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, thus continues: 

"For a brief season it was believed that this feature of the early 
American roads would prevent the use of locomotive-engines. The contrary 
was demonstrated by a gentleman still living in an active and ripe old 
age, honored and beloved, distinguished for his private worth and for his 
public benefactions; one of those to whom wealth seems to have been 
granted by Providence that men might know how wealth might be used to 
benefit one's fellow creatures. The speaker refers to Mr. Peter Cooper, of 
New York. Mr. Cooper was satisfied that steam might be adapted to the 
curved roads which he saw would be built in the United States; and he came 
to Baltimore, which then possessed the only one on which he could 
experiment to vindicate his belief, and he built an engine to demonstrate 
his belief. The machine was not larger than the handcars 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 could 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 today 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 
diameter, but not much more than half as high. It stood upright in the 
car, and was filled above the furnace, which occupied the lower section, 
with vertical tubes. The cylinder was but three and a half inches in 
diameter, and speed was gotten up by gearing. No natural draught could 
have been sufficient to keep up steam in so small a boiler; and Mr. Cooper 
used, therefore, a blowing- aparatus, driven by a drum attached to one of 
the cartwheels, over which passed a cord that in its turn worked a pulley 
on the shaft of the blower. Among the first buildings erected at Mount 
Clare was a large garage, in which railroad tracks were laid at right 
angles with the road-track, communicating with the latter by a turn- 
table, a liliputian affair indeed compared with the revolving platforms, 
its successors, now in use. 

"In this car-shop, Mr. Cooper had his engine, and here steam was first 
raised; and it seems as though it were within the last week that the 
speaker saw Mr. George Brown, the treasurer of the company, one of our 
most estimable citizens, his father Mr. Alexander Brown, Mr. Philip E. 
Thomas, and one or two more, watch Mr. Cooper, as with his own hands he 
opened the throttle, admitted the steam into the cylinder, and saw the 
crank-sabstitute operate successfully with a clacking noise, while the 
machine moved slowly forward with some of the bystanders, who had stepped 
upon it. And this was the first locomotive for railroad purposes ever 
built in America; and this was the first transportation of persons by 
steam that had ever taken place on this side of the Atlantic, on an 
American-built locomotive. 

"Mr. Cooper's success was such as to induce him to try a trip to 
Ellicott's Mills, on which occasion an open car, the first used upon the 
road already mentioned, having been attached to the engine, and filled 
with the directors and some friends, the speaker among the rest, the first 
journey by steam in America on an American locomotive was commenced. The 
trip was most interesting. The curves were passed without difficulty, at a 
speed of fifteen miles an hour; the grades were ascended with comparative 
ease; the day was fine, the company in the highest spirits, and some 
excited gentlemen of the party pulled out memorandum-books, and when at 
the highest speed, which was eighteen miles an hour, wrote their names and 
some connected sentences, to prove that even at that great velocity it was 
possible to do so. The return-trip from the Mills, a distance of thirteen 
miles, was made in fifty-seven minutes. This was in the summer of 1830, 
but the triumph of this Tom Thumb engine was not altogether without a 
drawback. The great stage proprietors of the day were Stockton and Stokes; 
and on that occasion a gallant gray, of great beauty and power, was driven 
by them from town, attached to another car on the second track, for the 
company had begun by making two tracks to the Mills, and met the engine at 
the Relay House, on its way back. 

"From this point it was determined to have a race home; and, the start 
being even, away went horse and engine, the snort of the one and the puff 
of the other keeping time and time. 

"At first the gray had the best of it, for his steam would be applied to 
the greatest advantage on the instant, while the engine had to wait until 
the rotation of the wheels set the blower to work. The horse was perhaps a 
quarter of a mile ahead, when the safety-valve of the engine lifted, and 
the thin blue vapor issuing from it showed an excess of steam. The blower 
whistled, the steam blew of in vapor clouds, the pace increased, the 
passengers shouted, the engine gained on the horse, soon it lapped him,  
the silk was placed, the race was neck and neck, nose and nose, then the 
engine passed the horse, and a great hurrah hailed the victory. But it was 
not repeated, for just at this time, when the gray master was about giving 
up, the band which drove the pulley, which moved the blower, slipped from 
the drum, the safety-valve ceased to scream, and the engine, for want of 
breath, began to wheeze and pant. In vain Mr. Cooper, who was his own 
engineer and fireman, lacerated his hands in attempting to replace the 
band upon the wheel; in vain he tried to urge the fire with light wood: 
the horse gained on the machine and passed it, and, although the band was 
presently replaced, and steam again did its best, the horse was too far 
ahead to be overtaken, and came in the winner of the race. But the real 
victory was with Mr. Cooper, notwithstanding. He had held fast to the 
faith that was in him, and had demonstrated its truth beyond peradventure. 
All honor to his name! In a patent-case, tried many years afterward, the 
boiler of Mr. Cooper's engine became, in some connection which has been 
forgotten, important as a piece of evidence. It was hunted for and found 
among some old rubbish at Mount Clair. It was difficult to imagine that it 
had ever generated steam enough to drive a coffee- mill, much less that it 
had performed the feats here narrated. In the d'Irtillerie at Paris there 
are preserved old cannon, contemporary, almost, with Crecy and Poictiers. 
In some great museum of internal improvement, and some such will at a 
future day be gotten up, Mr. Peter Cooper's boiler should hold an equally 
prominent and far more honored place; for while the old weapons of 
destruction were ministers of mall's wrath, the contrivance we have 
described was one of the most potential instruments in malting available, 
in America, that vast system which unites remote people, and promotes that 
peace on earth and goodwill to men which angels have proclaimed." 



CHAPTER XXIII.
HORSE AND SAILING CARS.

Following the horse-power car came the Meteor. This was a sailingvehicle, 
the invention of Mr. Evan Thomas, who was, perhaps, the first person, as 
already mentioned, who advocated railroads in Baltimore. The Meteor 
required a good gale to drive it, and would only run when the wind was 
what sailors call abaft, or on the quarter. Head-winds were fatal to it, 
and Mr. Thomas was afraid to trust a strong side-wind lest the vehicle 
might be upset; so it rarely made its appearance except a northwester was 
blowing, when it would be dragged out to the farther end of the Mount 
Clair embankment, and come back, literally with flying colors. The 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad being the first in operation in this country, 
and almost the first in the world for the transportation of passengers and 
merchandise, of course was visited by crowds from almost every section of 
the United States, as well as from parts of Europe. Among them was Baron 
Krudener, envoy from Russia, who, by invitation of Mr. Thomas, made an 
escursion in the sailing- car, managing the sail himself. On his return 
from the trip, he declared he had never before travelled so agreeably. Mr. 
Thomas caused a model sailing-car to be constructed, which he presented to 
the baron, with the respects of the company, to be forwarded to the 
emperor. This courtesy on the part of Mr. Thomas was handsomely 
acknowledged by the baron. 

Like the Morse-car, the sailing-car had its day. It was an amusing toy, 
nothing more, and is referred to now as an illustration of the crudity of 
the ideas prevailing forty years ago in reference to railroads. 

It was after the demonstration by Peter Cooper that the Baltimore and 
Susquehanna Railroad Company, now the Northern Central, imported the 
Herald from England. It ran off the track continually, and was useless. 
Its unfitness, with its large wheels, for use on our curved roads was at 
once apparent, and it had to be altered to obviate the difficulty. It was, 
however, antedated by the engine of Mr. Cooper and other locomotives, as 
we shall show; yet it excited great admiration for its beauty, and even 
its driver, an Englishman named John, became a person of consequence. When 
he came down from the engine to oil it, the crowd surrounded him, as the 
boys at a race surround the dismounted jockeys on the course. The whole 
American world were railroad children in the days we speak of. 

The contest for the right of way along the Potomac between the Baltimore 
and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Companies, the 
preliminary proceedings, in which counsel on both sides, with surveyors at 
their heels like moss-troopers, scouted the banks of the river from the 
Point of Rocks to Williamsport, ferreted out the proprietors of almost 
inaccessible cliffs, besieged them in their dwellings to obtain grants of 
the right of way, described what railroads were, oftentimes to men whose 
knowledge of highways was confined to mountain-paths, made diagrams and 
drawings of cars and tracks unlike any thing that ever existed before or 
which ever came afterward, and were believed by an ignorance that was only 
greater than their own, these proceedings alone would furnish more than a 
dozen chapters, but our limits will not allow us to record them. The route 
to the mountains lay up the valley of the Potomac, and the struggle for 
priority of claim was a prolonged and exciting one. 



CHAPTER XXIV.
PETER COOPER.

Mr. Peter Cooper, of New York, like his great contemporary, George 
Stephenson, of England, may be justly looked upon as the pioneer of the 
locomotive system in America. Undoubtedly he built the first locomotive 
ever constructed here; and although (as we have stated before) his little 
machine was not intended for practical purposes or employment upon a 
railroad, yet it was designed to demonstrate a fact then very much 
doubted, namely, the ability of a locomotive to e travel on the short-
curved roads in this country, which Mr. Cooper's successful performance 
set at rest forever. But the Herald was antedated in another quarter. Mr. 
Cooper commenced his career in life from the very foot of the ladder, and, 
like him also, by his indomitable perseverance and industry, clambered 
step by step from one round to another, ascending until he reached the 
proud pinnacle of the topmost round, as a pioneer in the great 
achievements of the locomotive, now an indispensable necessity for the 
successful prosecution of trade and commerce throughout the world. 

"The history of a poor boy, without education or influential fiiends, who, 
by honesty, industry, and persistence, raised himself to a position of 
wealth and reputation, cannot but be interesting. Such, if properly told, 
would be the life of Peter Cooper, a man who, perhaps, as much as any 
other citizen of New York, has left his mark on his associates, and has 
placed his name in imperishable remembrance. 

"He was born in the city of New York, February 12, 1791. His maternal 
grandfather, John Campbell, was Mayor of New York, and deputy 
quartermaster-general during the Revolutionary War, in which his father 
also served as a lieutenant. Mr. Cooper's father was a respectable hatter, 
and, as soon as young Cooper was old enough to pick fur fiom the rabbit-
skins used in making hats, he was set to work. He had no opportunities for 
education, and only attended school one or two months in his life. 'I have 
never had any time to get an education,' he once almost pathetically 
remarked, 'and all that I know I have had to pick up as I went along.' 

"He remained in the hat business with his father until he had mastered it 
in all its branches, and during much of the time, after he had finished 
his labors for the day, he would work until late at night with some 
carver's tools which his grandmother gave him, in order to eke out his 
small wages. 

"We, who go to our places of business at nine, or less, and leave at five, 
can little realize the toil which falls to the lot of mechanics. The 
Cooper Institute is the result of the recollections of those early days, 
and was intended to help poor boys in the same situation as he had been. 
Young Cooper afterward went into the brewing business, at which he 
remained about two years. He then served the usual apprenticeship to 
coachmaking, and finally even into the clothshearing business with his 
brother. For some time he succeeded very well, but after the War of l812 
his business was so injured by the introduction of foreign cloths that he 
left it and began cabinetmaking. He gave this up after a while, and opened 
a grocery-store on the present site of the Cooper Union, where he carried 
on a small retail trade for some time. He finally bought a woollen factory 
with his savings, and since that time has steadily prospered. He has since 
tried his hand at other lands of business, but the largest part of his 
fortune was gained by the manufacture of glue and by his ironworks. He has 
shown a Yankee talent for undertaking different speculations, as well as 
great shrewdness and prudence in conducting them. 

"In 1830 he erected extensive iron-works at Canton, near Baltimore, where 
he built from his own designs the first locomotive ever turned out on this 
continent. He carried on large wire and rolling mills at Trenton, New 
Jersey, and was the first person to roll wrought-iron beams for fire-proof 
buildings. He has been much interested in the progress of telegraphy, and 
has been an officer in several leading telegraph associations 

"It was while serving as an alderman, forty years ago, that Mr. Cooper 
conceived the idea of the 'Cooper Union.' A fellow officer who had visited 
the Ecoles d'Irbdastree [d'industrie?], in Paris, and been much impressed 
with their utility and attractions, described them to him and suggested 
that they would be well suited for introduction into this country. The 
thought thus planted in Mr. Cooper's mind, remained for long years, 
germinated, took root, and grew into the accomplishment of his design. 

"Let those who think it an easy thing to do good, ponder the lesson taught 
by Mr. Cooper's experience in building the Institute. The mere saving and 
donating the money for the purpose was but a fraction of the work 
performed. Great difficulties had to be overcome in designing so unique a 
building. Mr. Cooper was determined that it should be fire-proof, 
consequently a separate foundery had to be erected to forge the iron used 
in the construction; when this was done, the estimated outlay fell short 
twenty- five thousand dollars of the actual cost. Countless other 
obstacles had to be overcome, and finally the Institute was completed, at 
an immense cost over its estimated expense. In fact, it took all Mr. 
Cooper's money to finish it, and he was comparatively a poor man when all 
the bills were paid; but, as if to reward his sacrifices, his business has 
since improved, until he is now richer than ever. 

"What greater triumph could be desired, than to have aceomplished such a 
work as the Institute as lt now stands, with its classes for young men and 
women, its scientific, literary, art, and music schools, reading-room, and 
other features, and what greater honor could be desired than to go down to 
posterity as its founder? Let the voices of those who have received its 
benefits be a pean to the memory of its originator, and let his name share 
the glory of their deeds! 

"But nothing is complete in life without its disagreeable side, and noble 
as have been Mr. Cooper's motives, and open as were his plans in erecting 
this institution, not a few persons have avowed their belief that it was 
all done with self-interested views. 

"After this, who can expect gratitude from the world? 

"Mr. Cooper's personal appearance is familiar to every New Yorker. He is 
of middle stature, with silver locks and beard, and a venerable and 
benevolent face. He is best known by his old white hat, which, like Horace 
Greeley's, is characteristic of the man. He commonly drives about in an 
old-fashioned one-horse chaise, drawn by a steady mare, the whole turn-out 
looking as if it belonged to some well-to-do farmer or retired tradesman, 
rather than a millionaire. 

"The key to Mr. Cooper's life and deeds is to be found in those few words 
which we have heard from his own lips: 'I resolved that I would repay 
every benefit which I had received by conferring an equal benefit on some 
of my fellowmen.' 

"His success in business has been greatly due to a faculty for taking up 
enterprises which had been abandoned by other people, and by dint of 
perseverance and hard making them succeed. In the main, however, he has 
gained his ends by attending to his affairs in person, and has always 
strictly followed Dr. Franklin's principle, 'The eye of the master is 
North all of his servants.' Even at his present advanced age he does not 
neglect this rule, but keeps a strict eye upon the affairs of the Cooper 
Union." 

We cannot leave Mr. Cooper, even now, without devoting a few pages of our 
work to record his last act of generosity, benevolence, and philanthropy, 
toward the meritorious poor and industrious classes of our community, in 
his munificent bequest of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be 
used in the establishment and endowment of a library, where the 
hardworking and deserving classes, who desire repose and relaxation after 
the toils of the day, can seek recreation and information from the great 
store of useful books he has placed within their reach, where all may 
participate who feel a desire of so doing, and know that they are welcome. 

On the day of this munificent bequest, Mr. Cooper reached his eightieth 
birthday, February 12, 1871. On that occasion a most interesting interview 
took place between the graduating class of the Institute and their 
venerable benefactor and friend. We trust that our readers, many of whom 
no doubt will be found among the mechanics and working-class of the 
community, will not deem it out of place here to record the doings on that 
most interesting occasion.