The first locomotive used successfully 2

the same time, Jorge Stephenson, engineer of the coalmine of Killingworth, England , had been working in the resolution of the problem, and in 1814 introduced his first machine, denominated the " Blucher ", which had a boiler of 863 millimeters of diameter and 2.43 meters in length, with a heating tube of 507 millimeters of diameter. The cylinders had 203 millimeters of diameter, being the race of the piston of 609 millimeters.

Locomotive Killingworth , 1816 Locomotive "Puffing Billy" , 1813

This locomotive did not defer greatly from any of its precedents; but in the second machine devised by the same Stephenson, and constructed the following year, he began to show the originality that gave him the merit and the triumph of making a locomotive a commercial success. In this machine, the connecting bars were in direct communication with the four wheels, and both axes were connected by rods that acted on trees inside the bearings. The rods later were replaced by chains, as it is seen in the attached figure. In a third locomotive, constructed by the same Stephenson, the boiler was transported in steam cylinders, anticipating then the future disposition of the support by springs .

All these locomotives were devised to drag wagons of coal at little speed from mines of particular property, and for a long time, after having used them with a recognized success in that kind of job, the wagons destined to passengers still continued being dragged by horse, and only by force of persistence Stephenson obtained allowance to construct three locomotives for the new Stockton and Darlington railroad , of which he was named engineer-chief in 1823, and that was constructed to use horses as a mean of traction .

The first of the three machines that Stephenson constructed, and denominated "Locomotion", was not different from the previous locomotives, but it had outer lateral rods. The boiler had 1.21 meters of diameter and three of length; both vertical cylinders were of 254 millimeters of diameter; the driving wheels were connected by lateral bars, like in the modern locomotives. The machinery altogether weighed six tons and a half, and it was accompanied with a tender to transport coal and water.
The railroad of Stockton and Darlington was the first in which the locomotives were used with regularity for the transport of passengers and merchandise. The cavalries were thus discarded.
The "Locomotion" , built by Stephenson in 1825 , over the first railroad bridge .

The supremacy of the locomotive was definitively and totally consecrated in the contest inaugurated by the Company of the railroad of Liverpool and Manchester to decide what traction method would be the best one for its new rail , and offering a prize for the best solution. The plan counted , of course, with the opposition of the Companies of diligences and the land owners along the way. Stephenson, that had been named engineer-chief , was greatly ridiculed after assuring that he could construct a locomotive that would march at the speed of 30 kilometers per hour. During the debate that for the concession was originated in the House of Commons, a member of a Committee of this Camera asked to him: "Let's suppose now that one of your machines is marching at the rate of two and a half or three kilometers per hour and that a cow crossed the line and intercepted the way of the machine, wouldn't it be a very delicate circumstance ?, to which the engineer responded "Yes , very delicate for the cow." And when asked if the people and the animals would not be intimidated themselves by the red chimney of the locomotive, he answered back with very good sense: "But how they would know to distinguish if the chimney did not go painted ? " .

The first locomotive used successfully

The locomotive of Trevithick, according to the most authorized references, was very similar to the attached figure in this page . The boiler was made of strained iron with inner furnace, and the products of the combustion were directed to a chimney located in the same end of the mouth of the firebox . The steam engine, that is to say, the cylinder with the piston, was arranged vertically, and the connecting bars represented in the figure by the D, that acted as a connecting rod, and the L, connected with the motor axis.

The steam, after having operated, escaped by the chimney to increase the shot, and this system it depended on the friction of the driving wheels on the tracks to assure sufficient traction power . The pressure of the steam was about 40 pounds by square inch; so that strictly speaking it was a machine of high pressure. The safety valve, E , prevented an excessive pressure in the boiler. This locomotive worked well, but its economic results were not satisfactory.

The following successful attempt to obtain a steam locomotive was done by Blenkinsop in 1812. This machine, as it appears in the corresponding figure , had two cylinders of 203 millimeters of diameter each one and arranged vertically , like in the machine of Trevithick. The connecting bars, nevertheless, acted on axes with pinions that rotated a great dented wheel, that matched as well in the edges of the rails of the track . The supporting wheels of the machine were not, then, driving wheels. The machine of Blenkinsop was followed, in 1813, by another denominated " Puffing Billy ", devised by Blackett, that almost completely agreed upon the same Blenkínsop's system in the general structure of the vehicle, but that obtained the effect of traction by means of the supporting wheels, like in the locomotive invented by Trevithick.

The locomotive in its childhood and its first vacillating steps .

At the end of 18th. century , the steam engine became a real and positive factor in the industry, and different attempts had been made to apply it to the road vehicles. The merit to carry out the construction of the first locomotive that marched on tracks corresponds to Richard Trevithick, that, in February of 1804, used a locomovible machine to carry coal in the road of Penydarran, in South Wales , United Kingdom.