Show p t 14 t tp I Iy y or a 6 t- t By ELMO SCOTT WATSON the Travel and Transport I building at A Century of Progress In Chicago Is presented every day a I pageant called The Wings of ot a Century There across the stage of a Greek theater with the blue waters of Lake Michigan as a back back- background background background ground parades the Ule colorful story V tit V of the romance of transportation Y YIn In n America during the last years Indians afoot on horseback In canoe and on dragging lead the way Close behind them presses the on- on oncoming coming on-coming coming white man man-in man in creaking lumbering two two- wheeled two wheeled carts In Concord stage coaches In chaises In Conestoga wagons In steamboats and in fast packet boats and swift Yan Yan- Yankee Yankee Yankee kee clipper ships Now the covered wagons are rollIng calling out to Oregon and the pony express rider dashes up and as quickly speeds away The pages of history turn rapidly and the drawn horse drawn wagons and carriages are succeeded by a new marvel marel the horseless carriage or automobile e And almost before man has mas mas- mastered mas- mas mastered mastered this new form of or quick travel across the theland theland theland land land the Wrights leap up from the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk In Ln North Carolina and the dream of Icarus Is a reality Man Is now traveling through the air In the midst of or all this splendid pageantry of the conquest of water land and air there Is one chapter which stirs your Imagination as perhaps no other one does docs That Is the Parade of the theIron theIron theIron Iron norse Horse You view appreciatively ely the his his- historically historically historically authentic costumes of more than a hundred actors In the pageant You are amused and delighted by the pantomime of some of these actors as they reproduce the thoughts and feel feel- feelIngs feelings feelings ings and actions of past generations of Amer Amer- AmerIcans Americans Americans And at times you rou are deeply stirred as you say sar to yourself I am seeing history In the making But nut when those locomotives from Peter Coo Coo- Cooper's Cooper's pers per's little Tom Thumb on down to one of ot the modern Titans come rolling across the stage with ringing bells beUs puffing pulling smokestacks and screaming whistles then then-nh then ah then I Its It's hard for you lou to stifle stine that little-boy little urge to stand up and yell I For In these black monsters you see seethe seethe seethe the Inventive genius of America you ou see the symbol of the final conquest of the wilderness you see the Instrument which first bound to- to to gether the broad expanse of ot these United States of America you see sec a whole century of the development of the machine ne age Tile first iron horse paradoxically enough was more horse than Iron The first railroad built in America for carrying passengers and freight was the Baltimore Ohio Chartered In 1827 It began laying laing the rails for Its 13 mIles or of road from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills on July 4 1828 1528 with Charles diaries Carroll of Carroll Carroll- Carrollton Carrollton ton Carroll ton the only living signer of the Declaration or of Independence lifting the first of dirt Incidentally this historic scene Is graphic graphic- graphically graphically ally reproduced In Ln the Baltimore Ohio's ex exhibit hibit In the Travel and Transport building The road was opt opened ned In May 1830 In the meantIme the promoters had been experiment experiment- experimenting nt- nt log ing with various sorts of or cars One was a horse- horse drawn passenger car Such as Is shown In Illus Illustration No Ko 1 above Another was a flat fiat car fitted with a treadmill operated by a horse but upon It Its trial trip it came to grief n grief a cow on the track upset It I Another e experiment which was also unsuccessful was made with a sail sail- sailboat sailboat boat on wheels called the Meteor Then the Inventive genius of Peter Cooper came Into the picture He lie built a tiny with a boiler boner about the size of the one whIch stands behind your our kitchen stove and with flues rondo made of gun barrels To this he gave the ap name of Tom Thumb and made some trial runs on the partly-finished partly railroad In 1830 From this experience he reconstructed his lo- lo lo locomotive e and on August 28 1830 the Tom pushed Instead of or pulled a car with 24 passengers over the entire 13 miles of the therond road rond attaining a speed of four miles an hour A few days later occurred the famous rac race I Thumb and horse drawn horse between the Tom a car over the double track between Baltimore tt's Mills At the start the gray rny horse leaped uto the lead lend and held It for awhile Then the Ule puffing Tom Toni Thumb began gan to catch up- up up-It up It drew abreast the straining then animal animal passed It But just as shouts of triumph weal up from Coopers Cooper's passengers a belt beU slipped on the mechanism of ot Tom Thumb I So the gra gray grayhorse grayhorse horse won the race to Baltimore But despite this victory the officials of th the new railroad had enough confidence In the fu Cu lure ture of steam locomotives to offer otTer a prize or of for the best engine which should De pe de de- delivered livered to the road for trial before June 1 I 1851 1811 This prize was won by Davis of York ls l's a watchmaker He lie called his locomotive I the York but the pioneer pioneer pioneer railroad men took t R r Ay f q Y es v r 11 ir y 4 1 The Pioneer a horse-drawn horse passenger car built by the Baltimore Ohio In 1829 2 The Tom Thumb built by Peter Cooper for the Baltimore Ohio and given a trial run In 1830 The smiling passenger on this replica Is none other than Amelia Earhart the famous aviatrix 3 The De Witt Clinton which was run over the Mohawk Hudson railroad now the NewYork NewYork New NewYork York Central from Albany to SChenectady N Y In 1831 4 The General built for the Western Atlantic Atlantic railroad In 1855 and made famous by bythe bythe bythe the Andrews Raiders during the Civil war 5 Reproduction of the scene at Promontory Point In Utah May 10 1869 when the tracks of the Union Pacific building west were Joined with the tracks of the Central Pacific building east thus completing the first rail all link be between tween the Atlantic and Pacific At the left is the Central Pacific's locomotive the C P Hunting Huntington ton and at the right the Union Pacific's No 9 6 The last word In modern the locomotives locomotives Northern Pacific's giant No Beside It stands the little MInnetonka the Northern Pa first locomotive built In 1869 I one look at the queer machine with Its drivers moving up and down In the air like the Legs s lesof of a grasshopper and promptly christened It the Grasshopper But nut the York proved Its worth and as late as 1833 1843 three of these early Grass hopper type of engines were still In service on the Baltimore Ohio This same year 1831 also saw the beginnIng or of another great railroad system the New Kew York Central only In those days It was called the Mohawk Hudson and It had some 17 miles of track YOn between Schenectady and Albany N Y On August 9 3 1931 New Kew Yorkers gathered from far and near to the first see Bee public trial of a locomotive to which had been given ghen the name of De Witt Vitt Clinton In honor of th the builder of Hip Big Ditch the Erie Eric canal and which drea drew a string of looking curious-looking pasI pas pas- passenger pas pas- passenger passenger cars resembling stage coaches The De Dc Witt Clinton was a wood burner wood and the tM passengers were so showered with sparks from the engine that some of them had bad holes burned In their clothing while others put up um- um umbrellas um umbrellas to ward off otT the fiery shower When they weren't busy doing this they were trying to kt keep ep from being thrown off ot the seats In the coaches as the train started taking up the slack In the three foot chains which coupled the cars together ether or stopped crashing th cars together the passengers bad had to cut fence rails and wedge them between the cars to reduce the haz haz- hazards hazards hazards ards of tills thIs From 1831 the evolution of the Iron horse was a swift one and that evolution Is Ls easy to visualize as one watches those other early loco loco- locomotives locomotives locomotives motives follow the Tom Thumb and the tho De Witt Clinton across the stage at the WIngs of a Century Here comes conies the Thomas Jeffer Jeffer- Jefferson Jefferson son named In honor of that great Virginian drawing the stagecoach type of cars on the Winchester Win Win- Winchester Winchester chester Potomac railroad In 1836 1830 Here comes the Pioneer built by Seth Wilmarth In 1851 for the lie Cumberland alle Valley railroad now a part lart of the Pennsylvania system and the Thatcher Perkins which Mr Ir PerkIns built for the Bal Baltimore Ohio In 1803 and which drew v one of the finest trains of its time Across the stage too puffs the C P Hunt Hunt- HuntIngton Huntington Ington Ington built In 1803 for the Central Pacific railroad and destined to have a part on May 10 Sj In that historic gold spike ceremony nt at i Promontory Point Utah where was gathered tile the most notable group of railroad builders In Inthe inthe Inthe the world for fOI there were Stanford Huntington ton Hopkins Crocker and the chief engineer of the Central Pacific and there were Durant Seymour Duff DIllon and the chief engineer of or the Union Pacific and In an widening ever-widening circle Were all others that had made the transcontinental possible soldiers from Fort Douglass Mormon bishops and elders from Salt Lake Chinese from San Francisco Irish from Boston Mexicans from the Rio Grande negroes from Dixie Indians from the deserts and mountains and the omni omni- omnipresent omni omni- omnipresent omnipresent present Jewish traders from many lands Hounding Rounding out the parade of the Iron horse are such locomotives as the famous or Empire State Express of the New York Cen Cen- Central Central which brought many visitors to Chicago for forthe forthe tike the Worlds World's Columbian exposition In 18 1893 1503 3 and which In May of that year set a new worlds world's speed record of 1124 miles an hour and the lit lit- little lit little tle 1401 of ot the Illinois Central which hauled thousands and thousands of visitors In suburban trains to Jackson park parle there to see sc the marvels ot of the worlds world's fair of 93 Then as a finale come the giants of today today- today the Korth Northern ern Pacific's No the largest locomotive lo- lo locomotive lo locomotive In operation In the United States to- to today to today day the New Kew York Centrals Central's No the Hud Hud- Hudson Hudson son type passenger locomotive the Chica Chicago o Northwestern's freight and nod passenger No SOuS 3 the Chesapeake Ohio's Pacific type passenger engine the Baltimore Ohio's articulated heavy freight engine No the Illinois Centrals Central's mountain type passenger engine No 2412 the Pennsylvania's freight and passenger No and the lock Hock Islands Island's passenger No They seem to be the last word In locomotive construction But nut already those who guide the iron horse borse across the land are ate looking Into the future and already the they are arc planning a new type type-a a stream lined train of stainless steel made of three cars hinged together with not a break In n the contour from rounded prow to rounded stern driven by a large 12 cylinder en- en engIne en engine gine that burns a non explosive fuel and Is capa capa- capable ble littIe of or making two miles a minute From the lit litI littie littie I tIe Tom Thumb and Its speed of four miles an hour to tills and all In the course ot of ota ofa ofa a century I Im m by Newspaper Union |