Show THE FIRST ENGINE I 1 my I 1 horatio allen alien toe as well known civil engineer under whose di direction rec the first locomotive brought to america was built and run died at his home in montrose Mont roee N J recently reentered he entered columbia college in 1821 and was graduated near the head of his class in 1823 taking especial high rank in physics in september 1825 the first successful locomotive was put in operation on and darlington railroad in england by george stephenson the news of its success reached this country early in 1826 and so greatly interested mr allen alien that he decided to go to europe and study the new motive power he received an appointment from the delaware and hudson company as contracting agent to purchase in england the railroad iron required to build sixteen miles of road from the company alyis mines in the lackawanna valley valley to the lackawaxen Lacka waxen a tributary of the delaware and an also authority to purchase three locomotives for the new railroad to be built on plans to be decided on by him mr allen alien on arriving at liverpool made the acquaintance of george stephenson with whom he consulted in the carrying out of his plans two of the locomotives were ordered from mr stephenson and one from foster castri bastwick Ba strick ck co of stourbridge Stour bridge it was the latter the stourbridge Stour bridge lion that was the first locomotive ever run in america the locomotives were received in new york in the winter of 1828 and 1829 set up and tested while suspended in the air and it was not until august 1829 that they were taken to the road for which they were built this road terminated at honesdale Ho pa and ran about six hundred yards in a straight line then crossing the Lacka lackawaxen waxen creek by ft sharp curve of 1 yards radius when the stour bridge lion was swung in theair the air preparatory to being placed on the track it was discovered for the first time that the axles bad an unyielding parallel position and that there was no do truck with kingbolt that would permit of the engine accommodating itself to the curve of the road the road had bad been built of green timber in long lengths and the timbers had bad warped considerably in places nevertheless mr allen alien was confident that all would be well weil he tried in vain however to get an engineer to run the locomotive and no do official of the road would risk his life in the apparently foolhardy enterprise ter prise mr allen alien then acted as engineer himself and ran the locomotive three miles down the track and returned in safety ZV Y tribune |