d scarcely
sprung into being, steam locomotives had only just been born, and not
only men in general, but even many learned, scientific and practical men
regarded the statement of all such opinions as being little short of
insanity. Nevertheless, many deep-thinking men thought differently, and
one contemporary, reviewing this subject in after years, said of Mr
Maclaren's papers, that, "they prepared the way for the success of
railway projectors."

We have said that the steam locomotive--the material transformer of the
world--our Iron Horse, had just been born. It was not however born on
the rails, but on the common road, and a tremendous baby-giant it was,
tearing up its cradle in such furious fashion that men were terrified by
it, and tried their best to condemn it to inactivity, just as a weak and
foolish father might lock up his unruly boy and restrain him perforce,
instead of training him wisely in the way in which he should go.

But the progenitors of the Iron Horse were, like their Herculean child,
men of mettle. They fought a gallant fight for their darling's freedom,
and came off victorious!

Of course, many men and many nations were anxious to father this
magnificent infant, and to this day it is impossible to say precisely
who originated him. He is said by some to have sprung from the brains
of Englishmen, others assert that brains in France and Switzerland begat
him, and we believe that brother Jonathan exercised his prolific brain
on him, before the actual time of his birth. The first name on record
in connexion with this infant Hercules is that of Dr Robison, who
communicated his ideas to Watt in 1759. The latter thereupon made a
model locomotive, but entertained doubts as to its safety. Oliver
Evans, of Philadelphia, patented a "steam waggon" in 1782. William
Murdoch, the friend and assistant of Watt, made a model in 1787 which
drew a small waggon round a room in his house in Cornwall. In the same
year Symington exhibited a model locomotive in Edinburgh, and in 1795 he
worked a steam-engine on a turnpike-road in Lanarkshire. Richard
Trevethick, who had seen Murdoch's model, made and patented a locomotive
in 1802. It drew on a tramway a load of ten tons at the rate of five
miles an hour. Trevethick also made a carriage to run on common roads,
and altogether did good service in the cause.

Blenkinsop, of Middleton Colliery, near Leeds, made locomotives in 1811
which hauled coals up steep asce