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| "LORD OF THE ISLES" - The engraving shows one
of the most highly celebrated locomotives in the world, which was to
be seen in the Transportation Building.
It is the "Lord of the Isles," and was built for the Great Western
Railway Company and exhibited as the chief wonder of the first
World's Fair, held at London. This locomotive made the fast time of
the world, on the way daily between London and Bath; and as every
European of prominence goes to London, and once in London usually
visits Bath, it follows that the "Lord of the Isles" has drawn nearly
every well-known man of the last forty years. The reasons which were
alleged for the famous speed of this engine - in the days when
American mechanism could not compete with it - were the superb steel
and stone permanent way, and the broad gauge of the Great Western
Railway, which permitted a size of boiler not attained by the
Americans until they were brave enough to hoist theri boiler clear of
the drive wheels. This engine was, in 1851, what "No. 600" was at
the Centennial, and what "The Director General" and "No. 999" were to
the Columbian Exposition. Examination of the "No. 999" of the New
York Central, which ran at the rate of one hundred miles an hour,
shows that our mechanics are approaching the general appearance of
the "Lord of the Isles," except in the matter of the drive wheels.
There is a look of solid and polished steel about our best engines,
and a rapid abandonment of the paint and color of past decades. |
