Steam Engine Time looked very different from the ground

[Ged Byrne]

Hi Paul,

I thought I'd share this quote from Samuel Smiles' "Lives of the Engineers" talking about Stephenson's efforts to get turn his Steam Engine idea into a reality:

"It may well be supposed that Mr. Stephenson's time was fully occupied in superintending the extensive, and for the most part novel works, connected with the railway, and that even his extraordinary powers of labour and endurance were taxed to the utmost during the four years that they were in progress...  And it was in the midst of this vast accumulation of work and responsibility that the battle of the locomotive engine had to be fought, - a battle, not merely against material difficulties, but against the still more trying obstructions of deeply-rooted mistrust and prejudice on the part of a considerable minority of the directors."

It may seem to use now, looking back, that the invention of the railway was inevitable.  It certainly didn't seem that way at the time:

"Wherever railways have been made, new towns have sprung up, and old towns and cities been quickened into new life.  When the first English lines were projected, great were the prophecies of disaster to the inhabitants of the districts through which they were proposed to be forced.  Such fears have long since been dispelled in this country.  The same prejudices existed in France.  When the railway from Paris to Marseilles was laid out so as to pass through Lyons, a local prophet predicted that if the line were made the city would be ruined—“Ville traversée, ville perdue;” while a local priest denounced the locomotive and the electric telegraph as heralding the reign of Antichrist.  But such nonsense is no longer uttered.  Now it is the city without the railway that is regarded as the “city lost;” for it is in a measure shut out from the rest of the world, and left outside the pale of civilisation."

Those who were already invested in the canal network did not see the railways as a threat:

The canal proprietors, confident in their imagined security, ridiculed the proposed railway as a chimera.  It had been spoken about years before, and nothing had come of it then: it would be the same now.

The full text is available online: http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wakefield/history/27710-h/27710-h.htm

Regards, 

Ged

[Paul Morrison]

These are fascinating!� Thanks for sending them!

BTW One thing is bothering me:� are you /ged/ or /jed/?� Every time I want to quote you verbally, I have to stop and make a guess :-)� Of course, in Barsoom, the latter is spelled "jed"...

Paul

On 11/06/2012 5:51 AM, Ged Byrne wrote:

Hi Paul,

I thought I'd share this quote from�Samuel�Smiles' "Lives of the Engineers" talking about Stephenson's efforts to get turn his Steam Engine idea into a reality:

"It may well be supposed that Mr. Stephenson's time was fully occupied in superintending the extensive, and for the most part novel works, connected with the railway, and that even his extraordinary powers of labour and endurance were taxed to the utmost during the four years that they were in progress... �And it was in the midst of this vast accumulation of work and responsibility that the battle of the locomotive engine had to be fought, - a battle, not merely against material difficulties, but against the still more trying obstructions of deeply-rooted mistrust and prejudice on the part of a considerable minority of the directors."

It may seem to use now, looking back, that the invention of the railway was inevitable. �It certainly didn't seem that way at the time:

"Wherever railways have been made, new towns have sprung up, and old towns and cities been quickened into new life. �When the first English lines were projected, great were the prophecies of disaster to the inhabitants of the districts through which they were proposed to be forced. �Such fears have long since been dispelled in this country. �The same prejudices existed in France. �When the railway from Paris to Marseilles was laid out so as to pass through Lyons, a local prophet predicted that if the line were made the city would be ruined��Ville travers�e, ville perdue;� while a local priest denounced the locomotive and the electric telegraph as heralding the reign of Antichrist. �But such nonsense is no longer uttered. �Now it is the city without the railway that is regarded as the �city lost;� for it is in a measure shut out from the rest of the world, and left outside the pale of civilisation."

Those who were already invested in the canal network did not see the railways as a threat:

The canal proprietors, confident in their imagined security, ridiculed the proposed railway as a chimera. �It had been spoken about years before, and nothing had come of it then: it would be the same now.

The full text is available online:�http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wakefield/history/27710-h/27710-h.htm

Regards,�

Ged

--
http://jpaulmorrison.blogspot.ca/

[Ged Byrne]

Hi Paul,

it's pronounced with a J.  It's short for Gerald.

On Monday, 11 June 2012, Paul Morrison wrote:

These are fascinating!  Thanks for sending them!

BTW One thing is bothering me:  are you /ged/ or /jed/?  Every time I want to quote you verbally, I have to stop and make a guess :-)  Of course, in Barsoom, the latter is spelled "jed"...

Paul

[Paul Morrison]

Thanks, Ged!  Barsoom has it!

Paul

--
http://jpaulmorrison.blogspot.ca/

[John Cowan]

Paul Morrison scripsit:

> BTW One thing is bothering me: are you /ged/ or /jed/? Every time

> I want to quote you verbally, I have to stop and make a guess :-)

> Of course, in Barsoom, the latter is spelled "jed"...

In Le Guin's Earthsea, it's /ged/.

--
He played King Lear as though John Cowan <co...@ccil.org>
someone had played the ace. http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
--Eugene Field

[Paul Morrison]

That's probably where I got /ged/ from! LeGuin is great!

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