But with all these assurances,
we would as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be
fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, as trust themselves to
the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate."
These words, strange and ludicrous as they seem to us, but tersely
expressed the general opinion of the day; but fortunately the clear head
and the undaunted will persevered, until success was at last attained, and
the magnificent railway system of the present, which has revolutionized
the world, is the issue. And the results are almost overwhelming in their
magnitude. Here, in Great Britain alone, 654,000,000 people travel
annually. There are 14,000 locomotives, and the rolling stock would form a
train nearly 2,000 miles long; while the number of miles traveled in a
year by trains is more than 10,000 times round the world; and the
passengers would form a procession 100 abreast, a yard apart, and 3,700
miles long.
These stupendous results have been attained gradually; if we go back to
1848, we find that on the London and Birmingham Railway the number of
trains in and out of Euston was forty-four per day. The average weight of
the engines was 18 tons, and the gross loads were, for passenger trains 76
tons, and for goods 160.
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