subject in print, so far as we are aware. Mr. G.R. Stephenson lent us in
1880 a working model of the Rocket. An engraving of this will be found in
_The Engineer_ for September 17, 1880. The difference between it and the
engraving below, prepared from Mr. Phipps' drawing, is, it will be seen,
very small--one of proportions more than anything else. Mr. Stephenson says
of his model: "I can say that it is a very fair representation of what the
engine was before she was altered." Hitherto it has always been taken for
granted that the alteration consisted mainly in reducing the angle at which
the cylinders were set. The Nasmyth drawing alters the whole aspect of the
question, and we are now left to speculate as to what became of the
original Rocket. We are told that after "it" left the railway it was
employed by Lord Dundonald to supply steam to a rotary engine; then it
propelled a steamboat; next it drove small machinery in a shop in
Manchester; then it was employed in a brickyard; eventually it was
purchased as a curiosity by Mr. Thomson, of Kirkhouse, near Carlisle, who
sent it to Messrs. Stephenson to take care of. With them it remained for
years. Then Messrs. Stephenson put it into something like its original
shape, and it went to South Kensington Museum, where "it" is now. The
question is, What engine is this? Was it the Rocket of 1829 or the Rocket
of 1830, or neither? It could not be the last, as will be understood from
Mr. Nasmyth's drawing; if we bear in mind that the so-called fire-box on
the South Kensington engine is only a sham made of thin sheet iron without
water space, while the fire-box shown in Mr. Nasmyth's engine is an
integral part of the whole, which could not have been cut off. That is to
say, Messrs. Stephenson, in getting the engine put in order for the Patent
Office Museum, certainly did not cut off the fire-box shown in Mr.
Nasmyth's sketch, and replace it with the sham box now on the boiler. If
our readers will turn to our impression for the 30th of June, 1876, they
will find a very accurate engraving of the South Kensington engine, which
they can compare with Mr. Nasmyth's sketch, and not fail to perceive that