Now, it will be agreed that the locomotive of the future must be
improved to keep up with the times. Fierce competition requires
increased efficiency and reduced expenses. I am told by you railroad
gentlemen that the freight business of the country doubles every ten
years. Trains follow close upon each other. What are you going to do?
Are you to double, treble, or quadruple your tracks?

It seems to me much remains yet to be done with the locomotive. We
must burn a great deal less coal for the steam we make, and after we
have made steam we must use that steam up more thoroughly. In the
short cylinder required by locomotive service, the steam, entering at
the initial pressure pushes the piston to the opposite end, and it
then rushes out of the exhaust strong enough to drive another piston.
Of every four dollars' worth of coal consumed, at least two dollars
worth is absolutely thrown away. Or, of every ten thousand dollars
spent for fuel, five thousand dollars are absolutely wasted. How can
we save this? It would seem obvious that if steam rushes from the
exhaust of an engine strong enough to drive another engine, the common
sense of the thing would be to put another engine alongside and let
the steam drive it, and we should get just so much more out of our
four dollars' worth of coal. It seems evident that we must follow the
lead of the steamship men, and compound the locomotive engine, as
they have done with the marine engine.

Next we must attack the extravagant furnace, and increase its area and
reduce the depth of the bed of coal. The difficulty of making this
change seemed to me to be removed, on examining an engine on the
Providence & Bristol Railroad, the other day. The machine was made at
the Mason Works, of Taunton. It was an engine and tender combined, the