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The First Locomotive

The first locomotive was made by a Frenchman, Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, in 1769, and was designed to run on ordinary roads. It had two single acting cylinders, the pistons acting alternately on the single front wheel. It carried four people and its speed was 3 to 4 miles an hour. Owing to its small boiler capacity it would run but 12 or 15 minutes without stopping to get up steam. Cugnot made several successful trials on the streets of Paris with his second locomotive, but, when turning a corner one day at a speed of 3 miles an hour, the engine upset with a crash. It was then considered dangerous and was locked up in the Arsenal.

(From “The Development of the Locomotive” published by The Central Steel Company, Massillon, Ohio, U.S.A.)