Roads

TRANSPORTATION 1700-1900

ROADS: BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

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Roads, for longer than people could remember, were nothing more than dirt tracks that turned to mud in the winter and baked rock hard in the summer. By law, every parish had to look after the 'roads' that ran through their area. Men were required to work for 6 days every year to maintain and repair the roads. Very few villagers travelled, therefore they were not particularly interested in doing this task especially as it seemed to offer them no benefits.

ROADS

ROADS: CHANGES MADE From 1760 – 1774, Parliament passed over 500 laws related to building more and better roads.  Thomas Telford improved roads with an inch thick layer of small stones laid on a foundation of heavy stones bound together.  Telford’s road was stronger and harder than dirt roads. 

ROADS: CHANGES MADE Scottish engineer John Macadam developed a less expensive method using small pieces of hard stones to form layers that condensed and became even stronger after exposure to traffic.  Later, a final layer of asphalt or tar made Macadam’s road stronger and smoother. 

MACADAMIZED ROADS 

Strong, hard roads invented by Thomas Telford and John McAdam

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Improvement over dirt and gravel roads

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Macadamized roads have a smooth, hard surface that supports heavy loads without requiring a thick roadbed

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Modern roads are macadamized roads, with tar added to limit the creation of dust

ROADS: CHANGES MADE 

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In 1663, Parliament passed what was known as the Turnpike Act. This was originally only used in three counties to see if it worked. Charged people for using roads in certain counties The money raised was spent on properly maintaining these roads. The success of this scheme meant that the 1663 Act was the first of hundreds throughout the country.

ROADS

ROADS: CHANGES MADE Private companies called Turnpike Trusts were established in 1706.  The money raised by charging people to use the roads was split between profits for the share holders and the cost of maintaining the roads in the control of the trust.  Toll gates were established through which people and carriages had to pass before continuing with their journey. 

ROAD

ROADS: EFFECTS 

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Many people objected to paying a toll. Some would even jump over the toll gate to avoid paying. In some parts of the country, the toll gates were so unpopular, that they were destroyed. Parliament passed a law that meant anyone who was caught destroying a turnpike could be executed. By 1830, 25, 000 miles of highways ran through England connecting the industrial areas.

RIOTS   

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The Rebecca riots took place in the rural parts of west Wales, including Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, and Carmarthenshire, in 1839-43. They were a series of protests made by tenant farmers against the payment of tolls (fees) charged to use the roads. Turnpike Trusts or groups of businessmen owned most of the main roads. These men fixed the charges and decided how many tollgates (turnpikes) could be built. During the riots, men disguised as women attacked the tollgates. They called themselves “Rebecca and her daughters”. This is most likely to be after a passage in the Bible where Rebecca talks of the need to “possess the gates of those who hate them” (Genesis XXIV, verse 60). People at that time knew the Bible well. Tolls were a big expense for small farmers, who used the roads to take their crops and animals to market, and also to collect lime (a chalky mineral). Lime was used to improve the quality of the soil so farmers could grow better crops. It could cost as much as five shillings (25p) in tolls to move a cart of lime eight miles inland. The people of west Wales did not want to pay to use their roads.

RIOTS The first incident occurred in Pembrokeshire in May 1839 when a new tollgate at Efailwen was destroyed.  This gate was an obvious target, situated on the road used by those carrying lime back from the coast.  The Whitland Turnpike Trust rebuilt the gate,only for it to be destroyed again in June.  A second new tollgate was attacked at Llanboidy.  Trouble died down when it was agreed by the authorities that the gates would be not be rebuilt. 

RIOTS 

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The disturbances started again in 1842 when the Whitland Trust built a new gate at The Mermaid, on the lime road at St Clears in Carmarthenshire. This was destroyed in November, as were the tollgates at Pwll-trap and Trevaughan. The gates were rebuilt, but all gates in St Clears were destroyed by 12 December. The government refused to send soldiers and so the magistrates called in the marines from Pembroke Dock and the Castlemartin Yeomanry Cavalry. The rioting continued.

RIOTS The main trigger for the Rebecca riots came from farmers having to pay high tolls to use the roads, but there were other reasons for their discontent.  Wales had seen a population increase since the start of the 19th century.  This increased competition for land and jobs, and added to unemployment and poverty. 

COACHES

COACHES: BEFORE Coach development could only benefit from the improvement in roads.  Before turnpike trusts, coaches had been unsprung and any journey in them was very uncomfortable as there was no suspension.  It was basically a wooden carriage, aided by four wooden wheels, was used to move people or produce. 

COACHES

COACHES: AFTER 

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By 1800, coaches were suspended on a C-spring. This was a large C-shaped piece of metal from which hung a carriage. This was a form of suspension. By the 1830's these springs had been improved with the elliptic spring. These were shaped like a rugby ball and each wheel had one. The coach itself was effectively laying on these springs which went up and down as the ride required. They greatly improved the quality of a journey.

COACHES

CANALS 

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Canals were man-made rivers which were deep enough to cope with barges which were capable of moving nearly forty tons of weight. Canals had to be perfectly flat or else the water would simply run away. The canals also had to be waterproofed Before the Industrial Revolution, existing canals tended to be so crowded by trading ships that extreme time delays were involved.

CANALS: CHANGES MADE James Brindley built a canal in 1761 that connected the city of Manchester to coal mines 9 miles away.  The success of Brindley’s canal ushered in an era of canal building.  Between 1790 and 1794, the British Parliament passed 89 laws concerning the building of new canals.  By 1830, 3,000 miles of canals connected different areas of Great Britain. 

GRAND JUNCTION CANAL

CANALS CONT.

MODERN DAY CANALS

THE BARTON AQUEDUCT

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS

STEAM ENGINES 

Early water power involved mills built over fastmoving streams and rivers

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Early water power had problems Not enough rivers to provide the power needed to meet growing demand  Rivers and streams might be far removed from raw materials, workers, and markets  Rivers are prone to flooding and drying 

STEAM ENGINES 

Humans tried harnessing steam power for millennia 

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Thomas Newcomen, England (1704) 

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Hero of Alexandria, Egypt – created a steam-driven device in the 1st century B.C.E. Created a steam engine to pump water from mines

James Watt, Scotland (1769) 

Improved Newcomen’s engine to power machinery

STEAM ENGINES By 1800, steam engines were replacing water wheels as sources of power for factories  Factories relocated near raw materials, workers, and ports  Cities grew around the factories built near central England’s coal and iron mines 

 Manchester,

Liverpool

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS: AN OVERVIEW      

Between 1820 and 1850 some six thousand miles of railways were opened in Britain This was the result of two extraordinary bursts of concentrated investment followed by construction By 1850 the basic English railway network was already more or less in existence It reached into some of the remotest areas of the countryside and the centers of the greatest cities Speed of movement went from single miles an hour to hundreds of mile an hour Introduced the notion of a nation-wide, complex and exact interlocking routine symbolized by the railway timetable

VICTORIAN RAILWAY STATION

RAILROADS 

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1830 – Stephenson’s “Rocket” train traveled the 40 miles between Liverpool and Manchester in 1 ½ hours 1830-1870 – railroad tracks went from 49 miles to over 15,000 miles Steel rails replaced iron rails 1869 – Westinghouse’s air brake made train travel safer Greater train traveling comfort – heavier train cars, improved road beds, and sleeping cars

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS: TECHNOLOGY 

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The First Locomotives!! The first self-propelling steam engine or steam locomotive made its outing on 13 February 1804 at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks The machine was designed by Richard Trevithick The engine was able to pull a load of 15 tons at a speed of about 5 mph. However, adhesion was a problem (iron wheels on iron rails = slipping). In 1811 Blekinstop designed an engine for the Middleton Colliery, using cogged wheels engaging in racks on the railway.

THE ROCKET

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS: TECHNOLOGY 

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The problem of adhesion was finally solved by William Hedley with a design which applied power to the rails through two sets of Driving wheels. The locomotive was called Puffing Billy The first public railway was the Stockton and Darlington Railway, whose first run took place on Tuesday, September 27, 1825 The directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway invited designers to submit their locomotives to a test for a 500 pounds prize The Rocket and two other machines competed -Sanspareil and Novelty. The Rocket won for its all round competence.

PUFFING BILLY

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS: TECHNOLOGY 

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One of the most marked characteristics in the working of the Rocket was the swaying jerky action of the engine, attributable to the mounting of the cylinders high up on the side of the smokebox Later engines of the 'Rocket' type had the cylinders mounted more nearly horizontal, but still outside the frames On the Planet Stephenson cylinders were enclosed within the smokebox. The engine also incorporated the first use of 'sandwich' frames, which were formed of ash or oak, strengthened by iron plates inside and out. These gave flexibility and a great strength, and were a distinctive feature

THE PLANET

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS: TECHNOLOGY 

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Edward Bury was a man strongly endowed with the commercial instinct. Bury was the Locomotive Superintendent of the London and Birmingham Railway and contractor for the supply of locomotives at one. His engines were light, ingeniously constructed, and very cheap; and he saw to it that they were not overworked.

EDWARD BURY’S PASSENGER ENGINE

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS: TECHNOLOGY The distinguishing feature of Bury’s engines was the use of bar frames, which gave them a light, spidery appearance.  They had circular fireboxes, with a steam dome and safety valve on the top.  If one engine were not enough to do the job he put on two, three, and sometimes even four on one train!  Like many engines of those early days the Bury's rode badly, partly because of the very short wheelbase, and the lightness of the tenders. 

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS: TECHNOLOGY 

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The Great Western Railway stood in isolation from the rest of the country, through its adoption of the broad gauge, 7 ft., in contrast to the standard gauge of 4 ft. 8 in. used on most other railways in Great Britain. Brunell was the architect of the broad gauge The North Star came to the Great Western almost by accident. It was built by Robert Stephenson and Co. for service in America on the New Orleans Railway. It was actually shipped, but through business difficulties delivery was not taken, and it was returned to England. On its arrival back it was adapted to run on the 7 ft. gauge and sold to the Great Western.

THE NORTH STAR

RAILROAD INVENTORS 

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In 1790 Jessop founded the Butterley Iron Works and began to manufacture fish-bellied cast-iron rails which marked an important advance in railway technology By the late 1790s Jessop was recognised as one of Britain's leading engineers. He was involved in the production of the Grand Junction Canal, the Surrey Iron Railway, the Bristol Docks and the West India Docks on the Thames in London

Butterley Iron Works

Grand Junction Canal

RAILROAD INVENTORS 1813 : The "Puffing Billy" was built by William Hedley to pull coal wagons at the Wylam Colliery in Northumberland. It was so reliable that it was used for fifty years.  1814: Produced a locomotive that had two vertical cylinders outside the boiler  1828: He developed a steam povered machine that improved the system of pumping water out of the mine while he was renting the South Moor Colliery 

Wylam Dilly

RAILROADS 

1825: The Stockton to Darlington rail line was opened. Two locomotives were used and they could pull 21 coal wagons 25 miles at 8 miles per hour. This was unheard of at the time and soon the line was in profit. Passengers were soon carried but steam trains did not operate on the line for passengers until 1833. In many senses, 1825 is seen as the start of the Age of the Railways

THE OPENING OF THE STOCKTON TO DARLINGTON RAILWAY

RAILROAD INVENTORS George Bidder became the first person to design and build a railway swing bridge.  Matthew Murray helped John Blenkinsop build the Salamanca locomotive, with its cog-toothed driving wheels, first appeared in public on June 24, 1812.  In 1829 Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed a suspension bridge to cross the River Avon at Clifton. 

RAILROAD INVENTORS 

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In 1828 the boiler of the Locomotion exploded, killing the driver. She was rebuilt but did not perform well. The main problem was its inability to produce enough steam for a twenty-mile run. In 1833 Hackworth decided to leave to form his own Soho locomotive building company at Shildon The Grand Junction Railway, opened on July 20, 1837. It was over 82 miles long and linked Birmingham with the Liverpool & Manchester line In 1838 George and John Rennie established a company in London and during the next four years built 16 locomotives. Samson built by Timothy Hackworth at Sheldon in 1838

THE BLUCHER LOCOMOTIVE 

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In 1813, George Stephenson became aware that William Hedley and Timothy Hackworth were designing a locomotive for the Wylam coal mine. So at the age of twenty, George Stephenson began the construction of his first locomotive. It should be noted that at this time in history, every part of the engine had to be made by hand, and hammered into shape just like a horseshoe. John Thorswall, a coal mine blacksmith, was George Stephenson's main assistant. After 10 months' labor, Stephenson's locomotive "Blucher" was completed and tested on the Cillingwood Railway on July 25, 1814.

THE BLUCHER LOCOMOTIVE The track was an uphill trek of 450 fifty feet.  George Stephenson's engine hauled eight loaded coal wagons weighing 30 tons, at about four miles an hour.  This was the first steam engine powered locomotive to run on a railroad and it was the most successful working steam engine that had ever been constructed up to this period, this encouraged the inventor to make further experiments. 

LOCOMOTION LOCOMOTIVE 

In 1824 Edward Pease joined with Michael Longdridge, George & Robert Stephenson to form a company to make the locomotives, The Robert Stephenson & Company

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Stephenson recruited Timothy Hackworth, one of the engineers who had helped William Hedley to produce Puffing Billy, to work for the company.

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The first railway locomotive was finished in September 1825.

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Initially called Active, it was later given the name Locomotion.

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The boiler of the Locomotion had a single fire tube and two vertical cylinders let into the barrel and the four wheels were coupled by rods rather than a chain.

LOCOMOTION LOCOMOTIVE 

Large crowds saw George Stephenson at the controls of the Locomotion as it pulled 36 wagons filled with sacks of coal & flour.

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The initial journey of just under 9 miles took two hours but during the final descent into the Stockton terminus, speeds of 15 mph were reached.

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These increased speed surprised one man and he fell from one of the wagons and was badly injured.

BRITISH      

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Guards van Carriage Bogie Goods wagon Engine driver Point Sleeper Baltic locomotive

AMERICAN      

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Caboose Coach Truck Freight car Engineer Switch Railroad tie Hudson locomotive

DIFFERENT TERMS USED BY THE RAILWAYS

NAVVIES

NAVVIES Navvies were the men who actually built railways  They lived by the rail line that they were building in so-called shanty towns.  Huts could accommodate 20 men and they paid one and a half pennies for a bed for the night.  Those who slept on the floor paid a lot less. 

NAVVIES

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Those working in tunnels that were being built were especially vulnerable to collapses and explosions All work was done in a hurry and safety procedures were minimal. Getting the job done was far more important than employee safety especially as there were plenty of navvies British navvies had a good reputation. Many went on to work in Europe where their hard work was rewarded - British navvies frequently got paid twice as much as anybody else working on the rail lines simply because they worked twice as hard as anybody else.

NAVVIES

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By the standards of the time, navvies were well paid. They could earn 25 pence a day which compared well to those who worked in factories. The drinking of the navvies was well known and many towns feared the arrival of the navvies to their region. Navvies worked hard and they drank hard. Many navvies chose to live for the day Death while working was high

RAILWAYS AND URBAN SPRAWL  

Railways allowed for greater urban sprawl Possibility of commuting opened up cities and suburbs (which spread along railway lines)      

London 1863 New York (1869) Boston (1897) Paris (1900) Berlin (1902) New York (underground 1904)

Paris Metro and Urban Sprawl

Building the London Underground www.pbs.org/.../structure/londonund

The Impact of the Railroad

“The Great Land Serpent”

People were able to travel greater distances for leisure & to work

Turnpike Trusts, canals & stage coach companies could not compete & went bankrupt.

Townspeople were able to receive meat, fish, milk and vegetables brought in whilst they were still fresh by the railways.

Fish & Chips

Seaside towns developed; the railways made cheap day trips possible

Social & Economic Impact of the Railways

Industry grew, because the railways needed coal & iron; railways in turn allowed factories to transport their goods to markets.

Newspapers could be sent from London all over the country.

People became more interested in politics & this led to the growth of political parties Railway engineering towns grew up, E.g. Crewe & Doncaster. The Post was speeded up First Class Mail

RAILWAYS: ECONOMIC EFFECTS Created new jobs in: tourism, resorts, hotels, and dealing with the railways.  Spread consumer products.  Decline in transportation costs.  Increased long distance trade.  In 1830, there were 70 miles of railways in Britain.  In 1840, there were 4, 500 miles.  In 1870, there were 15,000 miles 

RAILWAYS: ECONOMIC EFFECTS George Hudson, “the Railway King”, controlled 30% of the railways in Britain.  Faster and cheaper transportation meant that materials could be imported and exported more quickly and in greater amounts.  Faster trade meant faster profits, which in turn meant more money available to reinvest in railways or other ventures.  Fueled the other developments of the Industrial Revolution in iron, steel, coal, and other manufactured goods. 

ECONOMIC CHANGES Railways cut the cost of transportin g goods

How many horses would be needed to transport 40 tons by road?

HOW DID RAILWAYS CREATE MORE JOBS? Goods can now be sold for less.

More people can afford to buy these goods More goods are sold & so more need to be produced.

Railways make the moving of goods cheaper.

This is called the Cycle of More people with jobs Prosperity means …

Businessmen employ more workers.

RAILWAYS: CULTURAL EFFECTS 

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Increased leisure time. Led to the development of shore towns for vacations. Breakdown of regional barriers. Increased cultural exchange. Less isolation. Growth of suburbs Fostering nationalism. Start of commuters to work. Shift in residential patterns. Slum clearance.

CULTURAL CHANGES

What is this woman doing?

Which famous books did Charles Dickens write?

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES

Impact on the landscape?

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF VICTORIAN RAILWAYS

SOCIAL CHANGES

GMT?

RAILWAYS: SOCIAL EFFECTS Growth of middle class  Increased military mobility 

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF VICTORIAN RAILWAYS All railway lines had their characteristics and idiosyncrasies  The Great Western, even up to nationalization, was always rather superior in its attitude  The Great Eastern excelled in its dining-car arrangements  The London & South Western called itself the Royal Road  the London & North Western considered it was the Premier Line, an opinion not shared by all its customers, but it was good on punctuality 

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF VICTORIAN RAILWAYS  

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The South Eastern had a reputation for never running anything on time And had trains of so many different shapes and sizes of rolling stock that they looked rather like the battlements of a castle. The tough Highland Railway had to be tough in view of the weather conditions it sometimes faced. But their late running was always the fault of the connections with the lines from the south There was a well known occasion, August 7th, 1888, when the Inverness train left Perth with 37 carriages belonging to ten different companies The North Eastern branch lines were known for the paucity of their passenger trains

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF VICTORIAN RAILWAYS The social pattern for moving around in bulk in the nineteenth century was altered by railways probably more than by anything else  The few coppers required for a five-mile journey was a lot to the poorer class who only earned ten shillings a week  Country people tended to stay where they were and if they had to go anywhere at all they would walk there and back  The working classes do not appear to have been photographed very much on trains, except for a few well-known and frequently published pictures 

RAILWAY CLASSES First Class  Second Class  Third Class 

FIRST CLASS TRAVEL The first-class carriages of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway was like travelling inside of a stage coach.  They were not very comfortable because the early carriages did not have buffers or springs.  One major advantage of first-class carriages was that they had provision for carrying luggage on the roofs.  Over the years the quality of first-class travel on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway dramatically improved. 

FIRST CLASS TRAVEL 

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Nathaniel Worsdell was commissioned to design and make an improved carriage. His carriages had three enclosed compartments, each accommodating three passengers abreast. These carriages had armrests, upholstery and elegant decorations. The wooden bodies were mounted on 4-wheel iron frames. They were painted yellow and black in the same style as stage coaches.

FIRST CLASS TRAVEL

A. J. C. Bourne produced this lithograph of first-class travel in 1839

SECOND CLASS TRAVEL The amenities for second-class passengers lay midway between those of the 'firsts' and the 'thirds'.  The carriages were open at the sides, but had a canopy over the top to keep out some of the weather.  The 'seconds' were much more cramped, and although having cushioned seats were straightbacked, and gave little room for the knees. 

SECOND CLASS TRAVEL The second-class carriages of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway had wooden benches and were open at the sides.  Seated four abreast, these passengers had no protection from the weather or the pollution created by the locomotive.  Second-class carriages were painted a uniform blue. 

SECOND CLASS TRAVEL

A. J. C. Bourne produced this lithograph of second-class travel in 1839

THIRD CLASS TRAVEL In the earliest days of railways there was little encouragement for third-class passengers to travel  Accommodation was provided in open trucks  One had to brave the smoke and exhaust fumes from the locomotives  As the travelling habit began to grow the cry arose for better third-class carriages 

THIRD CLASS TRAVEL The 1844 Railway Act improved the quality of third-class travel. The act stipulated that all third-class passengers should be carried in covered accommodation.  Railway companies also began providing lighting in third-class carriages. Whereas, there were several oil lamps in the first class carriages, third-class carriages only had one. 

THIRD CLASS EXPERIENCE 

Francis Coghlan wrote a report on third-class carriages for the London & Birmingham Railway in 1838. I advise passengers to get as far from the engine as possible as the vibration is very much diminished. Always sit (if you can get a seat) with your back towards the engine, against the boarded part of the wagon; by this plan you will avoid being chilled by the current of cold air which passes through these open wagons and also save you from being blinded by the small cinders which escape from the funnel.

THIRD CLASS EXPERIENCE 

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Louis Hayes, Reminiscences of Manchester (1840) In these third-class carriages there was a general feeling of bare boards and cheerlessness as you entered them and if you were travelling in the winter time they gave you a kind of cold shiver. The seats were cushionless and the longer you sat on them the harder they seemed. Samuel Laing wrote a report on third-class railway travel in 1842. The sides and ends of the carriages are only two feet high. A moderate shock is enough to throw the passengers out of the carriage.

THIRD CLASS TRAVEL

A. J. C. Bourne produced this lithograph of third-class travel in 1839

SUPPORTERS OF THE RAILWAYS 

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Shareholders and engineers like George Hudson, George Stephenson, and Thomas Grey encouraged businessmen to begin new lines. Assoc. of the Institution of British Architects, George Godwin, encouraged the Victorian people to embrace positive changes and new rail lines. Godwin stated rails reduced cost of transporting goods, saved time traveling, enhance the military force, and new luxuries would be available to middle classes. Those who opposed rails said these changes would desecrate countryside, but Godwin said building development would “architectually embellish the country.”

GEORGE STEPHENSON – ENGINEER He won a contest for engineers where he designed the best over all locomotive for a new line of rails.  A train ride from London to Shrewsbury was 12 hours 40 minutes (1835) opposed to 3.5 days by coach (1753).  He held many ambitious ideas that weren’t always embraced, therefore he didn’t express his ideas as much in fear of being labeled insane. 

THOMAS GREY Grey wanted locomotive rails to be a national project in Britain and controlled by a national board, not capitalists. In 1823 he petitioned the Board of Agriculture and Select Committee of the House of Commons.  His visions weren’t taken seriously and no action was taken to accomplish them. Had they been, railways may have been more efficient earlier. 

OPPONENTS OF THE RAILWAYS 1865- Charles was in a train accident, and the written article in Punch retold horrific accounts of railroad accidents providing graphic descriptions and was the first to use the term “vandalism” in connection with railways.  Landowners also extremely disapproved particularly among the wealthier classes.  Worried railways would “contaminate” the landscape that inspired artists and poets and had nurtured the vision of a ‘green and pleasant land’ as a national ideal 

OPPONENTS OF THE RAILWAYS Railways demolished city tenements without making provisions for those they evicted  Farmers were concerned about their crops and produce 

 “A

farmer in Northampton refused his assent to the proposed London and Birmingham Railway on the ground that the smoke would injure the fleeces of his sheep.” – Jackson’s 1916 History of Transportation in Britain

RAILWAY MAP OF ENGLAND: PROPHECY

OPPONENTS OF THE RAILWAYS In 1868 Herbert Spencer published an essay on “Railway Morals and Railway Policy”  He examined what he called the politics of the railways  He revealed the discrepancy between public perception of railway finance activity and the actual illegitimate and untenable practices  Court arguments were centered around the problems of blackened sheep fleeces, ruined foxruns, and dispossessed tenants throughout the decade of the 1840s 

OPPONENTS TO THE RAILWAYS Many of those who worked on canals, highways, or roadside inns felt threatened by the new locomotives  Railway speculation became a big problem 

 Railways

offered means for investment of capital and also offered adequate security and profit to ensure healthy growth  Fabulous wealth suddenly seemed within the reach of a lot of people and success stories were numerous

OPPONENTS OF THE RAILWAYS In 1855 and 1862 two Limited Liability Acts were passed  A popular song of the time summed up the hysteria: 

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Old me and young, the famish’d and the full, The rich and the poor, widow, and wife, and maid, Master and certain – all, with one intent, Rushed upon the paper scrip; their eager eyes, Flashing a fierce unconquerable greed Their hot palms itching – all their being fill’d With one desire.

THE LITERATI Members of Victorian literati were among those most vocally against the railways  Matthew Arnold 

Criticize the false God of “railroads and coal”  Wrote Culture and Anarchy 

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Carlyle Wrote Hudson’s Statue  Criticized the country’s obsession with wealth, accumulation, and material values over moral and aesthetic concerns 

THE LITERATI 

Punch Satirical journal of the 19th century  Cartoonists were quick to caricature the businessmen caught up in the railway mania  “With regard to railway accidents it is ‘the pace that kills.’ This is particularly the case when companies go at it too fast in the pursuit of profit.”  By the 1860s the Punch was waging war against railway vandalism  One article recommended that St. Paul’s Cathedral as a potential station saying “What else will it be fit for when every railway runs right into London?” 

THE LITERATI 

WORDSWORTH  Regarded

nature as an animated force, as inspiration, and as an integral part of his identity  Believed in the smaller scale of life that had been a part of the Romantic ideal of English country life  Nature should be appreciated for its own sake and not as a resource to be exploited for a vastly increasing and irreverent humanity.  “Is there no nook of English ground secure from rash assault?”

THE LITERATI 

Wordsworth and the Kendal and Windemere Railways  

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In 1844 The K&W Railways threatened Wordsworth’s precious Lakes District Wordsworth responded with a literary campaign by writing poems and letters that were published in the Morning Post He tried gaining the support of the public and specifically addressed the members of the Board of Trade and the House of Commons In his first letter he stated that there was not need for a rail in close proximity to the Lakes District There were no manufacturers, quarries, or substantial agriculture base to warrant the intrusion

THE LITERATI 

Wordsworth and K&W Railways cont’d. 

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Wordsworth explains that the working class does not have the capacity to appreciate the “beauty” and “character of seclusion and retirement” that the Lakes District had to offer. Bringing many travelers into the district would destroy the beauty that they had come to enjoy. His first letter was not received well He was accused of interfering with the innocent enjoyments of the poor He responded in his second letter by saying that the influx of strangers the railway promised could potentially estrange the local poor and wreak moral havoc upon the Lake District

THE LITERATI 

Wordsworth and K&W Railway cont’d.  Wordsworth

used the example of a pass built near Lake of Grasmere  He inserted a poem that explored the beauty of the particular pass in the Alps  Wordsworth then explained how, 30 years later, he had gone to see the pass and it was ruined by the intrusion of a road  Wordsworth used many literary references to sway those poetics and admirers of literature to his side

EXCERPT FROM WORDSWORTH’S OUTRAGE DONE TO NATURE Meanwhile, at social Industry’s command, How quick, how vast an increase. From the germ Of some poor hamlet, rapidly produced, Here a huge town, continuous and compact, Hiding the face of earth for leagues-and there, Where a habitation stood before, Abodes of men irregularly massed Like trees in forests,-spread through spacious tracts, O’er which the smoke of unremitting fires Hangs permanent, and plentiful as wreaths Of vapour glittering in the mourning sun. And, wheresoe’er the traveler turns his steps, He see the barren wilderness erased, Or disappearing;…

THE LITERATI 

Ruskin Particularly against the railway’s ‘vandalism’ of personal homes and national treasures  “A fool always wants to shorten space and time, a wise man wants to lengthen both.”  On a trip to Venice, Ruskin was horrified to find that the railway had arrived  He mourned the railway’s encroachment on the Rhine  Worked with Wordsworth to keep the Lakes District free of railway ‘contamination’ 

OPPOSITION PHASE ONE The public strongly disliked Parliament approving a large number of lines (1825-1844) and the merging of rails in 1845.  Why construction was opposed 

 Locals

accepted the new changes, but didn’t want these rails on their property  Neighborhoods petitioned Parliament to move rails within 12 miles

OPPOSITION PHASE TWO 1850’S-1880’S Fear of monopolies grew and people were against “railway vandalism” (railways pushing through previously off-limit areas and spawning on historic sites)  Towns invited trains to revitalize their towns, but many didn’t want the companies building within the city limits.  Key trunk lines connecting industrial resources with national markets were built despite opposition from local residents. 

STEAMBOATS 

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Robert Fulton invented the steamboat in 1807 The Clermont operated the first regular steamboat route, running between Albany and New York City 1819 – the Savannah used a steam engine as auxiliary power for the first time when it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean 1836 – John Ericsson invented a screw propeller to replace paddle wheels 1838 – the Great Western first ship to sail across the Atlantic on steam power alone, completing the trip in 15 days