THE RAINHILL TRIALS ON THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RY.

     In the spring of 1829 the Directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Ry. decided to make a trial of locomotives before adopting fixed engines and ropes for working their line and a prize of £ 500 "open to all comers" was determined upon on the 20th April 1829 and publicly offered on the 25th of the same month.

     On the 1st of October, the day fixed for the competitive trials, four locomotive steam engines were nearly ready and to give additional time to the various makers, the contest was postponed until the 6th of the same month.

     Mr. Geo. Stephenson entered the "Rocket" in the name of his son, the late Robert Stephenson; Timothy Hackworth entered the "Sanspariel", Messrs. John Braithwaite and John Ericsson brought forward the "Novelty" and Mr. Burstall sent the "Perseverance". The last named engine was found unfit to take part in the contest and was withdrawn.

     The trials did not finally commence until the 8th of October.

     The length of run adopted was 1½ miles only on the level part of the line at Rainhill near Liverpool.

     The "Rocket" was tried first on the 8th, the "Novelty" on the 10th and the "Sanspariel" on the 13th.

     The whole of the experiments with the "Rocket" were performed without accident of any kind and with no delay inseparable from the circumstances under which the trials were conducted.

     The engine made a speed of 28 miles per hour.

     The experiments with the "Novelty" were put a stop to after only two runs of 1½ miles were made, owing to some part of the machinery giving way. Subsequently on the same day, the engine having been repaired was again tried, and the highest rate of speed attained was 21 1/6 miles an hour.

     The experiments with the "Sanspariel" had hardly commenced when one of the cylinders cracked through the bore into the steam port extending along its side, the thickness of the metal having been reduced there by imperfect moulding and boring, to hardly more than 1/16 of an inch.

     This failure led to a considerable waste of steam at each stroke of the piston; notwithstanding which, however, the engine was kept at work until -- 22½ miles having been run at full speed, the feed pump stopped working, thus preventing the supply of water to the boiler necessary to continue the experiment. The mean rate of speed for 22½ miles, exclusive of the ends of the stages, was 13.88 miles an hour.  The first run of 1½ miles was made at the rate of 17.47 miles per hour which was the highest speed attained on the trial.

     The "Rocket" as the only engine which had completed the stipulated distance received the £ 500 prize, and the results fixed general attention upon the mechanical and commercial practicability of high speed locomotive conveyance.

     Extract from "Locomotive Engineering and the Mechanism of Railways" by Zerah Colborn, Esq.