297.  Early Railroads.—­The best stone and gravel roads were always rough in places.  It occurred to some one that it would be better to lay down wooden rails, and then to place a rim or flange on the wagon wheels to keep them on the rails.  The first road of this kind in America was built at Boston in 1807.  It was a very rude affair and was only used to carry dirt from the top of a hill to the harbor.  The wooden rails soon wore out, so the next step was to nail strips of iron on top of them.  Long lines of railroads of this kind were soon built.  Both passengers and goods could be carried on them.  Some of them were built by private persons or by companies.  Others were built by a town or a state.  Any one having horses and wagons with flanged wheels could use the railway on the payment of a small sum of money.  This was the condition of affairs when the steam locomotive was invented.

[Illustration:  AN EARLY LOCOMOTIVE.]

[Sidenote:  Invention of the locomotive, 1830.]

[Sidenote:  Hardships of early railroad travel.]

298.  The Steam Locomotive.—­Steam was used to drive boats through the water.  Why should not steam be used to haul wagons over a railroad?  This was a very easy question to ask, and a very hard one to answer.  Year after year inventors worked on the problem.  Suddenly, about 1830, it was solved in several places and by several men at nearly the same time.  It was some years, however, before the locomotive came into general use.  The early railroad trains were rude affairs.  The cars were hardly more than stagecoaches with flanged wheels.  They were fastened together with chains, and when the engine started or stopped, there was a terrible bumping and jolting.  The smoke pipe of the engine was very tall and was hinged so that it could be let down when coming to a low bridge or a tunnel.  Then the smoke and cinders poured straight into the passengers’ faces.  But these trains went faster than canal boats or steamboats.  Soon the railroad began to take the first place as a means of transport.

[Illustration:  A LOCOMOTIVE OF TO-DAY.]

[Sidenote:  Use of hard coal.]

[Sidenote:  Growth of the cities.]

299.  Other Inventions.—­The coming of the steam locomotive hastened the changes which one saw on every side in 1830.  For some time men had known that there was plenty of hard coal or anthracite in Pennsylvania.  But it was so hard that it would not burn in the old-fashioned stoves and fireplaces.  Now a stove was invented that would burn anthracite, and the whole matter of house warming was completely changed.  Then means were found to make iron from ore with anthracite.  The whole iron industry awoke to new life.  Next the use of gas made from coal became common in cities.  The great increase in manufacturing, and the great changes in modes of transport, led people to crowd together in cities and towns.  These inventions made it possible to feed and warm large numbers of persons gathered into small areas.  The cities began to grow so fast that people could no longer live near their work or the shops.  Lines of stagecoaches were established, and the coaches were soon followed by horse cars, which ran on iron tracks laid in the streets.