The mechanical
star of the family, however, was the second brother, Robert
Livingston Stevens, whose many inventions made for the great
improvement of transportation both by land and water. For a
quarter of a century, from 1815 to 1840, he was the foremost
builder of steamboats in America, and under his hand the
steamboat increased amazingly in speed and efficiency. He made
great contributions to the railway. The first locomotives ran
upon wooden stringers plated with strap iron. A loose end--"a
snakehead" it was called--sometimes curled up and pierced through
the floor of a car, causing a wreck. The solid metal T-rail, now
in universal use, was designed by Stevens and was first used on
the Camden and Amboy Railroad, of which he was president and his
brother Edwin treasurer and manager. The swivel truck and the
cow-catcher, the modern method of attaching rails to ties, the
vestibule car, and many improvements in the locomotive were also
first introduced on the Stevens road.
The Stevens brothers exerted their influence also on naval
construction. A double invention of Robert and Edwin, the forced
draft, to augment steam power and save coal, and the air-tight
fireroom, which they applied to their own vessels, was afterwards
adopted by all navies. Robert designed and projected an ironclad
battleship, the first one in the world.
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