Update on John Bull
My continuing research on early locomotives has unearthed a few more interesting details about the John Bull.
Although I didn't include it in my article, I already knew, in passing, that the locomotive that would come to be known as John Bull was built by George and Robert Stephenson's company in England. Although the company name is usually cited Robert Stephenson and Co., Newcastle-on-Tyne, these are the same men whose company was famous for the "Stephenson Rocket" the winning engine in a competition sponsored by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. They had a second design after the rocket, which they called the planet, tested in 1830. The John Bull however, was an improvement even over the planet type, and possessed all three of what would later prove to be the most important elements in a locomotive's success and durability. It "was the first engine which had the combination of horizontal cylinders, multitubular boiler, and the blast pipe".(1) Add a front wheel carriage to prevent derailment, a bell, a headlight, and a cow-catcher, and you have the best of the early locomotives.
The date 1831, and the Stephenson Co. explain a lot about the John Bull's success, if one has enough information to see it.
(1)quotation from
http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abrw13.Html (there are a lot of interesting tidbits on a wide range of early rail topics on this page)
