And he also has done this...
Historic Scientific American article about the B&SR….…….or not?
For many years, I have wondered about a mention that Jones and other authors give in relation to the B&SR featuring in Scientific American in 1888. (eg Jones, Two Foot to the Lakes, page 41)
As Scientific American was one of my preferred choices of in-flight reading for my trans-Atlantic trips, I had imagined that this would be a juicy article, perhaps with line drawings and giving a proper contemporary technical overview of my favourite Maine Two Footer. I also looked forward to one day being able to track down the article. Well, that day dawned a few weeks ago – and I was initially disappointed.
What I found was that the Scientific American “article” was actually a letter, and one that was a copy of a copy of an account first published in the Boston Evening Transcript by a Mr C O Stickney, and refers to a visit by a distinguished party of South American visitors to inspect the B&SR in early December 1887. The visit was hosted by none other than George Mansfield.
Jones actually makes two more un-connected references to this visit in his book (pages 37 & 41).
The first mention of the South American visitors in the Bridgton News is from the 2nd December 1887 edition;-
http://bridgton.advantage-preservation.com/document/bridgton-news-1887-12-02-page-2A week later, the Bridgton News gave a report of the visit;-
http://bridgton.advantage-preservation.com/document/bridgton-news-1887-12-09-page-2Sometime after the visit, Mr C O Stickney wrote to the Boston Evening Transcript about the visit, but the letter was published on the 14th January 1888;-
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=sArNgO4T4MoC&dat=18880114&printsec=frontpage&hl=enStickney letter published page 5, columns 2 + 3
An extract from Stickney’s letter, leaving out the flowery introduction, was published in The Railway Review of 21st January 1888, and this extract was then further repeated in the letters section of The Scientific American in the 11th February 1888 edition.
The Railway Review of 21st January 1888;-
http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/utils/getfile/collection/rrjournal/id/3655/filename/3653.pdfStickney letter shown page 13 out of 14 of the download. Same page as the illustration of heavy floor emery grinder.
The Scientific American in the 11th February 1888 edition;-
https://archive.org/stream/scientific-american-1888-02-11/scientific-american-v58-n06-1888-02-11_djvu.txtThis is a transcript of what was published in the Scientific American of 11th February 1888.
https://ia700806.us.archive.org/19/items/scientific-american-1888-02-11/scientific-american-v58-n06-1888-02-11.pdfThis gives a image of the letter on page 7 of 16 of the pdf download, page 85 of the actual publication.
So, while there was no juicy article with line drawings, the article did eventually present a reasonable contemporary technical overview of the B&SR with concise data.
Enjoy if you visit,
Terry
