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by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher

“
he venerable Peter Cooper, whose philanthropic horses to pull its passenger and freight trains along the
life endeared him to every citizen of New York, tracks and the rougher terrain sure to be found on the
Tdied at 3 o'clock yesterday morning,” reported line’s westward expansion to the Ohio River.
the New York Times on April 5, 1883. Although For the demonstration, Cooper designed and
the family planned for a small funeral, thousands built a four-wheel locomotive cobbled together
turned out to watch the procession. “Shops with spare parts that included a musket barrel. It
closed down; traffic on Broadway stopped; flags featured a small upright boiler, geared drive,
flew at half-mast,” out of respect for New York and short wheelbase, and was fueled by
City’s “first citizen,” the Times later reported, anthracite coal. It was later given the name
Born Feb. 12, 1791, in New York City, “Tom Thumb” because of its small size and
Peter Cooper’s list of accomplishments and weight of less than one ton.
contributions are many, touching every aspect On August 28, 1830, Peter Cooper’s
of American life and aspiration. Amazing locomotive carried the B&O directors in a
when you consider that he only had at most a passenger car along a recently constructed
year of any formal schooling. 13-mile stretch of B&O track that ran from
In his teens, Cooper, while apprenticed to the Baltimore harbor, west to Ellicott’s Mills. It
a coach-maker, invented the machine for was reported as a bright summer’s day and full
shaping wheel hubs (still in use at the time of his of promise. “Syndicate members and friends
death, some 80 years later). He then went on to piled into the open car pulled by a diminutive
become the first mill operator to successfully use steam locomotive with its inventor at the controls.
anthracite coal to puddle iron, hold the very first Passengers thrilled at the heart-pumping sensation of
American patent for the manufacture of gelatin (1845, traveling at the then-unheard-of speed of 18 mph.” The
which his wife named “Jell-O”), run as the Greenback outbound journey took less than an hour to travel the
Party’s candidate in the 1876 presidential election (where Peter Cooper posed with a track’s 13-mile stretch. This was an obvious game-changer.
his party lost to the Republicans and Rutherford B. Hayes), young child believed to be The following year, the B&O stopped using horses to pull
participate in the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph one of his granddaughters their trains.
cable, and found and endow The Baltimore and the
the Cooper Union for the Ohio River were finally
Advancement of Science and connected by rail in 1852
Art in New York City. He was when the B&O was completed
also known as an advocate of at Wheeling, West Virginia.
paid police and firemen, By then, the Tom Thumb was
public schools, and improved a historical footnote, and the
public sanitation. At a recep- age of modern and luxury
tion in his honor in his later rail travel was about to
years, he summed up his explode as America looked to
philosophy: “I have endeav- economically link a divided
ored to remember that the country after the Civil War
object of life is to do good.” and push westward with
While time fades memories transcontinental service.
with passing generations, Vintage illustration of the Tom Thumb at work pulling passengers on the rail Peter Cooper was not the
Cooper’s inventions and inventor of the steam-powered
investments are forever tied to his name and legacy, especially when it train. That honor goes to such U.K. inventors as William Murdoch
comes to his contributions to rail transportation in America. (sometimes spelled “Murdock”), who in 1784 built a small-scale
prototype of a steam rail locomotive; William Reynolds, who proposed
Tom Thumb a full-scale rail steam locomotive in 1787; Richard Trevithick, who
Peter Cooper and the Tom Thumb steam locomotive are important built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive in 1802; and
figures in the history of railroads in the United States, as well. Peter George and his son Robert Stephenson. The Robert Stephenson
Cooper was the inventor of the first American-made coal-powered Company’s Locomotion No. 1, made in 1825, was the first steam
steam locomotive to be operated on a common-carrier railroad: The locomotive to haul a passenger carrying train on a public railway.
Tom Thumb. It was built in 1830 to convince the railroad owners of The Company went on to become the pre-eminent builder of steam
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) to use steam engines instead of locomotives used on railways in the U.K., U.S., and much of Europe.

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