When the works of Mr. Tennant were first established at St. Rollox, they were completely isolated and stood alone in their fragrant glory. What a change has come over the dream of that once dreary locality! The whole district for miles is now teeming with manufacturing life : potteries, glass-works, saw-mills, wood-yards, flax and cotton-mills, iron-foundries and machine-shops, coal-depôts, earthenware manufactories, railway-stations, and a busy, hard-working, and commercial population occupy almost every inch of the ground. During the last twenty-five years, the progress of trade and manufacture has been so rapid in this locality, that Port-Dundas and St. Rollox have become an integral part of the city, whereas in our time these places, along with several others that were formerly isolated districts at a considerable distance from the town, now repose in her arms.

Glasgow, with its far-famed Clyde and steamers, can also boast of its locomotive as well as of its marine engine manufacturing powers. The well-known firm of

MESSRS. NEILSON AND Co.

have for many years carried on an extensive business in this department of engineering.

The works of the Hyde Park Foundry, one of the largest establishments in the country, were originally built in 1837, and from that time up to the present have continued to increase and expand. Now the business is conducted at three large establishments. But since 1845 the locomotive engine building has so increasingly developed itself, that although the engine works have been entirely given up to it, Messrs. Neilson and Co. are obliged to prepare to remove their engine works to the outskirts of the town, where sufficient space can be got; and they have now commenced erecting entirely new works for the manufacture of locomotive engines, on a still more extensive scale. These works will be situated upon the Sighthill Junction Railway, which connects the Caledonian Railway with the Edinburgh and Glasgow and Northern lines, about midway between Cowlairs and St. Rollox.

Messrs. Neilson and Co. have their locomotive engines running in nearly all parts of the world. Their proximity to the harbour giving

LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE AS MADE BY NEILSON AND COMPANY FOR THE EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY, LONDON.

them great facilities in shipment of foreign orders, and the advantage they have of their engines being put into the vessels under their own eyes, is of considerable importance, as much damage is sometimes done in careless loading of machinery, which is often not discovered until the goods arrive at their destination, causing serious loss and inconvenience.

The illustration of Locomotive Engine given is that of a large number of engines now being made at this establishment for the Eastern Counties Railway. It shows the progress maintained in power and speed in British railways. The tyres, and a great portion of the working parts, are of steel. The Caledonian Railway have lately had from the same makers, a number of this powerful class of engine.

we are informed

"Locomotive engines, self-moving machines, mechanical applications wherein various movements concur to one effect, being artificial imita

tions of animal power, for dragging heavy weights behind them. In this way, steam, being water combined with caloric, or the matter of heat, expands itself into a power, which acts as a force in turning the wheels against the rails, whereby carriages and other vehicles, with passengers and merchandise, are drawn or propelled at great velocities. "The ordinary speeds of passenger trains range from twenty to sixty miles an hour, and those of merchandise, minerals, cattle, timber, &c. from fifteen to twenty miles.

About ten years ago,

Locomotive Engines of a much humbler class, although not less useful, are also made at the Hyde Park Works. Mr. Neilson's attention was directed to the great expense incurred in horse-keeping, for short branch rail traffic at the various iron and coal works around Glasgow. He designed and patented a cheap Tank Loccmotive Engine, of an exceedingly simple and strong construction, which has been so successful that they are now in general use among the coal and iron works in Scotland, and in many parts of England, Wales, and abroad. The smallest size of this class of engine has only one cylinder, and it is quite extraordinary the quantity of work it performs. In Scotland alone, these engines are effecting an economy of above £30,000 annually.

The Fitting Room (of which an engraving is given) shows the immense amount of business carried on in these works: here a busy multitude of artisans are constantly employed in making the different portions of machinery required in the perfection of a locomotive, &c.; and it is curious to observe how every portion of the iron-work, whether of small size or colossal dimensions, is perfected in an incredibly short

space of time. To see all the machinery at work, with the swarthy labourers exerting their great strength, would realize a scene among the Titans described by the old writers.

The great perfection, however, to which self-acting machinery has been brought, relieves the workman to a very great extent of his hard labour, and demands of him more of his attention and skill to guide and regulate the operating instrument. This is nowhere more visible than in a factory such as that of the Messrs. Neilson and Co., where steam is really the labourer and the men its guide, or director. Steam is the operator; to heat or melt the iron, to lift it, and pour it into moulds, or by steam-hammers beat it into the forms required, and afterwards shape and cut it with mathematical precision, into the thousand complicated figures, which all fit together like the component parts of the human frame, each part performing the particular function allotted to it.

All boilers made at these works are proved by hydraulic pressure to double the working steam pressure, whether required by the contractor or not. The apparatus for this purpose being a permanent part of the machinery worked by steam, admits of this being done without adding much extra trouble or expense. This practice is very commendable, and on the Continent it is made compulsory.

The Iron Foundry in Finnieston-street is the most powerful in Scotland, capable of producing castings up to fifty tons weight. All the heavy cranes are worked by steam. At these works steam was first applied to cranes by Mr. Neilson, in 1848, the same system which is now applied to winches on board ship to so great advantage. The business at the foundry is conducted separately from that of the locomotive works, and consists principally of making heavy castings for the numerous marine engine-makers in Glasgow, for which this foundry has had for many years a high reputation.

The business of the Hyde Park Foundry and Engine Works is conducted under the active management of Mr. Walter Neilson, at present the President of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland, and son of James B. Neilson, F.R.S., &c., known as the inventor of the Hot Blast, which made the iron trade in Scotland what it now is.

The invention of the hot-blast, simple as it may seem, has added almost incalculably to the wealth of our nation. Before this remarkable method was introduced, and when only cold air was blown into