Milestones in the Mighty Age of Steam: The Grasshopper and the Corliss

At South Station in Carillon Park, a modest wooden depot shelters the Grasshopper locomotive, a rare survivor of America’s earliest steam railways. Just across the way the Corliss Engine Building houses a re‑erected power plant that once drove the National Cash Register factory for half a century. Together they offer listeners a tangible glimpse into the birth of modern industry, where the humble rhythmic chug of steam began reshaping travel and manufacturing.

The narrative traces the lineage from James Watt’s 1788 condensing engine through George Stephenson’s pioneering British trials, arriving at Phineas Davis’s 1830s Grasshopper—named for its up‑and‑down rods—and George H. Corliss’s revolutionary control system that cut fuel use and enabled reliable electricity generation. By weaving technical insight with vivid anecdotes, the book shows how these two machines propelled the United States onto a path of rapid expansion, turning a patchwork of tracks into a nation‑spanning network.