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The ''Best Friend of Charleston'' was a steam-powered railroad locomotive. It is widely acclaimed as the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States for revenue service. It also produced the first locomotive boiler explosion in the US. == History == The locomotive was built for the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company by the West Point Foundry of New York in 1830. Disassembled for shipment by boat to Charleston, SC, it arrived in October of that year and was unofficially named ''the Best Friend of Charleston''. After its inaugural run on Christmas Day, the ''Best Friend'' was used in regular passenger service along a six mile demonstration route in Charleston. For the time, this locomotive was considered one of the fastest modes of transport available, taking its passengers "on the wings of wind at the speed of fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour."〔(206.74.162.2 )〕 The only mode of travel that was any faster was by an experienced horse and rider. On June 17, 1831, the ''Best Friend'' earned a rather grisly first — it became the first locomotive in the US to suffer a boiler explosion, seriously injuring the engine's crew. The explosion is said to have been caused by the fireman tying down the steam pressure release valve; he had tired of listening to it whistle, so to stop the noise he closed the valve permanently (another account has the fireman placing a stout piece of lumber on the safety valve and sitting on it). The blocked valve caused the pressure within the boiler to exceed its capacity, and it exploded.〔 The resulting blast was said to have hurled metal fragments over a wide area and killed the fireman. According to Centennial History of South Carolina Railroad, this wrote a new rule in the SCC&RR operating manual that engineers were to remain on station at all times, with the aid of newly hired conductors to manage cars, passengers and switches. Salvageable parts from the ''Best Friend'' were used to build the ''Phoenix'' which seems to have run up to the time of the American Civil War. To restore passenger confidence, a flatcar piled high with protective cotton bales was placed between the locomotive and its passenger cars. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Best Friend of Charleston」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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