Scientific American/Magnetized wheels of locomotives

MAGNETIZED WHEELS OF LOCOMOTIVES — A TIMELY HINT TO INVENTORS,

MESSRS. EDITORS: — When I notice the experiments that have been tried to make the driving wheels of a locomotive adhere to the rails by the application of magnetism to the wheels, I wonder why I did not put forth a suggestion noted down in my private journal, under date of March 21, 1848. But I have now to regret, like many other inventors, the folly of procrastination. The entry in my journal reads thus: — "Would a magnetized wheel rolling on a soft iron bar not slip, yet roll with ease; the driving wheels of a locomotive, for instance, being so covered with coils of wire that a portion or the whole of the circumference of it will be magnetized?" I send you this to show that this invention was thought of some time prior to the claims of the present inventor, and for the forcible warning it gives to every inventor to secure, by Letters Patent, every good improvement as soon as it is made. L. A. B. South Edmeston, N. Y., Jan. 31, 1860. —