> He also invented the black box as a side effect to prove his gauge was better and provided more stable rides.
There's an interesting chapter in the memoirs of Charles Babbage (he of the Difference and Analytical Engines) where he describes his experiences with the first railways and how he did some experiments on Brunel's Great Western route and built (one of, or possible the?) first dynamometer cars:
That chapter also contains this priceless bit where after Babbage had only by luck narrowly avoided a head-on collision with Brunel going the other way on the same track, Brunel replies that if Babbage's train had actually been approaching the other way on the same line, "he should have put on all the steam he could command, with a view of driving off the opposite engine by the superior velocity of his own."
There's an interesting chapter in the memoirs of Charles Babbage (he of the Difference and Analytical Engines) where he describes his experiences with the first railways and how he did some experiments on Brunel's Great Western route and built (one of, or possible the?) first dynamometer cars:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Passages_from_the_Life_of_a_P...
That chapter also contains this priceless bit where after Babbage had only by luck narrowly avoided a head-on collision with Brunel going the other way on the same track, Brunel replies that if Babbage's train had actually been approaching the other way on the same line, "he should have put on all the steam he could command, with a view of driving off the opposite engine by the superior velocity of his own."