These two chapters to me were interesting but a bit drawn out (which I know shows Dagny's persistance) as Dagny finds and then tries to hunt down the inventor of the new motor. The end of chapter 9 was good with Dagny and Rearden seeing the few sad candles lit in the deserted village below, meanwhile they have found a great technological inovation that was abandoned and could have helped all mankind (at least they believe it can). Chapter 9 also has the scene with James Taggart and the sales girl which is interesting side of his character in seeing what he thinks of himself and what he lets/wants other people to think of him. This is even more important to Taggart's development as a character when we learn in the next chapter that what was to be Dagny's success is becoming her failure and James' success.
I liked that we finally found one of the characters that "disappeared" - Prof. Hugh Akston. He like Frisco tries to steer Dagny away from what she is doing and advises her that it will only cause her pain and she doesn't understand him either. Prof Akston seems to be one (maybe the only character at this point) who has a good grasp of what is really going on. He states he is proud of his students Ragnar and Frisco who currently the majority of the country hates and Dagny and Rearden are currently incapable of understanding why they are doing what they are doing. He knows who Dagny is and clearly knows what is going on and even gives her advice...I'm waiting for him to disappear. Speaking of disappearing we find two others who disappear in this chapter both who were extremely fed up with the government's policies and overstepping - Midas and Ellis Wyatt. Still waiting to see where they disappeared to, though. And of course another question raised in these chapters; who built this fantastic new motor - John Galt, Frisco, Ragnar? I guess I'll have to keep reading to see.The John Galt Line--it was to her honor that they had entrusted their money, the saving and achievement of years, it was on her ability that they had staked it, it was on her work that they had relied on their own--and she had been made to betray them into a looters' trap: there would be no trains and no life-blood of freight, the John Galt Line had been only a drainpipe that had permitted Jim Taggart to make a deal and to drain their wealth, unearned, into his pocket, in exchange for letting others drain his railroad
The character of Rearden is finally beaten down so to speak in these chapters and its not all the laws or the people standing against him, but the comment by a small town mayor that Dagny is not his wife. I find it odd that after all the things that have been done to try and stop Rearden and all the things people have done to him it is this one off hand comment that wasn't even really meant as an insult that brings him down mentally. From the posts above I'm assuming we will get better insight into Rearden's character in Parts 2 and 3.