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Title: The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert
Stephenson

Author: Samuel Smiles

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Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF
GEORGE STEPHENSON AND OF HIS SON ROBERT STEPHENSON
***

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful
comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
More detail can be found at the end of the book.

Engraved by W. Hall after the portrait by John Lucas.

NEW YORK, HARRER & BROTHERS.

THE LIFE
OF

GEORGE STEPHENSON
AND OF HIS SON

ROBERT STEPHENSON;

COMPRISING ALSO

A H IS TO RY O F T H E INV ENT IO N AN D INT RO DUCT IO N

O F TH E RA ILWAY L O CO MO T IVE .

B y S AMUE L S MIL E S ,

AUTH O R O F "S ELF - H ELP," " TH E H UG UENO TS ," ETC.

Wi t h P o rt ra i t s a n d Nu m ero u s Il l u st ra t i o n s.

N EW YO RK :

H A R P ER & B RO T H E RS , P UB LIS H E RS ,

FRANKLIN SQUARE.

1868.

PREFACE.
The present is a revised edition of the Life of George Stephenson and of
his son Robert Stephenson, to which is prefixed a history of the Railway
and the Locomotive in its earlier stages, uniform with the early history of
the Steam-engine given in vol. iv. of "Lives of the Engineers" containing
the memoirs of Boulton and Watt. A memoir of Richard Trevithick has also
been included in this introductory portion of the book, which will probably
be found more complete than any notice which has yet appeared of that
distinguished mechanical engineer.

Since the appearance of this Life in its original form ten years ago, the
construction of Railways has continued to make extraordinary progress. The
length of lines then open in Europe was estimated at about 18,000 miles: it
is now more than 50,000 miles. Although Great Britain, first in the field,
had then, after about twenty-five years' work, expended nearly 300 millions
sterling in the construction of 8300 miles of double railway, it has during
the last ten years expended about 200 millions more in constructing 5600
additional miles.
But the construction of railways has proceeded with equal rapidity on the
Continent. France has now 9624 miles at work; Germany (including
Austria), 13,392 miles; Spain, 3161 miles; Sweden, 1100 miles; Belgium,
1073 miles; Switzerland, 795 miles; Holland, 617 miles; besides railways in
other states. These have, for the most part, been constructed and opened
during the last ten years, while a considerable length is still under
construction. Austria is actively engaged in carrying new lines across the
plains of Hungary to the frontier of Turkey, which Turkey is preparing to
meet by lines carried up the valley of the Lower Danube; and Russia, with
2800 miles already at work, is occupied with extensive schemes for
connecting Petersburg and Moscow with her ports in the Black Sea on the
one hand, and with the frontier towns of her Asiatic empire on the other.

Italy also is employing her new-born liberty in vigorously extending
railways throughout her dominions. The length of Italian lines in operation
in 1866 was 2752 miles, of which not less than 680 were opened in that
year. Already has a direct line of communication been opened between
Germany and Italy through the Brenner Pass, by which it is now possible to
make the entire journey by railway (excepting only the short sea-passage
across the English Channel) from London to Brindisi on the southeastern
extremity of the Italian peninsula; and, in the course of a few more years, a
still shorter route will be opened through France, when that most
formidable of all railway borings, the seven-mile tunnel under Mont Cenis,
has been completed.
During the last ten years, nearly the whole of the existing Indian railways
have been made. When Edmund Burke in 1783 arraigned the British
government for their neglect of India in his speech on Mr. Fox's Bill, he
said, "England has built no bridges, made no high roads, cut no navigations,
dug out no reservoirs.... Were we to be driven out of India this day, nothing
would remain to tell that it had been possessed, during the inglorious period
of our dominion, by any thing better than the orang-outang or the tiger." But
that reproach no longer applies. Some of the greatest bridges erected in
modern times—such as those over the Sone near Patna, and over the Jamna
at Allahabad—have been erected in connection with the Indian railways, of
which there are already 3637 miles at work, and above 2000 more under
construction. When these lines have been completed, at an expenditure of
about £88,000,000 of British capital guaranteed by the British government,
India will be provided with a magnificent system of internal
communication, connecting the capitals of the three Presidencies—uniting
Bombay with Madras on the south, and with Calcutta on the northeast—
while a great main line, 2200 miles in extent, passing through the
northwestern provinces, and connecting Calcutta with Lucknow, Delhi,
Lahore, Moultan, and Kurrachee, will unite the mouths of the Hooghly in
the Bay of Bengal with those of the Indus in the Arabian Sea.
When the first edition of this work appeared in the beginning of 1857, the
Canadian system of railways was but in its infancy. The Grand Trunk was
only begun, and the Victoria Bridge—the greatest of all railway structures
—was not half erected. Now, that fine colony has more than 2200 miles in
active operation along the great valley of the St. Lawrence, connecting

Rivière du Loup at the mouth of that river, and the harbor of Portland in the
State of Maine, via Montreal and Toronto, with Sarnia on Lake Huron, and
with Windsor, opposite Detroit, in the State of Michigan. The Australian
Colonies also have during the same time been actively engaged in providing
themselves with railways, many of which are at work, and others are in
course of formation. Even the Cape of Good Hope has several lines open,
and others making. France also has constructed about 400 miles in Algeria,
while the Pasha of Egypt is the proprietor of 360 miles in operation across
the Egyptian desert.
But in no country has railway construction been prosecuted with greater
vigor than in the United States. There the railway furnishes not only the
means of intercommunication between already established settlements, as in
the Old World, but it is regarded as the pioneer of colonization, and as
instrumental in opening up new and fertile territories of vast extent in the
west—the food-grounds of future nations. Hence railway construction in
that country was scarcely interrupted even by the great Civil War; at the
commencement of which Mr. Seward publicly expressed the opinion that
"physical bonds, such as highways, railroads, rivers, and canals, are vastly
more powerful for holding civil communities together than any mere
covenants, though written on parchment or engraved on iron."
The people of the United States were the first to follow the example of
England, after the practicability of steam locomotion had been proved on
the Stockton and Darlington and Liverpool and Manchester Railways. The
first sod of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway was cut on the 4th of July,
1828, and the line was completed and opened for traffic in the following
year, when it was worked partly by horse-power, and partly by a locomotive
built at Baltimore, which is still preserved in the Company's workshops. In
1830 the Hudson and Mohawk Railway was begun, while other lines were
under construction in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Jersey; and in
the course of ten years, 1843 miles were finished and in operation. In ten
more years, 8827 miles were at work; at the end of 1864, not less than
35,000 miles, mostly single tracks; while about 15,000 miles more were
under construction. One of the most extensive trunk-lines still unfinished is
the Great Pacific Railroad, connecting the lines in the valleys of the
Mississippi and the Missouri with the city of San Francisco on the shores of
the Pacific, by which, when completed, it will be possible to make the

journey from England to Hong Kong, via New York, in little more than a
month.

The results of the working of railways have been in many respects
different from those anticipated by their projectors. One of the most
unexpected has been the growth of an immense passenger-traffic. The
Stockton and Darlington line was projected as a coal line only, and the
Liverpool and Manchester as a merchandise line. Passengers were not taken
into account as a source of revenue; for, at the time of their projection, it
was not believed that people would trust themselves to be drawn upon a
railway by an "explosive machine," as the locomotive was described to be.
Indeed, a writer of eminence declared that he would as soon think of being
fired off on a ricochet rocket as travel on a railway at twice the speed of the
old stage-coaches. So great was the alarm which existed as to the
locomotive, that the Liverpool and Manchester Committee pledged
themselves in their second prospectus, issued in 1825, "not to require any
clause empowering its use;" and as late as 1829, the Newcastle and Carlisle
Act was conceded on the express condition that it should not be worked by
locomotives, but by horses only.
Nevertheless, the Liverpool and Manchester Company obtained powers
to make and work their railway without any such restriction; and when the
line was made and opened, a locomotive passenger-train was ordered to be
run upon it by way of experiment. Greatly to the surprise of the directors,
more passengers presented themselves as travelers by the train than could
conveniently be carried.
The first arrangements as to passenger-traffic were of a very primitive
character, being mainly copied from the old stage-coach system. The
passengers were "booked" at the railway office, and their names were
entered in a way-bill which was given to the guard when the train started.
Though the usual stage-coach bugleman could not conveniently accompany
the passengers, the trains were at first played out of the terminal stations by
a lively tune performed by a trumpeter at the end of the platform, and this
continued to be done at the Manchester Station until a comparatively recent
date.

But the number of passengers carried by the Liverpool and Manchester
line was so unexpectedly great, that it was very soon found necessary to
remodel the entire system. Tickets were introduced, by which a great saving
of time was effected. More roomy and commodious carriages were
provided, the original first-class compartments being seated for four
passengers only. Every thing was found to have been in the first instance
made too light and too slight. The prize "Rocket," which weighed only 4-
1/2 tons when loaded with its coke and water, was found quite unsuited for
drawing the increasingly heavy loads of passengers. There was also this
essential difference between the old stage-coach and the new railway train,
that, whereas the former was "full" with six inside and ten outside, the latter
must be able to accommodate whatever number of passengers came to be
carried. Hence heavier and more powerful engines, and larger and more
substantial carriages, were from time to time added to the carrying stock of
the railway.
The speed of the trains was also increased. The first locomotives used in
hauling coal-trains ran at from four to six miles an hour. On the Stockton
and Darlington line the speed was increased to about ten miles an hour; and
on the Liverpool and Manchester line the first passenger-trains were run at
the average speed of seventeen miles an hour, which at that time was
considered very fast. But this was not enough. When the London and
Birmingham line was opened, the mail-trains were run at twenty-three miles
an hour; and gradually the speed went up, until now the fast trains are run at
from fifty to sixty miles an hour—the pistons in the cylinders, at sixty
miles, traveling at the inconceivable rapidity of 800 feet per minute!
To bear the load of heavy engines run at high speeds, a much stronger
and heavier road was found necessary; and shortly after the opening of the
Liverpool and Manchester line, it was entirely relaid with stronger
materials. Now that express passenger-engines are from thirty to thirty-five
tons each, the weight of the rails has been increased from 35 lbs. to 75 lbs.
or 86 lbs. to the yard. Stone blocks have given place to wooden sleepers;
rails with loose ends resting on the chairs, to rails with their ends firmly
"fished" together; and in many places, where the traffic is unusually heavy,
iron rails have been replaced by those of steel.
And now see the enormous magnitude to which railway passenger-traffic
has grown. In the year 1866, 274,293,668 passengers were carried by day

tickets in Great Britain alone. But this was not all; for in that year 110,227
periodical tickets were issued by the different railways; and assuming half
of them to be annual, one fourth half-yearly, and the remainder quarterly
tickets, and that their holders made only five journeys each way weekly,
this would give an additional number of 39,405,600 journeys, or a total of
313,699,268 passengers carried in Great Britain in one year.
It is difficult to grasp the idea of the enormous number of persons
represented by these figures. The mind is merely bewildered by them, and
can form no adequate notion of their magnitude. To reckon them singly
would occupy twenty years, counting at the rate of one a second for twelve
hours every day. Or take another illustration. Supposing every man, woman,
and child in Great Britain to make ten journeys by rail yearly, the number
would fall short of the passengers carried in 1866.
Mr. Porter, in his "Progress of the Nation," estimated that thirty millions
of passengers, or about eighty-two thousand a day, traveled by coaches in
Great Britain in 1834, an average distance of twelve miles each, at an
average cost of 5s. a passenger, or at the rate of 5d. a mile; whereas above
313 millions are now carried by railway an average distance of 8-1/2 miles
each, at an average cost of 1s. 1-1/2d. per passenger, or about three half-
pence per mile, in considerably less than half the time.
But, besides the above number of passengers, one hundred and twenty-
four million tons of minerals and merchandise were carried by railway in
the United Kingdom in 1866, and fifteen millions of cattle, besides mails,
parcels, and other traffic. The distance run by passenger and goods trains in
the year was 142,807,853 miles, to accomplish which it is estimated that
four miles of railway on an average must be covered by running trains
during every second all the year round.
To perform this service, there were, in 1866, 8125 locomotives at work in
the United Kingdom, consuming about three million tons of coal and coke,
and flashing into the air every minute some thirty tons of water in the form
of steam in a high state of elasticity. There were also 19,228 passenger-
carriages, 7276 vans and breaks attached to passenger-trains, and 242,947
trucks, wagons, and other vehicles appropriated to merchandise. Buckled
together, buffer to buffer, the locomotives and tenders would extend for a
length of about 54 miles, or more than the distance from London to

Brighton; while the carrying vehicles, joined together, would form two
trains occupying a double line of railway extending from London to beyond
Inverness.
A notable feature in the growth of railway traffic of late years has been
the increase in the number of third-class passengers, compared with first
and second class. Sixteen years since, the third-class passengers constituted
only about one third; ten years later they were about one half; whereas now
they form nearly two thirds of the whole number carried. Thus George
Stephenson's prediction "that the time would come when it would be
cheaper for a working man to make a journey by railway than to walk on
foot" is already realized.
The degree of safety with which this great traffic has been conducted is
not the least remarkable of its features. Of course, so long as railways are
worked by men, they will be liable to the imperfections belonging to all
things human. Though their machinery may be perfect, and their
organization as complete as skill and forethought can make it, workmen
will at times be forgetful and listless, and a moment's carelessness may lead
to the most disastrous results. Yet, taking all circumstances into account, the
wonder is that traveling by railway at high speeds should have been
rendered comparatively so safe.
To be struck by lightning is one of the rarest of all causes of death, yet
more persons were killed by lightning in Great Britain, in 1866, than were
killed on railways from causes beyond their own control; the number in the
former case having been nineteen, and in the latter fifteen, or one in every
twenty millions of passengers carried. Most persons would consider the
probability of their dying by hanging to be extremely remote; yet, according
to the Registrar General's returns for 1867, it is thirty times greater than that
of being killed by railway accident. Taking the number of persons who
traveled in Great Britain in 1866 at 313,699,268, of whom fifteen were
accidentally killed, it would appear that, even supposing a person to have a
permanent existence, and to make a journey by railway daily, the
probability of his being killed in an accident would occur on an average
once in above 50,000 years.
The remarkable safety with which railway traffic is on the whole
conducted, is due to constant watchfulness and highly-applied skill. The

men who work the railways are for the most part the picked men of the
country, and every railway station may be regarded as a practical school of
industry, attention, and punctuality. Where railways fail in these respects, it
will usually be found that it is because the men are personally defective, or
because better men are not to be had. It must also be added that the onerous
and responsible duties which railway workmen are called upon to perform
require a degree of consideration on the part of the public which is not very
often extended to them.
Few are aware of the complicated means and agencies that are in
constant operation on railways day and night to insure the safety of the
passengers to their journeys' end. The road is under a system of continuous
inspection, under gangs of men—about twelve to every five miles, under a
foreman or "ganger"—whose duty it is to see that the rails and chairs are
sound, all their fastenings complete, and the line clear of obstructions.
Then, at all the junctions, sidings, and crossings, pointsmen are stationed,
with definite instructions as to the duties to be performed by them. At these
places signals are provided, worked from the station platforms, or from
special signal-boxes, for the purpose of protecting the stopping or passing
trains. When the first railways were opened the signals were of a very
simple kind. The station-men gave them with their arms stretched out in
different positions; then flags of different colors were used; next fixed
signals, with arms or discs, or of rectangular or triangular shape. These
were followed by a complete system of semaphore signals, near and distant,
protecting all junctions, sidings, and crossings.
When government inspectors were first appointed by the Board of Trade
to examine and report upon the working of railways, they were alarmed by
the number of trains following each other at some stations in what then
seemed to be a very rapid succession. A passage from a Report written in
1840 by Sir Frederick Smith, as to the traffic at "Taylor's Junction," on the
York and North Midland Railway, contrasts curiously with the railway life
and activity of the present day: "Here," wrote the alarmed inspector, "the
passenger trains from York, as well as Leeds and Selby, meet four times a
day. No less than 23 passenger-trains stop at or pass this station in the 24
hours—an amount of traffic requiring not only the most perfect
arrangements on the part of the management, but the utmost vigilance and
energy in the servants of the Company employed at this place." Contrast

this with the state of things now. On the Metropolitan Line, 667 trains pass
a given point in one direction or the other during the eighteen hours of the
working day, or an average of 36 trains an hour. At the Cannon-street
Station of the Southeastern Railway, 527 trains pass in and out daily, many
of them crossing each others' tracks under the protection of the station
signals. Forty-five trains run in and out between 9 and 10 A.M., and an
equal number between 4 and 5 P.M. Again, at the Clapham Junction, near
London, about 700 trains pass or stop daily; and though to the casual
observer the succession of trains coming and going, running and stopping,
coupling and shunting, appears a scene of inextricable confusion and
danger, the whole is clearly intelligible to the signal-men in their boxes,
who work the trains in and out with extraordinary precision and regularity.
The inside of a signal-box reminds one of a piano-forte on a large scale,
the lever-handles corresponding with the keys of the instrument; and, to an
uninstructed person, to work the one would be as difficult as to play a tune
on the other. The signal-box outside Cannon-street Station contains 67
lever-handles, by means of which the signal-men are enabled at the same
moment to communicate with the drivers of all the engines on the line
within an area of 800 yards. They direct by signs, which are quite as
intelligible as words, the drivers of the trains starting from inside the
station, as well as those of the trains arriving from outside. By pulling a
lever-handle, a distant signal, perhaps out of sight, is set some hundred
yards off, which the approaching driver—reading it quickly as he comes
along—at once interprets, and stops or advances, as the signal may direct.
The precision and accuracy of the signal-machinery employed at
important stations and junctions have of late years been much improved by
an ingenious contrivance, by means of which the setting of the signal
prepares the road for the coming train. When the signal is set at "Danger,"
the points are at the same time worked, and the road is "locked" against it;
and when at "Safety," the road is open—the signal and the points exactly
corresponding.
The Electric Telegraph has also been found a valuable auxiliary in
insuring the safe working of large railway traffics. Though the locomotive
may run at sixty miles an hour, electricity, when at its fastest, travels at the
rate of 288,000 miles a second, and is therefore always able to herald the
coming train. The electric telegraph may, indeed, be regarded as the nervous

system of the railway. By its means the whole line is kept throbbing with
intelligence. The method of working electric signals varies on different
lines; but the usual practice is to divide a line into so many lengths, each
protected by its signal-stations, the fundamental law of telegraph working
being that two engines are not to be allowed to run on the same line
between two signal-stations at the same time. When a train passes one of
such stations, it is immediately signaled on—usually by electric signal-bells
—to the station in advance, and that interval of railway is "blocked" until
the signal has been received from the station in advance that the train has
passed it. Thus an interval of space is always secured between trains
following each other, which are thereby alike protected before and behind.
And thus, when a train starts on a journey of it may be hundreds of miles, it
is signaled on from station to station, and "lives along the line," until at
length it reaches its destination, and the last signal of "train in" is given. By
this means an immense number of trains can be worked with regularity and
safety. On the Southeastern Railway, where the system has been brought to
a state of high efficiency, it is no unusual thing during Easter week to send
570,000 passengers through the London Bridge Station alone; and on some
days as many as 1200 trains a day.
While such are the expedients adopted to insure safety, others equally
ingenious are adopted to insure speed. In the case of express and mail
trains, the frequent stopping of the engines to take in a fresh supply of water
occasions a considerable loss of time on a long journey, each stoppage for
this purpose occupying from ten to fifteen minutes. To avoid such stoppages
larger tenders have been provided, capable of carrying as much as 2000
gallons of water each. But as a considerable time is occupied in filling
these, a plan has been contrived by Mr. Ramsbottom, the locomotive
engineer of the London and Northwestern Railway, by which the engines
are made to feed themselves while running at full speed! The plan is as
follows: An open trough, about 440 feet long, is laid longitudinally between
the rails. Into this trough, which is filled with water, a dip-pipe, or scoop
attached to the bottom of the tender of the running train, is lowered, and, at
a speed of 50 miles an hour, as much as 1070 gallons of water are scooped
up in the course of a few minutes. The first of such troughs was laid down
between Chester and Holyhead, to enable the Express Mail to run the
distance of 84-3/4 miles in two hours and five minutes without stopping;
and similar troughs have since been laid down at Bushey, near London; at

Castlethorpe, near Wolverton; and at Parkside, near Liverpool. At these four
troughs about 130,000 gallons of water are scooped up daily.

Wherever railways have been made, new towns have sprung up, and old
towns and cities been quickened into new life. When the first English lines
were projected, great were the prophecies of disaster to the inhabitants of
the districts through which they were proposed to be forced. Such fears
have long since been dispelled in this country. The same prejudices existed
in France. When the railway from Paris to Marseilles was projected to pass
through Lyons, a local prophet predicted that if the line were made the city
would be ruined—"Ville traversée, ville perdue;" while a local priest
denounced the locomotive and the electric telegraph as heralding the reign
of Antichrist. But such nonsense is no longer uttered. Now it is the city
without the railway that is regarded as the "city lost;" for it is in a measure
shut out from the rest of the world, and left outside the pale of civilization.
Perhaps the most striking of all the illustrations that could be offered of
the extent to which railways facilitate the locomotion, the industry, and the
subsistence of the population of large towns and cities, is afforded by the
working of the railway system in connection with the capital of Great
Britain.
The extension of railways to London has been of comparatively recent
date, the whole of the lines connecting it with the provinces and terminating
at its outskirts having been opened during the last thirty years, while the
lines inside London have for the most part been opened within the last ten
years.
The first London line was the Greenwich Railway, part of which was
opened for traffic to Deptford in February, 1836. The working of this
railway was first exhibited as a show, and the usual attractions were
employed to make it "draw." A band of musicians in the garb of the Beef-
eaters was stationed at the London end, and another band at Deptford. For
cheapness' sake, the Deptford band was shortly superseded by a large
barrel-organ, which played in the passengers; but when the traffic became
established, the barrel-organ, as well as the Beef-eater band at the London

end, were both discontinued. The whole length of the line was lit up at night
by a row of lamps on either side like a street, as if to enable the locomotives
or the passengers to see their way in the dark; but these lamps also were
eventually discontinued as unnecessary.
As a show, the Greenwich Railway proved tolerably successful. During
the first eleven months it carried 456,750 passengers, or an average of about
1300 a day. But the railway having been found more convenient to the
public than either the river boats or the omnibuses, the number of
passengers rapidly increased. When the Croydon, Brighton, and
Southeastern Railways began to pour their streams of traffic over the
Greenwich Viaduct, its accommodation was found much too limited, and it
was widened from time to time, until now nine lines of railway are laid side
by side, over which more than twenty millions of passengers are carried
yearly, or an average of about 60,000 a day all the year round.
Since the partial opening of the Greenwich Railway in 1836, a large
extent of railways has been constructed in and about the metropolis, and
convenient stations have been established almost in the heart of the city.
Sixteen of these stations are within a circle of half a mile radius from the
Mansion House, and above three hundred stations are in actual use or in
course of construction within about five miles of Charing Cross. The most
important lines recently opened for the accommodation of the London local
traffic have been the London, Chatham and Dover Metropolitan Extensions
(1861), the Metropolitan (1863), the North London Extension to Liverpool
Street (1865), the Charing Cross and Cannon-street Extensions of the
Southeastern Railway (1864-6), and the South London Extension of the
Brighton Railway (1866). Of these railways, the London, Chatham and
Dover carried 5,228,418 passengers in 1867; the Metropolitan, 23,405,282;
the North London, 17,535,502; the Southeastern, 17,473,934; and the
Brighton, 12,686,417. The total number carried into and out of London, as
well as from station to station in London, in the same year, was 104
millions of passengers.
To accommodate this vast traffic, not fewer than 3600 local trains are run
in and out daily, besides 340 trains which depart to and arrive from distant
places, north, south, east, and west. In the morning hours, between 8 30 and
10 30, when business men are proceeding inward to their offices and
counting-houses, and in the afternoon between four and six, when they are

returning outward to their homes, as many as two thousand stoppages are
made in the hour, within the metropolitan district, for the purpose of taking
up and setting down passengers, while about two miles of railway are
covered by the running trains.
One of the remarkable effects of railways has been to extend the
residential area of all large towns and cities. This is especially notable in the
case of London. Before the introduction of railways, the residential area of
the metropolis was limited by the time occupied by business men in making
the journey outward and inward daily; and it was for the most part bounded
by Bow on the east, by Hampstead and Highgate on the north, by
Paddington and Kensington on the west, and by Clapham and Brixton on
the south. But now that stations have been established near the centre of the
city, and places so distant as Waltham, Barnet, Watford, Hanwell,
Richmond, Epsom, Croydon, Reigate, and Erith can be more quickly
reached by rail than the old suburban quarters were by omnibus, the
metropolis has become extended in all directions along its railway lines,
and the population of London, instead of living in the city or its immediate
vicinity as formerly, have come to occupy a residential area of not less than
six hundred square miles!
The number of new towns which have consequently sprung into
existence near London within the last twenty years has been very great;
towns numbering from ten to twenty thousand inhabitants, which before
were but villages, if, indeed, they existed. This has especially been the case
along the lines south of the Thames, principally in consequence of the
termini of those lines being more conveniently situated for city men of
business. Hence the rapid growth of the suburban towns up and down the
river, from Richmond and Staines on the west, to Erith and Gravesend on
the east, and the hives of population which have settled on the high grounds
south of the Thames, in the neighborhood of Norwood and the Crystal
Palace, rapidly spreading over the Surrey Downs, from Wimbledon to
Guildford, and from Bromley to Croydon, Epsom, and Dorking. And now
that the towns on the south and southeast coast can be reached by city men
in little more time than it takes to travel to Clapham or Bayswater by
omnibus, such places have become, as it were, parts of the great metropolis,
and Brighton and Hastings are but marine suburbs of London.

The improved state of the communications of the city with the country
has had a marked effect upon its population. While the action of the
railways has been to add largely to the number of persons living in London,
it has also been accompanied by their dispersion over a much larger area.
Thus the population of the central parts of London is constantly decreasing,
whereas that of the suburban districts is as constantly increasing. The
population of the city fell off more than 10,000 between 1851 and 1861;
and during the same period, that of Holborn, the Strand, St Martin's-in-the-
Fields, St. James's, Westminster, East and West London, showed a
considerable decrease. But, as regards the whole mass of the metropolitan
population, the increase has been enormous, especially since the
introduction of railways. Thus, starting from 1801, when the population of
London was 958,863, we find it increasing in each decennial period at the
rate of between two and three hundred thousand, until the year 1841, when
it amounted to 1,948,369. Railways had by that time reached London, after
which its population increased at nearly double the former ratio. In the ten
years ending 1851, the increase was 413,867; and in the ten years ending
1861, 441,753; until now, to quote the words of the Registrar General in his
last annual Report, "the population within the registration limits is by
estimate 2,993,513; but beyond this central mass there is a ring of life
growing rapidly, and extending along railway lines over a circle of fifteen
miles from Charing Cross. The population within that circle, patrolled by
the metropolitan police, is about 3,463,771!"
The aggregation of so vast a number of persons within so comparatively
limited an area—the immense quantity of food required for their daily
sustenance, as well as of fuel, clothing, and other necessaries—would be
attended with no small inconvenience and danger but for the facilities again
provided by the railways. The provisioning of a garrison of even four
thousand men is considered a formidable affair; how much more so the
provisioning of nearly four millions of people!
The whole mystery is explained by the admirable organization of the
railway service, and the regularity and dispatch with which it is conducted.
We are enabled by the courtesy of the general managers of the London
railways to bring together the following brief summary of facts relating to
the food supply of London, which will probably be regarded by most
readers as of a very remarkable character.

Generally speaking, the railways to the south of the Thames contribute
comparatively little toward the feeding of London. They are, for the most
part, passenger and residential lines, traversing a limited and not very fertile
district bounded by the sea-coast, and, excepting in fruit and vegetables,
milk and hops, they probably carry more food from London than they bring
to it. The principal supplies of grain, flour, potatoes, and fish are brought by
railway from the eastern counties of England and Scotland; and of cattle
and sheep, beef and mutton, from the grazing counties of the west and
northwest of Britain, as far as from the Highlands of Scotland, which,
through the instrumentality of railways, have become part of the great
grazing-grounds of the metropolis.
Take first "the staff of life"—bread and its constituents. Of wheat, not
less than 222,080 quarters were brought into London by railway in 1867,
besides what was brought by sea; of oats, 151,757 quarters; of barley,
70,282 quarters; of beans and peas, 51,448 quarters. Of the wheat and
barley, by far the largest proportion was brought by the Great Eastern
Railway, which delivered in London last year 155,000 quarters of wheat
and 45,500 quarters of barley, besides 600,429 quarters more in the form of
malt. The largest quantity of oats was brought by the Great Northern
Railway, principally from the north of England and the east of Scotland—
the quantity delivered by that company in 1867 having been 97,500
quarters, besides 24,664 quarters of wheat, 5560 quarters of barley, and
103,917 quarters of malt. Again, of 1,250,566 sacks of flour and meal
delivered in London last year, the Great Eastern brought 654,000 sacks, the
Great Northern 232,022 sacks, and the Great Western 136,312 sacks; the
principal contribution of the London and Northwestern Railway toward the
London bread-stores being 100,760 boxes of American flour, besides
24,300 sacks of English. The total quantity of malt delivered at the London
railway stations in 1867 was thirteen hundred thousand sacks.
Next, as to flesh meat. Last year not fewer than 172,300 head of cattle
were brought into London by railway, though this was considerably less
than the number carried before the cattle plague, the Great Eastern Railway
alone having carried 44,672 less than in 1864. But this loss has since been
more than made up by the increased quantities of fresh beef, mutton, and
other kinds of meat imported in lieu of the live animals. The principal
supplies of cattle are brought, as we have said, by the western, northern, and

eastern lines: by the Great Western from the western counties and Ireland;
by the London and Northwestern, the Midland, and the Great Northern,
from the northern counties and from Scotland; and by the Great Eastern
from the eastern counties, and from the ports of Harwich and Lowestoft.
Last year also, 1,147,609 sheep were brought to London by railway, of
which the Great Eastern delivered not less than 265,371 head. The London
and Northwestern and Great Northern between them brought 390,000 head
from the northern English counties, with a large proportion from the Scotch
Highlands; while the Great Western brought up 130,000 head from the
Welsh mountains, and from the rich grazing districts of Wilts, Gloucester,
Somerset, and Devon. Another important freight of the London and
Northwestern Railway consists of pigs, of which they delivered 54,700 in
London last year, principally Irish; while the Great Eastern brought up
27,500 of the same animal, partly foreign.
While the cattle plague has had the effect of greatly reducing the number
of live-stock brought into London yearly, it has given a considerable
impetus to the Fresh Meat traffic. Thus, in addition to the above large
numbers of cattle and sheep delivered in London last year, the railways
brought 76,175 tons of meat, which—taking the meat of an average beast at
800 lbs., and of an average sheep at 64 lbs.—would be equivalent to about
112,000 more cattle, and 1,267,500 more sheep. The Great Northern
brought the largest quantity; next, the London and Northwestern—these two
companies having brought up between them, from distances as remote as
Aberdeen and Inverness, about 42,000 tons of fresh meat in 1867, at an
average freight of about 1/2d. a lb.
Again, as regards Fish, of which six tenths of the whole quantity
consumed in London is now brought by rail. The Great Eastern and the
Great Northern are by far the largest importers of this article, and justify
their claim to be regarded as the great food lines of London. Of the 61,358
tons of fish brought by railway in 1867, not less than 24,500 tons were
delivered by the former, and 22,000 tons, brought from much longer
distances, by the latter company. The London and Northwestern brought
about 6000 tons last year, the principal part of which was salmon from
Scotland and Ireland. The Great Western also brought about 4000 tons,
partly salmon, but the greater part mackerel from the southwest coast.

During the mackerel season, as much as a hundred tons at a time are
brought into the Paddington Station by express fish-train from Cornwall.
The Great Eastern and Great Northern Companies are also the principal
carriers of turkeys, geese, fowls, and game, the quantity delivered in
London last year by the former company having been 5042 tons. In
Christmas week no fewer than 30,000 turkeys and geese were delivered at
the Bishopsgate Station, besides about 300 tons of poultry, 10,000 barrels of
beer, and immense quantities of fish, oysters, and other kinds of food. As
much as 1600 tons of poultry and game were brought last year by the
Southwestern Railway; 600 tons by the Great Northern Railway; and 130
tons of turkeys, geese, and fowls by the London, Chatham and Dover line,
principally from France.
Of miscellaneous articles, the Great Northern and Midland each brought
about 3000 tons of cheese, the Southwestern 2600 tons, and the London and
Northwestern 10,034 cheeses in number; while the Southwestern and
Brighton lines brought a splendid contribution to the London breakfast-
table in the shape of 11,259 tons of French eggs; these two companies
delivering between them an average of more than three millions of eggs a
week all the year round! The same companies last year delivered in London
14,819 tons of butter, for the most part the produce of the farms of
Normandy, the greater cleanness and neatness with which the Normandy
butter is prepared for market rendering it a favorite both with dealers and
consumers of late years compared with Irish butter. The London, Chatham
and Dover Company also brought from Calais 96 tons of eggs.
Next, as to the potatoes, vegetables, and fruit brought by rail. Forty years
since, the inhabitants of London relied for their supply of vegetables on the
garden-grounds in the immediate neighborhood of the metropolis, and the
consequence was that they were both very dear and limited in quantity. But
railways, while they have extended the grazing-grounds of London as far as
the Highlands, have at the same time extended the garden-grounds of
London into all the adjoining counties—into East Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and
Norfolk, the vale of Gloucester, and even as far as Penzance in Cornwall.
The London, Chatham and Dover, one of the youngest of our main lines,
brought up from East Kent last year 5279 tons of potatoes, 1046 tons of
vegetables, and 5386 tons of fruit, besides 542 tons of vegetables from
France. The Southeastern brought 25,163 tons of the same produce. The

Great Eastern brought from the eastern counties 21,315 tons of potatoes,
and 3596 tons of vegetables and fruit; while the Great Northern brought no
less than 78,505 tons of potatoes—a large part of them from the east of
Scotland—and 3768 tons of vegetables and fruit. About 6000 tons of early
potatoes were last year brought from Cornwall, with about 5000 tons of
brocoli, and the quantities are steadily increasing. "Truly London hath a
large belly," said old Fuller two hundred years since. But how much more
capacious is it now!
One of the most striking illustrations of the utility of railways in
contributing to the supply of wholesome articles of food to the population
of large cities is to be found in the rapid growth of the traffic in Milk.
Readers of newspapers may remember the descriptions published some
years since of the horrid dens in which London cows are penned, and of the
odious compound sold by the name of milk, of which the least deleterious
ingredient in it was supplied by the "cow with the iron tail." That state of
affairs is now completely changed. What with the greatly improved state of
the London dairies and the better quality of the milk supplied by them,
together with the large quantities brought by railway from a range of a
hundred miles and more all round London, even the poorest classes in the
metropolis are now enabled to obtain as wholesome a supply of the article
as the inhabitants of most country towns.
The milk traffic has in some cases been rapid, almost sudden, in its
growth. Though the Great Western is at present the greatest of the milk
lines, it brought very little into London prior to the year 1865. In the month
of August in that year it brought 23,474 gallons, and in the month of
October following the quantity had increased to 103,214 gallons. Last year
the total quantity delivered in London by this single railway was 1,514,836
gallons, or an average of 30,000 gallons a week. The largest proportion of
this milk was brought from beyond Swindon in Wiltshire, about 100 miles
from London; but considerable quantities were also brought from the vale
of Gloucester and from Somerset. The London and Southwestern also is a
great milk-carrying line, having brought as much as 1,480,272 gallons to
London last year, or an average of 28,000 gallons a week. The Great
Eastern brought nearly the same quantity, 1,322,429 gallons, or an average
of about 25,400 gallons a week. The London and Northwestern ranks next,
having brought 643,432 gallons in 1867; then the Great Northern, 455,916

gallons; the Southeastern, 435,668 gallons; and the Brighton, 419,254
gallons. The total quantity of milk delivered in London by railway last year
was 6,309,446 gallons, or above 120,000 gallons a week. Yet this traffic,
large though it may appear, is as yet but in its infancy, and in the course of a
few more years it will be found very largely increased, according as
facilities are provided for its accommodation and transit.
These great streams of food, which we have thus so summarily described,
flow into London so continuously and uninterruptedly, that comparatively
few persons are aware of the magnitude and importance of the process thus
daily going forward. Though gathered from an immense extent of country
—embracing England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland—the influx is so
unintermitted that it is relied upon with as much certainty as if it only came
from the counties immediately adjoining London. The express meat-train
from Aberdeen arrives in town as punctually as the Clapham omnibus, and
the express milk-train from Aylesbury is as regular in its delivery as the
penny post. Indeed, London now depends so much upon railways for its
subsistence, that it may be said to be fed by them from day to day, having
never more than a few days' food in stock. And the supply is so regular and
continuous, that the possibility of its being interrupted never for a moment
occurs to any one. Yet, in these days of strikes among workmen, such a
contingency is quite within the limits of possibility. Another contingency,
arising in a state of war, is probably still more remote. But, were it possible
for a war to occur between England and a combination of foreign powers
possessed of stronger iron-clads than ours, and that they were able to ram
our ships back into port and land an enemy of overpowering force on the
Essex coast, it would be sufficient for them to occupy or cut the railways
leading from the north, to starve London into submission in less than a
fortnight.
Besides supplying London with food, railways have also been
instrumental in insuring the more regular and economical supply of fuel—a
matter of almost as vital importance to the population in a climate such as
that of England. So long as the market was supplied with coal brought by
sea in sailing ships, fuel in winter often rose to a famine price, especially
during long-continued easterly winds. But, now that railways are in full
work, the price is almost as steady in winter as in summer, and the supply is
more regular at all seasons. The following statement of the coals brought

into London by sea and by railway, at decennial periods since 1827, as
supplied by Mr. J. R. Scott, Registrar of the Coal Exchange, shows the
effect of railways in increasing the supply of fuel, at the same time that they
have lowered the price to the consumer:
Coals brought by
Years. Sea-borne Coal. Price per Ton.
Railway.
Tons. Tons. s. d.
1827 1,882,321 nil 28 6
1847 3,280,420 19,336 20 10
1857 3,133,459 1,206,775 18 8
1867 3,016,416 3,295,652 20 8
Thus the price of coal has been reduced 7s. 10d. a ton since 1827, while the
quantity delivered has been enormously increased, the total saving on the
quantity consumed in the metropolis in 1867, compared with 1827, being
equal to £2,388,000.
But the carriage of food and fuel to London forms but a small part of the
merchandise traffic carried by railway. Above 600,000 tons of goods of
various kinds yearly pass through one station only, that of the London and
Northwestern Company, at Camden Town; and sometimes as many as
20,000 parcels daily. Every other metropolitan station is similarly alive with
traffic inward and outward, London having since the introduction of
railways become more than ever a great distributive centre, to which
merchandise of all kinds converges, and from which it is distributed to all
parts of the country. Mr. Bazley, M.P., stated at a late public meeting at
Manchester that it would probably require ten millions of horses to convey
by road the merchandise traffic which is now annually carried by railway.
Railways have also proved of great value in connection with the Cheap
Postage system. By their means it has become possible to carry letters,
newspapers, books, and post parcels in any quantity, expeditiously and
cheaply. The Liverpool and Manchester line was no sooner opened in 1830
than the Post-office authorities recognized its utility, and used it for carrying
the mails between the two towns. When the London and Birmingham line
was opened eight years later, mail trains were at once put on, the directors
undertaking to perform the distance of 113 miles within 5 hours by day and
5-1/2 hours by night. As additional lines were opened, the old four-horse

mail-coaches were gradually discontinued, until, in 1858, the last of them,
the "Derby Dilly," which ran between Manchester and Derby, was taken off
on the opening of the Midland line to Rowsley.
The increased accommodation provided by railways was found of
essential importance, more particularly after the adoption of the Cheap
Postage system; and that such accommodation was needed will be obvious
from the extraordinary increase which has taken place in the number of
letters and packets sent by post. Thus, in 1839, the number of chargeable
letters carried was only 76 millions, and of newspapers 44-1/2 millions;
whereas, in 1865, the number of letters had increased to 720 millions, and
in 1867 to 775 millions, or more than tenfold, while the number of
newspapers, books, samples, and patterns (a new branch of postal business
begun in 1864) had increased, in 1865, to 98-1/2 millions.
To accommodate this largely-increasing traffic, the bulk of which is
carried by railway, the mileage run by mail trains in the United Kingdom
has increased from 25,000 miles a day in 1854 (the first year of which we
have any return of the mileage run) to 60,000 miles a day in 1867, or an
increase of 240 per cent. The Post-office expenditure on railway service has
also increased, but not in like proportion, having been £364,000 in the
former year, and £559,575 in the latter, or an increase of 154 per cent. The
revenue, gross and net, has increased still more rapidly. In 1841, the first
complete year of the Cheap Postage system, the gross revenue was
£1,359,466, and the net revenue £500,789; in 1854, the gross revenue was
£2,574,407, and the net revenue £1,173,723; and in 1867, the gross revenue
was £4,548,129, and the net revenue £2,127,125, being an increase of 420
per cent. compared with 1841, and of 180 per cent. compared with 1854.
How much of this net increase might fairly be credited to the Railway
Postal service we shall not pretend to say, but assuredly the proportion must
be very considerable.
One of the great advantages of railways in connection with the postal
service is the greatly increased frequency of communication which they
provide between all the large towns. Thus Liverpool has now six deliveries
of Manchester letters daily, while every large town in the kingdom has two
or more deliveries of London letters daily. In 1863, 393 towns had two
mails daily from London; 50 had three mails daily; 7 had four mails a day

from London, and 15 had four mails a day to London; while 3 towns had
five mails a day from London, and 6 had five mails a day to London.
Another feature of the railway mail train, as of the passenger train, is its
capacity to carry any quantity of letters and post parcels that may require to
be carried. In 1838, the aggregate weight of all the evening mails
dispatched from London by twenty-eight mail-coaches was 4 tons 6 cwt., or
an average of about 3-1/4 cwt. each, though the maximum contract weight
was 15 cwt. The mails now are necessarily much heavier, the number of
letters and packets having, as we have seen, increased more than tenfold
since 1839. But it is not the ordinary so much as the extraordinary mails
that are of considerable weight, more particularly the American, the
Continental, and the Australian mails. It is no unusual thing, we are
informed, for the last-mentioned mail to weigh as much as 40 tons. How
many of the old mail-coaches it would take to carry such a mail the 79
miles' journey to Southampton, with a relay of four horses every five or
seven miles, is a problem for the arithmetician to solve. But even supposing
each coach to be loaded to the maximum weight of 15 cwt. per coach, it
would require about sixty vehicles and about 1700 horses to carry the 40
tons, besides the coachmen and guards.

A few words, in conclusion, as to the number of men employed in
working and maintaining railways. According to Mr. Mills,[1] 166,047 men
and officers were employed in the working of 13,289 miles open in the
United Kingdom in 1865, besides 53,923 employed on lines then under
construction. The most numerous body of workmen is that of the laborers
(81,284) employed in the maintenance of the permanent way. Being mostly
picked men from the laboring class of the adjoining districts, they are paid
considerably higher wages, and hence one of the direct effects of railways
on the laboring population (besides affording them greater facilities for
locomotion) has been to raise the standard of wages of ordinary labor at
least 2s. a week in all the districts into which they have penetrated. The
workmen next in number is that of the artificers (40,167) employed in
constructing and repairing the rolling-stock; the porters (25,381), the plate-
layers (12,901), guards and brakesmen (5799), firemen (5266), and engine-

drivers (5171). But, besides the employés directly engaged in the working
and maintenance of railways, large numbers of workmen are also occupied
in the manufacture of locomotives and rolling-stock, and in providing the
requisite materials for the permanent way. Thus the consumption of rails
alone averages nearly 400,000 tons a year in the United Kingdom alone,
while the replacing of decayed sleepers requires about 10,000 acres of
forest to be cut down annually and sawn into sleepers. Taking the various
railway workmen into account, with their families, it will be found that they
represent a total of about three quarters of a million persons, or about one in
fifty of our population, who are dependent on railways for their subsistence.

While the practical working of railways has, on the whole, been so
satisfactory, the case has been very different as regards their direction and
financial management. The men employed in the working of railways make
it their business to learn it, and, being responsible, they are under the
necessity of taking pains to do it well; whereas the men who govern and
direct them are practically irresponsible, and may possess no qualification
whatever for the office excepting only the holding of so much stock. The
consequence has been much blundering on the part of these amateurs, and
great loss on the part of the public. Indeed, what between the confused,
contradictory, and often unjust legislation of Parliament on the one hand,
and the carelessness or incompetency of directors on the other, many once
flourishing concerns have been thrown into a state of utter confusion and
muddle, until railway government has become a by-word of reproach.
And this state of things will probably continue until the fatal defect of
government by Boards—an extremely limited responsibility, or no
responsibility at all—has been rectified by the appointment, as in France, of
executives consisting of a few men of special ability and trained
administrative skill, personally responsible to their constituents for the due
performance of their respective functions. But the discussion of this subject
would require a treatise, whereas we are now but writing a preface.
Whatever may be said of the financial mismanagement of railways, there
can be no doubt as to the great benefits conferred by them on the public
wherever made. Even those railways which have exhibited the most

"frightful examples" of scheming and financing, so soon as placed in the
hands of practical men to work, have been found to prove of unquestionable
public convenience and utility. And notwithstanding all the faults and
imperfections that are alleged against railways have been admitted, we
think that they must, nevertheless, be recognized as by far the most valuable
means of communication between men and nations that has yet been given
to the world.

The author's object in publishing this book in its original form, some ten
years since, was to describe, in connection with the "Life of George
Stephenson," the origin and progress of the railway system, and to show by
what moral and material agencies its founders were enabled to carry their
ideas into effect, and to work out results which even then were of a
remarkable character, though they have since, as above described, become
so much more extraordinary. The favor with which successive editions of
the book have been received has justified the author in his anticipation that
such a narrative would prove of general, if not of permanent interest, and he
has taken pains, in preparing for the press the present, and probably final
edition, to render it, by careful amendment and revision, more worthy of the
public acceptance.
London, May, 1868.

PREFACE
TO THE EIGHTH EDITION, 1864.

The following is a revised and improved edition of "The Life of George
Stephenson," with which is incorporated a Memoir of his son Robert, late
President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Since its original appearance in

1857, much additional information has been communicated to the author
relative to the early history of Railways and the men principally concerned
in establishing them, of which he has availed himself in the present edition.
In preparing the original work for publication, the author enjoyed the
advantage of the cordial co-operation and assistance of Robert Stephenson,
on whom he mainly relied for information as to the various stages through
which the Locomotive passed, and especially as to his father's share in its
improvement. Through Mr. Stephenson's instrumentality also, the author
was enabled to obtain much valuable information from gentlemen who had
been intimately connected with his father and himself in their early
undertakings—among others, from Mr. Edward Pease, of Darlington; Mr.
Dixon, C.E.; Mr. Sopwith, F.R.S.; Mr. Charles Parker; and Sir Joshua
Walmsley.
Most of the facts relating to the early period of George Stephenson's
career were collected from colliers, brakesmen, engine-men, and others,
who had known him intimately, or been fellow-workmen with him, and
were proud to communicate what they remembered of his early life. The
information obtained from these old men—most of them illiterate, and
some broken down by hard work—though valuable in many respects, was
confused, and sometimes contradictory; but, to insure as much accuracy and
consistency of narrative as possible, the author submitted the MS. to Mr.
Stephenson, and had the benefit of his revision of it previous to publication.
Mr. Stephenson took a lively interest in the improvement of the "Life" of
his father, and continued to furnish corrections and additions for insertion in
the successive editions of the book which were called for by the public.
After the first two editions had appeared, he induced several gentlemen,
well qualified to supply additional authentic information, to communicate
their recollections of his father, among whom may be mentioned Mr. T. L.
Gooch, C.E.; Mr. Vaughan, of Snibston; Mr. F. Swanwick, C.E.; and Mr.
Binns, of Clayross, who had officiated as private secretaries to George
Stephenson at different periods of his life, and afterward held responsible
offices either under him or in conjunction with him.
The author states these facts to show that the information contained in
this book is of an authentic character, and has been obtained from the most
trustworthy sources. Whether he has used it to the best purpose or not, he

leaves others to judge. This much, however, he may himself say—that he
has endeavored, to the best of his ability, to set forth the facts
communicated to him in a simple, faithful, and straightforward manner;
and, even if he has not wholly succeeded in doing this, he has, at all events,
been the means of collecting information on a subject originally
unattractive to professional literary men, and thereby rendered its farther
prosecution comparatively easy to those who may feel called upon to
undertake it.
The author does not pretend to have steered clear of errors in treating a
subject so extensive, and, before he undertook the labor, comparatively
uninvestigated; but, wherever errors have been pointed out, he has taken the
earliest opportunity of correcting them. With respect to objections taken to
the book because of the undue share of merit alleged to be therein attributed
to the Stephensons in respect of the Railway and the Locomotive, there will
necessarily be various opinions. There is scarcely an invention or
improvement in mechanics but has been the subject of dispute, and it was to
be expected that those who had counter claims would put them forward in
the present case; nor has the author any reason to complain of the manner in
which this has been done.
While George Stephenson is the principal subject in the following book,
his son Robert also forms an essential part of it. Father and son were so
intimately associated in the early period of their career, that it is difficult, if
not impossible, to describe the one apart from the other. The life and
achievements of the son were in a great measure the complement of the life
and achievements of the father. The care, also, with which the elder
Stephenson, while occupying the position of an obscure engine-wright,
devoted himself to his son's education, and the gratitude with which the
latter repaid the affectionate self-denial of his father, furnish some of the
most interesting illustrations of the personal character of both.
These views were early adopted by the author and carried out by him in
the preparation of the original work, with the concurrence of Robert
Stephenson, who supplied the necessary particulars relating to himself.
Such portions of these were accordingly embodied in the narrative as could
with propriety be published during his life-time, and the remaining portions
are now added with the object of rendering more complete the record of the
son's life, as well as the early history of the Railway System.

CONTENTS.

PART I .

CHAPTER I.
Schemers and Projectors.
Man's Desire for rapid Transit.—Origin of the Railway.—Early Coal Wagon-ways in
the North of England.—Early Attempts to apply the Power of Wind to drive
Carriages.—Sailing-coaches.—Sir Isaac Newton's Proposal to employ Steam-
power.—Dr. Darwin's Speculations on the Subject.—Mr. Edgeworth's Speculations.
—Dr. Darwin's Prophecy.Page 47

CHAPTER II.
Early Locomotive Models.
Watt and Robison's proposed Steam-carriage.—Memoir of Joseph Cugnot and his
Road-locomotive.—Francis Moore.—James Watt's Specification of a Locomotive-
engine.—William Murdoch's Model.—William Symington's model Steam-carriage.
—Oliver Evans's model Locomotive.60

CHAPTER III.
The Cornish Locomotive—Memoir of Trevithick.
Early Welsh Railway Acts.—Wandsworth, Croydon, and Merstham Railway.—
Boyhood of Trevithick.—Becomes an Engineer.—His Career.—Constructs a
Steam-carriage.—Its Exhibition in London.—Constructs a Tram-engine.—Its Trial
on the Merthyr Railroad.—Trevithick's Improvements in the Steam-engine.—
Attempts to construct a Tunnel under the Thames.—His numerous Inventions and
Patents.—Engines ordered of him for Peru.—Trevithick a Mining Engineer in
South America.—Is ruined by the Peruvian Revolution.—His return Home.—His
last Patents.—Death and Characteristics.73

PART I I .

CHAPTER I.
The Newcastle Coal-field—George Stephenson's Early Years.

Newcastle in ancient Times.—The Coal-trade.—Modern Newcastle.—The Colliery
Workmen.—The Pumping-engines.—The Pitmen.—The Keelmen.—Wylam
Colliery and Village.—George Stephenson's Birthplace.—The Stephenson Family.
—Old Robert Stephenson.—George's Boyhood.—Employed as a Herd-boy.—
Makes Clay Engines.—Employed as Corf-bitter.—Drives the Gin-horse.—
Appointed assistant Fireman.97

CHAPTER II.
Newburn and Callerton—George Stephenson learns to be an Engine-man.
Stephenson's Life at Newburn.—Appointed Engine-man.—Duties of Plugman.—
Study of the Steam-engine.—Experiments in Bird-hatching.—Learns to Read.—
His Schoolmasters.—Progress in Arithmetic.—His Dog.—Learns to Brake.—
Duties of Brakesman.—Begins Shoe-mending.—Fight with a Pitman.111

CHAPTER III.
Engine-man at Willington Quay and Killingworth.
Sobriety and Studiousness.—Removal to Willington Quay, and Marriage.—Attempts
a Perpetual-motion Machine.—William Fairbairn, C.E., and George Stephenson.—
Ballast-heaving.—Cottage Chimney takes fire—Birth of his son Robert.—Removal
to West Moor, Killingworth.—Death of his Wife.—Appointed Engine-man at
Montrose.—Return to Killingworth.—Appointed Brakesman at West Moor.—Is
drawn for the Militia.—Thinks of Emigrating.—Takes a contract for Brakeing.—
Improves the Winding-engine.—Cures a Pumping-engine.—Is appointed Engine-
wright of the Colliery.121

CHAPTER IV.
The Stephensons at Killingworth—Education and Self-education.
Efforts at Self-improvement.—John Wigham.—Studies in Natural Philosophy.—
Education of Robert Stephenson.—Sent to Bruce's School, Newcastle.—His boyish
Tricks.—Stephenson's Cottage, West Moor.—Mechanical Contrivances.—The Sun-
dial at West Moor.—Stephenson's various Duties as Colliery Engineer.137

CHAPTER V.
The Locomotive Engine—George Stephenson begins its Improvement.
Slow Progress heretofore made in the Improvement of the Locomotive.—The Wylam
Wagon-way.—Mr. Blackett orders a Locomotive.—Mr. Blenkinsop's Leeds
Locomotive.—Mr. Blackett's second Engine a Failure.—The improved Wylam
Engine.—George Stephenson's Study of the Subject.—His first Locomotive
constructed.—His Improvement of the Engine, as described by his Son.—Invention
of the Steam-blast.152

CHAPTER VI.

Invention of the "Geordy" Safety-lamp.
Frequency of Colliery Explosions.—Accidents in the Killingworth Pit.—Stephenson's
heroic Conduct.—Proposes to invent a Safety-lamp.—His first Lamp and its Trial.
—Cottage Experiments with Coal-gas.—His second and third Lamps.—Scene at
the Newcastle Institute.—The Stephenson and Davy Controversy.—The Davy and
Stephenson Testimonials.—Merits of the "Geordy" Lamp.175

CHAPTER VII.
George Stephenson's Farther Improvements in the Locomotive—Robert
Stephenson as Viewer's Apprentice and Student.
Stephenson's Improvements in the Mine-machinery.—Farther Improvements in the
Locomotive and in the Road.—Experiments on Friction.—Early Neglect of the
Locomotive.—Stephenson again meditates emigrating to America.—Employed as
Engineer of the Hetton Railway.—Robert Stephenson put Apprentice to a Coal-
viewer.—His Father sends him to Edinburg University.—His Studies there.—
Geological Tour in the Highlands.198

CHAPTER VIII.
George Stephenson Engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
Failure of the first public Railways near London.—Want of improved
communications in the Bishop Auckland Coal-district.—Various Projects devised.
—A Railway projected at Darlington.—Edward Pease.—George Stephenson
employed as Engineer.—Mr. Pease's Visit to Killingworth.—A Locomotive Factory
begun at Newcastle.—The Stockton and Darlington Line constructed.—The public
Opening.—The Coal-traffic.—The first Passenger-traffic by Railway.—The Town
of Middlesborough-on-Tees created by the Railway.216

CHAPTER IX.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Projected.
Insufficiency of the Communication between Liverpool and Manchester.—A Tram-
road projected by Mr. Sandars.—The Line surveyed by William James.—The
Survey a failure.—George Stephenson appointed Engineer.—A Company formed
and a Railroad projected.—The first Prospectus issued.—Opposition to the Survey.
—Speculations as to Railway Speed.—George Stephenson's Views thought
extravagant.—Article in the "Quarterly".247

CHAPTER X.
Parliamentary Contest on the Liverpool and Manchester Bill.
The Bill before Parliament.—The Evidence.—George Stephenson in the Witness-box.
—Examined as to Speed.—His Cross-examination.—Examined as to the possibility
of constructing a Line on Chat Moss.—Mr. Harrison's Speech.—Mr. Giles's
Evidence as to Chat Moss.—Mr. Alderson's Speech.—The Bill lost.—Stephenson's

Vexation.—The Bill revived, with the Messrs. Rennie as Engineers.—Sir Isaac
Coffin's prophecies of Disaster.—The Act passed.265

CHAPTER XI.
Chat Moss—Construction of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
George Stephenson again appointed Engineer of the Railway.—Chat Moss described.
—The resident Engineers of the Line.—George Stephenson's Theory of a Floating
Road on the Moss.—Operations begun.—The Tar-barrel Drains.—The
Embankment sinks in the Moss.—Proposed Abandonment of the Works.—
Stephenson's Perseverance.—The Obstacles conquered.—The Tunnel at Liverpool.
—The Olive Mount Cutting.—The Sankey Viaduct.—Stephenson's great Labors.—
His daily Life.—Evenings at Home.281

CHAPTER XII.
Robert Stephenson's Residence in Colombia and Return—The "Battle of the
Locomotive."
Robert Stephenson appointed Mining Engineer in Colombia.—Mule Journey to
Bogotá.—Mariquita.—Silver Mining.—Difficulties with the Cornishmen.—His
Cottage at Santa Anna.—Resigns his Appointment.—Meeting with Trevithick.—
Voyage to New York, and Shipwreck.—Returns to Newcastle, and takes Charge of
the Locomotive Factory.—Discussion as to the Working Power of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway.—Walker and Rastrick's Report.—A Prize offered for the
best Locomotive.—Invention of the Multitubular Boiler.—Henry Booth.—
Construction of the "Rocket."—The Locomotive Competition at Rainhill.—
Triumph of the "Rocket".301

CHAPTER XIII.
Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and Extension of the
Railway System.
The Railway finished.—Organization of the Working.—The public Opening.—Fatal
Accident to Mr. Huskisson.—The Traffic begun.—Improvements in the Road,
Rolling Stock, and Locomotive.—Steam-carriages tried on common Roads.—New
Railway Projects.—Opposition to Railways in the South of England.—Robert
Stephenson appointed Engineer of Leicester and Swannington Railway.—George
removes to Snibston and sinks for Coal.—His character as a Master.329

CHAPTER XIV.
Robert Stephenson constructs the London and Birmingham Railway.
The London and Birmingham Railway projected.—George and Robert Stephenson
appointed Engineers.—An Opposition organized.—Public Meetings against the
Scheme.—Robert Stephenson's Interview with Sir A. Cooper.—The Survey
obstructed.—The Line resurveyed.—The Bill in Parliament.—Thrown out in the
Lords.—The Project revived.—The Act obtained.—The Works let in Contracts.—

Difficulties of the Undertaking.—The Line described.—Blisworth Cutting.—
Primrose Hill Tunnel.—Kilsby Tunnel.—Its Construction described.—Failures of
Contractors.—Magnitude of the Works.—The Railway navvies.349

CHAPTER XV.
Manchester and Leeds, Midland, and other Railways—General Extension of
Railways and their results.
Projection of new Lines.—Dutton Viaduct on the Grand Junction.—The Manchester
and Leeds.—Incident in Committee.—Summit Tunnel, Littleborough.—The
Midland Railway.—The Works compared with the Simplon Road.—Slip near
Ambergate.—Bull Bridge.—The York and North Midland.—The Scarborough
Branch.—George Stephenson on Estimates.—Stephenson on his Surveys.—His
quick Observation.—His extensive Labors.—Traveling and Correspondence.—Life
at Alton Grange.—Stephenson's London Office.—Journeys to Belgium.—
Interviews with the King.—Public Openings of English Railways.—Stephenson's
Assistants.—Results of Railroads.365

CHAPTER XVI.
George Stephenson's Coal-mines—Opinions on Railway Speeds—Railway
Mania.
George Stephenson on Railways and Coal Traffic.—Leases the Claycross Estate.—
His Residence at Tapton.—His Appearance at Mechanics' Institutes.—His Views on
Railway Speed.—Undulating Lines favored.—Stephenson on Railway Speculation.
—Atmospheric Railways projected.—Opposed by Stephenson.—The Railway
Mania.—Action of Parliament.—Rage for direct Lines.—Stephenson's Letter to
Peel.—George Hudson, the "Railway King."—His Fall.—Stephenson again visits
Belgium.—Interview with King Leopold.—Journey into Spain.392

CHAPTER XVII.
Robert Stephenson's Career—East Coast Route to Scotland—High-Level
Bridge, Newcastle.
Robert Stephenson's Career.—His extensive Employment as Parliamentary Engineer.
—His rival, Brunel.—The Great Western Railway.—Width of Gauge.—Robert
Stephenson's caution as to Investments.—The Newcastle and Berwick Railway.—
Contest in Parliament.—George Stephenson's Interview with Lord Howick.—The
Royal Border Bridge, Berwick.—Progress of Iron Bridge-building.—Robert
Stephenson constructs the High-Level Bridge, Newcastle.—Pile-driving by Steam.
—Merits of the Structure.—The through Railway to Scotland completed.421

CHAPTER XVIII.
Chester and Holyhead Railway—Menai and Conway Bridges.
George Stephenson Surveys a line from Chester to Holyhead.—Robert Stephenson
afterward appointed Engineer.—The Railway Works under Penmaen Mawr.—The

Crossing of the Menai Strait.—Various Plans proposed.—A Tubular Beam
determined on.—Strength of wrought-iron Tubes.—Mr. William Fairbairn
consulted.—His Experiments.—Professor Hodgkinson.—Chains proposed, and
eventually discarded.—The Bridge Works.—The Conway Bridge.—Britannia
Bridge described.—Floating of the Tubes.—Robert Stephenson's great Anxiety.—
Raising of the Tubes.—The Hydraulic Press bursts.—The Works completed.—
Merits of the Britannia Bridge.438

CHAPTER XIX.
Closing Years of George Stephenson's Life—Illness and Death.
George Stephenson's Life at Tapton.—Experiments in Horticulture.—His Farming
Operations.—Affection for Animals.—Bee-keeping.—Reading and Conversation.
—Rencounter with Lord Denman.—Hospitality at Tapton.—His Microscope.—A
"Crowdie Night."—Visits to London.—Visits Sir Robert Peel at Drayton Manor.—
His Conversation.—Encounter with Dr. Buckland.—Coal formed by the Sun's
Light.—Opening of the Trent Valley Line and its Celebration.—Meeting with
Emerson.—Illness, Death, and Funeral.—Statues of George Stephenson.—Personal
Characteristics.460

CHAPTER XX.
Robert Stephenson's Victoria Bridge, Lower Canada—Illness and Death—
The Stephenson Characteristics.
Robert Stephenson's gradual Retirement from the profession of Engineer.—His
Tubular Bridge over the Nile.—Railways in Canada.—Proposed Bridge at
Montreal.—A Tubular Bridge proposed.—Robert Stephenson appointed Engineer.
—Design of the Victoria Bridge.—The Piers.—Getting in of the Foundations.—
Progress of the Works.—Erection of the Tubes.—Scene at the breaking-up of the
Ice in 1858.—The Night-work.—Erection of main central Tube.—Completion of
the Works.—Robert Stephenson in Parliament.—His Opinion of the Suez Canal.—
His Honors.—Launch of the Great Eastern.—Last Illness and Death.—The
Stephenson Characteristics.—Conclusion.474

Index497

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Portrait of George Stephenson to face Title Page.
Portrait of Trevithick 46
Tyne Coal-staith 49
Flange-rail 50
Cugnot's Steam-carriage 62
Murdock's Model Locomotive 66
Symington's Model Steam-carriage 69
Oliver Evans's Model Locomotive 70
Trevithick's Tram-engine 81
High-Level Bridge, Newcastle 96
Map of Newcastle District 98
Wylam 103
High-Street House, Wylam 104
Colliery Wagons 110
Newburn 111
Colliery Gin 120
Stephenson's Cottage at Willington Quay 121
Stephenson's Signature 123
West Moor Colliery 127
Killingworth High Pit 136
Glebe Farm-house, Benton 137
Rutter's School-house at Long Benton 140
Bruce's School, Newcastle 142
Stephenson's Cottage, West Moor 146
Sun-dial, Killingworth 149
Colliers' Cottages, Long Benton 151
Blenkinsop's Leeds Engine 155
The Wylam Engine 160

Spur-gear 164
Killingworth Locomotive (Section) 168
Colliery Whimsey 174
Pit-head, West Moor 177
Davy's and Stephenson's Safety-lamps 187
Literary and Philosophical Institute, Newcastle 189
The Stephenson Tankard 197
Half-lap Joint 200
Old Killingworth Locomotive 201
West Moor Pit, Killingworth 214
Portrait of Edward Pease 223
Map of Stockton and Darlington Railway 224
Opening of Stockton and Darlington Railway 238
The First Railway Coach 241
No. 1 Engine at Darlington 244
Middlesborough-on-Tees 246
Map of Liverpool and Manchester Railway 250-1
Surveying on Chat Moss 264
Olive Mount Cutting 291
Sankey Viaduct 292
Baiting-place at Sankey 295
Chat Moss—Works in progress 299
Robert Stephenson's Cottage at Santa Anna 306
The "Rocket" 321
Locomotive Competition at Rainhill 324
Railway versus Road 328
Map of Leicester and Swannington Railway 343
Alton Grange 346
Portrait of Robert Stephenson 347
Map of London and Birmingham Railway 354
Blisworth Cutting 355
Shafts, Kilsby Tunnel 357
Kilsby Tunnel (North end) 363
Dutton Viaduct 366

Littleborough Tunnel (West entrance) 368
Littleborough Tunnel (Walsden end) 369
Map of Midland Railway 370
Land-slip, Ambergate 372
Bull Bridge 373
Coalville and Snibston Colliery 391
Tapton House 392
Lime-works, Ambergate 394
Forth-Street Works, Newcastle 396
Claycross Works 420
Newcastle from High-Level Bridge 421
Royal Border Bridge, Berwick 429
Elevation and Plan of Arch, High-Level Bridge 435
Railway at Penmaen Mawr 440
Map of Menai Strait; Britannia Bridge 442
Construction of Britannia Tube on Staging 450
Conway Bridge 451
Menai Bridge 456
Floating First Tube, Conway Bridge 459
View in Tapton Gardens 460
Footpath to Tapton House 465
Trinity Church, Chesterfield 471
Tablet in Trinity Church 473
Victoria Bridge, Montreal 474
Elevation of Pier, Victoria Bridge 478
Works in Progress, Victoria Bridge 480
Erection of the Main Central Tube, Victoria Bridge 483
Stephenson Memorial Schools, Willington 496

EARLY INVENTORS IN LOCOMOTION.

RICHARD TREVITHICK, C.E.

EARLY INVENTORS IN LOCOMOTION.

CHAPTER I.
SCHEMERS AND PROJECTORS.

It is easy to understand how rapid transit from place to place should,
from the earliest times, have been an object of desire. The marvelous gift of
speed conferred by Fortunatus's Wishing Cap was what all must have
envied: it conferred power. It also conferred pleasure. "Life has not many
things better than this," said Samuel Johnson as he rolled along in the post-
chaise. But it also conferred comfort and well-being; and hence the easy
and rapid transit of persons and commodities became in all countries an
object of desire in proportion to their growth in civilization.
We have elsewhere[2] endeavored to describe the obstructions to the
progress of society occasioned by the defective internal communications of
Britain in early times, which were to a considerable extent removed by the
adoption of the canal system, and the improvement of our roads and
highways, toward the end of last century. But the progress of industry was
so rapid—the invention of new tools, machines, and engines so greatly
increased the productive wealth of the nation—that some forty years since it
was found that these roads and canals, numerous and excellent though they
might be, were altogether inadequate for the accommodation of the traffic
of the country, which was increasing in almost a direct ratio with the
increased application of steam-power to the purposes of productive
industry.
The inventive minds of the nation, always on the alert—the "schemers"
and the "projectors," to whom society has in all times been so greatly
indebted—proceeded to apply themselves to the solution of the problem of
how the communications of the country were best to be improved; and the

result was, that the power of steam itself was applied to remedy the
inconveniences which it had caused.
Like most inventions, that of the Steam Locomotive was very gradually
made. The idea of it, born in one age, was revived in the ages that followed.
It was embodied first in one model, then in another—the labors of one
inventor being taken up by his successors—until at length, after many
disappointments and many failures, the practicable working locomotive was
achieved.
The locomotive engine was not, however, sufficient for the purposes of
cheap and rapid transit. Another expedient was absolutely essential to its
success—that of the Railway: the smooth rail to bear the load, as well as the
steam-engine to draw it.
Expedients were early adopted for the purpose of diminishing friction
between the wheels of vehicles and the roads along which they were
dragged by horse-power. The Romans employed stone blocks with that
object; and the streets of the long-buried city of Pompeii still bear the marks
of the ancient Roman chariot-wheels, as the stone track for heavy vehicles
on our modern London Bridge shows the wheel-marks of the wagons which
cross it. These stone blocks were merely a simple expedient to diminish
friction, and were the first steps toward a railroad.
The railway proper doubtless originated in the coal districts of the North
of England and Wales, where it was found useful in facilitating the transport
of coals from the pits to the shipping-places. At an early period the coal was
carried to the boats in panniers, or in sacks upon horses' backs. Next carts
were used, and tram-ways of flag-stone were laid down, along which they
were easily hauled. The carts were then converted into wagons, and
mounted on four wheels instead of two.
Still farther to facilitate the haulage of the wagons, pieces of planking
were laid parallel upon wooden sleepers, or imbedded in the ordinary track.
It is said that these wooden rails were first employed by a Mr. Beaumont, a
gentleman from the South, who, about the year 1630, adventured in the
northern mines with about thirty thousand pounds, and after introducing
many improvements in the working of the coal, as well as in the methods of
transporting it to the staithes on the river, was ruined by his enterprise, and

"within a few Years," to use the words of the ancient chronicler, "he
consumed all his Money, and rode Home upon his light Horse."[3]

COAL-STAITH ON THE TYNE. [By R. P. Leitch.]

The use of wooden rails gradually extended, and they were laid down
between most of the collieries on the Tyne and the places at which the coal
was shipped. Roger North, in 1676, found the practice had become
extensively adopted, and he speaks of the large sums then paid for way-
leave—that is, the permission granted by the owners of lands lying between
the coal-pits and the river-side to lay down a tram-way for the purpose of
connecting the one with the other.
A century later, Arthur Young observed that not only had these roads
become greatly multiplied, but formidable works had been constructed to
carry them along upon the same level. "The coal wagon-roads from the pits
to the water," he says, "are great works, carried over all sorts of inequalities
of ground, so far as the distance of nine or ten miles. The tracks of the
wheels are marked with pieces of wood let into the road for the wheels of
the wagons to run on, by which one horse is enabled to draw, and that with
ease, fifty or sixty bushels of coals."[4]

Saint Fond, the French traveler, who visited Newcastle in 1791,
described the colliery wagon-ways in that neighborhood as superior to any
thing of the kind he had seen. The wooden rails were formed with a
rounded upper surface, like a projecting moulding, and the wagon-wheels
being "made of cast iron, and hollowed in the manner of a metal pulley,"
readily fitted the rounded surface of the rails. The economy with which the
coal was thus hauled to the shipping-places was urged by Saint Fond as an
inducement to his own countrymen to adopt a like method of transit.[5]
Similar wagon-roads were early laid down in the coal districts of Wales,
Cumberland, and Scotland. At the time of the Scotch rebellion in 1745, a
tram-road existed between the Tranent coal-pits and the small harbor of
Cockenzie, in East Lothian; and a portion of the line was selected by
General Cope as a position for his cannon at the battle of Prestonpans.
In these rude wooden tracks we find the germ of the modern railroad.
Improvements were gradually made in them. Thus, at some collieries, thin
plates of iron were nailed upon their upper surface, for the purpose of
protecting the parts most exposed to friction. Cast-iron rails were also tried,
the wooden rails having been found liable to rot. The first iron rails are
supposed to have been laid down at Whitehaven as early as 1738. This cast-
iron road was denominated a "plate-way," from the plate-like form in which
the rails were cast. In 1767, as appears from the books of the Coalbrookdale
Iron Works, in Shropshire, five or six tons of rails were cast, as an
experiment, on the suggestion of Mr. Reynolds, one of the partners; and
they were shortly after laid down to form a road.
In 1776, a cast-iron tram-way, nailed to wooden sleepers, was laid down
at the Duke of Norfolk's colliery near Sheffield. The person who designed
and constructed this coal line was Mr. John Curr, whose son has
erroneously claimed for him the invention of the cast-iron railway. He
certainly adopted it early, and thereby met the fate of men before their age;
for his plan was opposed by the laboring people of the colliery, who got up
a riot, in which they tore up the road and burned the coal-staith, while Mr.
Curr fled into a neighboring wood for concealment, and lay there perdu for
three days and nights, to escape the fury of the populace.[6] The plates of
these early tram-ways had a ledge cast on their outer edge to guide the
wheel along the road, after the manner shown in the preceding cut.

In 1789, Mr. William Jessop constructed a
railway at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, and
there introduced the cast-iron edge-rail, with
flanches cast upon the tire of the wagon-wheels
to keep them on the track, instead of having the
margin or flanch cast upon the rail itself; and
this plan was shortly after adopted in other
places. In 1800, Mr. Benjamin Outram, of Little
Eaton, Derbyshire (father of the distinguished
General Outram), used stone props instead of
timber for supporting the ends or joinings of the
rails. Thus the use of railroads, in various forms,
gradually extended, until they became generally
adopted in the mining districts.
Such was the growth of the railroad, which, it will be observed,
originated in necessity, and was modified according to experience; progress
in this, as in all departments of mechanics, having been effected by the
exertions of many men; one generation entering upon the labors of that
which preceded it, and carrying them onward to farther stages of
improvement. The invention of the locomotive was in like manner made by
successive steps. It was not the invention of one man, but of a succession of
men, each working at the proper hour, and according to the needs of that
hour; one inventor interpreting only the first word of the problem which his
successors were to solve after long and laborious efforts and experiments.
"The locomotive is not the invention of one man," said Robert Stephenson
at Newcastle, "but of a nation of mechanical engineers."
Down to the end of last century, and indeed down almost to our own
time, the only power used in haulage was that of the horse. Along the
common roads of the country the poor horses were "tearing their hearts out"
in dragging cumbersome vehicles behind them, and the transport of
merchandise continued to be slow, dear, and in all respects unsatisfactory.
Many expedients were suggested with the view of getting rid of the horse.
The power of wind was one of the first expedients proposed. It was cheap,
though by no means regular. It impelled ships by sea; why should it not be
used to impel carriages by land?

The first sailing-coach was invented by one Simon Stevinius, or Stevins,
a Fleming, toward the end of the sixteenth century. Pierre Gassendi gives an
account of its performances as follows:
"Purposing to visit Grotius, Peireskius went to Scheveling that he might satisfy
himself of the carriage and swiftness of a coach a few years before invented, and
made with that artifice that with expanded sails it would fly upon the shore as a ship
upon the sea. He had formerly heard that Count Maurice, a little after his victory at
Nieuport [1600], had put himself thereinto, together with Francis Mendoza, his
prisoner, on purpose to make trial thereof, and that, within two hours, they arrived at
Putten, which is distant from Scheveling fourteen leagues, or two-and-forty miles. He
had, therefore, a mind to make the experiment himself, and he would often tell us with
what admiration he was seized when he was carried with a quick wind and yet
perceived it not, the coach's motion being equally quick."[7]

The sailing-coach, however, was only a curiosity. As a practicable
machine, it proved worthless, for the wind could not be depended upon for
land locomotion. The coach could not tack as the ship did. Sometimes the
wind did not blow at all, while at other times it blew a hurricane. After
being used for some time as a toy, the sailing-coach was given up as
impracticable, and the project speedily dropped out of sight.
But, strange to say, the expedient of driving coal-wagons by the wind
was revived in Wales about a century later. On this occasion, Sir Humphry
Mackworth, an ingenious coal-miner at Neath, was the projector. Waller, in
his "Essay on Mines," published in 1698, takes the opportunity of
eulogizing Sir Humphry's "new sailing-wagons, for the cheap carriage of
his coal to the water-side, whereby one horse does the work of ten at all
times; but when any wind is stirring (which is seldom wanting near the sea),
one man and a small sail do the work of twenty."[8] It does not, however,
appear that any other coal-owner had the courage to follow Sir Humphry's
example, and the sailing-wagon was forgotten until, after the lapse of
another century, it was revived by Mr. Edgeworth.
The employment of steam-power as a means of land locomotion was the
subject of much curious speculation long before any practical attempt was
made to carry it into effect. The merit of promulgating the first idea with
reference to it probably belongs to no other than the great Sir Isaac Newton.
In his "Explanation of the Newtonian Philosophy," written in 1680, he
figured a spherical generator, supported on wheels, and provided with a seat
for a passenger in front, and a long jet-pipe behind, and stated that "the
whole is to be mounted on little wheels, so as to move easily on a horizontal

plane, and if the hole, or jet-pipe, be opened, the vapor will rush out
violently one way, and the wheels and the ball at the same time will be
carried the contrary way." This, it will be observed, was but a modification
of the earliest known steam-engine, or Œolopile, of Hero of Alexandria. It
is not believed that Sir Isaac Newton ever made any experiment of his
proposed method of locomotion, or did more than merely throw out the idea
for other minds to work upon.
The idea of employing steam in locomotion was revived from time to
time, and formed the subject of much curious speculation. About the middle
of last century we find Benjamin Franklin, then agent in London for the
United Provinces of America, Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, and
Erasmus Darwin, of Lichfield, engaged in a correspondence relative to
steam as a motive power. Boulton had made a model of a fire-engine, which
he sent to London for Franklin's inspection; and though the original purpose
for which the engine had been contrived was the pumping of water, it was
believed to be practicable to employ it also as a means of locomotion.
Franklin was too much occupied at the time by grave political questions to
pursue the subject; but the sanguine and speculative mind of Erasmus
Darwin was inflamed by the idea of a "fiery chariot," and he pressed his
friend Boulton to prosecute the contrivance of the necessary steam machine.
[9]

Erasmus Darwin was in many respects a remarkable man. In his own
neighborhood he was highly esteemed as a physician, and by many
intelligent readers of his day he was greatly prized as a poet. Horace
Walpole said of his "Botanic Garden" that it was "the most delicious poem
upon earth," and he declared that he "could read it over and over again
forever." The doctor was accustomed to write his poems with a pencil on
little scraps of paper while riding about among his patients in his "sulky."
The vehicle, which was worn and bespattered outside, had room within it
for the doctor and his appurtenances only. On one side of him was a pile of
books reaching from the floor to nearly the front window of the carriage,
while on the other was a hamper containing fruit and sweetmeats, with a
store of cream and sugar, with which the occupant regaled himself during
his journey. Lashed on to the place usually appropriated to the "boot" was a
large pail for watering the horses, together with a bag of oats and a bundle

of hay. Such was the equipage of a fashionable country physician of the last
century.
Dr. Darwin was a man of large and massive person, bearing a rather
striking resemblance to his distinguished townsman, Dr. Johnson, in
manner, deportment, and force of character. He was full of anecdote, and
his conversation was most original and entertaining. He was a very
outspoken man, vehemently enunciating theories which some thought
original and others dangerous. As he drove through the country in his
"sulky," his mind teemed with speculation on all subjects, from zoonomy,
botany, and physiology, to physics, æsthetics, and mental philosophy.
Though his speculations were not always sound, they were clever and
ingenious, and, at all events, they had the effect of setting other minds a-
thinking and speculating on science and the methods for its advancement.
From his "Loves of the Plants"—afterward so cleverly parodied by George
Canning in his "Loves of the Triangles"—it would appear that the doctor
even entertained a theory of managing the winds by a little philosophic
artifice. His scheme of a steam locomotive was of a more practical
character. This idea, like so many others, first occurred to him in his
"sulky."
"As I was riding home yesterday," he wrote to his friend Boulton in the year 1765,
"I considered the scheme of the fiery chariot, and the longer I contemplated this
favorite idea, the more practicable it appeared to me. I shall lay my thoughts before
you, crude and undigested though they may appear to be, telling you as well what I
thought would not do as what would do, as by those hints you may be led into various
trains of thinking upon this subject, and by that means (if any hints can assist your
genius, which, without hints, is above all others I am acquainted with) be more likely
to improve or disapprove. And as I am quite mad of this scheme, I beg you will not
mention it, or show this paper to Wyat or any body.
"These things are required: 1st, a rotary motion; 2d, easily altering its direction to
any other direction; 3d, to be accelerated, retarded, destroyed, revived instantly and
easily; 4th, the bulk, the weight, and expense of the machine to be as small as possible
in proportion to its use."[10]

He then goes on to throw out various suggestions as to the form and
arrangement of the machine, the number of wheels on which it was to run,
and the mode of applying the power. The text of this letter is illustrated by
rough diagrams, showing a vehicle mounted on three wheels, the foremost
or guiding wheel being under the control of the driver; but in a subsequent
passage he says, "I think four wheels will be better."

"Let there be two cylinders," he proceeds. "Suppose one piston up, and the vacuum
made under it by the jet d'eau froid. That piston can not yet descend because the cock
is not yet opened which admits the steam into its antagonist cylinder. Hence the two
pistons are in equilibrio, being either of them pressed by the atmosphere. Then I say,
if the cock which admits the steam into the antagonist cylinder be opened gradually
and not with a jerk, that the first-mentioned [piston in the] cylinder will descend
gradually and not less forcibly. Hence, by the management of the steam cocks, the
motion may be accelerated, retarded, destroyed, revived instantly and easily. And if
this answers in practice as it does in theory, the machine can not fail of success!
Eureka!
"The cocks of the cold water may be moved by the great work, but the steam cocks
must be managed by the hand of the charioteer, who also directs the rudder-wheel.
[Then follow his rough diagrams.] The central wheel ought to have been under the
rollers, so as it may be out of the way of the boiler."[11]

After farther explaining himself, he goes on to say:
"If you could learn the expense of coals to a common fire-engine and the weight of
water it draws, some certain estimate may be made if such a scheme as this would
answer. Pray don't show Wyat this scheme, for if you think it feasible and will send
me a critique upon it, I will certainly, if I can get somebody to bear half the expense
with me, endeavor to build a fiery chariot, and, if it answers, get a patent. If you
choose to be partner with me in the profit, and expense, and trouble, let me know, as I
am determined to execute it if you approve of it.
"Please to remember the pulses of the common fire-engines, and say in what
manner the piston is so made as to keep out the air in its motion. By what way is the
jet d'eau froid let out of the cylinder? How full of water is the boiler? How is it
supplied, and what is the quantity of its waste of water?"[12]

It will be observed from these remarks that the doctor's notions were of
the crudest sort, and, as he obviously contemplated but a modification of
the Newcomen engine, then chiefly employed in pumping water from
mines, the action of which was slow, clumsy, and expensive, the steam
being condensed by injection of cold water, it is clear that, even though
Boulton had taken up and prosecuted Darwin's idea, it could not have issued
in a practicable or economical working locomotive.
But, although Darwin himself—his time engrossed by his increasing
medical practice—proceeded no farther with his scheme of a "fiery
chariot," he succeeded in inflaming the mind of his young friend, Richard
Lovell Edgeworth, who had settled for a time in his neighborhood, and
induced him to direct his attention to the introduction of improved means of
locomotion by steam. In a letter written by Dr. Small to Watt in 1768, we
find him describing Edgeworth as "a gentleman of fortune, young,
mechanical, and indefatigable, who has taken a resolution to move land and

water carriages by steam, and has made considerable progress in the short
space of time that he has devoted to the study."
One of the first-fruits of Edgeworth's investigations was his paper "On
Railroads," which he read before the Society of Arts in 1768, and for which
he was awarded the society's gold medal. He there proposed that four iron
railroads be laid down on one of the great roads out of London; two for
carts and wagons, and two for light carriages and stage-coaches. The post-
chaises and gentlemen's carriages might, he thought, be made to go at eight
miles an hour, and the stage-coaches at six miles an hour, drawn by a single
horse. He urged that such a method of transport would be attended with
great economy of power and consequent cheapness. Many years later, in
1802, he published his views on the same subject in a more matured form.
By that time Watt's steam-engine had come into general use, and he
suggested that small stationary engines should be fixed along his proposed
railroad, and made, by means of circulating chains, to draw the carriages
along with a great diminution of horse labor and expense.
It is creditable to Mr. Edgeworth's forethought that both the models
proposed by him have since been adopted. Horse-traction of carriages on
railways is now in general use in the towns of the United States; and
omnibuses on the same principle regularly ply between the Place de la
Concorde at Paris and St. Cloud, both being found highly convenient for the
public, and profitable to the proprietors. The system of working railways by
fixed engines was also regularly employed on some lines in the infancy of
the railway system, though it has since fallen into disuse, in consequence of
the increased power given to the modern locomotive, which enables it to
surmount gradients formerly considered impracticable.
Besides his speculations on railways worked by horse and steam power,
Mr. Edgeworth—unconscious of the early experiments of Stevins and
Mackworth—made many attempts to apply the power of the wind with the
same object. It is stated in his "Memoirs" that he devoted himself to
locomotive traction by various methods for a period of about forty years,
during which he made above a hundred working models, in a great variety
of forms; and though none of his schemes were attended with practical
success, he adds that he gained far more in amusement than he lost by his
unsuccessful labors. "The only mortification that affected me," he says,
"was my discovery, many years after I had taken out my patent [for the

sailing-carriage], that the rudiments of my whole scheme were mentioned in
an obscure memoir of the French Academy."
The sailing-wagon scheme, as revived by Mr. Edgeworth, was doubtless
of a highly ingenious character, though it was not practicable. One of his
expedients was a portable railway, of a kind somewhat similar to that since
revived by Mr. Boydell. Many experiments were tried with the new wagons
on Hare Hatch Common, but they were attended with so much danger when
the wind blew strong—the vehicles seeming to fly rather than roll along the
ground—that farther experiments were abandoned, and Mr. Edgeworth
himself at length came to the conclusion that a power so uncertain as that of
the wind could never be relied upon for the safe conduct of ordinary traffic.
His thoughts finally settled on steam as the only practicable power for this
purpose; but, though his enthusiasm in the cause of improved transit of
persons and of goods remained unabated, he was now too far advanced in
life to prosecute his investigations in that direction. When an old man of
seventy he wrote to James Watt (7th August, 1813): "I have always thought
that steam would become the universal lord, and that we should in time
scorn post-horses. An iron railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road on
the common construction." Four years later he died, and left the problem,
which he had nearly all his life been trying ineffectually to solve, to be
worked out by younger men.
Dr. Darwin had long before preceded him into the silent land. Down to
his death in 1802, Edgeworth had kept up a continuous correspondence
with him on his favorite topic; but it does not appear that Darwin ever
revived his project of the "fiery chariot." He was satisfied to prophesy its
eventual success in the lines which are perhaps more generally known than
any he has written—for, though Horace Walpole declared that he could
"read the Botanic Garden over and over again forever," the poetry of
Darwin is now all but forgotten. The following was his prophecy, published
in 1791, before any practical locomotive or steam-boat had been invented:

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear
The flying chariot through the fields of air.
Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above,

Shall wave their flutt'ring kerchiefs as they move;
Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd,
And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud."
The prophecy embodied in the first two lines of the passage has certainly
been fulfilled, but the triumph of the steam balloon has yet to come.

CHAPTER II.
EARLY LOCOMOTIVE MODELS.

The application of steam-power to the driving of wheel-carriages on
common roads was in 1759 brought under the notice of James Watt by his
young friend John Robison, then a student at the University of Glasgow.
Robison prepared a rough sketch of his suggested steam-carriage, in which
he proposed to place the cylinder with its open end downward, to avoid the
necessity for using a working beam. Watt was then only twenty-three years
old, and was very much occupied in conducting his business of a
mathematical instrument maker, which he had only recently established.
Nevertheless, he proceeded to construct a model locomotive provided with
two cylinders of tin-plate, intending that the pistons and their connecting-
rods should act alternately on two pinions attached to the axles of the
carriage-wheels. But the model, when made, did not answer Watt's
expectations; and when, shortly after, Robison left college to go to sea, he
laid the project aside, and did not resume it for many years.
In the mean time, an ingenious French mechanic had taken up the
subject, and proceeded to make a self-moving road engine worked by
steam-power. It has been incidentally stated that a M. Pouillet was the first
to make a locomotive machine,[13] but no particulars are given of the
invention, which is more usually attributed to Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, a
native of Void, in Lorraine, where he was born in 1729. Not much is known
of Cugnot's early history beyond that he was an officer in the army, that he
published several works on military science, and that on leaving the army
he devoted himself to the invention of a steam-carriage to be run on
common roads.

It appears from documents collected by M. Morin that Cugnot
constructed his first carriage at the Arsenal in 1769, at the cost of the Comte
de Saxe, by whom he was patronized and liberally helped. It ran on three
wheels, and was put in motion by an engine composed of two single-acting
cylinders, the pistons of which acted alternately on the single front wheel.
While this machine was in course of construction, a Swiss officer, named
Planta, brought forward a similar project; but, on perceiving that Cugnot's
carriage was superior to his own, he proceeded no farther with it.
When Cugnot's carriage was ready, it was tried in the presence of the Duc
de Choiseul, the Comte de Saxe, and other military officers. On being first
set in motion, it ran against a stone wall which stood in its way, and threw it
down. There was thus no doubt about its power, though there were many
doubts about its manageableness. At length it was got out of the Arsenal and
put upon the road, when it was found that, though only loaded with four
persons, it could not travel faster than about two and a quarter miles an
hour; and that, the size of the boiler not being sufficient, it would not
continue at work for more than twelve or fifteen minutes, when it was
necessary to wait until sufficient steam had been raised to enable it to
proceed farther.
The experiment was looked upon with great interest, and admitted to be
of a very remarkable character; and, considering that it was a first attempt,
it was not by any means regarded as unsuccessful. As it was believed that
such a machine, if properly proportioned, might be employed to drag
cannon into the field independent of horse-power, the Minister of War
authorized Cugnot to proceed with the construction of a new and improved
machine, which was finished and ready for trial in the course of the
following year. The new locomotive was composed of two parts, one being
a carriage supported on two wheels, somewhat resembling a small brewer's
cart, furnished with a seat for the driver, while the other contained the
machinery, which was supported on a single driving-wheel 4 ft. 2 in. in
diameter. The engine consisted of a round copper boiler with a furnace
inside provided with two small chimneys, two single-acting 13-in. brass
cylinders communicating with the boiler by a steam-pipe, and the
arrangements for communicating the motion of the pistons to the driving-
wheel, together with the steering-gear.

CUGNOT'S ENGINE.

The two parts of the machine were united by a movable pin and a toothed
sector fixed on the framing of the front or machine part of the carriage.
When one of the pistons descended, the piston-rod drew with it a crank, the
catch of which caused the driving-wheel to make a quarter of a revolution
by means of the ratchet-wheel fixed on the axle of the driving-wheel. At the
same time, a chain fixed to the crank on the same side also descended and
moved a lever, the opposite end of which was thereby raised, restoring the
second piston to its original position at the top of the cylinder by the
interposition of a second chain and crank. The piston-rod of the descending
piston, by means of a catch, set other levers in motion, the chain fixed to
them turning a half-way cock so as to open the second cylinder to the steam
and the first to the atmosphere. The second piston, then descending in turn,
caused the driving-wheel to make another quarter revolution, restoring the
first piston to its original position; and the process being repeated, the
machine was thereby kept in motion. To enable it to run backward, the
catch of the crank was arranged in such a manner that it could be made to
act either above or below, and thereby reverse the action of the machinery
on the driving-wheel. It will thus be observed that Cugnot's locomotive
presented a simple and ingenious form of a high-pressure engine; and,
though of rude construction, it was a highly-creditable piece of work,
considering the time of its appearance and the circumstances under which it
was constructed.
Several successful trials were made with the new locomotive in the
streets of Paris, which excited no small degree of interest. Unhappily,
however, an accident which occurred to it in one of the trials had the effect

of putting a stop to farther experiments. Turning the corner of a street near
the Madeleine one day, when the machine was running at a speed of about
three miles an hour, it became overbalanced, and fell over with a crash;
after which, the running of the vehicle being considered dangerous, it was
thenceforth locked up securely in the Arsenal to prevent its doing farther
mischief.
The merit of Cugnot was, however, duly recognized. He was granted a
pension of 300 livres, which continued to be paid to him until the outbreak
of the Revolution. The Girondist Roland was appointed to examine the
engine and report upon it to the Convention; but his report, which was
favorable, was not adopted; on which the inventor's pension was stopped,
and he was left for a time without the means of living. Some years later,
Bonaparte, on his return from Italy after the peace of Campo Formio,
interested himself in Cugnot's invention, and expressed a favorable opinion
of his locomotive before the Academy; but his attention was shortly after
diverted from the subject by the Expedition to Egypt. Napoleon, however,
succeeded in restoring Cugnot's pension, and thus soothed his declining
years. He died in Paris in 1804, at the age of seventy-five. Cugnot's
locomotive is still to be seen in the Museum of the Conservatoire des Arts
et Métiers at Paris; and it is, without exception, the most venerable and
interesting of all the machines extant connected with the early history of
locomotion.
While Cugnot was constructing his first machine at Paris, one Francis
Moore, a linen-draper, was taking out a patent in London for moving wheel-
carriages by steam. On the 14th of March, 1769, he gave notice of a patent
for "a machine made of wood or metal, and worked by fire, water, or air, for
the purpose of moving bodies on land or water," and on the 13th of July
following he gave notice of another "for machines made of wood and metal,
moved by power, for the carriage of persons and goods, and for accelerating
boats, barges, and other vessels." But it does not appear that Moore did any
thing beyond lodging the titles of his inventions, so that we are left in the
dark as to what was their precise character.
James Watt's friend and correspondent, Dr. Small, of Birmingham, when
he heard of Moore's intended project, wrote to the Glasgow inventor with
the object of stimulating him to perfect his steam-engine, then in hand, and
urging him to apply it, among other things, to purposes of locomotion. "I

hope soon," said Small, "to travel in a fiery chariot of your invention." Watt
replied to the effect that "if Linen-draper Moore does not use my engines to
drive his carriages, he can't drive them by steam. If he does, I will stop
them." But Watt was still a long way from perfecting his invention. The
steam-engine capable of driving carriages was a problem that remained to
be solved, and it was a problem to the solution of which Watt never fairly
applied himself. It was enough for him to accomplish the great work of
perfecting his condensed engine, and with that he rested content.
But Watt continued to be so strongly urged by those about him to apply
steam-power to purposes of locomotion that, in his comprehensive patent of
the 24th of August, 1784, he included an arrangement with that object.
From his specification we learn that he proposed a cylindrical or globular
boiler, protected outside by wood strongly hooped together, with a furnace
inside entirely surrounded by the water to be heated except at the ends. Two
cylinders working alternately were to be employed, and the pistons working
within them were to be moved by the elastic force of the steam; "and after it
has performed its office," he says, "I discharge it into the atmosphere by a
proper regulating valve, or I discharge it into a condensing vessel made air-
tight, and formed of thin plates and pipes of metal, having their outsides
exposed to the wind;" the object of this latter arrangement being to
economize the water, which would otherwise be lost. The power was to be
communicated by a rotative motion (of the nature of the "sun and planet"
arrangement) to the axle of one or more of the wheels of the carriage, or to
another axis connected with the axle by means of toothed wheels; and in
other cases he proposed, instead of the rotative machinery, to employ
"toothed racks, or sectors of circles, worked with reciprocating motion by
the engines, and acting upon ratched wheels fixed on the axles of the
carriage." To drive a carriage containing two persons would, he estimated,
require an engine with a cylinder 7 in. in diameter, making sixty strokes per
minute of 1 ft. each, and so constructed as to act both on the ascent and
descent of the piston; and, finally, the elastic force of the steam in the boiler
must be such as to be occasionally equal to supporting a pillar of mercury
30 in. high.
Though Watt repeatedly expressed his intention of constructing a model
locomotive after his specification, it does not appear that he ever carried it
out. He was too much engrossed with other work; and, besides, he never

entertained very sanguine views as to the practicability of road locomotion
by steam. He continued, however, to discuss the subject with his partner
Boulton, and from his letters we gather that his mind continued
undetermined as to the best plan to be pursued. Only four days after the date
of the above specification (i.e., on the 28th of August, 1784) we find him
communicating his views on the subject to Boulton at great length, and
explaining his ideas as to how the proposed object might best be
accomplished. He first addressed himself to the point of whether 80 lbs.
was a sufficient power to move a post-chaise on a tolerably good and level
road at four miles an hour; secondly, whether 8 ft. of boiler surface exposed
to the fire would be sufficient to evaporate a cube foot of water per hour
without much waste of fuel; thirdly, whether it would require steam of more
than eleven and a half times atmospheric density to cause the engine to
exert a power equal to 6 lbs. on the inch. "I think," he observed, "the
cylinder must either be made larger or make more than sixty strokes per
minute. As to working gear, stopping and backing, with steering the
carriage, I think these things perfectly manageable."
"My original ideas on the subject," he continued, "were prior to my invention of
these improved engines, or before the crank, or any other of the rotative motions were
thought of. My plan then was to have two inverted cylinders, with toothed racks
instead of piston-rods, which were to be applied to two ratchet-wheels on the axle-
tree, and to act alternately; and I am partly of opinion that this method might be
applied with advantage yet, because it needs no fly and has some other conveniences.
From what I have said, and from much more which a little reflection will suggest to
you, you will see that without several circumstances turn out more favorable than has
been stated, the machine will be clumsy and defective, and that it will cost much time
to bring it to any tolerable degree of perfection, and that for me to interrupt the career
of our business would be imprudent; I even grudge the time I have taken to make
these comments on it. There is, however, another way in which much mechanism
might be saved if it be in itself practicable, which is to apply to it one of the self-
moving rotatives, which has no regulators, but turns like a mill-wheel by the constant
influx and efflux of steam; but this would not abridge the size of the boiler, and I am
not sure that such engines are practicable."

It will be observed from these explanations that Watt's views as to road
locomotion were still crude and undefined; and, indeed, he never carried
them farther. While he was thus discussing the subject with Boulton,
William Murdock, one of the most skilled and ingenious workmen of the
Soho firm—then living at Redruth, in Cornwall—was occupying himself
during his leisure hours, which were but few, in constructing a model
locomotive after a design of his own. He had doubtless heard of the

proposal to apply steam to locomotion, and, being a clever inventor, he
forthwith set himself to work out the problem. The plan he pursued was
very simple and yet efficient. His model was of small dimensions, standing
little more than a foot high, but it was sufficiently large to demonstrate the
soundness of the principle on which it was constructed. It was supported on
three wheels, and carried a small copper boiler, heated by a spirit-lamp,
with a flue passing obliquely through it. The cylinder, of 3/4 in. diameter
and 2 in. stroke, was fixed in the top of the boiler, the piston-rod being
connected with the vibrating beam attached to the connecting-rod which
worked the crank of the driving-wheel. This little engine worked by the
expansive force of the steam only, which was discharged into the
atmosphere after it had done its work of alternately raising and depressing
the piston in the cylinder.
Mr. Murdock's son informed the author that
this model was invented and constructed in
1781, but, from the correspondence of Boulton
and Watt, we infer that it was not ready for trial
until 1784. The first experiment with it was
made in Murdock's own house at Redruth, when
it successfully hauled a model wagon round the
room—the single wheel placed in front of the
SECTION OF engine, and working in a swivel frame, enabling
MURDOCK'S MODEL. it to run round in a circle.
Another experiment was made out of doors,
on which occasion, small though the engine was, it fairly outran the speed
of its inventor. It seems that one night, after returning from his duties at the
Redruth mine, Murdock determined to try the working of his model
locomotive. For this purpose he had recourse to the walk leading to the
church, about a mile from the town. It was rather narrow, and was bounded
on each side by high hedges. The night was dark, and Murdock set out
alone to try his experiment. Having lit his lamp, the water soon boiled,
when off started the engine, with the inventor after it. Shortly after he heard
distant shouts of terror. It was too dark to perceive objects; but he found, on
following up the machine, that the cries proceeded from the worthy pastor
of the parish, who, going toward the town, was met on this lonely road by

the hissing and fiery little monster, which he subsequently declared he had
taken to be the Evil One in propria persona!
Watt was by no means pleased when he learned that Murdock was giving
his mind to these experiments. He feared that it might have the effect of
withdrawing him from the employment of the firm, to which his services
had become almost indispensable; for there was no more active, skillful, or
ingenious workman in all their concern. Watt accordingly wrote to Boulton,
recommending him to advise Murdock to give up his locomotive-engine
scheme; but, if he could not succeed in that, then, rather than lose
Murdock's services, Watt proposed that he should be allowed an advance of
£100 to enable him to prosecute his experiments, and if he succeeded within
a year in making an engine capable of drawing a post-chaise carrying two
passengers and the driver at four miles an hour, it was suggested that he
should be taken as partner into the locomotive business, for which Boulton
and Watt were to provide the necessary capital.
Two years later (in September, 1786) we find Watt again expressing his
regret to Boulton that Murdock was "busying himself with the steam-
carriage." "I have still," said he, "the same opinion concerning it that I had,
but to prevent as much as possible more fruitless argument about it, I have
one of some size under hand, and am resolved to try if God will work a
miracle in favor of these carriages. I shall in some future letter send you the
words of my specification on that subject. In the mean time I wish William
could be brought to do as we do, to mind the business in hand, and let such
as Symington and Sadler throw away their time and money in hunting
shadows." In a subsequent letter Watt expressed his gratification at finding
"that William applies to his business." From that time Murdock as well as
Watt dropped all farther speculation on the subject, and left it to others to
work out the problem of the locomotive engine. Murdock's model remained
but a curious toy, which he himself took pleasure in exhibiting to his
intimate friends; and though he long continued to speculate about road
locomotion, and was persuaded of its practicability, he refrained from
embodying his ideas of it in any more complete working form.
Symington and Sadler, "the hunters of shadows" referred to by Watt, did
little to advance the question. Of Sadler we know nothing beyond that in
1786 he was making experiments as to the application of steam-power to
the driving of wheel-carriages. This came to the knowledge of Boulton and

Watt, who gave him notice, on the 4th of July of the same year, that "the
sole privilege of making steam-engines by the elastic force of steam acting
on a piston, with or without condensation, had been granted to Mr. Watt by
Act of Parliament, and also that among other improvements and
applications of his principle he hath particularly specified the application of
steam-engines for driving wheel carriages in a patent which he took out in
the year 1784." They accordingly cautioned him against proceeding farther
in the matter; and as we hear no more of Sadler's steam-carriage, it is
probable that the notice had its effect.
The name of William Symington is better known in connection with the
history of steam locomotion by sea. He was born at Leadhills, in Scotland,
in 1763. His father was a practical mechanic, who superintended the
engines and machinery of the Mining Company at Wanlockhead, where one
of Boulton and Watt's pumping-engines was at work. Young Symington was
of an ingenious turn of mind from his boyhood, and at an early period he
seems to have conceived the idea of employing the steam-engine to drive
wheel-carriages. His father and he worked together, and by the year 1786,
when the son was only twenty-three years of age, they succeeded in
completing a working model of a road locomotive. Mr. Meason, the
manager of the mine, was so much pleased with the model, the merit of
which principally belonged to young Symington, that he sent him to
Edinburg for the purpose of exhibiting it before the scientific gentlemen of
that city, in the hope that it might lead, in some way, to his future
advancement in life. Mr. Meason also allowed the model to be exhibited at
his own house there, and he invited many gentlemen of distinction to
inspect it.

SYMINGTON'S MODEL STEAM-CARRIAGE, 1786.

The machine consisted of a carriage and locomotive behind, supported on
four wheels. The boiler was cylindrical, communicating by a steam-pipe
with the two horizontal cylinders, one on each side of the engine. When the
piston was raised by the action of the steam, a vacuum was produced by the
condensation of the steam in a cold-water tank placed underneath the
engine, on which the piston was again forced back by the pressure of the
atmosphere. The motion was communicated to the wheels by rack-rods
connected with the piston-rod, which worked on each side of a drum fixed
on the hind axle, the alternate action of which rods upon the tooth and
ratchet wheels with which the drum was provided producing the rotary
motion. It will thus be observed that Symington's engine was partly
atmospheric and partly condensing, the condensation being effected by a
separate vessel and air-pump, as patented by Watt; and though the
arrangement was ingenious, it is clear that, had it ever been brought into
use, the traction by means of such an engine would have been of the very
slowest kind.
But Symington's engine was not destined to be applied to road
locomotion. He was completely diverted from employing it for that purpose
by his connection with Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, then engaged in
experimenting on the application of mechanical power to the driving of his
double paddle-boat. The power of men was first tried, but the labor was
found too severe; and when Mr. Miller went to see Symington's model, and
informed the inventor of his difficulty in obtaining a regular and effective

power for driving his boat, Symington—his mind naturally full of his own
invention—at once suggested his steam-engine for the purpose. The
suggestion was adopted, and Mr. Miller authorized him to proceed with the
construction of a steam-engine to be fitted into his double pleasure boat on
Dalswinton Lock, where it was tried in October, 1788. This was followed
by farther experiments, which eventually led to the construction of the
Charlotte Dundas in 1801, which may be regarded as the first practical
steam-boat ever built.
Symington took out letters patent in the same year, securing the
invention, or rather the novel combination of inventions, embodied in his
steam-boat, but he never succeeded in getting it introduced into practical
use. From the date of completing his invention, fortune seemed to run
steadily against him. The Duke of Bridgewater, who had ordered a number
of Symington's steam-boats for his canal, died, and his executors
countermanded the order. Symington failed in inducing any other canal
company to make trial of his invention. Lord Dundas also took the
Charlotte Dundas off the Forth and Clyde Canal, where she had been at
work, and from that time the vessel was never more tried. Symington had
no capital of his own to work upon, and he seems to have been unable to
make friends among capitalists. The rest of his life was for the most part
thrown away. Toward the close of it his principal haunt was London, amid
whose vast population he was one of the many waifs and strays. He
succeeded in obtaining a grant of £100 from the Privy Purse in 1824, and
afterward an annuity of £50, but he did not live long to enjoy it, for he died
in March, 1831, and was buried in the church-yard of St. Botolph, Aldgate,
where there is not even a stone to mark the grave of the inventor of the first
practicable steam-boat.

OLIVER EVANS'S MODEL LOCOMOTIVE.

While the inventive minds of England were thus occupied, those of
America were not idle. The idea of applying steam-power to the propulsion
of carriages on land is said to have occurred to John Fitch in 1785; but he
did not pursue the idea "for more than a week," being diverted from it by
his scheme of applying the same power to the propulsion of vessels on the
water.[14] About the same time, Oliver Evans, a native of Newport,
Delaware, was occupied with a project for driving steam-carriages on
common roads; and in 1786 the Legislature of Maryland granted him the
exclusive right for that state. Several years, however, passed before he
could raise the means for erecting a model carriage, most of his friends
regarding the project as altogether chimerical and impracticable. In 1800 or
1801, Evans began a steam-carriage at his own expense; but he had not
proceeded far with it when he altered his intention, and applied the engine
intended for the driving of a carriage to the driving of a small grinding-mill,
in which it was found efficient. In 1804 he constructed at Philadelphia a
second engine of five-horse power, working on the high-pressure principle,
which was placed on a large flat or scow, mounted upon wheels. "This,"
says his biographer, "was considered a fine opportunity to show the public
that his engine could propel both land and water conveyances. When the
machine was finished, Evans fixed under it, in a rough and temporary
manner, wheels with wooden axle-trees. Although the whole weight was
equal to two hundred barrels of flour, yet his small engine propelled it up

Market Street, and round the circle to the water-works, where it was
launched into the Schuylkill. A paddle-wheel was then applied to its stern,
and it thus sailed down that river to the Delaware, a distance of sixteen
miles, in the presence of thousands of spectators."[15] It does not, however,
appear that any farther trial was made of this engine as a locomotive; and,
having been dismounted and applied to the driving of a small grinding-mill,
its employment as a traveling engine was shortly forgotten.

CHAPTER III.
THE CORNISH LOCOMOTIVE—MEMOIR OF RICHARD TREVITHICK.

While the discussion of steam-power as a means of locomotion was
proceeding in England, other projectors were advocating the extension of
wagon-ways and railroads. Mr. Thomas, of Denton, near Newcastle-on-
Tyne, read a paper before the Philosophical Society of that town in 1800, in
which he urged the laying down of railways throughout the country, on the
principle of the coal wagon-ways, for the general carriage of goods and
merchandise; and Dr. James Anderson, of Edinburg, about the same time
published his "Recreations of Agriculture," wherein he recommended that
railways should be laid along the principal turnpike-roads, and worked by
horse-power, which, he alleged, would have the effect of greatly reducing
the cost of transport, and thereby stimulating all branches of industry.
Railways were indeed already becoming adopted in places where the
haulage of heavy loads was for short distances; and in some cases lines
were laid down of considerable length. One of the first of such lines
constructed under the powers of an Act of Parliament was the Cardiff and
Merthyr railway or tram-road, about twenty-seven miles in length, for the
accommodation of the iron-works of Plymouth, Pen-y-darran, and Dowlais,
all in South Wales, the necessary Act for which was obtained in 1794.
Another, the Sirhoway railroad, about twenty-eight miles in length, was
constructed under the powers of an act obtained in 1801; it accommodated
the Tredegar and Sirhoway Iron-works and the Trevill Lime-works, as well
as the collieries along its route.
In the immediate neighborhood of London there was another very early
railroad, the Wandsworth and Croydon tram-way, about ten miles long,
which was afterward extended southward to Merstham, in Surrey, for about
eight miles more, making a total length of nearly eighteen miles. The first
act for the purpose of authorizing the construction of this road was obtained
in 1800.

All these lines were, however, worked by horses, and in the case of the
Croydon and Merstham line, donkeys shared in the work, which consisted
chiefly in the haulage of stone, coal, and lime. No proposal had yet been
made to apply the power of steam as a substitute for horses on railways, nor
were the rails then laid down of a strength sufficient to bear more than a
loaded wagon of the weight of three tons, or, at the very outside, of three
and a quarter tons.
It was, however, observed from the first that there was an immense
saving in the cost of haulage; and on the day of opening the southern
portion of the Merstham Railroad in 1805, a train of twelve wagons laden
with stone, weighing in all thirty-eight tons, was drawn six miles in an hour
by one horse, with apparent ease, down an incline of 1 in 120; and this was
bruited about as an extraordinary feat, highly illustrative of the important
uses of the new iron-ways.
About the same time, the subject of road locomotion was again brought
into prominent notice by an important practical experiment conducted in a
remote corner of the kingdom. The experimenter was a young man, then
obscure, but afterward famous, who may be fairly regarded as the inventor
of the railway locomotive, if any single individual be entitled to that
appellation. This was Richard Trevithick, a person of extraordinary
mechanical skill but of marvelous ill fortune, who, though the inventor of
many ingenious contrivances, and the founder of the fortunes of many,
himself died in cold obstruction and in extreme poverty, leaving behind him
nothing but his great inventions and the recollection of his genius.
Richard Trevithick was born on the 13th of April, 1771, in the parish of
Illogan, a few miles west of Redruth, in Cornwall. In the immediate
neighborhood rises Castle-Carn-brea, a rocky eminence, supposed by
Borlase to have been the principal seat of Druidic worship in the West of
England. The hill commands an extraordinary view over one of the richest
mining fields of Cornwall, from Chacewater and Redruth to Camborne.
Trevithick's father acted as purser at several of the mines. Though a man
in good position and circumstances, he does not seem to have taken much
pains with his son's education. Being an only child, he was very much
indulged—among other things, in his dislike for the restraints and discipline
of school; and he was left to wander about among the mines, spending his

time in the engine-rooms, picking up information about pumping-engines
and mining machinery.
His father, observing the boy's strong bent toward mechanics, placed him
for a time as pupil with William Murdock, while the latter lived at Redruth
superintending the working and repairs of Boulton and Watt's pumping-
engines in that neighborhood. During his pupilage, young Trevithick
doubtless learned much from that able mechanic. It is probable that he got
his first idea of the high-pressure road locomotive which he afterward
constructed from Murdock's ingenious little model above described, the
construction and action of which must have been quite familiar to him, for
no secret was ever made of it, and its performances were often exhibited.
Many new pumping-engines being in course of erection in the
neighborhood about that time, there was an unusual demand for engineers,
which it was found difficult to supply; and young Trevithick, whose skill
was acknowledged, had no difficulty in getting an appointment. The father
was astonished at his boy's presumption (as he supposed it to be) in
undertaking such a responsibility, and he begged the mine agents to
reconsider their decision. But the result showed that they were justified in
making the appointment; for young Trevithick, though he had not yet
attained his majority, proved fully competent to perform the duties
devolving upon him as engineer.
So long as Boulton and Watt's patent continued to run, constant attempts
were made in Cornwall and elsewhere to upset it. Their engines had cleared
the mines of water, and thereby rescued the mine lords from ruin, but it was
felt to be a great hardship that they should have to pay for the right to use
them. They accordingly stimulated the ingenuity of the local engineers to
contrive an engine that should answer the same purpose, and enable them to
evade making any farther payments to Boulton and Watt. The first to
produce an engine that seemed likely to answer the purpose was Jonathan
Hornblower, who had been employed in erecting Watt's engines in
Cornwall. After him one Edward Bull, who had been first a stoker and then
an assistant-tender of Watt's engines, turned out another pumping-engine,
which promised to prove an equally safe evasion of the existing patent. But
Boulton and Watt having taken the necessary steps to defend their right,
several actions were tried, in which they proved successful, and then the
mine lords were compelled to disgorge. When they found that Hornblower

could be of no farther use to them, they abandoned him—threw him away
like a sucked orange; and shortly after we find him a prisoner for debt in the
King's Bench, almost in a state of starvation. Nor do we hear any thing
more of Edward Bull after the issue of the Boulton and Watt trial.
Like the other Cornish engineers, young Trevithick took an active part
from the first in opposing the Birmingham patent, and he is said to have
constructed several engines, with the assistance of William Bull (formerly
an erector of Watt's machines), with the object of evading it. These engines
are said to have been highly creditable to their makers, working to the entire
satisfaction of the mine-owners. The issue of the Watt trial, however, which
declared all such engines to be piracies, brought to an end for a time a
business which would otherwise have proved a very profitable one, and
Trevithick's partnership with Bull then came to an end.
While carrying on his business, Trevithick had frequent occasion to visit
Mr. Harvey's iron foundery at Hayle, then a small work, but now one of the
largest in the West of England, the Cornish pumping-engines turned out by
Harvey and Co. being the very best of their kind. During these visits
Trevithick became acquainted with the various members of Mr. Harvey's
family, and in course of time he contracted an engagement with one of his
daughters, Miss Jane Harvey, to whom he was married in November, 1797.
A few years later we find Trevithick engaged in partnership with his
cousin, Andrew Vivian, also an engineer. They carried on their business of
engine-making at Camborne, a mining town situated in the midst of the
mining district, a few miles south of Redruth. Watt's patent-right expired in
1800, and from that time the Cornish engineers were free to make engines
after their own methods. Trevithick was not content to follow in the beaten
paths, but, being of a highly speculative turn, he occupied himself in
contriving various new methods of employing steam with the object of
economizing fuel and increasing the effective power of the engine.
From an early period he entertained the idea of making the expansive
force of steam act directly on both sides of the piston on the high-pressure
principle, and thus getting rid of the process of condensation as in Watt's
engines. Although Cugnot had employed high-pressure steam in his road
locomotive, and Murdock in his model, and although Watt had distinctly
specified the action of steam at high-pressure as well as low in his patents

of 1769, 1782, and 1784, the idea was not embodied in any practicable
working engine until the subject was taken in hand by Trevithick. The
results of his long and careful study were embodied in the patent which he
took out in 1802, in his own and Vivian's name, for an improved steam-
engine, and "the application thereof for driving carriages and for other
purposes."
The arrangement of Trevithick's engine was exceedingly ingenious. It
exhibited a beautiful simplicity of parts; the machinery was arranged in a
highly effective form, uniting strength with solidity and portability, and
enabling the power of steam to be employed with very great rapidity,
economy, and force. Watt's principal objection to using high-pressure steam
consisted in the danger to which the boiler was exposed of being burst by
internal pressure. In Trevithick's engine, this was avoided by using a
cylindrical wrought-iron boiler, being the form capable of presenting the
greatest resistance to the expansive force of steam. Boilers of this kind were
not, however, new. Oliver Evans, of Delaware, had made use of them in his
high-pressure engines prior to the date of Trevithick's patent; and, as Evans
did not claim the cylindrical boiler, it is probable that the invention was in
use before his time. Nevertheless, Trevithick had the merit of introducing
the round boilers into Cornwall, where they are still known as "Trevithick
boilers." The saving in fuel effected by their use was such that in 1812 the
Messrs. Williams, of Scorrier, made Trevithick a present of £300, in
acknowledgment of the benefits arising to their mines from that source
alone.
Trevithick's steam-carriage was the most compact and handsome vehicle
of the kind that had yet been invented, and, indeed, as regards arrangement,
it has scarcely to this day been surpassed. It consisted of a carriage capable
of accommodating some half-dozen passengers, underneath which was the
engine and machinery inclosed, about the size of an orchestra drum, the
whole being supported on four wheels—two in front, by which it was
guided, and two behind, by which it was driven. The engine had but one
cylinder. The piston-rod outside the cylinder was double, and drove a cross-
piece, working in guides, on the opposite side of the cranked axle to the
cylinder, the crank of the axle revolving between the double parts of the
piston-rod. Toothed wheels were attached to this axle, which worked into
other toothed wheels fixed on the axle of the driving-wheels. The steam-

cocks were opened and shut by a connection with the crank-axle; and the
force-pump, with which the boiler was supplied with water, was also
worked from it, as were the bellows to blow the fire and thereby keep up
the combustion in the furnace.
The specification clearly alludes to the use of the engine on railroads as
follows: "It is also to be noticed that we do occasionally, or in certain cases,
make the external periphery of the wheels uneven by projecting heads of
nails or bolts, or cross grooves or fittings to railroads where required, and
that in cases of hard pull we cause a lever, belt, or claw to project through
the rim of one or both of the said wheels, so as to take hold of the ground,
but that, in general, the ordinary structure or figure of the external surface
of those wheels will be found to answer the intended purpose."
The specification also shows the application of the high-pressure engine
on the same principle to the driving of a sugar-mill, or for other purposes
where a fixed power is required, dispensing with condenser, cistern, air-
pump, and cold-water pump. In the year 1803, a small engine of this kind
was erected after Trevithick's plan at Marazion, which worked by steam of
at least 30 lbs. on the inch above atmospheric pressure, and gave much
satisfaction.
The first experimental steam-carriage was constructed by Trevithick and
Vivian in their workshops at Camborne in 1803, and was tried by them on
the public road adjoining the town, as well as in the street of the town itself.
John Petherick, a native of Camborne, who was alive in 1858, stated in a
letter to Mr. Edward Williams that he well remembered seeing the engine,
worked by Mr. Trevithick himself, come through the place, to the great
wonder of the inhabitants. He says, "The experiment was satisfactory only
as long as the steam pressure could be kept up. During that continuance
Trevithick called upon the people to 'jump up,' so as to create a load on the
engine; and it soon became covered with men, which did not seem to make
any difference to the power or speed so long as the steam was kept up. This
was sought to be done by the application of a cylindrical horizontal bellows
worked by the engine itself; but the attempt to keep up the power of the
steam for any considerable time proved a failure."
Trevithick, however, made several alterations in the engine which had the
effect of improving it, and its success was such that he determined to take it

to London and exhibit it there as the most recent novelty in steam
mechanism. It was successfully run by road from Camborne to Plymouth, a
distance of about ninety miles. At Plymouth it was shipped for London,
where it shortly after arrived in safety, and excited considerable curiosity. It
was run on the waste ground in the vicinity of the present Bethlehem
Hospital, as well as on Lord's cricket-ground. There Sir Humphry Davy, Mr.
Davies Gilbert, and other scientific gentlemen inspected the machine and
rode upon it. Several of them took the steering of the carriage by turns, and
they expressed their satisfaction with the mechanism by which it was
directed. Sir Humphry, writing to a friend in Cornwall, said, "I shall soon
hope to hear that the roads of England are the haunts of Captain Trevithick's
dragons—a characteristic name." After the experiment at Lord's, the
carriage was run along the New-road, and down Gray's-Inn Lane, to the
premises of a carriage-builder in Long Acre. To show the adaptability of the
engine for fixed uses, Trevithick had it taken from the carriage on the day
after this trial and removed to the shop of a cutler, where he applied it with
success to the driving of the machinery.
The steam-carriage shortly became the talk of the town, and the public
curiosity being on the increase, Trevithick resolved on inclosing a piece of
ground on the site of the present Euston station of the London and
Northwestern Railway, and admitting persons to see the exhibition of his
engine at so much a head. He had a tram-road laid down in an elliptical
form within the inclosure, and the carriage was run round it on the rails in
the sight of a great number of spectators. On the second day another crowd
collected to see the exhibition, but, for what reason is not known, although
it is said to have been through one of Trevithick's freaks of temper, the
place was closed and the engine removed. It is, however, not improbable
that the inventor had come to the conclusion that the state of the roads at
that time was such as to preclude its coming into general use for purposes
of ordinary traffic.
While the steam-carriage was being exhibited, a gentleman was laying
heavy wagers as to the weight which could be hauled by a single horse on
the Wandsworth and Croydon iron tram-way; and the number and weight of
wagons drawn by the horse were something surprising. Trevithick very
probably put the two things together—the steam-horse and the iron-way—
and kept the performance in mind when he proceeded to construct his

second or railway locomotive. In the mean time, having dismantled his
steam-carriage, sent back the phaeton to the coach-builder to whom it
belonged, and sold the little engine which had worked the machine, he
returned to Camborne to carry on his business. In the course of the year
1803 he went to Pen-y-darran, in South Wales, to erect a forge engine for
the iron-works there; and, when it was finished, he began the erection of a
railway locomotive—the first ever constructed. There were already, as
above stated, several lines of rail laid down in the district for the
accommodation of the coal and iron works. That between Merthyr Tydvil
and Cardiff was the longest and most important, and it had been at work for
some years. It had probably occurred to Trevithick that here was a fine
opportunity for putting to practical test the powers of the locomotive, and
he proceeded to construct one accordingly in the workshops at Pen-y-
darran.
This first railway locomotive was finished and tried upon the Merthyr
tram-road on the 21st of February, 1804. It had a cylindrical wrought-iron
boiler with flat ends. The furnace and flue were inside the boiler, the flue
returning, having its exit at the same end at which it entered, so as to
increase the heating surface. The cylinder, 4-3/4 in. in diameter, was placed
horizontally in the end of the boiler, and the waste steam was thrown into
the stack. The wheels were worked in the same manner as in the carriage
engine already described; and a fly-wheel was added on one side, to secure
a continuous rotary motion at the end of each stroke of the piston. The
pressure of the steam was about 40 lbs. on the inch. The engine ran upon
four wheels, coupled by cog-wheels, and those who remember the engine
say that the four wheels were smooth.

TREVITHICK'S HIGH-PRESSURE TRAM-ENGINE.

On the first trial, this engine drew for a distance of nine miles ten tons of
bar iron, together with the necessary carriages, water, and fuel, at the rate of
five and a half miles an hour. Rees Jones, an old engine-fitter, who helped
to erect the engine, and was alive in 1858, gave Mr. Menelaus the following
account of its performances: "When the engine was finished, she was used
for bringing down metal from the old forge. She worked very well; but
frequently, from her weight, broke the tram-plates, and also the hooks
between the trams. After working for some time in this way, she took a
journey of iron from Pen-y-darran down the Basin Road, upon which road
she was intended to work. On the journey she broke a great many of the
tram-plates; and, before reaching the Basin, she ran off the road, and was
brought back to Pen-y-darran by horses. The engine was never used as a
locomotive after this; but she was used as a stationary engine, and worked
in this way for several years."
So far as the locomotive was concerned it was a remarkable success. The
defect lay not in the engine so much as in the road. This was formed of
plate-rails of cast iron, with a guiding flange upon the rail instead of on the
engine wheels, as in the modern locomotive. The rails were also of a very
weak form, considering the quantity of iron in them; and, though they were

sufficient to bear the loaded wagons mounted upon small wheels, as
ordinarily drawn along them by horses, they were found quite insufficient to
bear the weight of Trevithick's engine. To relay the road of sufficient
strength would have involved a heavy outlay, which the owners were
unwilling to incur, not yet perceiving the advantage, in an economical point
of view, of employing engine in lieu of horse power. The locomotive was
accordingly taken off the road, and the experiment, successful though it had
been, was brought to an end.
Trevithick had, however, by means of his Pen-y-darran engine, in a great
measure solved the problem of steam locomotion on railways. He had
produced a compact engine, working on the high-pressure principle,
capable of carrying fuel and water sufficient for a journey of considerable
length, and of drawing loaded wagons at five and a half miles an hour. He
had shown by his smooth-wheeled locomotive that the weight of the engine
had given sufficient adhesion for the haulage of the load. He had discharged
the steam into the chimney, though not for the purpose of increasing the
draught, as he employed bellows for that purpose. It appears, however, that
Trevithick's friend, Mr. Davies Gilbert, afterward President of the Royal
Society, especially noticed the effect of discharging the waste steam into the
chimney of the Pen-y-darran engine. He observed that when the engine
moved, at each puff the fire brightened, while scarcely any visible steam or
smoke came from the chimney.
Mr. Gilbert published the result of his observations in "Nicholson's
Journal" for September, 1805, and the attention of Mr. Nicholson, the
editor, having thereby been called to the subject, he proceeded to make a
series of experiments, the result of which was that in 1806 he took out a
patent for a steam-blasting apparatus, by which he proposed to apply high-
pressure steam to force along currents of air for various useful purposes,
including the urging of furnace and other fires. It is thus obvious that the
principle of the blast-pipe was known to both Gilbert and Nicholson at this
early period; but it is somewhat remarkable that Trevithick himself should
have remained skeptical as to its use, for as late as 1815 we find him taking
out a patent, in which, among other improvements, he included a method of
urging his fire by fanners, similar to a winnowing machine.
In the mean time Trevithick occupied himself in carrying on the various
business of a general engineer, and was ready to embark in any enterprise

likely to give scope for his inventive skill. In whatever work he was
employed, he was sure to introduce new methods and arrangements, if not
new inventions. He was full of speculative enthusiasm, a great theorist, and
yet an indefatigable experimenter. At the beginning of 1806—the year after
the locomotive had been taken off the Merthyr Tydvil tram-road—he made
arrangements for entering into a contract for ballasting all the shipping in
the Thames. At the end of a letter written by him on the 18th of February in
that year to Davies Gilbert, respecting a puffer engine, he said, "I am about
to enter into a contract with the Trinity Board for lifting up ballast out of the
bottom of the Thames for all the shipping. The first quantity stated was
300,000 tons a year, but now they state 500,000 tons. I am to do nothing but
wind up the chain for 6d. per ton, which is now done by men. They never
lift it above twenty-five feet high—a man will now get up ten tons for 7s.
My engine at Dalcoath has lifted about 100 tons that height with one bushel
of coals. I have two engines already finished for the purpose, and shall be in
town in about fifteen days for to set them to work. They propose to engage
with me for twenty-one years."[16] The contract was not, however, entered
into. Trevithick quarreled with the capitalists who had found the money for
the trials, and the "Blazer" and "Plymouth," the vessels in which his engines
and machinery had been fitted, fell into other hands.
Trevithick, nevertheless, seems to have been on the highway to fortune,
for, at the beginning of 1806, he had received orders for nine engines in one
month, all for Cornwall; and he expected orders for four others. He had also
in view the construction of a railway; but nothing came of this project.
More hopeful still, as regarded immediate returns, was the Cornish engine
business, which presented a very wide field. Now that the trade had been
thrown open by the expiry of Boulton and Watt's patent, competition had
sprung up, and many new makers and inventors of engines were ready to
supply the demand.
Among the most prominent of these were Trevithick and Woolf.
Trevithick was the most original and speculative, Woolf the most plodding
and practical, and the most successful. Trevithick's ingenuity exhibited itself
in his schemes for working Boulton and Watt's pumping-engine by high-
pressure steam, by means of his cylindrical wrought-iron boiler. He
proposed to expand the steam down to low pressure previous to
condensation, thereby anticipating by many years the Cornish engine now

in use. The suggestion was not, however, then acted on, and he fell back on
his original design of a simple non-condensing high-pressure engine. One
of these was erected at Dalcoath mine to draw the ores there. It was called
"the puffer" by the mining people, from its puffing the steam direct into the
air; but its performances did not compare favorably with those of the
ordinary condensing engines of Boulton and Watt, and the engine did not
come into general use.
Trevithick was not satisfied to carry on a prosperous engine business in
Cornwall. Camborne was too small for him, and the Cornish mining
districts presented too limited a field for his ambitious spirit. So he came to
London, the Patent-office drawing him as the loadstone does the needle. In
1808 he took out two patents, one for "certain machinery for towing,
driving, or forcing and discharging ships and other vessels of their cargoes,"
and the other for "a new method of stowing cargoes of ships." In 1809 he
took out another patent for constructing docks, ships, etc., and propelling
vessels.
In these patents, Trevithick was associated with one Robert Dickinson, of
Great Queen Street, but his name stands first in the specification, wherein
he describes himself as "of Rotherhithe, in the county of Surrey, engineer."
By the first of these patents he proposed to tow vessels by means of a
rowing wheel shaped like an undershot water-wheel furnished with floats
placed vertically in a box, and worked by a steam-engine, which he also
proposed to employ in the loading and unloading of the vessel, but it is not
known that the plan was ever introduced into practical use. The patent of
1809 included a floating dock or caisson made of wrought-iron plates, in
which a ship might be docked while afloat, and, after the water had been
pumped out of the caisson, repaired without moving her stores, masts, or
furniture. This invention has since been carried out in practice by the
Messrs. Rennie in the floating iron dock which they have recently
constructed for the Spanish government. Another invention included in the
specification was the construction of merchant and war ships of wrought-
iron plates strongly riveted together, with their decks supported by wrought-
iron beams, and the masts, bowsprits, and booms also of tubular wrought
iron, thereby anticipating by many years the form and structure of vessels
now in common use.

While Trevithick lived at Rotherhithe, he entered upon a remarkable
enterprise—no less than the construction of a tunnel under the Thames—a
work which was carried out with so much difficulty by Sir Isambard Brunel
some twenty years later. Several schemes had been proposed at different
times for connecting the two banks of the river by an underground
communication. As early as 1798, Ralph Dodd suggested a tunnel under the
Thames between Gravesend and Tilbury, and in 1802 Mr. Vazie projected a
tunnel from Rotherhithe to Limehouse. A company was formed to carry out
the latter scheme, and a shaft was sunk, at considerable expense, to a depth
of 76 feet below high water. The works were from time to time suspended,
and it was not until the year 1807, when Trevithick was appointed engineer
of the work, that arrangements were made for proceeding with the driftway
under the bed of the Thames. After about five months' working, the drift
was driven for a length of 953 feet, when the roof gave way and the water
burst in. The opening was, however, plugged by clay in bags thrown into
the river, and the work proceeded until 1028 feet had been accomplished.
Then the water burst in again, and the process of plugging and pumping the
water out of the drift was repeated. After seventy more feet had been added
to the excavation, there was another irruption, which completely flooded
the driftway, and the water rose nearly to the top of the shaft. This difficulty
was, however, again overcome, and with great danger twenty more feet
were accomplished; but the bursts of water became so frequent and
unmanageable that at length the face of the drift was timbered up and the
work abandoned. Trevithick, who had been promised a reward of £1000 if
the tunnel succeeded, thus lost both his labor and his reward. The only
remuneration he received from the Company was a hundred guineas, which
were paid to him according to agreement, provided he carried the
excavation to the extent of 1000 yards, which he did.
Trevithick returned to Camborne in 1809, where we find him busily
occupied with new projects, and introducing his new engine worked by
water-power, the first of which was put up at the Druid mine, as well as in
perfecting his high-pressure engine and its working by expansion. One of
the first of such engines was erected at the Huel Prosper mine, of which he
was engineer; and this, as well as others subsequently constructed on the
same principle, proved quite successful.

In 1815 Trevithick took out a farther patent, embodying several important
applications of steam-power. One of these consisted in "causing steam of a
high pressure to spout out against the atmosphere, and by its recoiling force
to produce motion in a direction contrary to the issuing steam, similar to the
motion produced in a rocket, or to the recoil of a gun." This was, however,
but a revival of the ancient Œolipile described by Hero, and known as
"Hero's engine."
In another part of his specification Trevithick described the screw-
propeller as "a screw or a number of leaves placed obliquely round an axis
similar to the vanes of a smoke-jack, which shall be made to revolve with
great speed in a line with the required motion of the ship, or parallel to the
same line of motion." In a second part of the specification, he described a
plunger or pole-engine in which the steam worked at high-pressure. The
first engine of this kind was erected by Trevithick at Herland in 1815, but
the result was not equal to his expectations, though the principle was
afterward successfully applied by Mr. William Sims, who purchased the
patent-right.
In this specification Trevithick also described a tubular boiler of a new
construction for the purpose of more rapidly producing high-pressure
steam, the heating surface being extended by constructing the boiler of a
number of small perpendicular tubes, closed at the bottom, but all opening
at the top into a common reservoir, from whence they received their water,
and into which the steam of all the tubes was united.
While Trevithick was engaged in these ingenious projects, an event
occurred which, though it promised to issue in the most splendid results,
proved the greatest misfortune of his life. We refer to his adventures in
connection with the gold mines of Peru. Many of the richest of them had
been drowned out, the pumping machinery of the country being incapable
of clearing them of water. The districts in which they were situated were
almost inaccessible to ordinary traffic, all transport being conducted on the
backs of men or of mules. The parts of an ordinary condensing engine were
too ponderous to be carried up these mountain heights, and it was evident
that, unless some lighter sort of engine could be employed, the mines in
question must be abandoned.

Mr. Uvillé, a Swiss gentleman interested in South American mining,
came over from Peru to England in 1811 for the purpose of making
inquiries about such an engine, but he received no encouragement. He was
about to return to Lima, in despair of accomplishing his object, when, one
day, accidentally passing a shop-window in Fitzroy Square, he caught sight
of an engine exposed for sale which immediately attracted his attention. It
was the engine constructed by Trevithick for his first locomotive, which he
had sold some years before, on the sudden abandonment of the exhibition of
its performances in London. Mr. Uvillé was so much pleased with its
construction and mode of action that he at once purchased it and took it out
with him to South America. Arrived there, he had the engine transported
across the mountains to the rich mining district of Pasco, about a hundred
miles north of Lima, to try its effects on the highest mountain ridges.
The experiment was so satisfactory that an association of influential
gentlemen was immediately formed to introduce the engine on a large scale,
and enter into contracts with the mine-owners for clearing their shafts of the
water which drowned them. The Viceroy of Peru approved the plan, and the
association dispatched Mr. Uvillé to England to purchase the requisite
engines. He took ship for Falmouth about the end of 1812 for the purpose of
finding out Trevithick. He only knew of Trevithick by name, and that he
lived in Cornwall, but nothing farther. Being full of his subject, however, he
could not refrain from conversing on the subject with the passengers on
board the ship by which he sailed, and it so happened that one of them—a
Mr. Teague—was a relative of Trevithick, who promised, shortly after their
landing, to introduce him to the inventor.
Mr. Teague was as good as his word, and in the course of a few days
Uvillé was enabled to discuss the scheme with Trevithick at his own house
at Camborne, where he still resided. The result was an order for a number of
high-pressure pumping-engines, which were put in hand at once; and on the
1st of September, 1814, nine of them were shipped at Portsmouth for Lima,
accompanied by Uvillé and three Cornish engineers, one of whom was
William Bull, of Chasewater, Trevithick's first partner.
The engines reached Lima in safety, and were welcomed by a royal salute
and with public rejoicings. Such, however, was the difficulty of transporting
the materials across the mountains, that it was not until the middle of the
year 1816 that the first engine was erected and set to work to pump out the

Santa Rosa mine, in the royal mineral territory of Yaüricocha. The
association of gentlemen to whom the engines belonged had entered into a
contract to drain this among other mines, on condition of sharing in the
gross produce of the ores to the extent of about 25 per cent. of the whole
amount raised. The result of the first working of the engine was so
satisfactory that the projectors were filled with no less astonishment than
delight, and they characterized the undertaking as one from which they
"anticipated a torrent of silver that would fill surrounding nations with
astonishment."
In the mean time Trevithick was proceeding at home with the
manufacture of the remaining engines, as well as new coining apparatus for
the Peruvian mint, and furnaces for purifying silver ore by fusion; and with
these engines and apparatus he set sail for America in October, 1816,
reaching Lima in safety in the following February. He was received with
almost royal honors. The government "Gazette" officially announced "the
arrival of Don Ricardo Trevithick, an eminent professor of mechanics,
machinery, and mineralogy, inventor and constructor of the engines of the
last patent, and who directed in England the execution of the machinery
now at work in Pasco." The lord warden was ordered by the viceroy to
escort Trevithick to the mines accompanied by a guard of honor. The news
of his expected arrival there occasioned great rejoicings, and the chief men
of the district came down the mountains to meet and welcome him. Uvillé
wrote to his associates that Trevithick had been sent out "by heaven for the
prosperity of the mines, and that the lord warden proposed to erect his
statue in solid silver." Trevithick himself wrote home to his friends in
Cornwall that he had before him the prospect of almost boundless wealth,
having, in addition to his emoluments as patentee, obtained a fifth share in
the Lima Company, which, he expected, on a moderate computation, would
yield him about £100,000 a year!
But these brilliant prospects were suddenly blasted by the Peruvian
revolution which broke out in the following year. While Mr. Boaze was
reading his paper[17] before the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, in
which these anticipations of Trevithick's fame and fortune were so
glowingly described, Lord Cochrane was on his way to South America to
take the command of the Chilian fleet in its attack of the ports of Peru, still
in the possession of the Spaniards.

Toward the end of 1818, Lord Cochrane hoisted his flag, and shortly after
proceeded to assail the Spanish fleet in Callao Harbor. This proved the
signal for a general insurrection, during the continuance of which the
commercial and industrial affairs of the province were completely
paralyzed. The pumping-engines of Trevithick were now of comparatively
little use in pumping water out of mines in which the miners would no
longer work. Although Lima was abandoned by the Spaniards toward the
end of 1821, the civil war continued to rage for several years longer, until at
length the independence of Peru was achieved; but it was long before the
population were content to settle down as before, and follow the ordinary
pursuits of industry and commerce.
The result to Trevithick was, that he and his partners in the Mining
Company were consigned to ruin. It has been said that the engineer joined
the patriotic party, and invented for Lord Cochrane an ingenious gun-
carriage centred and equally balanced on pivots, and easily worked by
machinery; but of this no mention is made by Lord Cochrane in his
"Memoirs." The Patriots kept Trevithick on the mountains as a sort of
patron and protector of their interests; but for this very reason he became
proportionately obnoxious to the Royalists, who, looking upon him as the
agent through whom the patriotic party obtained the sinews of war,
destroyed his engines, and broke up his machinery wherever they could. At
length he determined to escape from Peru, and fled northward across the
mountains, accompanied by a single friend, making for the Isthmus of
Panamá. In the course of this long, toilsome, and dangerous journey, he
encountered great privations; he slept in the forest at night, traveled on foot
by day, and crossed the streams by swimming. At length, his clothes torn,
worn, and hanging almost in shreds, and his baggage all lost, he succeeded
in reaching the port of Cartagena, on the Gulf of Darien, almost destitute.
Here he encountered Robert Stephenson, who was waiting at the one inn
of the place until a ship was ready to set sail for England. Stephenson had
finished his engagement with the Colombian Mining Company for which
he had been working, and was eager to return home. When Trevithick
entered the room in which he was sitting, Stephenson at once saw that he
was an Englishman. He stood some six feet in height, and, though well
proportioned when in ordinary health, he was now gaunt and hollow, the
picture of privation and misery.

Stephenson made up to the stranger, and was not a little surprised to find
that he was no other than the famous engineer, Trevithick, the builder of the
first patent locomotive, and who, when he last heard of him, was
accumulating so gigantic a fortune in Peru. Though now penniless,
Trevithick was as full of speculation as ever, and related to Stephenson that
he was on his way home for the purpose of organizing another gold-mining
company, which should make the fortunes of all who took part in it. He
was, however, in the mean time, unable to pay for his passage, and
Stephenson lent him the requisite money for the purpose of reaching his
home in Cornwall.
As there was no vessel likely to sail for England for some time,
Stephenson and Trevithick took the first ship bound for New York. After a
stormy passage, full of adventure and peril, the vessel was driven on a lee-
shore, and the passengers and crew barely escaped with their lives. On
reaching New York, Trevithick immediately set sail for England, and he
landed safe at Falmouth in October, 1827, bringing back with him a pair of
silver spurs, the only remnant which he had preserved of those "torrents of
silver" which his engines were to raise from the mines of Peru.
Immediately on his return home, Trevithick memorialized the
government for some remuneration adequate to the great benefit which the
country had derived from his invention of the high-pressure steam-engine,
and his introduction of the cylindrical boiler. The petition was prepared in
December, 1827, and was cheerfully signed by the leading mine-owners
and engineers in Cornwall; but there their efforts on his behalf ended.
He took out two more patents—one in 1831, for a new method of heating
apartments, and another in 1832, for improvements in the steam-engine, and
the application of steam-power to navigation and locomotion; but neither of
them seems to have proved of any service to him. His new improvement in
the steam-engine was neither more nor less than the invention of an
apparatus similar to that which has quite recently come into use for
employing superheated steam as a means of working the engine more
effectively and economically. The patent also included a method of
propelling ships by ejecting water through a tube with great force and speed
in a direction opposite to the course of the vessel, a method since reinvented
in many forms, though not yet successfully introduced in practice.

Strange to say, though Trevithick had been so intimately connected with
the practical introduction of the Locomotive, he seems to have taken but
little interest in its introduction upon railways, but confined himself to
advocating its employment on common roads as its most useful application.
[18]
Though in many things he was before his age, here he was
unquestionably behind it. But Trevithick was now an old man; his
constitution was broken, and his energy worked out. Younger men were in
the field, less ingenious and speculative, but more practical and energetic;
and in the blaze of their fame the Cornish engineer was forgotten.
During the last year of his life Trevithick resided at Dartford, in Kent. He
had induced the Messrs. Hall, the engineers of that place, to give him an
opportunity of testing the value of his last invention—that of a vessel driven
by the ejection of water through a tube—and he went there to superintend
the construction of the necessary engine and apparatus. The vessel was duly
fitted up, and several experiments were made with it in the adjoining creek,
but it did not realize a speed of more than four miles an hour. Trevithick,
being of opinion that the engine-power was insufficient, proceeded to have
a new engine constructed, to the boiler of which, within the furnace,
numerous tubes were attached, round which the fire played. So much steam
was raised by this arrangement that the piston "blew;" but still the result of
the experiments was unsatisfactory. While laboring at these inventions, and
planning new arrangements never to be carried out, the engineer was seized
by the illness of which he died, on the 22d of April, 1833, in the 62d year of
his age.
As Trevithick was entirely without means at his death, besides being
some sixty pounds in debt to the landlord of the Bull Inn, where he had
been lodging for nearly a year, he would probably have been buried at the
expense of the parish but for the Messrs. Hall and their workmen, who
raised a sum sufficient to give the "great inventor" a decent burial; and they
followed his remains to the grave in Deptford Church-yard, where he lies
without a stone to mark his resting-place.

There can be no doubt as to the great mechanical ability of Trevithick. He
was a man of original and intuitive genius in invention. Every mechanical
arrangement which he undertook to study issued from his hands
transformed and improved. But there he rested. He struck out many
inventions, and left them to take care of themselves. His great failing was
the want of perseverance. His mind was always full of projects; but his very
genius led him astray in search of new things, while his imagination often
outran his judgment. Hence his life was but a series of beginnings.
Look at the extraordinary things that Trevithick began. He made the first
railway locomotive, and cast the invention aside, leaving it to others to take
it up and prosecute it to a successful issue. He introduced, if he did not
invent, the cylindrical boiler and the high-pressure engine, which increased
so enormously the steam-power of the world; but he reaped the profits of
neither. He invented an oscillating engine and a screw propeller; he took out
a patent for using superheated steam, as well as for wrought-iron ships and
wrought-iron floating docks; but he left it to others to introduce these
several inventions.
Never was there such a series of splendid mechanical beginnings. He
began a Thames Tunnel and abandoned it. He went to South America with
the prospect of making a gigantic fortune, but he had scarcely begun to
gather in his gold than he was forced to fly, and returned home destitute.
This last event, however, was a misfortune which no efforts on his part
could have prevented. But even when he had the best chances, Trevithick
threw them away. When he had brought his road locomotive to London to
exhibit, and was beginning to excite the curiosity of the public respecting it,
he suddenly closed the exhibition in a fit of caprice, removed the engine,
and returned to Cornwall in a tiff. The failure, also, of the railroad on which
his locomotive traveled so provoked him that he at once abandoned the
enterprise in disgust.
There may have been some moral twist in the engineer's character, into
which we do not seek to pry; but it seems clear that he was wanting in that
resolute perseverance, that power of fighting an up-hill battle, without
which no great enterprise can be conducted to a successful issue. In this
respect the character of Richard Trevithick presents a remarkable contrast to
that of George Stephenson, who took up only one of the many projects
which the other had cast aside, and by dint of application, industry, and

perseverance, carried into effect one of the most remarkable but peaceful
revolutions which has ever been accomplished in any age or country.
We now proceed to describe the history of this revolution in connection
with the Life of George Stephenson, and to trace the locomotive through its
several stages of development until we find it recognized as one of the most
vigorous and untiring workers in the entire world of industry.

LIVES
OF

GEORGE AND ROBERT STEPHENSON.

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE AND THE HIGH-LEVEL BRIDGE.
[By R. P. Leitch, after his Original Drawing.]

LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON, Etc.

CHAPTER I.
THE NEWCASTLE COAL-FIELD—GEORGE STEPHENSON'S EARLY YEARS.

In no quarter of England have greater changes been wrought by the
successive advances made in the practical science of engineering than in the
extensive colliery districts of the North, of which Newcastle-upon-Tyne is
the centre and the capital.
In ancient times the Romans planted a colony at Newcastle, throwing a
bridge across the Tyne near the site of the low-level bridge shown in the
prefixed engraving, and erecting a strong fortification above it on the high
ground now occupied by the Central Railway Station. North and northwest
lay a wild country, abounding in moors, mountains, and morasses, but
occupied to a certain extent by fierce and barbarous tribes. To defend the
young colony against their ravages, a strong wall was built by the Romans,
extending from Wallsend on the north bank of the Tyne, a few miles below
Newcastle, across the country to Burgh-upon-Sands on the Solway Firth.
The remains of the wall are still to be traced in the less populous hill-
districts of Northumberland. In the neighborhood of Newcastle they have
been gradually effaced by the works of succeeding generations, though the
"Wallsend" coal consumed in our household fires still serves to remind us
of the great Roman work.
After the withdrawal of the Romans, Northumbria became planted by
immigrant Saxons from North Germany and Norsemen from Scandinavia,
whose eorls or earls made Newcastle their principal seat. Then came the
Normans, from whose New Castle, built some eight hundred years since,

the town derives its present name. The keep of this venerable structure,
black with age and smoke, still stands entire at the northern end of the noble
high-level bridge—the utilitarian work of modern times thus confronting
the warlike relic of the older civilization.

MAP OF NEWCASTLE DISTRICT.

The nearness of Newcastle to the Scotch Border was a great hinderance
to its security and progress in the middle ages of English history. Indeed,
the district between it and Berwick continued to be ravaged by moss-
troopers long after the union of the crowns. The gentry lived in their strong
Peel castles; even the larger farm-houses were fortified; and blood-hounds
were trained for the purpose of tracking the cattle-reavers to their retreats in
the hills. The judges of Assize rode from Carlisle to Newcastle guarded by
an escort armed to the teeth. A tribute called "dagger and protection money"
was annually paid by the sheriff of Newcastle for the purpose of providing
daggers and other weapons for the escort; and, though the need of such
protection has long since ceased, the tribute continues to be paid in broad
gold pieces of the time of Charles the First.
Until about the middle of last century the roads across Northumberland
were little better than horse-tracks, and not many years since the primitive
agricultural cart with solid wooden wheels was almost as common in the
western parts of the county as it is in Spain now. The track of the old
Roman road long continued to be the most practicable route between
Newcastle and Carlisle, the traffic between the two towns having been
carried on pack-horses until within a comparatively recent period.

Since that time great changes have taken place on the Tyne. When wood
for firing became scarce and dear, and the forests of the South of England
were found inadequate to supply the increasing demand for fuel, attention
was turned to the rich stores of coal lying underground in the neighborhood
of Newcastle and Durham. It then became an article of increasing export,
and "sea-coal" fires gradually superseded those of wood. Hence an old
writer describes Newcastle as "the Eye of the North, and the Hearth that
warmeth the South parts of this kingdom with Fire." Fuel became the staple
product of the district, the quantity exported increasing from year to year,
until the coal raised from these northern mines amounts to upward of
sixteen millions of tons a year, of which not less than nine millions are
annually conveyed away by sea.
Newcastle has in the mean time spread in all directions far beyond its
ancient boundaries. From a walled mediæval town of monks and merchants,
it has been converted into a busy centre of commerce and manufactures
inhabited by nearly 100,000 people. It is no longer a Border fortress—a
"shield and defense against the invasions and frequent insults of the Scots,"
as described in ancient charters—but a busy centre of peaceful industry, and
the outlet for a vast amount of steam-power, which is exported in the form
of coal to all parts of the world. Newcastle is in many respects a town of
singular and curious interest, especially in its older parts, which are full of
crooked lanes and narrow streets, wynds, and chares, formed by tall,
antique houses, rising tier above tier along the steep northern bank of the
Tyne, as the similarly precipitous streets of Gateshead crowd the opposite
shore.
All over the coal region, which extends from the Coquet to the Tees,
about fifty miles from north to south, the surface of the soil exhibits the
signs of extensive underground workings. As you pass through the country
at night, the earth looks as if it were bursting with fire at many points, the
blaze of coke-ovens, iron-furnaces, and coal-heaps reddening the sky to
such a distance that the horizon seems like a glowing belt of fire.
Among the upper-ground workmen employed at the coal-pits, the
principal are the firemen, engine-men, and brakesmen, who fire and work
the engines, and superintend the machinery by means of which the
collieries are worked. Previous to the introduction of the steam-engine, the
usual machine employed for the purpose was what is called a "gin." The gin

consists of a large drum placed horizontally, round which ropes attached to
buckets and corves are wound, which are thus drawn up or sent down the
shafts by a horse traveling in a circular track or "gin race." This method was
employed for drawing up both coals and water, and it is still used for the
same purpose in small collieries; but where the quantity of water to be
raised is great, pumps worked by steam-power are called into requisition.
Newcomen's atmospheric engine was first made use of to work the
pumps, and it continued to be so employed long after the more powerful
and economical condensing engine of Watt had been invented. In the
Newcomen or "fire-engine," as it was called, the power is produced by the
pressure of the atmosphere forcing down the piston in the cylinder, on a
vacuum being produced within it by condensation of the contained steam by
means of cold-water injection. The piston-rod is attached to one end of a
lever, while the pump-rod works in connection with the other, the hydraulic
action employed to raise the water being exactly similar to that of a
common sucking-pump.
The working of a Newcomen engine was a clumsy and apparently a very
painful process, accompanied by an extraordinary amount of wheezing,
sighing, creaking, and bumping. When the pump descended, there was
heard a plunge, a heavy sigh, and a loud bump; then, as it rose, and the
sucker began to act, there was heard a creak, a wheeze, another bump, and
then a rush of water as it was lifted and poured out. Where engines of a
more powerful and improved description were used, as is now the case, the
quantity of water raised is enormous—as much as a million and a half
gallons in the twenty-four hours.
The pitmen, or "the lads belaw," who work out the coal below ground,
are a peculiar class, quite distinct from the workmen on the surface. They
are a people with peculiar habits, manners, and character, as much so as
fishermen and sailors, to whom, indeed, they bear, in some respects, a
considerable resemblance. Some fifty years since, they were a much
rougher and worse educated class than they are now; hard workers, but very
wild and uncouth; much given to "steeks," or strikes; and distinguished, in
their hours of leisure and on pay-nights, for their love of cock-fighting, dog-
fighting, hard drinking, and cuddy races. The pay-night was a fortnightly
saturnalia, in which the pitman's character was fully brought out, especially
when the "yel" was good. Though earning much higher wages than the

ordinary laboring population of the upper soil, the latter did not mix nor
intermarry with them, so that they were left to form their own communities,
and hence their marked peculiarities as a class. Indeed, a sort of traditional
disrepute seems long to have clung to the pitmen, arising perhaps from the
nature of their employment, and from the circumstance that the colliers
were among the last classes enfranchised in England, as they were certainly
the last in Scotland, where they continued bondmen down to the end of last
century. The last thirty years, however, have worked a great improvement in
the moral condition of the Northumbrian pitmen; the abolition of the twelve
months' bond to the mine, and the substitution of a month's notice previous
to leaving, having given them greater freedom and opportunity for
obtaining employment; and day-schools and Sunday-schools, together with
the important influences of railways, have brought them fully up to a level
with the other classes of the laboring population.
The coals, when raised from the pits, are emptied into the wagons placed
alongside, from whence they are sent along the rails to the staiths erected by
the river-side, the wagons sometimes descending by their own gravity along
inclined planes, the wagoner standing behind to check the speed by means
of a convoy or wooden brake bearing upon the rims of the wheels. Arrived
at the staiths, the wagons are emptied at once into the ships waiting
alongside for cargo. Any one who has sailed down the Tyne from Newcastle
Bridge can not but have been struck with the appearance of the immense
staiths, constructed of timber, which are erected at short distances from each
other on both sides of the river.
But a great deal of the coal shipped from the Tyne comes from above-
bridge, where sea-going craft can not reach, and is floated down the river in
"keels," in which the coals are sometimes piled up according to
convenience when large, or, when the coal is small or tender, it is conveyed
in tubs to prevent breakage. These keels are of a very ancient model—
perhaps the oldest extant in England: they are even said to be of the same
build as those in which the Norsemen navigated the Tyne centuries ago. The
keel is a tubby, grimy-looking craft, rounded fore and aft, with a single
large square sail, which the keel-bullies, as the Tyne watermen are called,
manage with great dexterity; the vessel being guided by the aid of the
"swape," or great oar, which is used as a kind of rudder at the stern of the
vessel. These keelmen are an exceedingly hardy class of workmen, not by

any means so quarrelsome as their designation of "bully" would imply—the
word being merely derived from the obsolete term "boolie," or beloved, an
appellation still in familiar use among brother workers in the coal districts.
One of the most curious sights on the Tyne is the fleet of hundreds of these
black-sailed, black-hulled keels, bringing down at each tide their black
cargoes for the ships at anchor in the deep water at Shields and other parts
of the river below Newcastle.
These preliminary observations will perhaps be sufficient to explain the
meaning of many of the occupations alluded to, and the phrases employed,
in the course of the following narrative, some of which might otherwise
have been comparatively unintelligible to the reader.

The colliery village of Wylam is situated on the north bank of the Tyne,
about eight miles west of Newcastle. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
runs along the opposite bank; and the traveler by that line sees the usual
signs of a colliery in the unsightly pumping-engines surrounded by heaps of
ashes, coal-dust, and slag, while a neighboring iron-furnace in full blast
throws out dense smoke and loud jets of steam by day and lurid flames at
night. These works form the nucleus of the village, which is almost entirely
occupied by coal-miners and iron-furnace-men. The place is remarkable for
its large population, but not for its cleanness or neatness as a village; the
houses, as in most colliery villages, being the property of the owners or
lessees, who employ them in temporarily accommodating the work-people,
against whose earnings there is a weekly set-off for house and coals. About
the end of last century, the estate of which Wylam forms part belonged to
Mr. Blackett, a gentleman of considerable celebrity in coal-mining, then
more generally known as the proprietor of the "Globe" newspaper.
There is nothing to interest one in the village itself. But a few hundred
yards from its eastern extremity stands a humble detached dwelling, which
will be interesting to many as the birthplace of one of the most remarkable
men of our times—George Stephenson, the Railway Engineer. It is a
common, two-storied, red-tiled, rubble house, portioned off into four
laborers' apartments. It is known by the name of High-street House, and
was originally so called because it stands by the side of what used to be the

old riding post-road or street between Newcastle and Hexham, along which
the post was carried on horseback within the memory of persons living.

WYLAM COLLIERY AND VILLAGE. [By R. P. Leitch.]

The lower room in the west end of this house was the home of the
Stephenson family, and there George Stephenson was born, the second of a
family of six children, on the 9th of June, 1781. The apartment is now, what
it was then, an ordinary laborer's dwelling; its walls are unplastered, its
floor is of clay, and the bare rafters are exposed overhead.
Robert Stephenson, or "Old Bob," as the neighbors familiarly called him,
and his wife Mabel, were a respectable couple, careful and hard-working.
Robert Stephenson's father was a Scotchman, who came into England in the
capacity of a gentleman's servant.[19] Mabel, his wife, was the second
daughter of Robert Carr, a dyer at Ovingham. The Carrs were for several
generations the owners of a house in that village adjoining the church-yard;
and the family tomb-stone may still be seen standing against the east end of
the chancel of the parish church, underneath the centre lancet window, as
the tomb-stone of Thomas Bewick, the wood-engraver, occupies the
western gable. Mabel Stephenson was a woman of somewhat delicate

constitution, and troubled occasionally, as her neighbors said, with "the
vapors." But those who remembered her concurred in describing her as "a
real canny body;" and a woman of whom this is said by general consent in
the Newcastle district may be pronounced a worthy person indeed, for it is
about the highest praise of a woman which Northumbrians can express.

HIGH-STREET HOUSE, WYLAM. [By R. P. Leitch.]

For some time after their marriage, Robert resided with his wife at
Walbottle, a village situated between Wylam and Newcastle, where he was
employed as a laborer at the colliery; after which the family removed to
Wylam, where he found employment as fireman of the old pumping-engine
at that colliery.
George Stephenson was the second of a family of six children.[20]
It does not appear that the birth of any of the children was registered in
the parish books, the author having made an unsuccessful search in the
registers of Ovingham and Heddon-on-the-Wall to ascertain the fact.
An old Wylam collier, who remembered George Stephenson's father, thus
described him: "Geordie's fayther war like a peer o' deals nailed thegither,

an' a bit o' flesh i' th' inside; he war as queer as Dick's hatband—went thrice
aboot, an' wudn't tie. His wife Mabel war a delicat' boddie, an' varry flighty.
They war an honest family, but sair hadden doon i' th' world." Indeed, the
earnings of old Robert did not amount to more than twelve shillings a week;
and, as there were six children to maintain, the family, during their stay at
Wylam, were necessarily in very straitened circumstances. The father's
wages being barely sufficient, even with the most rigid economy, for the
sustenance of the household, there was little to spare for clothing, and
nothing for education, so that none of the children were sent to school.
Old Robert was a general favorite in the village, especially among the
children, whom he was accustomed to draw about him while tending the
engine-fire, and feast their young imaginations with tales of Sinbad the
Sailor and Robinson Crusoe, besides others of his own invention; so that
"Bob's engine-fire" came to be the most popular resort in the village.
Another feature in his character, by which he was long remembered, was
his affection for birds and animals; and he had many tame favorites of both
sorts, which were as fond of resorting to his engine-fire as the boys and
girls themselves. In the winter time he had usually a flock of tame robins
about him; and they would come hopping familiarly to his feet to pick up
the crumbs which he had saved for them out of his humble dinner. At his
cottage he was rarely without one or more tame blackbirds, which flew
about the house, or in and out at the door. In summer time he would go
bird-nesting with his children; and one day he took his little boy George to
see a blackbird's nest for the first time. Holding him up in his arms, he let
the wondering boy peep down, through the branches held aside for the
purpose, into a nest full of young birds—a sight which the boy never forgot,
but used to speak of with delight to his intimate friends when he himself
had grown an old man.
The boy George led the ordinary life of working people's children. He
played about the doors; went bird-nesting when he could; and ran errands to
the village. He was also an eager listener, with the other children, to his
father's curious tales, and he early imbibed from him his affection for birds
and animals. In course of time he was promoted to the office of carrying his
father's dinner to him while at work, and at home he helped to nurse his
younger brothers and sisters. One of his earliest duties was to see that the
other children were kept out of the way of the chaldron wagons, which were

then dragged by horses along the wooden tram-road immediately in front of
the cottage door.
This wagon-way was the first in the northern district on which the
experiment of a locomotive engine was tried. But, at the time of which we
speak, the locomotive had scarcely been dreamt of in England as a
practicable working power; horses only were used to haul the coal; and one
of the first sights with which the boy was familiar was the coal-wagons
dragged by them along the wooden railway at Wylam.
Thus eight years passed; after which, the coal having been worked out on
the north side, the old engine, which had grown "dismal to look at," as an
old workman described it, was pulled down; and then old Robert, having
obtained employment as a fireman at the Dewley Burn Colliery, removed
with his family to that place.
Dewley Burn, at this day, consists of a few old-fashioned, low-roofed
cottages standing on either side of a babbling little stream. They are
connected by a rustic wooden bridge, which spans the rift in front of the
doors. In the central one-roomed cottage of this group, on the right bank,
Robert Stephenson lived for a time with his family, the pit at which he
worked standing in the rear of the cottages.
Young though he was, George was now of an age to be able to contribute
something toward the family maintenance; for, in a poor man's house, every
child is a burden until his little hands can be turned to profitable account.
That the boy was shrewd and active, and possessed of a ready mother-wit,
will be evident enough from the following incident. One day his sister Nell
went into Newcastle to buy a bonnet, and Geordie went with her "for
company." At a draper's shop in the Bigg Market Nell found a "chip" quite
to her mind, but on pricing it, alas! it was found to be fifteen pence beyond
her means. Girl-like, she had set her mind upon that bonnet, and no other
would please her. She accordingly left the shop very much dejected. But
Geordie said, "Never heed, Nell; come wi' me, and I'll see if I canna win
siller enough to buy the bonnet; stand ye there till I come back." Away ran
the boy, and disappeared amid the throng of the market, leaving the girl to
wait his return. Long and long she waited, until it grew dusk, and the
market-people had nearly all left. She had begun to despair, and fears
crossed her mind that Geordie must have been run over and killed, when at

last up he came running, almost breathless. "I've gotten the siller for the
bonnet, Nell!" cried he. "Eh, Geordie!" she said, "but hoo hae ye gotten it?"
"Hauddin the gentlemen's horses!" was the exultant reply. The bonnet was
forthwith bought, and the two returned to Dewley in triumph.
George's first regular employment was of a very humble sort. A widow,
named Grace Ainslie, then occupied the neighboring farm-house of Dewley.
She kept a number of cows, and had the privilege of grazing them along the
wagon-ways. She needed a boy to herd the cows, to keep them out of the
way of the wagons, and prevent their straying or trespassing on the
neighbors' "liberties;" the boy's duty was also to bar the gates at night after
all the wagons had passed. George petitioned for this post, and, to his great
joy, he was appointed, at the wage of twopence a day.
It was light employment, and he had plenty of spare time on his hands,
which he spent in bird-nesting, making whistles out of reeds and scrannel
straws, and erecting Liliputian mills in the little water-streams that ran into
the Dewley bog. But his favorite amusement at this early age was erecting
clay engines in conjunction with his playmate, Bill Thirlwall. The place is
still pointed out where the future engineers made their first essays in
modeling. The boys found the clay for their engines in the adjoining bog,
and the hemlocks which grew about supplied them with imaginary steam-
pipes. They even proceeded to make a miniature winding-machine in
connection with their engine, and the apparatus was erected upon a bench in
front of the Thirlwalls' cottage. Their corves were made out of hollowed
corks; their ropes were supplied by twine; and a few bits of wood gleaned
from the refuse of the carpenters' shop completed their materials. With this
apparatus the boys made a show of sending the corves down the pit and
drawing them up again, much to the marvel of the pitmen. But some
mischievous person about the place seized the opportunity early one
morning of smashing the fragile machinery, greatly to the grief of the young
engineers. We may mention, in passing, that George's companion afterward
became a workman of repute, and creditably held the office of engineer at
Shilbottle, near Alnwick, for a period of nearly thirty years.
As Stephenson grew older and abler to work, he was set to lead the
horses when plowing, though scarce big enough to stride across the
furrows; and he used afterward to say that he rode to his work in the
mornings at an hour when most other children of his age were asleep in

their beds. He was also employed to hoe turnips, and do similar farm-work,
for which he was paid the advanced wage of fourpence a day. But his
highest ambition was to be taken on at the colliery where his father worked;
and he shortly joined his elder brother James there as a "corf-bitter," or
"picker," to clear the coal of stones, bats, and dross. His wages were then
advanced to sixpence a day, and afterward to eightpence when he was sent
to drive the gin-horse.
Shortly after, George went to Black Callerton Colliery to drive the gin
there; and, as that colliery lies about two miles across the fields from
Dewley Burn, the boy walked that distance early in the morning to his
work, returning home late in the evening. One of the old residents at Black
Callerton, who remembered him at that time, described him to the author as
"a grit growing lad, with bare legs an' feet;" adding that he was "very quick-
witted, and full of fun and tricks: indeed, there was nothing under the sun
but he tried to imitate." He was usually foremost also in the sports and
pastimes of youth.
Among his first strongly developed tastes was the love of birds and
animals, which he inherited from his father. Blackbirds were his special
favorites. The hedges between Dewley and Black Callerton were capital
bird-nesting places, and there was not a nest there that he did not know of.
When the young birds were old enough, he would bring them home with
him, feed them, and teach them to fly about the cottage unconfined by
cages. One of his blackbirds became so tame that, after flying about the
doors all day, and in and out of the cottage, it would take up its roost upon
the bed-head at night. And, most singular of all, the bird would disappear in
the spring and summer months, when it was supposed to go into the woods
to pair and rear its young, after which it would reappear at the cottage, and
resume its social habits during the winter. This went on for several years.
George had also a stock of tame rabbits, for which he built a little house
behind the cottage, and for many years he continued to pride himself upon
the superiority of his breed.
After he had driven the gin for some time at Dewley and Black Callerton,
he was taken on as assistant to his father in firing the engine at Dewley.
This was a step of promotion which he had anxiously desired, his only fear
being lest he should be found too young for the work. Indeed, he afterward
used to relate how he was wont to hide himself when the owner of the

colliery went round, in case he should be thought too little a boy to earn the
wages paid him. Since he had modeled his clay engines in the bog, his
young ambition was to be an engine-man; and to be an assistant fireman
was the first step toward this position. Great, therefore, was his joy when, at
about fourteen years of age, he was appointed assistant fireman, at the wage
of a shilling a day.
But the coal at Dewley Burn being at length worked out, the pit was
ordered to be "laid in," and old Robert and his family were again under the
necessity of shifting their home; for, to use the common phrase, they must
"follow the wark."

(Colliery Wagons)

NEWBURN ON THE TYNE. [By R. P. Leitch.]

CHAPTER II.
NEWBURN AND CALLERTON—GEORGE STEPHENSON LEARNS TO BE AN
ENGINE-MAN.

On quitting their humble home at Dewley Burn, the Stephenson family
removed to a place called Jolly's Close, a few miles to the south, close
behind the village of Newburn, where another coal-mine belonging to the
Duke of Northumberland, called "the Duke's Winnin," had recently been
opened out.
One of the old persons in the neighborhood, who knew the family well,
describes the dwelling in which they lived as a poor cottage of only one
room, in which the father, mother, four sons, and two daughters lived and
slept. It was crowded with three low-poled beds. The one apartment served
for parlor, kitchen, sleeping-room, and all.

The children of the Stephenson family were now growing apace, and
several of them were old enough to be able to earn money at various kinds
of colliery work. James and George, the two eldest sons, worked as
assistant firemen; and the younger boys worked as wheelers or pickers on
the bank-tops; while the two girls helped their mother with the household
work.
Other workings of the coal were opened out in the neighborhood, and to
one of these George was removed as fireman on his own account. This was
called the "Mid Mill Winnin," where he had for his mate a young man
named Coe. They worked together there for about two years, by twelve-
hour shifts, George firing the engine at the wage of a shilling a day. He was
now fifteen years old. His ambition was as yet limited to attaining the
standing of a full workman, at a man's wages, and with that view he
endeavored to attain such a knowledge of his engine as would eventually
lead to his employment as engine-man, with its accompanying advantage of
higher pay. He was a steady, sober, hard-working young man, but nothing
more in the estimation of his fellow-workmen.
One of his favorite pastimes in by-hours was trying feats of strength with
his companions. Although in frame he was not particularly robust, yet he
was big and bony, and considered very strong for his age. At throwing the
hammer George had no compeer. At lifting heavy weights off the ground
from between his feet, by means of a bar of iron passed through them—
placing the bar against his knees as a fulcrum, and then straightening his
spine and lifting them sheer up—he was also very successful. On one
occasion he lifted as much as sixty stones' weight—a striking indication of
his strength of bone and muscle.
When the pit at Mid Mill was closed, George and his companion Coe
were sent to work another pumping-engine erected near Throckley Bridge,
where they continued for some months. It was while working at this place
that his wages were raised to 12s. a week—an event to him of great
importance. On coming out of the foreman's office that Saturday evening on
which he received the advance, he announced the fact to his fellow-
workmen, adding triumphantly, "I am now a made man for life!"
The pit opened at Newburn, at which old Robert Stephenson worked,
proving a failure, it was closed, and a new pit was sunk at Water-row, on a

strip of land lying between the Wylam wagon-way and the River Tyne,
about half a mile west of Newburn Church. A pumping-engine was erected
there by Robert Hawthorn, the duke's engineer, and old Stephenson went to
work it as fireman, his son George acting as the engine-man or plugman. At
that time he was about seventeen years old—a very youthful age at which to
fill so responsible a post. He had thus already got ahead of his father in his
station as a workman; for the plugman holds a higher grade than the
fireman, requiring more practical knowledge and skill, and usually
receiving higher wages.
George's duties as plugman were to watch the engine, to see that it kept
well in work, and that the pumps were efficient in drawing the water. When
the water-level in the pit was lowered, and the suction became incomplete
through the exposure of the suction-holes, it was then his duty to proceed to
the bottom of the shaft and plug the tube so that the pump should draw:
hence the designation of "plugman." If a stoppage in the engine took place
through any defect which he was incapable of remedying, it was his duty to
call in the aid of the chief engineer to set it to rights.
But from the time that George Stephenson was appointed fireman, and
more particularly afterward as engine-man, he applied himself so
assiduously and successfully to the study of the engine and its gearing—
taking the machine to pieces in his leisure hours for the purpose of cleaning
it and understanding its various parts—that he soon acquired a thorough
practical knowledge of its construction and mode of working, and very
rarely needed to call the engineer of the colliery to his aid. His engine
became a sort of pet with him, and he was never wearied of watching and
inspecting it with admiration.
There is, indeed, a peculiar fascination about an engine to the person
whose duty it is to watch and work it. It is almost sublime in its untiring
industry and quiet power; capable of performing the most gigantic work,
yet so docile that a child's hand may guide it. No wonder, therefore, that the
workman who is the daily companion of this life-like machine, and is
constantly watching it with anxious care, at length comes to regard it with a
degree of personal interest and regard. This daily contemplation of the
steam-engine, and the sight of its steady action, is an education of itself to
an ingenious and thoughtful man. And it is a remarkable fact, that nearly all
that has been done for the improvement of this machine has been

accomplished, not by philosophers and scientific men, but by laborers,
mechanics, and engine-men. Indeed, it would appear as if this were one of
the departments of practical science in which the higher powers of the
human mind must bend to mechanical instinct.
Stephenson was now in his eighteenth year, but, like many of his fellow-
workmen, he had not yet learned to read. All that he could do was to get
some one to read for him by his engine-fire, out of any book or stray
newspaper which found its way into the neighborhood. Bonaparte was then
overrunning Italy, and astounding Europe by his brilliant succession of
victories; and there was no more eager auditor of his exploits, as read from
the newspaper accounts, than the young engine-man at the Water-row Pit.
There were also numerous stray bits of information and intelligence
contained in these papers which excited Stephenson's interest. One of them
related to the Egyptian method of hatching birds' eggs by means of artificial
heat. Curious about every thing relating to birds, he determined to test it by
experiment. It was spring time, and he forthwith went bird-nesting in the
adjoining woods and hedges. He gathered a collection of eggs of various
sorts, set them in flour in a warm place in the engine-house, covered the
whole with wool, and waited the issue. The heat was kept as steady as
possible, and the eggs were carefully turned every twelve hours; but, though
they chipped, and some of them exhibited well-grown chicks, they never
hatched. The experiment failed, but the incident shows that the inquiring
mind of the youth was fairly at work.
Modeling of engines in clay continued to be another of his favorite
occupations. He made models of engines which he had seen, and of others
which were described to him. These attempts were an improvement upon
his first trials at Dewley Burn bog, when occupied there as a herd-boy. He
was, however, anxious to know something of the wonderful engines of
Boulton and Watt, and was told that they were to be found fully described in
books, which he must search for information as to their construction, action,
and uses. But, alas! Stephenson could not read; he had not yet learned even
his letters.
Thus he shortly found, when gazing wistfully in the direction of
knowledge, that to advance farther as a skilled workman, he must master
this wonderful art of reading—the key to so many other arts. Only thus

could he gain an access to books, the depositories of the wisdom and
experience of the past. Although a grown man, and doing the work of a
man, he was not ashamed to confess his ignorance, and go to school, big as
he was, to learn his letters. Perhaps, too, he foresaw that, in laying out a
little of his spare earnings for this purpose, he was investing money
judiciously, and that, in every hour he spent at school, he was really
working for better wages.
His first schoolmaster was Robin Cowens, a poor teacher in the village of
Walbottle. He kept a night-school, which was attended by a few of the
colliers' and laborers' sons in the neighborhood. George took lessons in
spelling and reading three nights in the week. Robin Cowens's teaching cost
threepence a week; and though it was not very good, yet George, being
hungry for knowledge and eager to acquire it, soon learned to read. He also
practiced "pot-hooks," and at the age of nineteen he was proud to be able to
write his own name.
A Scotch dominie, named Andrew Robertson, set up a night-school in the
village of Newburn in the winter of 1799. It was more convenient for
George to attend this school, as it was nearer his work, being only a few
minutes' walk from Jolly's Close. Besides, Andrew had the reputation of
being a good arithmetician, and this was a branch of knowledge that
Stephenson was very desirous of acquiring. He accordingly began taking
lessons from him, paying fourpence a week. Robert Gray, junior fireman at
the Water-row Pit, began arithmetic at the same time; and Gray afterward
told the author that George learned "figuring" so much faster than he did,
that he could not make out how it was—"he took to figures so wonderful."
Although the two started together from the same point, at the end of the
winter George had mastered "reduction," while Robert Gray was still
struggling with the difficulties of simple division. But George's secret was
his perseverance. He worked out the sums in his by-hours, improving every
minute of his spare time by the engine-fire, there studying the arithmetical
problems set for him upon his slate by the master. In the evenings he took to
Robertson the sums which he had "worked," and new ones were "set" for
him to study out the following day. Thus his progress was rapid, and, with a
willing heart and mind, he soon became well advanced in arithmetic.
Indeed, Andrew Robertson became very proud of his scholar; and shortly
after, when the Water-row Pit was closed, and George removed to Black

Callerton to work there, the poor schoolmaster, not having a very extensive
connection in Newburn, went with his pupils, and set up his night-school at
Black Callerton, where he continued his lessons.
George still found time to attend to his favorite animals while working at
the Water-row Pit. Like his father, he used to tempt the robin-redbreasts to
hop and fly about him at the engine-fire by the bait of bread-crumbs saved
from his dinner. But his chief favorite was his dog—so sagacious that he
almost daily carried George's dinner to him at the pit. The tin containing the
meal was suspended from the dog's neck, and, thus laden, he proceeded
faithfully from Jolly's Close to Water-row Pit, quite through the village of
Newburn. He turned neither to left nor right, nor heeded the barking of curs
at his heels. But his course was not unattended with perils. One day the big,
strange dog of a passing butcher, espying the engine-man's messenger with
the tin can about his neck, ran after and fell upon him. There was a terrible
tussle and worrying, which lasted for a brief while, and, shortly after, the
dog's master, anxious for his dinner, saw his faithful servant approaching,
bleeding but triumphant. The tin can was still round his neck, but the dinner
had been spilled in the struggle. Though George went without his dinner
that day, he was prouder of his dog than ever when the circumstances of the
combat were related to him by the villagers who had seen it.
It was while working at the Water-row Pit that Stephenson learned the art
of brakeing an engine. This being one of the higher departments of colliery
labor, and among the best paid, George was very anxious to learn it. A small
winding-engine having been put up for the purpose of drawing the coals
from the pit, Bill Coe, his friend and fellow-workman, was appointed the
brakesman. He frequently allowed George to try his hand at the machine,
and instructed him how to proceed. Coe was, however, opposed in this by
several of the other workmen, one of whom, a banksman named William
Locke,[21] went so far as to stop the working of the pit because Stephenson
had been called in to the brake. But one day, as Mr. Charles Nixon, the
manager of the pit, was observed approaching, Coe adopted an expedient
which put a stop to the opposition. He called upon Stephenson to "come
into the brake-house and take hold of the machine." Locke, as usual, sat
down, and the working of the pit was stopped. When requested by the
manager to give an explanation, he said that "young Stephenson couldn't
brake, and, what was more, never would learn, he was so clumsy." Mr.

Nixon, however, ordered Locke to go on with the work, which he did; and
Stephenson, after some farther practice, acquired the art of brakeing.
After working at the Water-row Pit and at other engines near Newburn
for about three years, George and Coe went to Black Callerton early in
1810. Though only twenty years of age, his employers thought so well of
him that they appointed him to the responsible office of brakesman at the
Dolly Pit. For convenience' sake, he took lodgings at a small farmer's in the
village, finding his own victuals, and paying so much a week for lodging
and attendance. In the locality this was called "picklin in his awn poke
neuk." It not unfrequently happens that the young workman about the
collieries, when selecting a lodging, contrives to pitch his tent where the
daughter of the house ultimately becomes his wife. This is often the real
attraction that draws the youth from home, though a very different one may
be pretended.
George Stephenson's duties as brakesman may be briefly described. The
work was somewhat monotonous, and consisted in superintending the
working of the engine and machinery by means of which the coals were
drawn out of the pit. Brakesmen are almost invariably selected from those
who have had considerable experience as engine-firemen, and borne a good
character for steadiness, punctuality, watchfulness, and "mother wit." In
George Stephenson's day the coals were drawn out of the pit in corves, or
large baskets made of hazel rods. The corves were placed together in a cage,
between which and the pit-ropes there was usually from fifteen to twenty
feet of chain. The approach of the corves toward the pit mouth was signaled
by a bell, brought into action by a piece of mechanism worked from the
shaft of the engine. When the bell sounded, the brakesman checked the
speed by taking hold of the hand-gear connected with the steam-valves,
which were so arranged that by their means he could regulate the speed of
the engine, and stop or set it in motion when required. Connected with the
fly-wheel was a powerful wooden brake, acting by pressure against its rim,
something like the brake of a railway carriage against its wheels. On
catching sight of the chain attached to the ascending corve-cage, the
brakesman, by pressing his foot upon a foot-step near him, was enabled,
with great precision, to stop the revolutions of the wheel, and arrest the
ascent of the corves at the pit mouth, when they were forthwith landed on
the "settle-board." On the full corves being replaced by empty ones, it was

then the duty of the brakesman to reverse the engine, and send the corves
down the pit to be filled again.
The monotony of George Stephenson's occupation as a brakesman was
somewhat varied by the change which he made, in his turn, from the day to
the night shift. His duty, on the latter occasions, consisted chiefly in sending
men and materials into the mine, and in drawing other men and materials
out. Most of the workmen enter the pit during the night shift, and leave it in
the latter part of the day, while coal-drawing is proceeding. The
requirements of the work at night are such that the brakesman has a good
deal of spare time on his hands, which he is at liberty to employ in his own
way. From an early period, George was accustomed to employ those vacant
night hours in working the sums set for him by Andrew Robertson upon his
slate, practicing writing in his copy-book, and mending the shoes of his
fellow-workmen. His wages while working at the Dolly Pit amounted to
from £1 15s. to £2 in the fortnight; but he gradually added to them as he
became more expert at shoe-mending, and afterward at shoe-making.
Probably he was stimulated to take in hand this extra work by the
attachment he had by this time formed for a young woman named Fanny
Henderson, who officiated as servant in the small farmer's house in which
he lodged. We have been informed that the personal attractions of Fanny,
though these were considerable, were the least of her charms. Mr. William
Fairbairn, who afterward saw her in her home at Willington Quay, describes
her as a very comely woman. But her temper was one of the sweetest; and
those who knew her were accustomed to speak of the charming modesty of
her demeanor, her kindness of disposition, and, withal, her sound good
sense.
Among his various mendings of old shoes at Callerton, George was on
one occasion favored with the shoes of his sweetheart to sole. One can
imagine the pleasure with which he would linger over such a piece of work,
and the pride with which he would execute it. A friend of his, still living,
relates that, after he had finished the shoes, he carried them about with him
in his pocket on the Sunday afternoon, and that from time to time he would
pull them out and hold them up, exclaiming "what a capital job he had
made of them!"

Not long after he began to work at Black Callerton as brakesman he had
a quarrel with a pitman named Ned Nelson, a roystering bully, who was the
terror of the village. Nelson was a great fighter, and it was therefore
considered dangerous to quarrel with him. Stephenson was so unfortunate
as not to be able to please this pitman by the way in which he drew him out
of the pit, and Nelson swore at him grossly because of the alleged
clumsiness of his brakeing. George defended himself, and appealed to the
testimony of the other workmen. Nelson had not been accustomed to
George's style of self-assertion, and, after a great deal of abuse, he
threatened to kick the brakesman, who defied him to do so. Nelson ended
by challenging Stephenson to a pitched battle, and the latter accepted the
challenge, when a day was fixed on which the fight was to come off.
Great was the excitement at Black Callerton when it was known that
George Stephenson had accepted Nelson's challenge. Every body said he
would be killed. The villagers, the young men, and especially the boys of
the place, with whom George was a great favorite, all wished that he might
beat Nelson, but they scarcely dared to say so. They came about him while
he was at work in the engine-house to inquire if it was really true that he
was "goin' to fight Nelson." "Ay; never fear for me; I'll fight him." And
fight him he did. For some days previous to the appointed day of battle,
Nelson went entirely off work for the purpose of keeping himself fresh and
strong, whereas Stephenson went on doing his daily work as usual, and
appeared not in the least disconcerted by the prospect of the affair. So, on
the evening appointed, after George had done his day's labor, he went into
the Dolly Pit Field, where his already exulting rival was ready to meet him.
George stripped, and "went in" like a practiced pugilist, though it was his
first and last fight. After a few rounds, George's wiry muscles and practiced
strength enabled him severely to punish his adversary and to secure an easy
victory.
This circumstance is related in illustration of Stephenson's personal pluck
and courage, and it was thoroughly characteristic of the man. He was no
pugilist, and the reverse of quarrelsome. But he would not be put down by
the bully of the colliery, and he fought him. There his pugilism ended; they
afterward shook hands, and continued good friends. In after life
Stephenson's mettle was often as hardly tried, though in a different way, and
he did not fail to exhibit the same courage in contending with the bullies of

the railway world as he showed in his encounter with Ned Nelson, the
fighting pitman of Callerton.

(Colliery Gin)

STEPHENSON'S COTTAGE AT WILLINGTON QUAY. [By R. P.
Leitch.]

CHAPTER III.
ENGINE-MAN AT WILLINGTON QUAY AND KILLINGWORTH.

George Stephenson had now acquired the character of an expert
workman. He was diligent and observant while at work, and sober and
studious when the day's work was done. His friend Coe described him to
the author as "a standing example of manly character." On pay-Saturday
afternoons, when the pitmen held their fortnightly holiday, occupying
themselves chiefly in cock-fighting and dog-fighting in the adjoining fields,
followed by adjournments to the "yel-house," George was accustomed to
take his engine to pieces, for the purpose of obtaining "insight," and he
cleaned all the parts and put the machine in thorough working order before
leaving her. His amusements continued to be principally of the athletic kind,
and he found few that could beat him at lifting heavy weights, leaping, and
throwing the hammer.

In the evenings he improved himself in the arts of reading and writing,
and occasionally he took a turn at modeling. It was at Callerton, his son
Robert informed us, that he began to try his hand at original invention, and
for some time he applied his attention to a machine of the nature of an
engine-brake, which reversed itself by its own action. But nothing came of
the contrivance, and it was eventually thrown aside as useless. Yet not
altogether so; for even the highest skill must undergo the inevitable
discipline of experiment, and submit to the wholesome correction of
occasional failure.
After working at Callerton for about two years, Stephenson received an
offer to take charge of the engine on Willington Ballast Hill at an advanced
wage. He determined to accept it, and at the same time to marry Fanny
Henderson, and begin housekeeping on his own account. Though he was
only twenty-one years old, he had contrived, by thrift, steadiness, and
industry, to save as much money as enabled him, with the help of Fanny's
small hoard, to take a cottage dwelling at Willington Quay, and furnish it in
a humble but comfortable style for the reception of his bride.
Willington Quay lies on the north bank of the Tyne, about six miles
below Newcastle. It consists of a line of houses straggling along the river
side, and high behind it towers up the huge mound of ballast emptied out of
the ships which resort to the quay for their cargoes of coal for the London
market. The ballast is thrown out of the ships' holds into wagons laid
alongside. When filled, a train of these is dragged to the summit of the
Ballast Hill, where they are run out, and their contents emptied on to the
monstrous accumulation of earth, chalk, and Thames mud already laid
there, probably to form a puzzle for future antiquaries and geologists when
the origin of these immense hills along the Tyne has been forgotten. At the
foot of this great mound of shot rubbish was a fixed engine, which drew the
trains of laden wagons up the incline by means of ropes working over
pulleys, and of this engine George Stephenson acted as brakesman.
The cottage in which he took up his abode was a small two-storied
dwelling, standing a little back from the quay, with a bit of garden ground
in front;[22] but he only occupied the upper room in the west end of the
cottage. Close behind rose the Ballast Hill.

When the cottage dwelling had been made snug and was ready for his
wife's reception, the marriage took place. It was celebrated in Newburn
Church on the 28th of November, 1802. George Stephenson's signature, as
it stands in the register, is that of a person who seems to have just learned to
write. With all the writer's care, however, he had not been able to avoid a
blotch. The name of Frances Henderson has the appearance of being written
by the same hand.

(Signatures of George Stephenson and Frances Henderson)

After the ceremony, George and his newly-wedded partner proceeded to
the house of old Robert Stephenson and his wife Mabel at Jolly Close. The
old man was now becoming infirm, though he still worked as an engine-
fireman, and contrived with difficulty "to keep his head above water." When
the visit had been paid, the bridal party prepared to set out for their new
home at Willington Quay. They went in a style which was quite common
before traveling by railway had been invented. Two farm-horses, borrowed
from a neighboring farmer, were each provided with a saddle and a pillion,
and George having mounted one, his wife seated herself behind him,
holding on by her arms round his waist. The brideman and bridemaid in like
manner mounted the other horse, and in this wise the wedding party rode
across the country, passing through the old streets of Newcastle, and then
by Wallsend to Willington Quay—a long ride of about fifteen miles.
George Stephenson's daily life at Willington was that of a steady
workman. By the manner, however, in which he continued to improve his
spare hours in the evening, he was silently and surely paving the way for
being something more than a manual laborer. He diligently set himself to
study the principles of mechanics, and to master the laws by which his
engine worked. For a workman, he was even at that time more than

ordinarily speculative, often taking up strange theories, and trying to sift out
the truth that was in them. While sitting by the side of his young wife in his
cottage dwelling in the winter evenings, he was usually occupied in
studying mechanical subjects or in modeling experimental machines.
Among his various speculations while at Willington, he tried to discover
a means of Perpetual Motion. Although he failed, as so many others had
done before him, the very efforts he made tended to whet his inventive
faculties and to call forth his dormant powers. He actually went so far as to
construct the model of a machine for the purpose. It consisted of a wooden
wheel, the periphery of which was furnished with glass tubes filled with
quicksilver; as the wheel rotated, the quicksilver poured itself down into the
lower tubes, and thus a sort of self-acting motion was kept up in the
apparatus, which, however, did not prove to be perpetual. Where he had
first obtained the idea of this machine—whether from conversation, or
reading, or his own thoughts, is not known; but his son Robert was of
opinion that he had heard of an apparatus of this kind as described in the
"History of Inventions." As he had then no access to books, and, indeed,
could scarcely yet read, it is probable that he had been told of the invention,
and set about testing its value according to his own methods.
Much of his spare time continued to be occupied by labor more
immediately profitable, regarded in a pecuniary point of view. In the
evenings, after his day's labor at his engine, he would occasionally employ
himself for a few hours in casting ballast out of the collier ships, by which
means he was enabled to earn a few shillings weekly. Mr. William
Fairbairn, of Manchester, has informed the author that, while Stephenson
was employed at the Willington Ballast Hill, he himself was working in the
neighborhood as an engine apprentice at the Percy Main Colliery. He was
very fond of George, who was a fine, hearty fellow, besides being a capital
workman. In the summer evenings young Fairbairn was accustomed to go
down to Willington to see his friend, and on such occasions he would
frequently take charge of George's engine for a few hours, to enable him to
take a two or three hours' turn at heaving ballast out of the ships' holds. It is
pleasant to think of the future President of the British Association thus
helping the future Railway Engineer to earn a few extra shillings by
overwork in the evenings, at a time when both occupied the rank but of
humble working men in an obscure northern village.

Mr. Fairbairn was also a frequent visitor at George's cottage on the Quay,
where, though there was no luxury, there was comfort, cleanness, and a
pervading spirit of industry. Even at home George was never for a moment
idle. When there was no ballast to heave, he took in shoes to mend; and
from mending he proceeded to making them, as well as shoe-lasts, in which
he was admitted to be very expert. William Coe, who continued to live at
Willington in 1851, informed the author that he bought a pair of shoes from
George Stephenson for 7s. 6d., and he remembered that they were a capital
fit, and wore very well.
But an accident occurred in Stephenson's household about this time
which had the effect of directing his industry into a new and still more
profitable channel. The cottage chimney took fire one day in his absence,
when the alarmed neighbors, rushing in, threw quantities of water upon the
flames; and some, in their zeal, even mounted the ridge of the house, and
poured buckets of water down the chimney. The fire was soon put out, but
the house was thoroughly soaked. When George came home, he found the
water running out of the door, every thing in disorder, and his new furniture
covered with soot. The eight-day clock, which hung against the wall—one
of the most highly-prized articles in the house—was seriously damaged by
the steam with which the room had been filled. Its wheels were so clogged
by the dust and soot that it was brought to a complete stand-still.
George was advised to send the article to the clock-maker, but that would
cost money; and he declared that he would repair it himself—at least he
would try. The clock was accordingly taken to pieces and cleaned; the tools
which he had been accumulating for the purpose of constructing his
Perpetual Motion machine readily enabled him to do this, and he succeeded
so well that, shortly after, the neighbors sent him their clocks to clean, and
he soon became one of the most expert clock-cleaners in the neighborhood.
It was while living at Willington Quay that George Stephenson's only son
was born on the 16th of October, 1803.[23] The child was from the first, as
may well be imagined, a great favorite with his father, and added much to
the happiness of his evening hours. George Stephenson's strong
"philoprogenitiveness," as phrenologists call it, had in his boyhood
expended itself on birds, and dogs, and rabbits, and even on the poor old
gin-horses which he had driven at the Callerton Pit, and now he found in his
child a more genial object for the exercise of his affection.

The christening of the boy took place in the school-house at Wallsend,
the old parish church being at the time in so dilapidated a condition from
the "creeping" or subsidence of the ground, consequent upon the excavation
of the coal, that it was considered dangerous to enter it.[24] On this occasion,
Robert Gray and Anne Henderson, who had officiated as brideman and
bridemaid at the wedding, came over again to Willington, and stood
godfather and godmother to little Robert, as the child was named, after his
grandfather.
After working for about three years as a brakesman at the Willington
machine, George Stephenson was induced to leave his situation there for a
similar one at the West Moor Colliery, Killingworth. It was not without
considerable persuasion that he was induced to leave the Quay, as he knew
that he should thereby give up the chance of earning extra money by casting
ballast from the keels. At last, however, he consented, in the hope of making
up the loss in some other way.
The village of Killingworth lies about seven miles north of Newcastle,
and is one of the best-known collieries in that neighborhood. The workings
of the coal are of vast extent, and give employment to a large number of
work-people. To this place Stephenson first came as a brakesman about the
end of 1804. He had not been long in his new home ere his wife died of
consumption, leaving him with his only child Robert. George deeply felt the
loss, for his wife and he had been very happy together. Their lot had been
sweetened by daily successful toil. George had been hard-working, and his
wife had made his hearth so bright and his home so snug, that no attraction
could draw him from her side in the evening hours. But this domestic
happiness was all to pass away, and the bereaved husband felt for a time as
one that had thenceforth to tread the journey of life alone.

WEST MOOR COLLIERY. [By R. P. Leitch.]

Shortly after this event, while his grief was still fresh, he received an
invitation from some gentlemen concerned in large spinning-works near
Montrose, in Scotland, to proceed thither and superintend the working of
one of Boulton and Watt's engines. He accepted the offer, and made
arrangements to leave Killingworth for a time.
Having left his boy in charge of a respectable woman who acted as his
housekeeper, he set out on the journey to Scotland on foot, with his kit upon
his back. While working at Montrose, he gave a striking proof of that
practical ability in contrivance for which he was afterward so distinguished.
It appears that the water required for the purposes of his engine, as well as
for the use of the works, was pumped from a considerable depth, being
supplied from the adjacent extensive sand strata. The pumps frequently got
choked by the sand drawn in at the bottom of the well through the snore-
holes, or apertures through which the water to be raised is admitted. The
barrels soon became worn, and the bucket and clack leathers destroyed, so
that it became necessary to devise a remedy; and with this object, the
engine-man proceeded to adopt the following simple but original expedient.

He had a wooden box or boot made, twelve feet high, which he placed in
the sump or well, and into this he inserted the lower end of the pump. The
result was, that the water flowed clear from the outer part of the well over
into the boot, and was drawn up without any admixture of sand, and the
difficulty was thus conquered.[25]
During his stay in Scotland, Stephenson, being paid good wages,
contrived to save a sum of £28, which he took back with him to
Killingworth, after an absence of about a year. Longing to get back to his
kindred, and his heart yearning for the boy whom he had left behind, our
engine-man bade adieu to his Montrose employers, and trudged back to
Killingworth on foot as he had gone. He related to his friend Coe, on his
return, that when on the borders of Northumberland, late one evening,
footsore and wearied with his long day's journey, he knocked at a small
farmer's cottage door, and requested shelter for the night. It was refused;
and then he entreated that, being sore tired and unable to proceed any
farther, they would permit him to lie down in the out-house, for that a little
clean straw would serve him. The farmer's wife appeared at the door,
looked at the traveler, then retiring with her husband, the two confabulated
a little apart, and finally they invited Stephenson into the cottage. Always
full of conversation and anecdote, he soon made himself at home in the
farmer's family, and spent with them some pleasant hours. He was
hospitably entertained for the night, and when he left the cottage in the
morning, he pressed them to make some charge for his lodging, but they
refused to accept any recompense. They only asked him to remember them
kindly, and if he ever came that way, to be sure and call again. Many years
after, when Stephenson had become a thriving man, he did not forget the
humble pair who had thus succored and entertained him on his way; he
sought their cottage again when age had silvered their hair; and when he left
the aged couple on that occasion, they may have been reminded of the old
saying that we may sometimes "entertain angels unawares."
Reaching home, Stephenson found that his father had met with a serious
accident at the Blucher Pit, which had reduced him to great distress and
poverty. While engaged in the inside of an engine, making some repairs, a
fellow-workman inadvertently let in the steam upon him. The blast struck
him full in the face; he was terribly scorched, and his eyesight was
irretrievably lost. The helpless and infirm man had struggled for a time with

poverty; his sons who were at home, poor as himself, were little able to help
him, while George was at a distance in Scotland. On his return, however,
with his savings in his pocket, his first step was to pay off his father's debts,
amounting to about £15; and, shortly after, he removed the aged pair from
Jolly's Close to a comfortable cottage adjoining the tram-road near the West
Moor at Killingworth, where the old man lived for many years, supported
by his son.
Stephenson was again taken on as a brakesman at the West Moor Pit. He
does not seem to have been very hopeful as to his prospects in life at the
time. Indeed, the condition of the working classes was then very
discouraging. England was engaged in a great war, which pressed upon the
industry, and severely tried the resources of the country. Heavy taxes were
imposed upon all the articles of consumption that would bear them. There
was a constant demand for men to fill the army, navy, and militia. Never
before had England witnessed such drumming and fifing for recruits. In
1805, the gross forces of the United Kingdom amounted to nearly 700,000
men, and early in 1808 Lord Castlereagh carried a measure for the
establishment of a local militia of 200,000 men. These measures were
accompanied by general distress among the laboring classes. There were
riots in Manchester, Newcastle, and elsewhere, through scarcity of work
and lowness of wages. The working people were also liable to be pressed
for the navy, or drawn for the militia; and though people could not fail to be
discontented under such circumstances, they scarcely dared even to mutter
their discontent to their neighbors.
George Stephenson was one of those drawn for the militia. He must
therefore either quit his work and go a-soldiering, or find a substitute. He
adopted the latter course, and borrowed £6, which, with the remainder of
his savings, enabled him to provide a militia-man to serve in his stead. Thus
the whole of his hard-won earnings were swept away at a stroke. He was
almost in despair, and contemplated the idea of leaving the country, and
emigrating to the United States. Although a voyage thither was then a much
more formidable thing for a working man to accomplish than a voyage to
Australia is now, he seriously entertained the project, and had all but made
up his mind to go. His sister Ann, with her husband, emigrated about that
time, but George could not raise the requisite money, and they departed
without him. After all, it went sore against his heart to leave his home and

his kindred, the scenes of his youth and the friends of his boyhood, and he
struggled long with the idea, brooding over it in sorrow. Speaking afterward
to a friend of his thoughts at the time, he said: "You know the road from my
house at the West Moor to Killingworth. I remember once when I went
along that road I wept bitterly, for I knew not where my lot in life would be
cast." But his poverty prevented him from prosecuting the idea of
emigration, and rooted him to the place where he afterward worked out his
career so manfully and victoriously.
In 1808, Stephenson, with two other brakesmen, took a small contract
under the colliery lessees, brakeing the engines at the West Moor Pit. The
brakesmen found the oil and tallow; they divided the work among them,
and were paid so much per score for their labor. There being two engines
working night and day, two of the three men were always on duty, the
average earnings of each amounting to from 18s. to 20s. a week. It was the
interest of the brakesmen to economize the working as much as possible,
and George no sooner entered upon the contract than he proceeded to devise
ways and means of making the contract "pay." He observed that the ropes
with which the coal was drawn out of the pit by the winding-engine were
badly arranged; they "glued" and wore each other to tatters by the perpetual
friction. There was thus great wear and tear, and a serious increase in the
expenses of the pit. George found that the ropes which, at other pits in the
neighborhood, lasted about three months, at the West Moor Pit became
worn out in about a month. He accordingly set himself to ascertain the
cause of the defect; and, finding that it was occasioned by excessive
friction, he proceeded, with the sanction of the head engine-wright and of
the colliery owners, to shift the pulley-wheels so that they worked
immediately over the centre of the pit. By this expedient, accompanied by
an entire rearrangement of the gearing of the machine, he shortly succeeded
in greatly lessening the wear and tear of the ropes, to the advantage of the
owners as well as of the workmen, who were thus enabled to labor more
continuously and profitably.
About the same time he attempted an improvement in the winding-engine
which he worked, by placing a valve between the air-pump and condenser.
This expedient, although it led to no practical result, showed that his mind
was actively engaged in studying new mechanical adaptations. It continued
to be his regular habit, on Saturdays, to take his engine to pieces, for the

purpose at the same time of familiarizing himself with its action, and of
placing it in a state of thorough working order; and by mastering the details
of the engine, he was enabled, as opportunity occurred, to turn to practical
account the knowledge thus diligently and patiently acquired.
Such an opportunity was not long in presenting itself. In the year 1810, a
pit was sunk by the "Grand Allies" (the lessees of the mines) at the village
of Killingworth, now known as the Killingworth High Pit. An atmospheric
or Newcomen engine, originally made by Smeaton, was fixed there for the
purpose of pumping out the water from the shaft; but, somehow or other,
the engine failed to clear the pit. As one of the workmen has since described
the circumstance—"She couldn't keep her jack-head in water: all the
engine-men in the neighborhood were tried, as well as Crowther of the
Ouseburn, but they were clean bet." The engine had been fruitlessly
pumping for nearly twelve months, and came to be regarded as a total
failure. Stephenson had gone to look at it when in course of erection, and
then observed to the over-man that he thought it was defective; he also gave
it as his opinion that if there were much water in the mine, the engine could
never keep it under. Of course, as he was only a brakesman, his opinion was
considered to be worth very little on such a point. He continued, however,
to make frequent visits to the engine to see "how she was getting on." From
the bank-head where he worked his brake he could see the chimney
smoking at the High Pit; and as the workmen were passing to and from their
work, he would call out and inquire "if they had gotten to the bottom yet."
And the reply was always to the same effect—the pumping made no
progress, and the workmen were still "drowned out."
One Saturday afternoon he went over to the High Pit to examine the
engine more carefully than he had yet done. He had been turning the subject
over in his mind, and, after a long examination, he seemed to have satisfied
himself as to the cause of the failure. Kit Heppel, one of the sinkers, asked
him, "Weel, George, what do you mak' o' her? Do you think you could do
any thing to improve her?" "Man," said George, in reply, "I could alter her
and make her draw: in a week's time from this I could send you to the
bottom."
Heppel at once reported this conversation to Ralph Dodds, the head
viewer, who, being now quite in despair, and hopeless of succeeding with
the engine, determined to give George's skill a trial. George had already

acquired the character of a very clever and ingenious workman, and, at the
worst, he could only fail, as the rest had done. In the evening Dodds went in
search of Stephenson, and met him on the road, dressed in his Sunday's suit,
on his way to "the preaching" in the Methodist Chapel, which he at that
time attended. "Well, George," said Dodds, "they tell me that you think you
can put the engine at the High Pit to rights." "Yes, sir," said George, "I think
I could." "If that's the case, I'll give you a fair trial, and you must set to
work immediately. We are clean drowned out, and can not get a step farther.
The engineers hereabouts are all bet; and if you really succeed in
accomplishing what they can not do, you may depend upon it I will make
you a man for life."
Stephenson began his operations early next morning. The only condition
that he made, before setting to work, was that he should select his own
workmen. There was, as he knew, a good deal of jealousy among the
"regular" men that a colliery brakesman should pretend to know more about
their engine than they themselves did, and attempt to remedy defects which
the most skilled men of their craft, including the engineer of the colliery,
had failed to do. But George made the condition a sine quâ non. "The
workmen," said he, "must either be all Whigs or all Tories." There was no
help for it, so Dodds ordered the old hands to stand aside. The men
grumbled, but gave way; and then George and his party went in.
The engine was taken entirely to pieces. The cistern containing the
injection water was raised ten feet; the injection cock, being too small, was
enlarged to nearly double its former size, and it was so arranged that it
should be shut off quickly at the beginning of the stroke. These and other
alterations were necessarily performed in a rough way, but, as the result
proved, on true principles. Stephenson also, finding that the boiler would
bear a greater pressure than five pounds to the inch, determined to work it at
a pressure of ten pounds, though this was contrary to the directions of both
Newcomen and Smeaton.
The necessary alterations were made in about three days, and many
persons came to see the engine start, including the men who had put her up.
The pit being nearly full of water, she had little to do on starting, and, to use
George's words, "came bounce into the house." Dodds exclaimed, "Why,
she was better as she was; now, she will knock the house down." After a
short time, however, the engine got fairly to work, and by ten o'clock that

night the water was lower in the pit than it had ever been before. The engine
was kept pumping all Thursday, and by the Friday afternoon the pit was
cleared of water, and the workmen were "sent to the bottom," as Stephenson
had promised. Thus the alterations effected in the pumping apparatus
proved completely successful.[26]
Mr. Dodds was particularly gratified with the manner in which the job
had been done, and he made Stephenson a present of ten pounds, which,
though very inadequate when compared with the value of the work
performed, was accepted with gratitude. George was proud of the gift as the
first marked recognition of his skill as a workman; and he used afterward to
say that it was the biggest sum of money he had up to that time earned in
one lump. Ralph Dodds, however, did more than this; he released the
brakesman from the handles of his engine at West Moor, and appointed him
engine-man at the High Pit, at good wages, during the time the pit was
sinking—the job lasting for about a year; and he also kept him in mind for
farther advancement.
Stephenson's skill as an engine-doctor soon became noised abroad, and
he was called upon to prescribe remedies for all the old, wheezy, and
ineffective pumping-machines in the neighborhood. In this capacity he soon
left the "regular" men far behind, though they, in their turn, were very much
disposed to treat the Killingworth brakesman as no better than a quack.
Nevertheless, his practice was really founded upon a close study of the
principles of mechanics, and on an intimate practical acquaintance with the
details of the pumping-engine.
Another of his smaller achievements in the same line is still told by the
people of the district. At the corner of the road leading to Long Benton there
was a quarry from which a peculiar and scarce kind of ochre was taken. In
the course of working it out, the water had collected in considerable
quantities; and there being no means of draining it off, it accumulated to
such an extent that the farther working of the ochre was almost entirely
stopped. Ordinary pumps were tried, and failed; and then a windmill was
tried, and failed too. On this, George was asked what ought to be done to
clear the quarry of the water. He said "he would set up for them an engine,
little bigger than a kailpot, that would clear them out in a week." And he did
so. A little engine was speedily erected, by means of which the quarry was

pumped dry in the course of a few days. Thus his skill as a pump-doctor
soon became the marvel of the district.
In elastic muscular vigor Stephenson was now in his prime, and he still
continued zealous in measuring his strength and agility with his fellow-
workmen. The competitive element in his nature was always strong, and his
success in these feats of rivalry was certainly remarkable. Few, if any, could
lift such weights, throw the hammer and put the stone so far, or cover so
great a space at a standing or running leap. One day, between the engine
hour and the rope-rolling hour, Kit Heppel challenged him to leap from one
high wall to another, with a deep gap between. To Heppel's surprise and
dismay, George took the standing leap, and cleared the eleven feet at a
bound. Had his eye been less accurate, or his limbs less agile and sure, the
feat must have cost him his life.
But so full of redundant muscular vigor was he, that leaping, putting, or
throwing the hammer, were not enough for him. He was also ambitious of
riding on horseback; and, as he had not yet been promoted to an office
enabling him to keep a horse of his own, he sometimes borrowed one of the
gin-horses for a ride. On one of these occasions he brought the animal back
reeking, when Tommy Mitcheson, the bank horse-keeper, a rough-spoken
fellow, exclaimed to him, "Set such fellows as you on horseback, and you'll
soon ride to the De'il." But Tommy Mitcheson lived to tell the story, and to
confess that, after all, there had been a better issue of George's
horsemanship than what he had predicted.
Old Cree, the engine-wright at Killingworth High Pit, having been killed
by an accident, George Stephenson was, in 1812, appointed engine-wright
of the colliery at the salary of £100 a year. He was also allowed the use of a
galloway to ride upon in his visits of inspection to the collieries leased by
the "Grand Allies" in that neighborhood.
The "Grand Allies" were a company of gentlemen, consisting of Sir
Thomas Liddell (afterward Lord Ravensworth), the Earl of Strathmore, and
Mr. Stuart Wortley (afterward Lord Wharncliffe), the lessees of the
Killingworth collieries. Having been informed of the merits of Stephenson,
of his indefatigable industry, and the skill which he had displayed in the
repairs of the pumping-engines, they readily acceded to Mr. Dodds's
recommendation that he should be appointed the colliery engine-wright;

and, as we shall afterward find, they continued to honor him by
distinguished marks of their approval.

KILLINGWORTH HIGH PIT.

GLEBE FARM-HOUSE, BENTON. [By R. P. Leitch.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE STEPHENSONS AT KILLINGWORTH—EDUCATION AND SELF-
EDUCATION OF FATHER AND SON.

George Stephenson had now been diligently employed for several years
in the work of self-improvement, and he experienced the usual results in
increasing mental strength, capability, and skill. Perhaps the secret of every
man's best success in life is to be found in the alacrity and industry with
which he takes advantage of the opportunities which present themselves for
well-doing. Our engine-man was an eminent illustration of the importance
of cultivating this habit of life. Every spare moment was laid under
contribution by him, either for the purpose of adding to his earnings or to
his knowledge. He missed no opportunity of extending his observations,
especially in his own department of work, aiming at improvement, and
trying to turn all that he did know to useful practical account.
He continued his attempts to solve the mystery of Perpetual Motion, and
contrived several model machines with the object of embodying his ideas in
a practical working shape. He afterward used to lament the time he had lost
in these futile efforts, and said that if he had enjoyed the opportunities
which most young men now have, of learning from books what previous
experimenters had accomplished, he would have been spared much labor
and mortification. Not being acquainted with what other mechanics had
done, he groped his way in pursuit of some idea originated by his own
independent thinking and observation, and, when he had brought it into
some definite form, lo! he found that his supposed invention had long been
known and recorded in scientific books. Often he thought he had hit upon
discoveries which he subsequently found were but old and exploded
fallacies. Yet his very struggle to overcome the difficulties which lay in his
way was of itself an education of the best sort. By wrestling with them, he
strengthened his judgment and sharpened his skill, stimulating and
cultivating his inventiveness and mechanical ingenuity. Being very much in
earnest, he was compelled to consider the subject of his special inquiry in
all its relations, and thus he gradually acquired practical ability through his
very efforts after the impracticable.
Many of his evenings were spent in the society of John Wigham, whose
father occupied the Glebe farm at Benton close at hand. John was a fair
penman and good arithmetician, and Stephenson frequented his society
chiefly for the purpose of improving himself in writing and "figuring."

Under Andrew Robertson he had never quite mastered the Rule of Three,
and it was only when Wigham took him in hand that he made progress in
the higher branches of arithmetic. He generally took his slate with him to
the Wighams' cottage, when he had his sums set, that he might work them
out while tending his engine on the following day. When too busy with
other work to be able to call upon Wigham in person, he sent the slate by a
fellow-workman to have the former sums corrected and new ones set.
Sometimes also, at leisure moments, he was enabled to do a little "figuring"
with chalk upon the sides of the coal-wagons. So much patient perseverance
could not but eventually succeed; and by dint of practice and study,
Stephenson was enabled to master the successive rules of arithmetic.
John Wigham was of great use to his pupil in many ways. He was a good
talker, fond of argument, an extensive reader as country reading went in
those days, and a very suggestive thinker. Though his store of information
might be comparatively small when measured with that of more highly
cultivated minds, much of it was entirely new to Stephenson, who regarded
him as a very clever and extraordinary person. Wigham also taught him to
draw plans and sections, though in this branch Stephenson proved so apt
that he soon surpassed his master. A volume of "Ferguson's Lectures on
Mechanics" which fell into their hands was a great treasure to both the
students. One who remembers their evening occupations says he "used to
wonder what they meant by weighing the air and water in so odd a way."
They were trying the specific gravities of objects; and the devices which
they employed, the mechanical shifts to which they were put, were often of
the rudest kind. In these evening entertainments the mechanical
contrivances were supplied by Stephenson, while Wigham found the
scientific rationale. The opportunity thus afforded to the former of
cultivating his mind by contact with one wiser than himself proved of great
value, and in after life Stephenson gratefully remembered the assistance
which, when a humble workman, he had received from John Wigham, the
farmer's son.
His leisure moments thus carefully improved, it will be inferred that
Stephenson continued a sober man. Though his notions were never extreme
on this point, he was systematically temperate. It appears that on the
invitation of his master, Ralph Dodds—and an invitation from a master to a
workman is not easy to resist—he had, on one or two occasions, been

induced to join him in a forenoon glass of ale in the public house of the
village. But one day, about noon, when Mr. Dodds had got him as far as the
public-house door, on his invitation to "come in and take a glass o' yel,"
Stephenson made a dead stop, and said, firmly, "No, sir, you must excuse
me; I have made a resolution to drink no more at this time of day." And he
went back. He desired to retain the character of a steady workman; and the
instances of men about him who had made shipwreck of their character
through intemperance were then, as now, unhappily too frequent.
But another consideration besides his own self-improvement had already
begun to exercise an important influence upon his life. This was the training
and education of his son Robert, now growing up an active, intelligent boy,
as full of fun and tricks as his father had been. When a little fellow, scarce
big enough to reach so high as to put a clock-head on when placed upon the
table, his father would make him mount a chair for the purpose; and to
"help father" was the proudest work which the boy then, and ever after,
could take part in. When the little engine was set up at the Ochre Quarry to
pump it dry, Robert was scarcely absent for an hour. He watched the
machine very eagerly when it was set to work, and he was very much
annoyed at the fire burning away the grates. The man who fired the engine
was a sort of wag, and thinking to get a laugh at the boy, he said, "Those
bars are getting varra bad, Robert; I think we maun cut up some of that hard
wood, and put it in instead." "What would be the use of that, you fool?" said
the boy, quickly. "You would no sooner have put them in than they would
be burnt out again!"

RUTTER'S SCHOOL-HOUSE, LONG BENTON. [By R. P. Leitch.]

So soon as Robert was of a proper age, his father sent him over to the
road-side school at Long Benton, kept by Rutter, the parish clerk. But the
education which he gave was of a very limited kind, scarcely extending
beyond the primer and pothooks. While working as a brakesman on the pit-
head at Killingworth, the father had often bethought him of the obstructions
he had himself encountered in life through his want of schooling, and he
formed the determination that no labor, nor pains, nor self-denial on his part
should be spared to furnish his son with the best education that it was in his
power to bestow.
It is true, his earnings were comparatively small at that time. He was still
maintaining his infirm parents, and the cost of living continued excessive.
But he fell back, as before, upon his old expedient of working up his spare
time in the evenings at home, or during the night shifts when it was his turn
to tend the engine, in mending and making shoes, cleaning clocks and
watches, making shoe-lasts for the shoemakers of the neighborhood, and
cutting out the pitmen's clothes for their wives; and we have been told that
to this day there are clothes worn at Killingworth made after "Geordy
Steevie's cut." To give his own words: "In the earlier period of my career,"

said he, "when Robert was a little boy, I saw how deficient I was in
education, and I made up my mind that he should not labor under the same
defect, but that I would put him to a good school, and give him a liberal
training. I was, however, a poor man; and how do you think I managed? I
betook myself to mending my neighbors' clocks and watches at nights, after
my daily labor was done, and thus I procured the means of educating my
son."[27]
By dint of such extra labor in his by-hours, with this object, Stephenson
contrived to save a sum of £100, which he accumulated in guineas, each of
which he afterward sold to Jews, who went about buying up gold coins
(then dearer than silver), at twenty-six shillings apiece; and he lent out the
proceeds at interest. He was now, therefore, a comparatively thriving man.
When he was appointed engine-wright of the colliery, he was, of course,
still easier in his circumstances; and, carrying out the resolution which he
had formed as to his boy's education, Robert was sent to Mr. Bruce's school
in Percy Street, Newcastle, at mid-summer, 1815, when he was about
twelve years old. His father bought for him a donkey, on which he rode into
Newcastle and back daily; and there are many still living who remember the
little boy, dressed in his suit of homely gray stuff cut out by his father,
cantering along to school upon the "cuddy," with his wallet of provisions
for the day and his bag of books slung over his shoulder.
When Robert went to Mr. Bruce's school he was a shy, unpolished
country lad, speaking the broad dialect of the pitmen; and the other boys
would occasionally tease him, for the purpose of provoking an outburst of
his Killingworth Doric. As the shyness got rubbed off by familiarity, his
love of fun began to show itself, and he was found able enough to hold his
own among the other boys. As a scholar he was steady and diligent, and his
master was accustomed to hold him up to the laggards of the school as an
example of good conduct and industry. But his progress, though
satisfactory, was by no means extraordinary. He used in after life to pride
himself on his achievements in mensuration, though another boy, John
Taylor, beat him at arithmetic. He also made considerable progress in
mathematics; and in a letter written to the son of his teacher, many years
after, he said, "It was to Mr. Bruce's tuition and methods of modeling the
mind that I attribute much of my success as an engineer, for it was from him
that I derived my taste for mathematical pursuits, and the facility I possess

of applying this kind of knowledge to practical purposes, and modifying it
according to circumstances."

BRUCE'S SCHOOL, NEWCASTLE. [By R. P. Leitch.]

During the time Robert attended school at Newcastle, his father made the
boy's education instrumental to his own. Robert was accustomed to spend
some of his spare time at the rooms of the Literary and Philosophical
Institute, and when he went home in the evening he would recount to his
father the results of his reading. Sometimes he was allowed to take with
him to Killingworth a volume of the "Repertory of Arts and Sciences,"
which father and son studied together. But many of the most valuable works
belonging to the Newcastle Library were not permitted to be removed from
the rooms; these Robert was instructed to read and study, and bring away
with him descriptions and sketches for his father's information. His father
also practiced him in the reading of plans and drawings without at all
referring to the written descriptions. He used to observe to his son, "A good
drawing or plan should always explain itself;" and, placing a drawing of an
engine or machine before the youth, he would say, "There, now, describe
that to me—the arrangement and the action." Thus he taught him to read a

drawing as easily as he would read a page of a book. Both father and son
profited by this excellent practice, which shortly enabled them to apprehend
with the greatest facility the details of even the most difficult and
complicated mechanical drawing.
While Robert went on with his lessons in the evenings, his father was
usually occupied with his watch and clock cleaning, or contriving models of
pumping-engines, or endeavoring to embody in a tangible shape the
mechanical inventions which he found described in the odd volumes on
Mechanics which fell in his way. This daily and unceasing example of
industry and application, working on before the boy's eyes in the person of
a loving and beloved father, imprinted itself deeply upon his mind in
characters never to be effaced. A spirit of self-improvement was thus early
and carefully planted and fostered in him, which continued to influence his
character through life; and toward the close of his career he was proud to
confess that if his professional success had been great, it was mainly to the
example and training of his father that he owed it.
Robert was not, however, exclusively devoted to study, but, like most
boys full of animal spirits, he was very fond of fun and play, and sometimes
of mischief. Dr. Bruce relates that an old Killingworth laborer, when asked
by Robert, on one of his last visits to Newcastle, if he remembered him,
replied with emotion, "Ay, indeed! Haven't I paid your head many a time
when you came with your father's bait, for you were always a sad hempy?"
The author had the pleasure, in the year 1854, of accompanying Robert
Stephenson on a visit to his old home and haunts at Killingworth. He had so
often traveled the road upon his donkey to and from school that every foot
of it was familiar to him, and each turn in it served to recall to mind some
incident of his boyish days.[28] His eyes glistened when he came in sight of
Killingworth pit head. Pointing to a humble red-tiled house by the roadside
at Benton, he said, "You see that house—that was Rutter's, where I learned
my A B C, and made a beginning of my school learning; and there,"
pointing to a colliery chimney on the left, "there is Long Benton, where my
father put up his first pumping-engine; and a great success it was. And this
humble clay-floored cottage you see here is where my grandfather lived till
the close of his life. Many a time have I ridden straight into the house,
mounted on my cuddy, and called upon grandfather to admire his points. I
remember the old man feeling the animal all over—he was then quite blind

—after which he would dilate upon the shape of his ears, fetlocks, and
quarters, and usually end by pronouncing him to be a 'real blood.' I was a
great favorite with the old man, who continued very fond of animals, and
cheerful to the last; and I believe nothing gave him greater pleasure than a
visit from me and my cuddy."
On the way from Benton to High Killingworth, Mr. Stephenson pointed
to a corner of the road where he had once played a boyish trick upon a
Killingworth collier. "Straker," said he, "was a great bully, a coarse,
swearing fellow, and a perfect tyrant among the women and children. He
would go tearing into old Nanny the huxter's shop in the village, and
demand in a savage voice, 'What's ye'r best ham the pund?' 'What's floor the
hunder?' 'What d'ye ax for prime bacon?'—his categories usually ending
with the miserable order, accompanied with a tremendous oath, of 'Gie's a
penny rrow (roll) an' a baubee herrin'!' The poor woman was usually set 'all
of a shake' by a visit from this fellow. He was also a great boaster, and used
to crow over the robbers whom he had put to flight; mere men in buckram,
as every body knew. We boys," he continued, "believed him to be a great
coward, and determined to play him a trick. Two other boys joined me in
waylaying Straker one night at that corner," pointing to it. "We sprang out
and called upon him, in as gruff voices as we could assume, to 'stand and
deliver!' He dropped down upon his knees in the dirt, declaring he was a
poor man, with a sma' family, asking for 'mercy,' and imploring us, as
'gentlemen, for God's sake, t' let him a-be!' We couldn't stand this any
longer, and set up a shout of laughter. Recognizing our boys' voices, he
sprang to his feet again and rattled out a volley of oaths, on which we cut
through the hedge, and heard him shortly after swearing his way along the
road to the yel-house."
On another occasion Robert played a series of tricks of a somewhat
different character. Like his father, he was very fond of reducing his
scientific reading to practice; and after studying Franklin's description of
the lightning experiment, he proceeded to expend his store of Saturday
pennies in purchasing about half a mile of copper wire at a brazier's shop in
Newcastle. Having prepared his kite, he set it up in the field opposite his
father's door, and bringing the wire, insulated by means of a few feet of silk
cord, over the backs of some of Farmer Wigham's cows, he soon had them
skipping about the field in all directions with their tails up. One day he had

his kite flying at the cottage-door as his father's galloway was hanging by
the bridle to the paling, waiting for the master to mount. Bringing the end of
the wire just over the pony's crupper, so smart an electric shock was given it
that the brute was almost knocked down. At this juncture his father issued
from the house, riding-whip in hand, and was witness to the scientific trick
just played off upon his galloway. "Ah! you mischievous scoondrel!" cried
he to the boy, who ran off, himself inwardly chuckling with pride,
nevertheless, at Robert's successful experiment.[29]
At this time, and for many years after, Stephenson dwelt in a cottage
standing by the side of the road leading from the West Moor Pit to
Killingworth. The railway from West Moor crosses this road close by the
easternmost end of the cottage. The dwelling originally consisted of but one
apartment on the ground floor, with a garret overhead, to which access was
obtained by means of a step-ladder. With his own hands Stephenson built an
oven, and in the course of time he added rooms to the cottage, until it
became expanded into a comfortable four-roomed dwelling, in which he
remained as long as he lived at Killingworth.

STEPHENSON'S COTTAGE, WEST MOOR. [By R. P. Leitch.]

He continued as fond of birds and animals as ever, and seemed to have
the power of attaching them to him in a remarkable degree. He had a
blackbird at Killingworth so fond of him that it would fly about the cottage,
and on holding out his finger the bird would come and perch upon it
directly. A cage was built for "blackie" in the partition between the passage
and the room, a square of glass forming its outer wall; and Robert used
afterward to take pleasure in describing the oddity of the bird, imitating the
manner in which it would cock its head on his father's entering the house,
and follow him with its eye into the inner apartment.
Neighbors were accustomed to call at the cottage and have their clocks
and watches set to rights when they went wrong. One day, after looking at
the works of a watch left by a pitman's wife, George handed it to his son:
"Put her in the oven, Robert," said he, "for a quarter of an hour or so." It
seemed an odd way of repairing a watch; nevertheless, the watch was put
into the oven, and at the end of the appointed time it was taken out, going
all right. The wheels had merely got clogged by the oil congealed by the
cold, which at once explains the rationale of the remedy adopted.
There was a little garden attached to the cottage, in which, while a
workman, Stephenson took a pride in growing gigantic leeks and
astonishing cabbages. There was great competition in the growing of
vegetables among the villagers, all of whom he excelled excepting one,
whose cabbages sometimes outshone his. To protect his garden-crops from
the ravages of the birds, he invented a strange sort of "fley-craw," which
moved its arms with the wind; and he fastened his garden-door by means of
a piece of ingenious mechanism, so that no one but himself could enter it.
His cottage was quite a curiosity-shop of models of engines, self-acting
planes, and perpetual-motion machines. The last named contrivances,
however, were only unsuccessful attempts to solve a problem which had
already baffled hundreds of preceding inventors.
His odd and eccentric contrivances often excited great wonder among the
Killingworth villagers. He won the women's admiration by connecting their
cradles with the smoke-jack, and making them self-acting. Then he
astonished the pitmen by attaching an alarm to the clock of the watchman
whose duty it was to call them betimes in the morning. He also contrived a
wonderful lamp which burned under water, with which he was afterward
wont to amuse the Brandling family at Gosforth—going into the fish-pond

at night, lamp in hand, attracting and catching the fish, which rushed wildly
toward the flame.
Dr. Bruce tells of a competition which Stephenson had with the joiner at
Killingworth as to which of them could make the best shoe-last; and when
the former had done his work, either for the humor of the thing or to secure
fair play from the appointed judge, he took it to the Morrisons in Newcastle,
and got them to put their stamp upon it; so that it is possible the
Killingworth brakesman, afterward the inventor of a safety-lamp and
originator of the locomotive railway system, and John Morrison, the last-
maker, afterward the translator of the Scriptures into the Chinese language,
may have confronted each other in solemn contemplation of the successful
last, which won the verdict coveted by its maker.
Sometimes George would endeavor to impart to his fellow-workmen the
results of his scientific reading. Every thing that he learned from books was
so new and so wonderful to him, that he regarded the facts he drew from
them in the light of discoveries, as if they had been made but yesterday.
Once he tried to explain to some of the pitmen how the earth was round,
and kept turning round. But his auditors flatly declared the thing to be
impossible, as it was clear that "at the bottom side they must fall off!" "Ah!"
said George, "you don't quite understand it yet." His son Robert also early
endeavored to communicate to others the information which he had
gathered at school; and Dr. Bruce relates that, when visiting Killingworth
on one occasion, he found him engaged in teaching algebra to such of the
pitmen's boys as would become his pupils.
While Robert was still at school, his father proposed to him during the
holidays that he should construct a sun-dial, to be placed over their cottage-
door at West Moor. "I expostulated with him at first," said Robert, "that I
had not learned sufficient astronomy and mathematics to enable me to make
the necessary calculations. But he would have no denial. 'The thing is to be
done,' said he, 'so just set about it at once.' Well, we got a 'Ferguson's
Astronomy,' and studied the subject together. Many a sore head I had while
making the necessary calculations to adapt the dial to the latitude of
Killingworth. But at length it was fairly drawn out on paper, and then my
father got a stone, and we hewed, and carved, and polished it, until we
made a very respectable dial of it; and there it is, you see," pointing to it
over the cottage door, "still quietly numbering the hours when the sun

shines. I assure you, not a little was thought of that piece of work by the
pitmen when it was put up, and began to tell its tale of time." The date
carved upon the dial is "August 11th, MDCCCXVI." Both father and son
were in after life very proud of their joint production. Many years after,
George took a party of savans, when attending the meeting of the British
Association at Newcastle, over to Killingworth to see the pits, and he did
not fail to direct their attention to the sun-dial; and Robert, on the last visit
which he made to the place, a short time before his death, took a friend into
the cottage, and pointed out to him the very desk, still there, at which he
had sat when making his calculations of the latitude of Killingworth.
From the time of his appointment
as engineer at the Killingworth Pit,
George Stephenson was in a
measure relieved from the daily
routine of manual labor, having, as
we have seen, advanced himself to
the grade of a higher-class
workman. He had not ceased to be a
worker, though he employed his
industry in a different way. It might,
indeed, be inferred that he had now
the command of greater leisure; but
his spare hours were as much as
ever given to work, either necessary
or self-imposed. So far as regarded
his social position, he had already
(Sun-dial, Killingworth)
reached the summit of his ambition;
and when he had got his hundred a
year, and his dun galloway to ride on, he said he never wanted to be any
higher. When Robert Wetherly offered to give him an old gig, his traveling
having so much increased of late, he accepted it with great reluctance,
observing that he should be ashamed to get into it, "people would think him
so proud."
When the High Pit had been sunk and the coal was ready for working,
Stephenson erected his first winding-engine to draw the coals out of the pit,
and also a pumping-engine for Long Benton colliery, both of which proved

quite successful. Among other works of this time, he projected and laid
down a self-acting incline along the declivity which fell toward the coal-
loading place near Willington, where he had formerly officiated as
brakesman; and he so arranged it that the full wagons, descending, drew the
empty wagons up the railroad. This was one of the first self-acting inclines
laid down in the district.
The following is Stephenson's own account of his various duties and
labors at this period of his life, as given before a Committee of the House of
Commons in 1835:[30]
"After making some improvements in the steam-engines above ground, I was
requested by the manager of the colliery to go underground along with him, to see if
any improvements could be made in the mines by employing machinery as a
substitute for manual labor and horse-power in bringing the coals out of the deeper
workings of the mine. On my first going down the Killingworth pit, there was a
steam-engine underground for the purpose of drawing water from a pit that was sunk
at some distance from the first shaft. The Killingworth coal-field is considerably
dislocated. After the colliery was opened, at a very short distance from the shaft, one
of those dislocations was met with. The coal was thrown down about forty yards.
Considerable time was spent in sinking another pit to this depth. And on my going
down to examine the work, I proposed making the engine (which had been erected
some time previously) to draw the coals up an inclined plane which descended
immediately from the place where it was fixed. A considerable change was
accordingly made in the mode of working the colliery, not only in applying the
machinery, but in employing putters instead of horses in bringing the coals from the
hewers; and by those changes the number of horses in the pit was reduced from about
100 to 15 or 16. During the time I was engaged in making these important alterations,
I went round the workings in the pit with the viewer almost every time that he went
into the mine, not only at Killingworth, but at Mountmoor, Derwentcrook, Southmoor,
all of which collieries belonged to Lord Ravensworth and his partners; and the whole
of the machinery in all these collieries was put under my charge."

It will thus be observed that Stephenson had now much better
opportunities for improving himself in mechanics than he had heretofore
possessed. His practical knowledge of the steam-engine could not fail to
prove of the greatest value to him. His shrewd insight, together with his
intimate acquaintance with its mechanism, enabled him to apprehend, as if
by intuition, its most abstruse and difficult combinations. The study which
he had given to it when a workman, and the patient manner in which he had
groped his way through all the details of the machine, gave him the power
of a master in dealing with it as applied to colliery purposes.
Sir Thomas Liddell was frequently about the works, and took pleasure in
giving every encouragement to the engine-wright in his efforts after

improvement. The subject of the locomotive engine was already occupying
Stephenson's careful attention, although it was still regarded in the light of a
curious and costly toy, of comparatively little real use. But he had at an
early period recognized its practical value, and formed an adequate
conception of the might which as yet slumbered within it, and he now
proceeded to bend the whole faculties of his mind to the development of its
powers.

COLLIERS' COTTAGES AT LONG BENTON. [By R. P. Leitch.]

CHAPTER V.
THE LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE—GEORGE STEPHENSON BEGINS ITS
IMPROVEMENT.

The rapid increase in the coal-trade of the Tyne about the beginning of
the present century had the effect of stimulating the ingenuity of mechanics,
and encouraging them to devise improved methods of transporting the coal
from the pits to the shipping-places. From our introductory chapter, it will
have been observed that the improvements which had thus far been effected
were confined almost entirely to the road. The railway wagons still
continued to be drawn by horses. By improving and flattening the tram-
way, considerable economy in horse-power had been secured; but, unless
some more effective method of mechanical traction could be devised, it was
clear that railway improvement had almost reached its limits.
Notwithstanding Trevithick's comparatively successful experiment with
the first railway locomotive on the Merthyr Tydvil tram-road in 1804,
described in a former chapter, he seems to have taken no farther steps to
bring his invention into notice. He was probably discouraged by the
breakage of the cast-iron plates, of which the road was formed, which were
crushed under the load of his engine, and could not induce the owners of the
line to relay it with better materials so as to give his locomotive a fair trial.
An imaginary difficulty, also, seems to have tended, among other
obstacles, to prevent the adoption of the locomotive, viz., the idea that, if a
heavy weight were placed behind the engine, the "grip" or "bite" of its
smooth wheels upon the equally smooth iron rail must necessarily be so
slight that they would whirl round upon it, and, consequently, that the
machine would not make any progress.[31] Hence Trevithick, in his patent,
provided that the periphery of the driving-wheels should be made rough by
the projection of bolts or cross-grooves, so that the adhesion of the wheels
to the road might thereby be better secured.
Trevithick himself does not seem to have erected another engine, but we
gather from the evidence given by Mr. Rastrick in the committee on the

Liverpool and Manchester Bill in 1825, that ten or twelve years before that
time he had made an engine for Trevithick after his patent, and that the
engine was exhibited in London. "A circular railroad was laid down," said
Mr. Rastrick, "and it was stated that this engine was to run against a horse,
and that which went a sufficient number of miles was to win." It is not
known what afterward became of this engine.
There were, however, at a much earlier period, several wealthy and
enterprising men, both in Yorkshire and Northumberland, who were willing
to give the locomotive a fair trial; and had Trevithick but possessed the
requisite tenacity of purpose—had he not been too soon discouraged by
partially successful experiments—he might have risen to both fame and
fortune, not only as the inventor of the locomotive, but as the practical
introducer of railway locomotion.
One of Trevithick's early friends and admirers was Mr. Blackett, of
Wylam. The Wylam wagon-way is one of the oldest in the north of England.
Down to the year 1807 it was formed of wooden spars or rails, laid down
between the colliery at Wylam—where old Robert Stephenson worked—
and the village of Lemington, some four miles down the Tyne, where the
coals were loaded into keels or barges, and floated down past Newcastle, to
be shipped for London. Each chaldron-wagon had a man in charge of it, and
was originally drawn by one horse. The rate at which the wagons were
hauled was so slow that only two journeys were performed by each man
and horse in one day, and three on the day following. This primitive wagon-
way passed, as before stated, close in front of the cottage in which George
Stephenson was born, and one of the earliest sights which met his infant
eyes was this wooden tram-road worked by horses.
Mr. Blackett was the first colliery owner in the North who took an active
interest in the locomotive. He had witnessed the first performances of
Trevithick's steam-carriage in London, and was so taken with the idea of its
application to railway locomotion that he resolved to have an engine erected
after the new patent for use upon his tram-way at Wylam. He accordingly
obtained from Trevithick, in October, 1804, a plan of his engine, provided
with "friction-wheels," and employed Mr. John Whinfield, of Pipewellgate,
Gateshead, to construct it at his foundery there. The engine was made under
the superintendence of one John Steele,[32] an ingenious mechanic, who had
been in Wales, and worked under Trevithick in fitting the engine at Pen-y-

darran. When the Gateshead locomotive was finished, a temporary way was
laid down in the works, on which it was run backward and forward many
times. For some reason or other, however—it is said because the engine was
too light for drawing the coal-trains—it never left the works, but was
dismounted from the wheels, and set to blow the cupola of the foundery, in
which service it long continued to be employed.
Several years elapsed before Mr. Blackett took any farther steps to carry
out his idea. The final abandonment of Trevithick's locomotive at Pen-y-
darran perhaps contributed to deter him from proceeding farther; but he had
the Wylam wooden tram-way taken up in 1808, and a plate-way of cast iron
laid down instead—a single line furnished with sidings to enable the laden
wagons to pass the empty ones. The new iron road proved so much
smoother than the old wooden one, that a single horse, instead of drawing
one, was enabled to draw two, or even three laden wagons.

BLENKINSOP'S LEEDS ENGINE.

Although the locomotive seemed about to be lost sight of, it was not
forgotten. In 1811, Mr. Blenkinsop, the manager of the Middleton
Collieries, near Leeds, revived the idea of employing it in lieu of horses to
haul the coals along his tram-way. Mr. Blenkinsop, in the patent which he
took out for his proposed engine, followed in many respects the design of
Trevithick; but, with the help of Matthew Murray, of Leeds, one of the most
ingenious mechanics of his day, he introduced several important and
valuable modifications. Thus he employed two cylinders of 8 in. diameter
instead of one, as in Trevithick's engine. These cylinders were placed
vertically, and immersed for more than half their length in the steam space
of the boiler. The eduction pipes met in a single tube at the top, and threw
the steam into the air. The boiler was cylindrical in form, but of cast iron. It
had one flue, the fire being at one end and the chimney at the other. The
engine was supported on a carriage without springs, resting directly upon
two pairs of wheels and axles unconnected with the working parts, and
which merely served to carry the engine upon the rails. The motion was
effected in this way: the piston-rods, by means of cross-heads, worked the
connecting-rods, which came down to two cranks on each side below the
boiler, placed at right angles in order to pass their centres with certainty.
These cranks worked two shafts fixed across the engine, on which were
small-toothed wheels working into a larger one between them; and on the
axis of this large wheel, outside the framing, were the driving-wheels, one
of which was toothed, and worked into a rack on one side of the railway.
It will be observed that the principal new features in this engine were the
two cylinders and the toothed-wheel working into a rack-rail. Mr.
Blenkinsop contrived the latter expedient in order to insure sufficient
adhesion between the wheel and the road, supposing that smooth wheels
and smooth rails would be insufficient for the purpose. Clumsy and slow
though the engine was compared with modern locomotives, it was
nevertheless a success. It was the first engine that plied regularly upon any
railway, doing useful work; and it continued so employed for more than
twenty years. What was more, it was a commercial success, for its
employment was found to be economical compared with horse-power. In a
letter to Sir John Sinclair, Mr. Blenkinsop stated that his engine weighed
five tons; consumed two thirds of a hundred weight of coals and fifty

gallons of water per hour; drew twenty-seven wagons, weighing ninety-four
tons, on a dead level, at three and a half miles an hour, or fifteen tons up an
ascent of 2 in. in the yard; that when "lightly loaded" it traveled at a speed
of ten miles an hour; that it did the work of sixteen horses in twelve hours;
and that its cost was £400. Such was Mr. Blenkinsop's own account of the
performances of his engine, which was for a long time regarded as one of
the wonders of the neighborhood.[33] The Messrs. Chapman, of Newcastle,
in 1812 endeavored to overcome the same fictitious difficulty of the want of
adhesion between the wheel and the rail by patenting a locomotive to work
along the road by means of a chain stretched from one end of it to the other.
This chain was passed once round a grooved barrel-wheel under the centre
of the engine, so that when the wheel turned, the locomotive, as it were,
dragged itself along the railway. An engine constructed after this plan was
tried on the Heaton Railway, near Newcastle; but it was so clumsy in action,
there was so great a loss of power by friction, and it was found to be so
expensive and difficult to keep in repair, that it was very soon abandoned.
Another remarkable expedient was adopted by Mr. Brunton, of the
Butterley Works, Derbyshire, who in 1813 patented his Mechanical
Traveler, to go upon legs working alternately like those of a horse.[34] But
this engine never got beyond the experimental state, for, at its very first
trial, the driver, to make sure of a good start, overloaded the safety-valve,
when the boiler burst and killed a number of the by-standers, wounding
many more. These, and other contrivances with the same object, projected
about the same time, show that invention was busily at work, and that many
minds were anxiously laboring to solve the problem of steam locomotion on
railways.
Mr. Blackett, of Wylam, was encouraged by the success of Mr.
Blenkinsop's experiment, and again he resolved to make a trial of the
locomotive upon his wagon-way. Accordingly, in 1812, he ordered a second
engine, which was so designed as to work with a toothed driving-wheel
upon a rack-rail as at Leeds. This locomotive was constructed by Thomas
Waters, of Gateshead, under the superintendence of Jonathan Foster, Mr.
Blackett's principal engine-wright. It was a combination of Trevithick's and
Blenkinsop's engines; but it was of a more awkward construction than
either. Like Trevithick's, it had a single cylinder with a fly-wheel, which
Blenkinsop had discarded. The boiler was of cast iron. Jonathan Foster

described it to the author in 1854 as "a strange machine, with lots of pumps,
cog-wheels, and plugs, requiring constant attention while at work." The
weight of the whole was about six tons.
When finished, it was conveyed to Wylam on a wagon, and there
mounted upon a wooden frame, supported by four pairs of wheels, which
had been constructed for its reception. A barrel of water, placed on another
frame upon wheels, was attached to it as a tender. After a great deal of
labor, the cumbrous machine was got upon the road. At first it would not
move an inch. Its maker, Tommy Waters, became impatient, and at length
enraged, and, taking hold of the lever of the safety-valve, declared in his
desperation that "either she or he should go." At length the machinery was
set in motion, on which, as Jonathan Foster described to the author, "she
flew all to pieces, and it was the biggest wonder i' the world that we were
not all blewn up." The incompetent and useless engine was declared to be a
failure; it was shortly after dismounted and sold; and Mr. Blackett's
praiseworthy efforts thus far proved in vain.
He was still, however, desirous of testing the practicability of employing
locomotive power in working the coal down to Lemington, and he
determined on making yet another trial. He accordingly directed his engine-
wright, Jonathan Foster, to proceed with the building of a third engine in the
Wylam workshops. This new locomotive had a single 8-inch cylinder, was
provided with a fly-wheel like its predecessor, and the driving-wheel was
cogged on one side to enable it to travel in the rack-rail laid along the road.
The engine proved more successful than the former one, and it was found
capable of dragging eight or nine loaded wagons, though at the rate of little
more than a mile an hour, from the colliery to the shipping-place. It
sometimes took six hours to perform the journey of five miles. Its weight
was found too great for the road, and the cast-iron plates were constantly
breaking. It was also very apt to get off the rack-rail, and then it stood still.
The driver was one day asked how he got on. "Get on?" said he, "we don't
get on; we only get off!" On such occasions, horses had to be sent out to
drag the wagons as before, and others to haul the engine back to the
workshops. It was constantly getting out of order; its plugs, pumps, or
cranks got wrong, and it was under repair as often as at work. At length it
became so cranky that the horses were usually sent after it to drag it along
when it gave up, and the workmen generally declared it to be a "perfect

plague." Mr. Blackett did not obtain credit among his neighbors for these
experiments. Many laughed at his machines, regarding them only in the
light of crotchets—frequently quoting the proverb of "a fool and his money
are soon parted." Others regarded them as absurd innovations on the
established method of hauling coal, and pronounced that they would "never
answer."
Notwithstanding, however, the comparative failure of the second
locomotive, Mr. Blackett persevered with his experiments. He was
zealously assisted by Jonathan Foster, the engine-wright, and William
Hedley, the viewer of the colliery, a highly ingenious person, who proved of
great use in carrying out the experiments to a successful issue. One of the
chief causes of failure being the rack-rail, the idea occurred to Mr. Hedley
that it might be possible to secure sufficient adhesion between the wheel
and the rail by the mere weight of the engine, and he proceeded to make a
series of experiments for the purpose of determining this problem. He had a
frame placed on four wheels, and fitted up with windlasses attached by
gearing to the several wheels. The frame having been properly weighted,
six men were set to work the windlasses, when it was found that the
adhesion of the smooth wheels on the smooth rails was quite sufficient to
enable them to propel the machine without slipping. Having then found the
proportion which the power bore to the weight, he demonstrated by
successive experiments that the weight of the engine would of itself
produce sufficient adhesion to enable it to draw upon a smooth railroad the
requisite number of wagons in all kinds of weather. And thus was the
fallacy which had heretofore prevailed on this subject completely exploded,
and it was satisfactorily proved that rack-rails, toothed wheels, endless
chains, and legs, were alike unnecessary for the efficient traction of loaded
wagons upon a moderately level road.[35]
From this time forward, considerably less difficulty was experienced in
working the coal-trains upon the Wylam tram-road. At length the rack-rail
was dispensed with. The road was laid with heavier rails; the working of the
old engine was improved; and a new engine was shortly after built and
placed upon the road, still on eight wheels, driven by seven rack-wheels
working inside them—with a wrought-iron boiler through which the flue
was returned so as largely to increase the heating surface, and thus give

increased power to the engine.[36] Below is a representation of this
improved Wylam engine.

WYLAM ENGINE.

As may readily be imagined, the jets of steam from the piston, blowing
off into the air at high pressure while the engine was in motion, caused
considerable annoyance to horses passing along the Wylam road, at that
time a public highway. The nuisance was felt to be almost intolerable, and a
neighboring gentleman threatened to have it put down. To diminish the
noise as much as possible, Mr. Blackett gave orders that so soon as any
horse, or vehicle drawn by horses, came in sight, the locomotive was to be
stopped, and the frightful blast of the engine thus suspended until the
passing animals had got out of sight. Much interruption was thus caused to
the working of the railway, and it excited considerable dissatisfaction
among the workmen. The following plan was adopted to abate the nuisance:
a reservoir was provided immediately behind the chimney (as shown in the
opposite cut) into which the waste steam was thrown after it had performed
its office in the cylinder, and from this reservoir the steam gradually
escaped into the atmosphere without noise. This arrangement was devised

with the express object of preventing a blast in the chimney, the value of
which, as we shall subsequently find, was not detected until George
Stephenson, adopting it with a preconceived design and purpose,
demonstrated its importance and value—as being, in fact, the very life-
breath of the locomotive engine.
While Mr. Blackett was thus experimenting and building locomotives at
Wylam, George Stephenson was anxiously studying the same subject at
Killingworth. He was no sooner appointed engine-wright of the collieries
than his attention was directed to the means of more economically hauling
the coal from the pits to the river side. We have seen that one of the first
important improvements which he made, after being placed in charge of the
colliery machinery, was to apply the surplus power of a pumping steam-
engine fixed underground, for the purpose of drawing the coals out of the
deeper workings of the Killingworth mines, by which he succeeded in
effecting a large reduction in the expenditure on manual and horse labor.
The coals, when brought above ground, had next to be laboriously
dragged by means of horses to the shipping staiths on the Tyne, several
miles distant. The adoption of a tram-road, it is true, had tended to facilitate
their transit; nevertheless, the haulage was both tedious and expensive. With
the view of economizing labor, Stephenson laid down inclined planes where
the nature of the ground would admit of this expedient being adopted. Thus
a train of full wagons let down the incline by means of a rope running over
wheels laid along the tram-road, the other end of which was attached to a
train of empty wagons placed at the bottom of the parallel road on the same
incline, dragged them up by the simple power of gravity. But this applied
only to a comparatively small part of the road. An economical method of
working the coal-trains, instead of by means of horses—the keep of which
was at that time very costly, in consequence of the high price of corn—was
still a great desideratum, and the best practical minds in the collieries were
actively engaged in trying to solve the problem.
In the first place, Stephenson resolved to make himself thoroughly
acquainted with what had already been done. Mr. Blackett's engines were
working daily at Wylam, past the cottage where he had been born, and
thither he frequently went[37] to inspect the improvements made by Mr.
Blackett from time to time both in the locomotive and in the plate-way
along which it worked. Jonathan Foster informed us that, after one of these

visits, Stephenson declared to him his conviction that a much more effective
engine might be made, that should work more steadily and draw the load
more effectively.
He had also the advantage, about the same time, of seeing one of
Blenkinsop's Leeds engines, which was placed on the tram-way leading
from the collieries of Kenton and Coxlodge, on the 2d of September, 1813.
This locomotive drew sixteen chaldron wagons, containing an aggregate
weight of seventy tons, at the rate of about three miles an hour. George
Stephenson and several of the Killingworth men were among the crowd of
spectators that day; and after examining the engine and observing its
performances, he remarked to his companions that "he thought he could
make a better engine than that, to go upon legs." Probably he had heard of
the invention of Brunton, whose patent had by this time been published, and
proved the subject of much curious speculation in the colliery districts.
Certain it is that, shortly after the inspection of the Coxlodge engine, he
contemplated the construction of a new locomotive, which was to surpass
all that had preceded it. He observed that those engines which had been
constructed up to this time, however ingenious in their arrangements, were
in a great measure practical failures. Mr. Blackett's was as yet both clumsy
and expensive. Chapman's had been removed from the Heaton tram-way in
1812, and was regarded as a total failure. And the Blenkinsop engine at
Coxlodge was found very unsteady and costly in its working; besides, it
pulled the rails to pieces, the entire strain being upon the rack-rail on one
side of the road. The boiler, however, having shortly blown up, there was an
end of that engine, and the colliery owners did not feel encouraged to try
any farther experiment.
An efficient and economical working locomotive engine, therefore, still
remained to be invented, and to accomplish this object Stephenson now
applied himself. Profiting by what his predecessors had done, warned by
their failures and encouraged by their partial successes, he commenced his
labors. There was still wanting the man who should accomplish for the
locomotive what James Watt had done for the steam-engine, and combine in
a complete form the best points in the separate plans of others, embodying
with them such original inventions and adaptations of his own as to entitle
him to the merit of inventing the working locomotive, as James Watt is to
be regarded as the inventor of the working condensing engine. This was the

great work upon which George Stephenson now entered, though probably
without any adequate idea of the ultimate importance of his labors to
society and civilization.
He proceeded to bring the subject of constructing a "Traveling Engine,"
as he then denominated the locomotive, under the notice of the lessees of
the Killingworth Colliery, in the year 1813. Lord Ravensworth, the
principal partner, had already formed a very favorable opinion of the new
colliery engine-wright from the improvements which he had effected in the
colliery engines, both above and below ground; and, after considering the
matter, and hearing Stephenson's explanations, he authorized him to
proceed with the construction of a locomotive, though his lordship was by
some called a fool for advancing money for such a purpose. "The first
locomotive that I made," said Stephenson, many years after,[38] when
speaking of his early career at a public meeting in Newcastle, "was at
Killingworth Colliery, and with Lord Ravensworth's money. Yes, Lord
Ravensworth and partners were the first to intrust me, thirty-two years
since, with money to make a locomotive engine. I said to my friends, there
was no limit to the speed of such an engine, if the works could be made to
stand."
Our engine-wright had, however, many obstacles to encounter before he
could get fairly to work with the erection of his locomotive. His chief
difficulty was in finding workmen sufficiently skilled in mechanics and in
the use of tools to follow his instructions and embody his designs in a
practical shape. The tools then in use about the collieries were rude and
clumsy, and there were no such facilities as now exist for turning out
machinery of an entirely new character. Stephenson was under the necessity
of working with such men and tools as were at his command, and he had in
a great measure to train and instruct the workmen himself. The engine was
built in the workshops at the West Moor, the leading mechanic being John
Thirlwall, the colliery blacksmith, an excellent mechanic in his way, though
quite new to the work now intrusted to him.
In this first locomotive constructed at Killingworth, Stephenson to some
extent followed the plan of Blenkinsop's engine. The wrought-iron boiler
was cylindrical, eight feet in length and thirty-four inches in diameter, with
an internal flue-tube twenty inches wide passing through it. The engine had
two vertical cylinders of eight inches diameter and two feet stroke let into

the boiler, which worked the
propelling gear with cross-heads
and connecting-rods. The power of
the two cylinders was combined by
means of spur-wheels, which
communicated the motive power to
the wheels supporting the engine on
the rail, instead of, as in THE SPUR-GEAR.
Blenkinsop's engine, to cog-wheels
which acted on the cogged rail independent of the four supporting wheels.
The engine thus worked upon what is termed the second motion. The
chimney was of wrought iron, round which was a chamber extending back
to the feed-pumps, for the purpose of heating the water previous to its
injection into the boiler. The engine had no springs, and was mounted on a
wooden frame supported on four wheels. In order to neutralize as much as
possible the jolts and shocks which such an engine would necessarily
encounter from the obstacles and inequalities of the then very imperfect
plate-way, the water-barrel which served for a tender was fixed to the end of
a lever and weighted, the other end of the lever being connected with the
frame of the locomotive carriage. By this means the weight of the two was
more equally distributed, though the contrivance did not by any means
compensate for the total absence of springs.
The wheels of the locomotive were all smooth, Stephenson having
satisfied himself by experiment that the adhesion between the wheels of a
loaded engine and the rail would be sufficient for the purpose of traction.
Robert Stephenson informed us that his father caused a number of workmen
to mount upon the wheels of a wagon moderately loaded, and throw their
entire weight upon the spokes on one side, when he found that the wagon
could thus be easily propelled forward without the wheels slipping. This,
together with other experiments, satisfied him, as it had already satisfied
Mr. Hedley, of the expediency of adopting smooth wheels on his engine,
and it was so made accordingly.
The engine was, after much labor and anxiety, and frequent alterations of
parts, at length brought to completion, having been about ten months in
hand. It was placed upon the Killingworth Railway on the 25th of July,
1814, and its powers were tried on the same day. On an ascending gradient

of 1 in 450, the engine succeeded in drawing after it eight loaded carriages
of thirty tons' weight at about four miles an hour; and for some time after it
continued regularly at work.
Although a considerable advance upon previous locomotives, "Blucher"
(as the engine was popularly called) was nevertheless a somewhat
cumbrous and clumsy machine. The parts were huddled together. The boiler
constituted the principal feature; and, being the foundation of the other
parts, it was made to do duty not only as a generator of steam, but also as a
basis for the fixings of the machinery and for the bearings of the wheels and
axles. The want of springs was seriously felt; and the progress of the engine
was a succession of jolts, causing considerable derangement to the
machinery. The mode of communicating the motive power to the wheels by
means of the spur-gear also caused frequent jerks, each cylinder alternately
propelling or becoming propelled by the other, as the pressure of the one
upon the wheels became greater or less than the pressure of the other; and,
when the teeth of the cog-wheels became at all worn, a rattling noise was
produced during the traveling of the engine.
As the principal test of the success of the locomotive was its economy as
compared with horse-power, careful calculations were made with the view
of ascertaining this important point. The result was, that it was found the
working of the engine was at first barely economical; and at the end of the
year the steam-power and the horse-power were ascertained to be as nearly
as possible upon a par in point of cost.
We give the remainder of the history of George Stephenson's efforts to
produce an economical working locomotive in the words of his son Robert,
as communicated to the author in 1856, for the purposes of his father's
"Life."
"A few months of experience and careful observation upon the operation of this (his
first) engine convinced my father that the complication arising out of the action of the
two cylinders being combined by spur-wheels would prevent their coming into
practical application. He then directed his attention to an entire change in the
construction and mechanical arrangements, and in the following year took out a
patent, dated February 28th, 1815, for an engine which combined in a remarkable
degree the essential requisites of an economical locomotive—that is to say, few parts,
simplicity in their action, and great simplicity in the mode by which power was
communicated to the wheels supporting the engine.
"This second engine consisted as before of two vertical cylinders, which
communicated directly with each pair of the four wheels that supported the engine by

a cross-head and a pair of connecting-rods; but, in attempting to establish a direct
communication between the cylinders and the wheels that rolled upon the rails,
considerable difficulties presented themselves. The ordinary joints could not be
employed to unite the engine, which was a rigid mass, with the wheels rolling upon
the irregular surface of the rails; for it was evident that the two rails of the line of
railway could not always be maintained at the same level with respect to each other—
that one wheel at the end of the axle might be depressed into a part of the line which
had subsided, while the other would be elevated. In such a position of the axle and
wheels it was clear that a rigid communication between the cross-head and the wheels
was impracticable. Hence it became necessary to form a joint at the top of the piston-
rod where it united with the cross-head, so as to permit the cross-head always to
preserve complete parallelism with the axle of the wheels with which it was in
communication.
"In order to obtain the flexibility combined with direct action which was essential
for insuring power and avoiding needless friction and jars from irregularities in the
rail, my father employed the 'ball and socket' joint for effecting a union between the
ends of the cross-heads where they united with the connecting-rods, and between the
end of the connecting-rods where they were united with the crank-pins attached to
each driving-wheel. By this arrangement the parallelism between the cross-head and
the axle was at all times maintained, it being permitted to take place without
producing jar or friction upon any part of the machine.
"The next important point was to combine each pair of wheels by some simple
mechanism, instead of the cog-wheels which had formerly been used. My father
began by inserting each axle into two cranks at right angles to each other, with rods
communicating horizontally between them. An engine was made on this plan, and
answered extremely well. But at that period (1815) the mechanical skill of the country
was not equal to the task of forging cranked axles of the soundness and strength
necessary to stand the jars incident to locomotive work; so my father was compelled
to fall back upon a substitute which, though less simple and less efficient, was within
the mechanical capabilities of the workmen of that day, either for construction or
repair. He adopted a chain which rolled over indented wheels placed on the centre of
each axle, and so arranged that the two pairs of wheels were effectually coupled and
made to keep pace with each other. But these chains after a few years' use became
stretched, and then the engines were liable to irregularity in their working, especially
in changing from working back to forward again. Nevertheless, these engines
continued in profitable use upon the Killingworth Colliery Railway for some years.
Eventually the chain was laid aside, and the front and hind wheels were united by rods
on the outside, instead of by rods and crank-ankles inside, as specified in the original
patent; and this expedient completely answered the purpose required, without
involving any expensive or difficult workmanship.

SECTION OF KILLINGWORTH LOCOMOTIVE, 1815.

"Another important improvement was introduced in this engine. The eduction
steam had hitherto been allowed to escape direct into the open atmosphere; but my
father, having observed the great velocity with which the waste-steam escaped,
compared with the velocity with which the smoke issued from the chimney of the
same engine, thought that by conveying the eduction steam into the chimney, and
there allowing it to escape in a vertical direction, its velocity would be imparted to the
smoke from the engine, or to the ascending current of air in the chimney. The
experiment was no sooner made than the power of the engine became more than
doubled; combustion was stimulated, as it were, by a blast; consequently, the power of
the boiler for generating steam was increased, and, in the same proportion, the useful
duty of the engine was augmented.
"Thus, in 1815, my father had succeeded in manufacturing an engine which
included the following important improvements on all previous attempts in the same
direction: simple and direct communication between the cylinder and the wheels
rolling upon the rails; joint adhesion of all the wheels, attained by the use of
horizontal connecting-rods; and, finally, a beautiful method of exciting the
combustion of fuel by employing the waste steam which had formerly been allowed
uselessly to escape. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that this engine, as a

mechanical contrivance, contained the germ of all that has since been effected. It may
be regarded, in fact, as a type of the present locomotive engine.
"In describing my father's application of the waste steam for the purpose of
increasing the intensity of combustion in the boiler, and thus increasing the power of
the engine without adding to its weight, and while claiming for this engine the merit
of being a type of all those which have been successfully devised since the
commencement of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, it is necessary to observe
that the next great improvement in the same direction, the 'multitubular boiler,' which
took place some years later, could never have been used without the help of that
simple expedient, the steam-blast, by which power only the burning of coke was
rendered possible.
"I can not pass over this last-named invention of my father's without remarking
how slightly, as an original idea, it has been appreciated; and yet how small would be
the comparative value of the locomotive engine of the present day without the
application of that important invention!
"Engines constructed by my father in the year 1818 upon the principles just
described are in use on the Killingworth Colliery Railway to this very day (1856),
conveying, at the speed of perhaps five or six miles an hour, heavy coal-trains,
probably as economically as any of the more perfect engines now in use.
"There was another remarkable piece of ingenuity in this machine, which was
completed so many years before the possibility of steam-locomotion became an object
of general commercial interest and Parliamentary inquiry. I have before observed that
up to and after the year 1818 there was no such class of skilled mechanics, nor were
there such machinery and tools for working in metals, as are now at the disposal of
inventors and manufacturers. Among other difficulties of a similar character, it was
not possible at that time to construct springs of sufficient strength to support the
improved engines. The rails then used being extremely light, the roads became worn
down by the traffic, and occasionally the whole weight of the engine, instead of being
uniformly distributed over four wheels, was thrown almost diagonally upon two. In
order to avoid the danger arising from such irregularities in the road, my father
arranged the boiler so that it was supported upon the frame of the engine by four
cylinders which opened into the interior of the boiler. These cylinders were occupied
by pistons with rods, which passed downward and pressed upon the upper side of the
axles. The cylinders, opening into the interior of the boiler, allowed the pressure of
steam to be applied to the upper side of the piston, and that pressure being nearly
equal to the support of one fourth of the weight of the engine, each axle, whatever
might be its position, had the same amount of weight to bear, and consequently the
entire weight was at all times nearly equally distributed among the wheels. This
expedient was more necessary in this case, as the weight of the new locomotive
engines far exceeded that of the carriages which had hitherto been used upon colliery
railways, and therefore subjected the rails to much greater risk from breakage. And
this mode of supporting the engine remained in use until the progress of spring-
making had considerably advanced, when steel springs of sufficient strength
superseded this highly ingenious mode of distributing the weight of the engine
uniformly among the wheels."

The invention of the Steam-blast by George Stephenson in 1815 was
fraught with the most important consequences to railway locomotion, and it

is not saying too much to aver that the success of the locomotive has been
in a great measure the result of its adoption. Without the steam-blast, by
means of which the intensity of combustion is maintained at its highest
point, producing a correspondingly rapid evolution of steam, high rates of
speed could not have been kept up; the advantages of the multitubular
boiler (afterward invented) could never have been fully tested; and
locomotives might still have been dragging themselves unwieldily along at
little more than five or six miles an hour.
As this invention has been the subject of considerable controversy, it
becomes necessary to add a few words respecting it in this place. It has
been claimed as the invention of Trevithick in 1804, of Hedley in 1814, of
Goldsworthy Gurney in 1820, and of Timothy Hackworth in 1829. With
respect to Trevithick, it appears that he discharged the waste steam into the
chimney of his engine, but without any intention of thereby producing a
blast;[39] and that he attached no value to the expedient is sufficiently
obvious from the fact that in 1815 he took out a patent for urging the fire by
means of fanners, similar to a winnowing machine. The claim put forward
on behalf of William Hedley, that he invented the blast-pipe for the Wylam
engine, is sufficiently contradicted by the fact that the Wylam engine had no
blast-pipe. "I remember the Wylam engine," Robert Stephenson wrote to the
author in 1857, "and I am positive there was no blast-pipe." On the contrary,
the Wylam engine embodied a contrivance for the express purpose of
preventing a blast. This is clearly shown by the drawing and description of
it contained in the first edition of Nicholas Wood's "Practical Treatise on
Railroads," published in 1825. This evidence is all the more valuable for
our purpose as it was published long before any controversy had arisen as to
the authorship of the invention, and, indeed, before it was believed that any
merit whatever belonged to it. And it is the more remarkable, as Nicholas
Wood himself, who published the first practical work on railways, did not at
that time approve of the steam-blast, and referred to the Wylam engine in
illustration of how it might be prevented.
The following passage from Mr. Wood's book clearly describes the
express object and purpose for which George Stephenson invented and
applied the steam-blast in the Killingworth engines. Describing their action,
Mr. Wood says:

"The steam is admitted to the top and bottom of the piston by means of a sliding
valve, which, being moved up and down alternately, opens a communication between
the top and bottom of the cylinder and the pipe that is open into the chimney and turns
up within it. The steam, after performing its office within the cylinder, is thus thrown
into the chimney, and the power with which it issues will be proportionate to the
degree of elasticity; and the exit being directed upward, accelerates the velocity of the
current of heated air accordingly."[40]

And again, at another part of the book, he says:
"There is another great objection urged against locomotives, which is, the noise that
the steam makes in escaping into the chimney; this objection is very singular, as it is
not the result of any inherent form in the organization of such engines, but an
accidental circumstance. When the engines were first made, the steam escaped into
the atmosphere, and made comparatively little noise; it was found difficult then to
produce steam in sufficient quantity to keep the engine constantly working, or rather
to obtain an adequate rapidity of current in the chimney to give sufficient intensity to
the fire. To effect a greater rapidity, or to increase the draught of the chimney, Mr.
Stephenson thought that by causing the steam to escape into the chimney through a
pipe with its end turned upward, the velocity of the current would be accelerated, and
such was the effect; but, in remedying one evil, another has been produced, which,
though objectionable in some places, was not considered as objectionable on a private
railroad. The tube through the boiler having been increased, there is now no longer
any occasion for the action of the steam to assist the motion of the heated air in the
chimney. The steam thrown in this manner into the chimney acts as a trumpet, and
certainly makes a very disagreeable noise. Nothing, however, is more easy to remedy,
and the very act of remedying this defect will also be the means of economizing the
fuel."[41]

Mr. Wood then proceeds to show how the noise caused by the blast—
how, in fact, the blast itself, might be effectually prevented by adopting the
expedient employed in the Wylam engine; which was, to send the exhaust
steam, not into the chimney (where alone the blast could act with effect by
stimulating the draught), but into a steam-reservoir provided for the
purpose. His words are these:
"Nothing more is wanted to destroy the noise than to cause the steam to expand
itself into a reservoir, and then allow it to escape gradually to the atmosphere through
the chimney. Upon the Wylam railroad the noise was made the subject of complaint by
a neighboring gentleman, and they adopted this mode, which had the effect above
mentioned."[42]

It is curious to find that Mr. Nicholas Wood continued to object to the use
of the steam-blast down even to the time when the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway Bill was before Parliament. In his evidence before the
Committee on that Bill in 1825, he said: "Those engines [at Killingworth]
puff very much, and the object is to get an increased draught in the

chimney. Now (by enlarging the flue-tube and giving it a double turn
through the boiler) we have got a sufficiency of steam without it, and I have
no doubt, by allowing the steam to exhaust itself in a reservoir, it would
pass quietly into the chimney without that noise." In fact, Mr. Wood was
still in favor of the arrangement adopted in the Wylam engine, by which the
steam-blast had been got rid of altogether.
If these statements, made in Mr. Wood's book, be correct—and they have
never been disputed—they render it perfectly clear that George Stephenson
invented and applied the steam-blast for the express purpose of quickening
combustion in the furnace by increasing the draught in the chimney.
Although urged by Wood to abandon the blast, Stephenson continued to
hold by it as one of the vital powers of the locomotive engine. It is quite
true that in the early engines, with only a double flue passing through the
boiler, run as they were at low speeds, the blast was of comparatively less
importance. It was only when the improved passenger engine, fitted with
the multitubular boiler, was required to be run at high speeds that the full
merits of the blast were brought out; and in detecting its essential uses in
this respect, and sharpening it for the purpose of increasing its action, the
sagacity of Timothy Hackworth, of Darlington, is entitled to due
recognition.

(Colliery Whimsey)

CHAPTER VI.
INVENTION OF THE "GEORDY" SAFETY-LAMP.

Explosions of fire-damp were unusually frequent in the coal-mines of
Northumberland and Durham about the time when George Stephenson was
engaged in the construction of his first locomotives. These explosions were
often attended with fearful loss of life and dreadful suffering to the work-
people. Killingworth Colliery was not free from such deplorable calamities;
and during the time that Stephenson was employed as brakesman at the
West Moor, several "blasts" took place in the pit, by which many workmen
were scorched and killed, and the owners of the colliery sustained heavy
losses. One of the most serious of these accidents occurred in 1806, not
long after he had been appointed brakesman, by which ten persons were
killed. Stephenson was near the pit mouth at the time, and the
circumstances connected with the explosion made a deep impression on his
mind, as appears from the graphic account which he gave of it to the
Committee of the House of Commons on accidents in mines, some thirty
years after the event.
"The pit," said he, "had just ceased drawing coals, and nearly all the men had got
out. It was some time in the afternoon, a little after midday. There were five men that
went down the pit; four of them for the purpose of preparing a place for the furnace.
The fifth was a person who went down to set them to work. I sent this man down
myself, and he had just got to the bottom of the shaft about two or three minutes when
the explosion took place. I had left the mouth of the pit, and had gone about fifty or
sixty yards away, when I heard a tremendous noise, looked round, and saw the
discharge come out of the pit like the discharge of a cannon. It continued to blow, I
think, for a quarter of an hour, discharging every thing that had come into the current.
Wood came up, stones came up, and trusses of hay that went up into the air like
balloons. Those trusses had been sent down during the day, and I think they had in
some measure injured the ventilation of the mine. The ground all round the top of the
pit was in a trembling state. I went as near as I durst go; every thing appeared
cracking and rending about me. Part of the brattice, which was very strong, was
blown away at the bottom of the pits. Very large pumps were lifted from their places,
so that the engine could not work. The pit was divided into four by partitions; it was a
large pit, fourteen feet in diameter, and partitions were put down at right angles,
which made four compartments. The explosion took place in one of those four
quarters, but it broke through into all the others at the bottom, and the brattice or
partitions were set on fire at the first explosion.
"Nobody durst go near the shafts for some time, for fear of another explosion
taking place. At last we considered it necessary to run the rope backward and forward,
and give the miners, if there were any at the bottom of the shaft, an opportunity of
catching the rope as it came to the bottom. Several men were safely got up in this

way; one man, who had got hold of the rope, was being drawn up, when a farther
explosion took place while he was still in the shaft, and the increased current which
came about him projected him as it were up the shaft; yet he was landed without
injury: it was a singular case.... The pit continued to blast every two or three hours for
about two days. It appears that the coal had taken fire, and as soon as the carbureted
hydrogen gas collected in sufficient quantity to reach the part where it was burning, it
ignited again; but none of the explosions were equal to the first, on account of many
parts of the mine having become filled with azotic gas, or the after-damp of the mine.
All the ditches in the countryside were stopped to get water to pour into the pit. We
had fire-engines brought from Newcastle, and the water was poured in till it came
above the fire, and then it was extinguished. The loss to the owners of the colliery by
this accident must have been about £20,000."[43]

Another explosion took place in the same pit in 1809, by which twelve
persons lost their lives. The blast did not reach the shaft as in the former
case, the unfortunate persons in the pit having been suffocated by the after-
damp. More calamitous still were the explosions which took place in the
neighboring collieries, one of the worst being that of 1812, in the Felling Pit
near Gateshead, a mine belonging to Mr. Brandling, by which no fewer than
ninety men and boys were suffocated or burnt to death; and a similar
accident occurred in the same pit in the year following, by which twenty-
two men and boys perished.

The Pit Head, West Moor. [By R. P. Leitch.]

It was natural that Stephenson should devote his attention to the causes of
these deplorable accidents, and to the means by which they might, if

possible, be prevented. His daily occupation led him to think much and
deeply on the subject. As engine-wright of a colliery so extensive as that of
Killingworth, where there were nearly 160 miles of gallery excavation, in
which he personally superintended the working of inclined planes, along
which the coals were sent to the pit entrance, he was necessarily very often
under ground, and brought face to face with the dangers of fire-damp. From
fissures in the roofs of the galleries carbureted hydrogen gas was constantly
flowing; and in some of the more dangerous places it might be heard
escaping from the crevices of the coal with a hissing noise. Ventilation,
firing, and all conceivable modes of drawing out the foul air had been tried,
while the more dangerous parts of the galleries were built up. Still the
danger could not be wholly prevented. The miners must necessarily guide
their steps through the extensive underground ways with lighted lamps or
candles, the naked flame of which, coming in contact with the inflammable
air, daily exposed them and their fellow-workers in the pit to the risk of
death in one of its most dreadful forms.
One day in the year 1814, a workman hurried into Stephenson's cottage
with the startling information that the deepest main of the colliery was on
fire! He immediately hastened to the pit-head, about a hundred yards off,
whither the women and children of the colliery were running, with wildness
and terror depicted in every face. In a commanding voice, Stephenson
ordered the engine-man to lower him down the shaft in the corve. There
was danger, it might be death, before him, but he must go.
He was soon at the bottom and in the midst of the men, who were
paralyzed at the danger which threatened the lives of all in the pit. Leaping
from the corve on its touching the ground, he called out, "Are there six men
among you who have the courage to follow me? If so, come, and we will
put the fire out." The Killingworth pitmen had the most perfect confidence
in their engine-wright, and they readily volunteered to follow him. Silence
succeeded the frantic tumult of the previous minute, and the men set to
work with a will. In every mine, bricks, mortar, and tools enough are at
hand, and by Stephenson's direction the materials were forthwith carried to
the required spot, where, in a very short time, a wall was raised at the
entrance to the main, he himself taking the most active part in the work. The
atmospheric air was by this means excluded, the fire was extinguished,

most of the people in the pit were saved from death, and the mine was
preserved.
This anecdote of George Stephenson was related to the writer, near the
pit-mouth, by one of the men, Kit Heppel, who had been present, and
helped to build up the brick wall by which the fire was stayed, though
several of the workmen were suffocated. Heppel relates that, when down
the pit some days after, seeking out the dead bodies, the cause of the
accident was the subject of some conversation between himself and
Stephenson, and Heppel then asked him, "Can nothing be done to prevent
such awful occurrences?" Stephenson replied that he thought something
might be done. "Then," said Heppel, "the sooner you begin the better, for
the price of coal-mining now is pitmen's lives."
Fifty years since, many of the best pits were so full of the inflammable
gas given forth by the coal that they could not be worked without the
greatest danger, and for this reason some were altogether abandoned. The
rudest possible means were adopted of producing light sufficient to enable
the pitmen to work by. The phosphorescence of decayed fish-skins was
tried; but this, though safe, was very inefficient. The most common method
employed was what was called a steel mill, the notched wheel of which,
being made to revolve against a flint, struck a succession of sparks, which
scarcely served to do more than make the darkness visible. A boy carried
the apparatus, working the wheel; and by the imperfect light thus given
forth the miner plied his dangerous trade. Candles were only used in those
parts of the pit where gas was not abundant. Under this rude system not
more than one third of the coal could be worked, while two thirds were left.
What the workmen, not less than the coal-owners, eagerly desired was a
lamp that should give forth sufficient light, without communicating flame to
the inflammable gas which accumulated in certain parts of the pit.
Something had already been done toward the invention of such a lamp by
Dr. Clanny, of Sunderland, who, in 1813, contrived an apparatus to which
he gave air from the mine through water, by means of bellows. This lamp
went out of itself in inflammable gas. It was found, however, too unwieldy
to be used by the miners for the purposes of their work, and did not come
into general use. A committee of gentlemen interested in coal-mining was
formed to investigate the causes of the explosions, and to devise, if
possible, some means of preventing them. At the invitation of that

committee, Sir Humphry Davy, then in the full zenith of his reputation, was
requested to turn his attention to the subject. He accordingly visited the
collieries near Newcastle on the 24th of August, 1815, and at the close of
that year, on the 9th of November, 1815, he read before the Royal Society
of London his celebrated paper "On the Fire-damp of Coal Mines, and on
Methods of Lighting the Mine so as to prevent its Explosion."
But a humbler though not less diligent and original thinker had been at
work before him, and had already practically solved the problem of the
Safety-lamp. Stephenson was, of course, well aware of the desire which
prevailed in the colliery districts for the invention of a lamp which should
give light enough for the miners to work by without exploding the fire-
damp, and the painful incidents above described only served to quicken his
eagerness to master the difficulty.
For several years he had been engaged, in his own rude way, in making
experiments with the fire-damp in the Killingworth mine. The pitmen used
to expostulate with him on these occasions, believing the experiments to be
fraught with danger. One of the sinkers, called M'Crie, observing him
holding up lighted candles to the windward of the "blower" or fissure from
which the inflammable gas escaped, entreated him to desist; but
Stephenson's answer was, that "he was busy with a plan by which he hoped
to make his experiments useful for preserving men's lives." On these
occasions the miners usually got out of the way before he lit the gas.
In 1815, although he was very much occupied with the business of the
collieries and the improvement of his locomotive engine, he was also busily
engaged in making experiments upon the inflammable gas in the
Killingworth Pit. As he himself afterward related to the Committee of the
House of Commons which sat on the subject of Accidents in Mines in 1835,
he imagined that if he could construct a lamp with a chimney so arranged as
to cause a strong current, it would not fire at the top of the chimney, as the
burnt air would ascend with such a velocity as to prevent the inflammable
air of the pit from descending toward the flame; and such a lamp, he
thought, might be taken into a dangerous atmosphere without risk of
exploding.
Such was Stephenson's theory, when he proceeded to embody his idea of
a miner's safety-lamp in a practical form. In the month of August, 1815, he

requested his friend Nicholas Wood, the head viewer, to prepare a drawing
of a lamp according to the description which he gave him. After several
evenings' careful deliberations, the drawing was prepared, and it was shown
to several of the head men about the works. "My first lamp," said
Stephenson, describing it to the committee above referred to, "had a
chimney at the top of the lamp, and a tube at the bottom to admit the
atmospheric air, or fire-damp and air, to feed the burner or combustion of
the lamp. I was not aware of the precise quantity required to feed the
combustion; but to know what quantity was necessary, I had a slide at the
bottom of the tube in my first lamp, to admit such a quantity of air as might
eventually be found necessary to keep up the combustion."
Accompanied by his friend Wood, Stephenson went into Newcastle, and
ordered a lamp to be made according to his plan by the Messrs. Hogg,
tinmen, at the head of the Side—a well-known street in Newcastle. At the
same time, he ordered a glass to be made for the lamp at the
Northumberland Glass-house in the same town. This lamp was received
from the makers on the 21st of October, and was taken to Killingworth for
the purpose of immediate experiment.
"I remember that evening as distinctly as if it had been but yesterday," said Robert
Stephenson, describing the circumstances to the author in 1857. "Moodie came to our
cottage about dusk, and asked 'if father had got back with the lamp.' 'No.' 'Then I'll
wait till he comes,' said Moodie; 'he can't be long now.' In about half an hour, in came
my father, his face all radiant. He had the lamp with him! It was at once uncovered
and shown to Moodie. Then it was filled with oil, trimmed, and lighted. All was ready,
only the head viewer hadn't arrived. 'Run over to Benton for Nichol, Robert,' said my
father to me, 'and ask him to come directly; say we're going down the pit to try the
lamp.' By this time it was quite dark, and off I ran to bring Nicholas Wood. His house
was at Benton, about a mile off. There was a short cut through Benton Church-yard,
but just as I was about to pass the wicket I saw what I thought was a white figure
moving about among the grave-stones. I took it for a ghost! My heart fluttered, and I
was in a great fright, but to Nichol's house I must get, so I made the circuit of the
church-yard; and when I got round to the other side I looked, and, lo! the figure was
still there. But what do you think it was? Only the grave-digger, plying his work at
that late hour by the light of his lantern set upon one of the grave-stones! I found
Wood at home, and in a few minutes he was mounted and off to my father's. When I
got home I was told they had just left—it was then about eleven—and gone down the
shaft to try the lamp in one of the most dangerous parts of the mine."

Arrived at the bottom of the shaft with the lamp, the party directed their
steps toward one of the foulest galleries in the pit, where the explosive gas
was issuing through a blower in the roof of the mine with a loud hissing
noise. By erecting some deal boarding round that part of the gallery into

which the gas was escaping, the air was thus made more foul for the
purpose of the experiment. After waiting about an hour, Moodie, whose
practical experience of fire-damp in pits was greater than that of either
Stephenson or Wood, was requested to go into the place which had thus
been made foul; and, having done so, he returned, and told them that the
smell of the air was such that if a lighted candle were now introduced an
explosion must inevitably take place. He cautioned Stephenson as to the
danger both to themselves and to the pit if the gas took fire; but Stephenson
declared his confidence in the safety of his lamp, and, having lit the wick,
he boldly proceeded with it toward the explosive air. The others, more timid
and doubtful, hung back when they came within hearing of the blower; and,
apprehensive of the danger, they retired into a safe place, out of sight of the
lamp, which gradually disappeared with its bearer in the recesses of the
mine. It was a critical moment, and the danger was such as would have tried
the stoutest heart. Stephenson, advancing alone, with his yet untried lamp,
in the depths of those underground workings, calmly venturing his life in
the determination to discover a mode by which the lives of many might be
saved, and death disarmed in these fatal caverns, presented an example of
intrepid nerve and manly courage more noble even than that which, in the
excitement of battle and the collective impetuosity of a charge, carries a
man up to the cannon's mouth.
Advancing to the place of danger, and entering within the fouled air, his
lighted lamp in hand, Stephenson held it firmly out, in the full current of the
blower, and within a few inches of its mouth. Thus exposed, the flame of
the lamp at first increased, then flickered, and then went out; but there was
no explosion of the gas. Returning to his companions, who were still at a
distance, he told them what had occurred. Having now acquired somewhat
more confidence, they advanced with him to a point from which they could
observe the experiment repeated, but still at a safe distance. They saw that
when the lighted lamp was held within the explosive mixture, there was a
great flame; the lamp was almost full of fire; and then it seemed to be
smothered out. Again returning to his companions, he relighted the lamp,
and repeated the experiment. This was done several times, with the same
result. At length Wood and Moodie ventured to advance close to the fouled
part of the pit; and, in making some of the later trials, Mr. Wood himself
held up the lighted lamp to the blower.[44] Such was the result of the first

experiments with the first practical Miner's Safety-lamp, and such was the
daring resolution of its inventor in testing its qualities.
Before leaving the pit, Stephenson expressed his opinion that, by an
alteration of the lamp which he contemplated, he could make it burn better.
This was by a change in the slide through which the air was admitted into
the lower part of the lamp, under the flame. After making some experiments
on the air collected at the blower, by means of bladders which were
mounted with tubes of various diameters, he satisfied himself that, when the
tube was reduced to a certain diameter, the explosion would not pass
through; and he fashioned his slide accordingly, reducing the diameter of
the tube until he conceived it was quite safe. In about a fortnight the
experiments were repeated in the pit, in a place purposely made foul as
before. On this occasion a larger number of persons ventured to witness the
experiments, which again proved successful. The lamp was not yet,
however, so efficient as the inventor desired. It required, he observed, to be
kept very steady when burning in the inflammable gas, otherwise it was
liable to go out, in consequence, as he imagined, of the contact of the burnt
air (as he then called it), or azotic gas, which lodged round the exterior of
the flame. If the lamp was moved backward and forward, the azote came in
contact with the flame and extinguished it. "It struck me," said he, "that if I
put more tubes in, I should discharge the poisonous matter that hung round
the flame by admitting the air to its exterior part."
Although he had then no access to scientific works, nor intercourse with
scientific men, nor any thing that could assist him in his inquiries on the
subject besides his own indefatigable spirit of inquiry, Stephenson contrived
a rude apparatus, by means of which he proceeded to test the explosive
properties of the gas and the velocity of current (for this was the direction
of his inquiries) required to permit the explosion to pass through tubes of
different diameters. In making these experiments in his cottage at the West
Moor, Nicholas Wood and George's son Robert usually acted as his
assistants, and sometimes the gentlemen of the neighborhood—among
others, William Brandling and Matthew Bell, who were interested in coal-
mining—attended as spectators. One who was present on such an occasion
remembers that, when an experiment was about to be performed, and all
was ready, George called to Mr. Wood, who worked the stop-cocks of the
gasometer, "Wise on [turn on] the hydrōgen, Nichol!"

These experiments were not performed without risk, for on one occasion
the experimenting party had nearly blown off the roof of the cottage. One of
these "blows up" was described by Stephenson himself before the
Committee on Accidents in Coal Mines in 1835:
"I made several experiments," said he, "as to the velocity required in tubes of
different diameters, to prevent explosion from fire-damp. We made the mixture in all
proportions of light carbureted hydrogen with atmospheric air in the receiver, and we
found by the experiments that when a current of the most explosive mixture that we
could make was forced up a tube four tenths of an inch in diameter, the necessary
current was nine inches in a second to prevent its coming down that tube. These
experiments were repeated several times. We had two or three blows up in making the
experiments, by the flame getting down into the receiver, though we had a piece of
very fine wire-gauze put at the bottom of the pipe, between the receiver and the pipe
through which we were forcing the current. In one of these experiments I was
watching the flame in the tube, my son was taking the vibrations of the pendulum of
the clock, and Mr. Wood was attending to give me the column of water as I called for
it, to keep the current up to a certain point. As I saw the flame descending in the tube I
called for more water, and Wood unfortunately turned the cock the wrong way; the
current ceased, the flame went down the tube, and all our implements were blown to
pieces, which at the time we were not very well able to replace."

The explosion of this glass receiver, which had been borrowed from the
stores of the Philosophical Society at Newcastle for the purpose of making
the experiments, caused the greatest possible dismay among the party, and
they dreaded to inform Mr. Turner, the secretary,[45] of the calamity which
had occurred. Fortunately, none of the experimenters were injured by the
accident.
Stephenson followed up these experiments by others of a similar kind,
with the view of ascertaining whether ordinary flame would pass through
tubes of a small diameter, and with this object he filed off the barrels of
several small keys. Placing these together, he held them perpendicularly
over a strong flame, and ascertained that it did not pass upward. This was a
farther proof to him of the soundness of the principle on which he had been
proceeding.
In order to correct the defect of his first lamp, he accordingly proceeded
to alter it so as to admit the air to the flame by several tubes of reduced
diameter instead of by a single tube. He inferred that a sufficient quantity of
air would thus be introduced into the lamp for the purposes of combustion,
while the smallness of the apertures would still prevent the explosion
passing downward, at the same time that the "burnt air" (the cause, in his

opinion, of the lamp going out) would be more effectually dislodged. The
requisite alterations were made in the lamp by Mr. Matthews, a tinman in
Newcastle, and it was so altered that the air was admitted by three small
tubes inserted in the bottom, the openings of which were placed on the
outside of the burner, instead of having (as in the original lamp) the one
tube opening directly under the flame.
This second or altered lamp was tried in the Killingworth Pit on the 4th
of November, and was found to burn better than the first lamp, and to be
perfectly safe. But, as it did not yet come up entirely to the inventor's
expectations, he proceeded to contrive a third lamp, in which he proposed
to surround the oil vessel with a number of capillary tubes. Then it struck
him that if he cut off the middle of the tubes, or made holes in metal plates,
placed at a distance from each other equal to the length of the tubes, the air
would get in better, and the effect in preventing the communication of
explosion would be the same.
He was encouraged to persevere in the completion of his safety-lamp by
the occurrence of several fatal accidents about this time in the Killingworth
Pit. On the 9th of November a boy was killed by a blast in the A pit, at the
very place where Stephenson had made the experiments with his first lamp;
and, when told of the accident, he observed that if the boy had been
provided with his lamp, his life would have been saved. On the 20th of
November he went over to Newcastle to order his third lamp from Mr.
Watson, a plumber in that town. Mr. Watson referred him to his clerk,
Henry Smith, whom Stephenson invited to join him at a neighboring public
house, where they might quietly talk over the matter, and finally settle the
plan of the new lamp. They adjourned to the "Newcastle Arms," near the
present High-Level Bridge, where they had some ale, and a design of the
lamp was drawn in pencil upon a half-sheet of foolscap, with a rough
specification subjoined. The sketch, when shown to us by Robert
Stephenson some years since, still bore the marks of the ale. It was a very
rude design, but sufficient to work from. It was immediately placed in the
hands of the workmen, finished in the course of a few days, and
experimentally tested in the Killingworth Pit like the previous lamps on the
30th of November, by which date neither Stephenson nor Wood had heard
of Sir Humphry Davy's experiments, nor of the lamp which that gentleman
proposed to construct.

DAVY'S SAFETY-LAMP. STEPHENSON'S SAFETY-
LAMP.

An angry controversy afterward took place as to the respective merits of
George Stephenson and Sir Humphry Davy in respect of the invention of
the Safety-lamp. A committee was formed on both sides, and the facts were
stated in various ways. It is perfectly clear, however, that Stephenson had
ascertained the fact that flame will not pass through tubes of a certain
diameter—the principle on which the safety-lamp is constructed—before
Sir Humphry Davy had formed any definite idea on the subject, or invented
the model lamp afterward exhibited by him before the Royal Society.
Stephenson had actually constructed a lamp on such a principle, and proved
its safety, before Sir Humphry had communicated his views on the subject
to any person; and by the time that the first public intimation had been
given of his discovery, Stephenson's second lamp had been constructed and
tested in like manner in the Killingworth Pit. The first was tried on the 21st
of October, 1815; the second was tried on the 4th of November; but it was
not until the 9th of November that Sir Humphry Davy presented his first

lamp to the public. And by the 30th of the same month, as we have seen,
Stephenson had constructed and tested his third safety-lamp.
Stephenson's theory of the "burnt air" and the "draught" was no doubt
wrong, but his lamp was right, and that was the great fact which mainly
concerned him. Torricelli did not know the rationale of his tube, nor Otto
von Guericke that of his air-pump; yet no one thinks of denying them the
merit of their inventions on that account. The discoveries of Volta and
Galvani were in like manner independent of theory; the greatest discoveries
consisting in bringing to light certain grand facts, on which theories are
afterward framed. Our inventor had been pursuing the Baconian method,
though he did not think of that; his sole object being to invent a safe lamp,
which he knew could only be done through the process of repeated
experiment. Hence his numerous experiments on the fire-damp at the
blowers in the mine, as well as on carbureted hydrogen gas in his cottage by
means of the apparatus above described. By experiment he distinctly
ascertained that the explosion of fire-damp could not pass through small
tubes; and he also did what had not before been done by any inventor—he
constructed a lamp on this principle, and repeatedly proved its safety at the
risk of his life. At the same time, there is no doubt that it was to Sir
Humphry Davy that the merit belonged of elucidating the true law on which
the safety-lamp is constructed.
The subject of this important invention excited so much interest in the
northern mining districts, and Stephenson's numerous friends considered his
lamp so completely successful—having stood the test of repeated
experiments—that they urged him to bring his invention before the
Philosophical and Literary Society of Newcastle, of whose apparatus he had
availed himself in the course of his experiments on fire-damp. After much
persuasion he consented to do so, and a meeting was appointed for the
purpose of receiving his explanations on the evening of the 5th of
December, 1815. Stephenson was at that time so diffident in manner and
unpracticed in speech, that he took with him his friend Nicholas Wood to
act as his interpreter and expositor on the occasion. From eighty to a
hundred of the most intelligent members of the society were present at the
meeting, when Mr. Wood stood forward to expound the principles on which
the lamp had been formed, and to describe the details of its construction.
Several questions were put, to which Mr. Wood proceeded to give replies to

the best of his knowledge. But Stephenson, who up to that time had stood
behind Wood, screened from notice, observing that the explanations given
were not quite correct, could no longer control himself, and, standing
forward, he proceeded in his strong Northumbrian dialect to describe the
lamp down to its minutest details. He then produced several bladders full of
carbureted hydrogen, which he had collected from the blowers in the
Killingworth mine, and proved the safety of his lamp by numerous
experiments with the gas, repeated in various ways, his earnest and
impressive manner exciting in the minds of his auditors the liveliest interest
both in the inventor and his invention.

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE, NEWCASTLE.

Shortly after, Sir H. Davy's model lamp was received and exhibited to the
coal-miners at Newcastle, on which occasion the observation was made by
several gentlemen, "Why, it is the same as Stephenson's!"
Notwithstanding Stephenson's claim to be regarded as the first inventor
of the Tube Safety-lamp, his merits do not seem to have been generally

recognized. Sir Humphry Davy carried off the larger share of the éclat
which attached to the discovery. What chance had the unknown workman of
Killingworth with so distinguished a competitor? The one was as yet but a
colliery engine-wright, scarce raised above the manual-labor class, without
chemical knowledge or literary culture, pursuing his experiments in
obscurity, with a view only to usefulness; the other was the scientific
prodigy of his day, the pet of the Royal Society, the favorite of princes, the
most brilliant of lecturers, and the most popular of philosophers.
No small indignation was expressed by the friends of Sir Humphry Davy
at Stephenson's "presumption" in laying claim to the invention of the
Safety-lamp. The scientific class united to ignore him entirely in the matter.
In 1831, Dr. Paris, in his "Life of Sir Humphry Davy," thus wrote: "It will
hereafter be scarcely believed that an invention so eminently scientific, and
which could never have been derived but from the sterling treasury of
science, should have been claimed on behalf of an engine-wright of
Killingworth, of the name of Stephenson—a person not even possessing a
knowledge of the elements of chemistry."
But Stephenson was really far above claiming for himself an invention
not his own. He had already accomplished a far greater thing even than the
making of a safety-lamp: he had constructed a successful locomotive, which
was to be seen in daily work on the Killingworth Railway. By the
improvements he had made in the engine, he might almost be said to have
invented it; yet no one—not even the philosophers—detected as yet the
significance of that wonderful machine. It excited no scientific interest,
called forth no leading articles in the newspapers or the reviews, and
formed the subject of no eloquent lectures at the Royal Society; for railways
were as yet comparatively unknown, and the might which slumbered in the
locomotive was scarcely, as yet, even dreamed of. What railways were to
become rested in a great measure with that "engine-wright of Killingworth,
of the name of Stephenson," though he was scarcely known as yet beyond
the bounds of his own district.
As to the value of the invention of the safety-lamp there could be no
doubt, and the colliery owners of Durham and Northumberland, to testify
their sense of its importance, determined to present a testimonial to its
inventor. The friends of Sir H. Davy met in August, 1816, to take steps to
raise a subscription for the purpose. The advertised object of the meeting

was to present him with a reward for the invention of his safety-lamp. To
this no objection could be taken; for, though the principle on which the
safety-lamps of Stephenson and Davy were constructed was the same, and
although Stephenson's lamp was unquestionably the first successful lamp
that had been constructed on such principle, and proved to be efficient, yet
Sir H. Davy did invent a safety-lamp, no doubt quite independently of all
that Stephenson had done; and having directed his careful attention to the
subject, and elucidated the true theory of explosion of carbureted hydrogen,
he was entitled to all praise and reward for his labor. But when the meeting
of coal-owners proposed to raise a subscription for the purpose of
presenting Sir H. Davy with a reward for "his invention of the safety-lamp,"
the case was entirely altered, and Stephenson's friends then proceeded to
assert his claims to be regarded as its first inventor.
Many meetings took place on the subject, and much discussion ensued,
the result of which was that a sum of £2000 was presented to Sir Humphry
Davy as "the inventor of the safety-lamp;" but, at the same time, a purse of
100 guineas was voted to George Stephenson, in consideration of what he
had done in the same direction. This result was, however, very
unsatisfactory to Stephenson, as well as to his friends; and Mr. Brandling,
of Gosforth, suggested to him that, the subject being now fairly before the
public, he should publish a statement of the facts on which his claim was
founded.
But this was not at all in George Stephenson's line. He had never
appeared in print before, and it seemed to him a far more formidable thing
to write a letter for publication in "the papers" than even to invent a safety-
lamp or design a locomotive. Having called his son Robert to his assistance,
he set him down before a sheet of foolscap, and when all was ready, he said,
"Now, put down there just what I tell you." The composition of this letter,
as we were informed by the writer of it, occupied more evenings than one;
and when it was at length finished after many corrections, and fairly copied
out, the father and son set out—the latter dressed in his Sunday's round
jacket—to lay the joint production before Mr. Brandling, at Gosforth
House. Glancing over the letter, Mr. Brandling said, "George, this will
never do." "It is all true, sir," was the reply. "That may be; but it is badly
written." Robert blushed, for he thought it was the penmanship that was
called in question, and he had written his very best. Mr. Brandling then

requested his visitors to sit down while he put the letter in a more polished
form, which he did, and it was shortly after published in the local papers.
As the controversy continued for some time longer to be carried on in the
Newcastle papers, Mr. Stephenson, in the year 1817, consented to publish
the detailed plans, with descriptions, of the several safety-lamps which he
had contrived for use in the Killingworth Colliery. The whole forms a
pamphlet of only sixteen pages of letter-press.[46]
His friends, being fully satisfied of his claims to priority as the inventor
of the safety-lamp used in the Killingworth and other collieries, proceeded
to hold a public meeting for the purpose of presenting him with a reward
"for the valuable service he had thus rendered to mankind." Charles J.
Brandling, Esq., occupied the chair; and several resolutions were passed, of
which the first and most important was as follows: "That it is the opinion of
this meeting that Mr. George Stephenson, having discovered the fact that
explosion of hydrogen gas will not pass through tubes and apertures of
small dimensions, and having been the first to apply that principle in the
construction of a safety-lamp, is entitled to a public reward."
A subscription was immediately commenced with this object, and a
committee was formed, consisting of the Earl of Strathmore, C. J.
Brandling, and others. The subscription list was headed by Lord
Ravensworth, one of the partners in the Killingworth Colliery, who showed
his appreciation of the merits of Stephenson by giving 100 guineas. C. J.
Brandling and partners gave a like sum, and Matthew Bell and partners, and
John Brandling and partners, gave 50 guineas each. When the resolutions
appeared in the newspapers, the scientific friends of Sir Humphry Davy in
London met, and passed a series of counter-resolutions, which they
published, declaring their opinion that Mr. Stephenson was not the author of
the discovery of the fact that explosion of hydrogen will not pass through
tubes and apertures of small dimensions, and that he was not the first to
apply that principle to the construction of a safety-lamp. To these counter-
resolutions were attached the well-known names of Sir Joseph Banks,
P.R.S., William Thomas Brande, Charles Hatchett, W. H. Wollaston, and
Thomas Young.
Mr. Stephenson's friends then, to make assurance doubly sure, and with a
view to set the question at rest, determined to take evidence in detail as to

the date of discovery by George Stephenson of the fact in question, and its
practical application by him in the formation and actual trial of his safety-
lamp. The witnesses examined were George Stephenson himself, Mr.
Nicholas Wood, and John Moodie, who had been present at the first trial of
the lamp; the several tinmen who made the lamps; the secretary and other
members of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle, who were
present at the exhibition of the third lamp; and some of the workmen who
were present at the Killingworth Colliery, who had been witnesses of
Stephenson's experiments on fire-damp made with the lamps at different
times before Sir Humphry Davy's investigations had been heard of. This
evidence was quite conclusive to the minds of the gentlemen who
investigated the subject, and they published it in 1817, together with their
Report, in which they declared that, "after a careful inquiry into the merits
of the case, conducted, as they trust, in a spirit of fairness and moderation,
they can perceive no satisfactory reason for changing their opinion."[47] The
Stephenson subscription, when collected, amounted to £1000. Part of the
money was devoted to the purchase of a silver tankard, which was
presented to the inventor, together with the balance of the subscription, at a
public dinner given in the Assembly Rooms at Newcastle.[48] But what gave
Stephenson even greater pleasure than the silver tankard and purse of
sovereigns was the gift of a silver watch, purchased by small subscriptions
collected among the colliers themselves, and presented to him by them as a
token of their esteem and regard for him as a man, as well as of their
gratitude for the perseverance and skill with which he had prosecuted his
valuable and life-saving invention to a successful issue. To the last day of
his life he spoke with pride of this watch as the most highly-prized gift he
had ever received.
However great may be the merits of Stephenson in connection with the
invention of the tube safety-lamp, they can not be regarded as detracting in
any degree from the reputation of Sir Humphry Davy. His inquiries into the
explosive properties of carbureted hydrogen gas were quite original, and his
discovery of the fact that explosion will not pass through tubes of a certain
diameter was made independently of all that Stephenson had done in
verification of the same fact. It would even appear that Mr. Smithson
Tennant and Dr. Wollaston had observed the same fact several years before,
though neither Stephenson nor Davy knew of it while they were prosecuting

their experiments. Sir Humphry Davy's subsequent modification of the
tube-lamp, by which, while diminishing the diameter, he in the same ratio
shortened the tubes without danger, and in the form of wire-gauze
enveloped the safety-lamp by a multiplicity of tubes, was a beautiful
application of the true theory which he had formed upon the subject.
The increased number of accidents which have occurred from explosions
in coal-mines since the general introduction of the Davy lamp led to
considerable doubts being entertained as to its safety, and inquiries were
consequently made as to the means by which it might be farther improved;
for experience has shown that, under certain circumstances, the Davy lamp
is not safe. Stephenson was himself of opinion that the modification of his
own and Sir Humphry Davy's lamp, by combining the glass cylinder with
the wire-gauze, would give the best lamp. At the same time, it must be
admitted that the Davy and the Geordy lamps alike failed to stand the
severe tests to which they were submitted by Dr. Pereira, before the
Committee on Accidents in Mines. Indeed, Dr. Pereira did not hesitate to
say that, when exposed to a current of explosive gas, the Davy lamp is
"decidedly unsafe," and that the experiments by which its safety had been
"demonstrated" in the lecture-room had proved entirely "fallacious."
It is worthy of remark that, under circumstances in which the wire-gauze
of the Davy lamp becomes red-hot from the high explosiveness of the gas,
the Geordy lamp is extinguished; and we can not but think that this fact
testifies to the decidedly superior safety of the Geordy. An accident
occurred in the Oaks Colliery Pit at Barnsley on the 20th of August, 1857,
which strikingly exemplified the respective qualities of the lamps. A sudden
outburst of gas took place from the floor of the mine along a distance of
fifty yards. Fortunately, the men working in the pit at the time were all
supplied with safety-lamps—the hewers with Stephenson's, and the hurriers
with Davy's. On this occasion, the whole of the Stephenson lamps, over a
space of five hundred yards, were extinguished almost instantaneously;
whereas the Davy lamps were filled with fire and became red-hot, so that
several of the men using them had their hands burnt by the gauze. Had a
strong current of air been blowing through the gallery at the time, an
explosion would most probably have taken place—an accident which, it
will be observed, could not, under such circumstances, occur from the use

of the Geordy, which is immediately extinguished as soon as the air
becomes explosive.[49]
Nicholas Wood, a good judge, has said of the two inventions, "Priority
has been claimed for each of them—I believe the inventions to be parallel.
By different roads they both arrived at the same result. Stephenson's is the
superior lamp. Davy's is safe—Stephenson's is safer."
When the question of priority was under discussion at Mr. Lough's studio
in 1857, Sir Matthew White Ridley asked Robert Stephenson, who was
present, for his opinion on the subject. His answer was, "I am not exactly
the person to give an unbiased opinion; but, as you ask me frankly, I will as
frankly say, that if George Stephenson had never lived, Sir Humphry Davy
could and most probably would have invented the safety-lamp; but again, if
Sir Humphry Davy had never lived, George Stephenson certainly would
have invented the safety-lamp, as I believe he did, independently of all that
Sir Humphry Davy had done in the matter."
To this day the Geordy lamp continues in regular use in the Killingworth
Collieries, and the Killingworth pitmen have expressed to the writer their
decided preference for it compared with the Davy. It is certainly a strong
testimony in its favor that no accident is known to have arisen from its use
since it was generally introduced into the Killingworth pits.

THE STEPHENSON TANKARD.

CHAPTER VII.
GEORGE STEPHENSON'S FARTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOCOMOTIVE
—THE HETTON RAILWAY—ROBERT STEPHENSON AS VIEWER'S
APPRENTICE AND STUDENT.

Stephenson's experiments on fire-damp, and his labors in connection with
the invention of the safety-lamp, occupied but a small portion of his time,
which was necessarily devoted, for the most part, to the ordinary business
of the colliery. From the day of his appointment as engine-wright, one of
the subjects which particularly occupied his attention was the best practical
method of winning and raising the coal. Nicholas Wood has said of him that
he was one of the first to introduce steam machinery underground with that
object. Indeed, the Killingworth mines came to be regarded as the models
of the district; and when Mr. Robert Bald, the celebrated Scotch mining

engineer, was requested by Dr. (afterward Sir David) Brewster to prepare
the article "Mine" for the "Edinburg Encyclopædia," he proceeded to
Killingworth principally for the purpose of examining Stephenson's
underground machinery. Mr. Bald has favored us with an account of his
visit made with that object in 1818, and he states that he was much struck
with the novelty, as well as the remarkable efficiency of Stephenson's
arrangements, especially in regard to what is called the underdip working.
"I found," he says, "that a mine had been commenced near the main pit-bottom, and
carried forward down the dip or slope of the coal, the rate of dip being about one in
twelve; and the coals were drawn from the dip to the pit-bottom by the steam
machinery in a very rapid manner. The water which oozed from the upper winning
was disposed of at the pit-bottom in a barrel or trunk, and was drawn up by the power
of the engine which worked the other machinery. The dip at the time of my visit was
nearly a mile in length, but has since been greatly extended. As I was considerably
tired by my wanderings in the galleries, when I arrived at the forehead of the dip, Mr.
Stephenson said to me, 'You may very speedily be carried up to the rise by laying
yourself flat upon the coal-baskets,' which were laden and ready to be taken up the
incline. This I at once did, and was straightway wafted on the wings of fire to the
bottom of the pit, from whence I was borne swiftly up to the light by the steam
machinery on the pit-head."

The whole of the working arrangements seemed to Mr. Bald to be
conducted in the most skillful and efficient manner, reflecting the highest
credit on the colliery engineer.
Besides attending to the underground arrangements, the improved transit
of the coals above ground from the pit-head to the shipping-place demanded
an increasing share of Stephenson's attention. Every day's experience
convinced him that the locomotive constructed by him after his patent of
the year 1815 was far from perfect, though he continued to entertain
confident hopes of its complete eventual success. He even went so far as to
say that the locomotive would yet supersede every other traction-power for
drawing heavy loads. It is true, many persons continued to regard his
traveling engine as little better than a dangerous curiosity; and some,
shaking their heads, predicted for it "a terrible blow-up some day."
Nevertheless, it was daily performing its work with regularity, dragging the
coal-wagons between the colliery and the staiths, and saving the labor of
many men and horses.
There was not, however, so marked a saving in the expense of haulage as
to induce the colliery masters to adopt locomotive power generally as a
substitute for horses. How it could be improved, and rendered more

efficient as well as economical, was constantly present to Stephenson's
mind. He was fully conscious of the imperfections both in the road and the
engine, and gave himself no rest until he had brought the efficiency of both
up to a higher point. Thus he worked his way inch by inch, slowly but
surely, and every step gained was made good as a basis for farther
improvements.
At an early period of his labors, or about the time when he had completed
his second locomotive, he began to direct his particular attention to the state
of the Road, perceiving that the extended use of the locomotive must
necessarily depend in a great measure upon the perfection, solidity,
continuity, and smoothness of the way along which the engine traveled.
Even at that early period he was in the habit of regarding the road and the
locomotive as one machine, speaking of the Rail and the Wheel as "Man
and Wife."
All railways were at that time laid in a careless and loose manner, and
great inequalities of level were allowed to occur without much attention
being paid to repairs. The consequence was a great loss of power, as well as
much wear and tear of the machinery, by the frequent jolts and blows of the
wheels against the rails. Stephenson's first object, therefore, was to remove
the inequalities produced by the imperfect junction between rail and rail.
At that time (1816) the rails were made of cast iron, each rail being about
three feet long; and sufficient care was not taken to maintain the points of
junction on the same level. The chairs, or cast-iron pedestals into which the
rails were inserted, were flat at the bottom, so that whenever any
disturbance took place in the stone blocks or sleepers supporting them, the
flat base of the chair upon which the rails rested being tilted by unequal
subsidence, the end of one rail became depressed, while that of the other
was elevated. Hence constant jolts and shocks, the reaction of which very
often caused the fracture of the rails, and occasionally threw the engine off
the road.
To remedy this imperfection, Mr. Stephenson devised a new chair, with
an entirely new mode of fixing the rails therein. Instead of adopting the
butt-joint which had hitherto been used in all cast-iron rails, he adopted the
half-lap joint, by which means the rails extended a certain distance over
each other at the ends like a scarf-joint. These ends, instead of resting on the

flat chair, were made to rest upon
the apex of a curve forming the
bottom of the chair. The supports
were also extended from three feet
to three feet nine inches or four feet
apart. These rails were accordingly
substituted for the old cast-iron
HALF-LAP JOINT.
plates on the Killingworth Colliery
Railway, and they were found to be
a very great improvement on the previous system, adding both to the
efficiency of the horse-power (still used on the railway) and to the smooth
action of the locomotive engine, but more particularly increasing the
efficiency of the latter.
This improved form of the rail and chair was embodied in a patent taken
out in the joint names of Mr. Losh, of Newcastle, iron founder, and of Mr.
Stephenson, bearing date the 30th of September, 1816. Mr. Losh being a
wealthy, enterprising iron-manufacturer, and having confidence in George
Stephenson and his improvements, found the money for the purpose of
taking out the patent, which in those days was a very costly as well as
troublesome affair. At the same time, Mr. Losh guaranteed Stephenson a
salary of £100 per annum, with a share in the profits arising from his
inventions, conditional on his attending at the Walker Iron-works two days
a week—an arrangement to which the owners of the Killingworth Colliery
cheerfully gave their sanction.

OLD KILLINGWORTH LOCOMOTIVE STILL IN USE.

The specification of 1816 included various important improvements in
the locomotive itself. The wheels of the engine were improved, being
altered from cast to malleable iron, in whole or in part, by which they were
made lighter as well as more durable and safe. The patent also included the
ingenious and original contrivance by which the steam generated in the
boiler was made to serve as a substitute for springs—an expedient already
explained in a preceding chapter.
The result of the actual working of the new locomotive on the improved
road amply justified the promises held forth in the specification. The traffic
was conducted with greater regularity and economy, and the superiority of
the engine, as compared with horse traction, became still more marked. And
it is a fact worthy of notice, that the identical engines constructed by
Stephenson in 1816 are to this day in regular useful work upon the
Killingworth Railway, conveying heavy coal-trains at the speed of between
five and six miles an hour, probably as economically as any of the more
perfect locomotives now in use.
George Stephenson's endeavors having been attended with such marked
success in the adaptation of locomotive power to railways, his attention was

called by many of his friends, about the year 1818, to the application of
steam to traveling on common roads. It was from this point, indeed, that the
locomotive had started, Trevithick's first engine having been constructed
with this special object. Stephenson's friends having observed how far
behind he had left the original projector of the locomotive in its application
to railroads, perhaps naturally inferred that he would be equally successful
in applying it to the purpose for which Trevithick and Vivian had intended
their first engine. But the accuracy with which he estimated the resistance to
which loads were exposed on railways, arising from friction and gravity, led
him at a very early stage to reject the idea of ever applying steam-power
economically to common road traveling. In October, 1818, he made a series
of careful experiments, in conjunction with Mr. Nicholas Wood, on the
resistance to which carriages were exposed on railways, testing the results
by means of a dynamometer of his own contrivance. The series of practical
observations made by means of this instrument were interesting, as the first
systematic attempt to determine the precise amount of resistance to
carriages moving along railways. It was then for the first time ascertained
by experiment that the friction was a constant quantity at all velocities.
Although this theory had long before been developed by Vince and
Coulomb, and was well known to scientific men as an established truth, yet,
at the time when Stephenson made his experiments, the deductions of
philosophers on the subject were neither believed in nor acted upon by
practical engineers. To quote again from the MS. account supplied to the
author by Robert Stephenson for the purposes of his father's "Life:"
"It was maintained by many that the results of the experiments led to the greatest
possible mechanical absurdities. For instance, it was maintained that, if friction were
constant at all velocities upon a level railway, when once a power was applied to a
carriage which exceeded the friction of that carriage by the smallest possible amount,
that same small excess of power would be able to convey the carriage along a level
railway at all conceivable velocities. When this position was put by those who
opposed the conclusions at which my father had arrived, he felt great hesitation in
maintaining his own views; for it appeared to him at first sight really to be—as it was
put by his opponents—an absurdity. Frequent repetition, however, of the experiments
to which I have alluded, left no doubt upon his mind that his conclusion that friction
was uniform at all velocities was a fact which must be received as positively
established; and he soon afterward boldly maintained that that which was an apparent
absurdity was, instead, a necessary consequence. I well remember the ridicule that
was thrown upon this view by many of those persons with whom he was associated at
the time. Nevertheless, it is undoubted, that, could you practically be always applying
a power in excess of the resistance, a constant increase of velocity would of necessity
follow without any limit. This is so obvious to most professional men of the present

day, and is now so axiomatic, that I only allude to the discussion which took place
when these experiments of my father were announced for the purpose of showing how
small was the amount of science at that time blended with engineering practice. A few
years afterward, an excellent pamphlet was published by Mr. Silvester on this
question; he took up the whole subject, and demonstrated in a very simple and
beautiful manner the correctness of all the views at which my father had arrived by
his course of experiments.
"The other resistances to which carriages were exposed were also investigated
experimentally by my father. He perceived that these resistances were mainly three—
the first being upon the axles of the carriage; the second, which may be called the
rolling resistance, being between the circumference of the wheel and the surface of
the rail; and the third being the resistance of gravity.
"The amount of friction and gravity he accurately ascertained; but the rolling
resistance was a matter of greater difficulty, for it was subject to great variation. He,
however, satisfied himself that it was so great, when the surface presented to the
wheel was of a rough character, that the idea of working steam-carriages
economically on common roads was out of the question. Even so early as the period
alluded to he brought his theoretical calculations to a practical test; he scattered sand
upon the rails when an engine was running, and found that a small quantity was quite
sufficient to retard and even stop the most powerful locomotive engine that he had at
that time made. And he never failed to urge this conclusive experiment upon the
attention of those who were wasting their money and time upon the vain attempt to
apply steam to common roads.
"The following were the principal arguments which influenced his mind to work
out the use of the locomotive in a directly opposite course to that pursued by a number
of ingenious inventors, who, between 1820 and 1836, were engaged in attempting to
apply steam-power to turnpike roads. Having ascertained that resistance might be
taken as represented by 10 lbs. to a ton weight on a level railway, it became obvious
to him that so small a rise as 1 in 100 would diminish the useful effort of a locomotive
by upward of fifty per cent. This fact called my father's attention to the question of
gradients in future locomotive lines. He then became convinced of the vital
importance, in an economical point of view, of reducing the country through which a
railway was intended to pass to as near a level as possible. This originated in his mind
the distinctive character of railway works as contradistinguished from all other roads;
for in railroads he early contended that large sums would be wisely expended in
perforating barriers of hills with long tunnels, and in raising low ground with the
excess cut down from the adjacent high ground. In proportion as these views fixed
themselves upon his mind, and were corroborated by his daily experience, he became
more and more convinced of the hopelessness of applying steam locomotion to
common roads; for every argument in favor of a level railway was an argument
against the rough and hilly course of a common road. He never ceased to urge upon
the patrons of road steam-carriages that if, by any amount of ingenuity, an engine
could be made which could by possibility traverse a turnpike road at a speed at least
equal to that obtainable by horse-power, and at a less cost, such an engine, if applied
to the more perfect surface of a railway, would have its efficiency enormously
enhanced. For instance, he calculated that if an engine had been constructed, and had
been found to travel uniformly between London and Birmingham at an average speed
of 10 miles an hour—conveying, say, 20 or 30 passengers at a cost of 1s. per mile, it
was clear that the same engine, if applied to a railway, instead of conveying 20 or 30

people, would have conveyed 200 or 300 people, and instead of a speed of 10 or 12
miles an hour, a speed of at least 30 to 40 miles an hour would have been obtained."

At this day it is difficult to understand how the sagacious and strong
common-sense views of Stephenson on this subject failed to force
themselves sooner upon the minds of those who were persisting in their
vain though ingenious attempts to apply locomotive power to ordinary
roads. For a long time they continued to hold with obstinate perseverance to
the belief that for such purposes a soft road was better than a hard one—a
road easily crushed better than one incapable of being crushed; and they
held to this after it had been demonstrated in all parts of the mining districts
that iron tram-ways were better than paved roads. But the fallacy that iron
was incapable of adhesion upon iron continued to prevail, and the
projectors of steam-traveling on common roads only shared in the common
belief. They still considered that roughness of surface was essential to
produce "bite," especially in surmounting acclivities; the truth being that
they confounded roughness of surface with tenacity of surface and contact
of parts, not perceiving that a yielding surface which would adapt itself to
the tread of the wheel could never become an unyielding surface to form a
fulcrum for its progression.
Although Stephenson's locomotive engines were in daily use for many
years on the Killingworth Railway, they excited comparatively little
interest. They were no longer experimental, but had become an established
tractive power. The experience of years had proved that they worked more
steadily, drew heavier loads, and were, on the whole, considerably more
economical than horses. Nevertheless, eight years passed before another
locomotive railway was constructed and opened for the purposes of coal or
other traffic.
It is difficult to account for this early indifference on the part of the
public to the merits of the greatest mechanical invention of the age. Steam-
carriages were exciting much interest, and numerous and repeated
experiments were made with them. The improvements effected by M'Adam
in the mode of constructing turnpike roads were the subject of frequent
discussions in the Legislature, on the grants of public money being
proposed, which were from time to time made to him. Yet here at
Killingworth, without the aid of a farthing of government money, a system
of road locomotion had been in existence since 1814, which was destined,

before many years, to revolutionize the internal communications of England
and of the world, but of which the English public and the English
government as yet knew nothing.
But Stephenson had no means of bringing his important invention
prominently under the notice of the public. He himself knew well its
importance, and he already anticipated its eventual general adoption; but,
being an unlettered man, he could not give utterance to the thoughts which
brooded within him on the subject. Killingworth Colliery lay far from
London, the centre of scientific life in England. It was visited by no savans
nor literary men, who might have succeeded in introducing to notice the
wonderful machine of Stephenson. Even the local chroniclers seem to have
taken no notice of the Killingworth Railway. The "Puffing Billy" was doing
its daily quota of hard work, and had long ceased to be a curiosity in the
neighborhood. Blenkinsop's clumsier and less successful engine—which
has long since been disused, while Stephenson's Killingworth engines
continue working to this day—excited far more interest, partly, perhaps,
because it was close to the large town of Leeds, and used to be visited by
strangers as one of the few objects of interest in that place. Blenkinsop was
also an educated man, and was in communication with some of the most
distinguished personages of his day on the subject of his locomotive, which
thus obtained considerable celebrity.
The first engine constructed by Stephenson to order, after the
Killingworth model, was made for the Duke of Portland in 1817, for use
upon his tram-road, about ten miles long, extending from Kilmarnock to
Troon, in Ayrshire. It was employed to haul the coals from the duke's
collieries along the line to Troon harbor. Its use was, however, discontinued
in consequence of the frequent breakages of the cast-iron rails, by which the
working of the line was interrupted, and accordingly horses were again
employed as before.[50]
There seemed, indeed, to be so small a prospect of introducing the
locomotive into general use, that Stephenson—perhaps conscious of the
capabilities within him—again recurred to his old idea of emigrating to the
United States. Before entering as sleeping partner in a small foundery at
Forth Banks, Newcastle, managed by Mr. John Burrell, he had thrown out
the suggestion to the latter that it would be a good speculation for them to
emigrate to North America, and introduce steam-boats on the great inland

lakes there. The first steamers were then plying upon the Tyne before his
eyes, and he saw in them the germ of a great revolution in navigation. It
occurred to him that the great lakes of North America presented the finest
field for trying their wonderful powers. He was an engineer, and Mr. Burrell
was an iron-founder; and between them, he thought they might strike out a
path to fortune in the mighty West. Fortunately, this idea remained a mere
speculation so far as Stephenson was concerned, and it was left to others to
do what he had dreamed of achieving. After all his patient waiting, his skill,
industry, and perseverance were at length about to bear fruit.
In 1819, the owners of the Hetton Colliery, in the county of Durham,
determined to have their wagon-way altered to a locomotive railroad. The
result of the working of the Killingworth Railway had been so satisfactory
that they resolved to adopt the same system. One reason why an experiment
so long continued and so successful as that at Killingworth should have
been so slow in producing results perhaps was, that to lay down a railway
and furnish it with locomotives, or fixed engines where necessary, required
a very large capital, beyond the means of ordinary coal-owners; while the
small amount of interest felt in railways by the general public, and the
supposed impracticability of working them to a profit, as yet prevented the
ordinary capitalists from venturing their money in the promotion of such
undertakings. The Hetton Coal Company were, however, possessed of
adequate means, and the local reputation of the Killingworth engine-wright
pointed him out as the man best calculated to lay out their line and
superintend their works. They accordingly invited him to act as the engineer
of the proposed railway. Being in the service of the Killingworth Company,
Stephenson felt it necessary to obtain their permission to enter upon this
new work. This was at once granted. The best feeling existed between him
and his employers, and they regarded it as a compliment that their colliery
engineer should be selected for a work so important as the laying down of
the Hetton Railway, which was to be the longest locomotive line that had,
up to that time, been constructed in the neighborhood. Stephenson accepted
the appointment, his brother Robert acting as resident engineer and
personally superintending the execution of the works.
The Hetton Railway extended from the Hetton Colliery, situated about
two miles south of Houghton-le-Spring, to the ship-places on the banks of
the Wear, near Sunderland. Its length was about eight miles; and in its

course it crossed Warden Law, one of the highest hills in the district. The
character of the country forbade the construction of a flat line, or one of
comparatively easy gradients, except by the expenditure of a much larger
capital than was placed at Stephenson's command. Heavy works could not
be executed; it was therefore necessary to form the line with but little
deviation from the natural conformation of the district which it traversed,
and also to adapt the mechanical methods employed for its working to the
character of the gradients, which in some places were necessarily heavy.
Although George Stephenson had, with every step made toward its
increased utility, become more and more identified with the success of the
locomotive engine, he did not allow his enthusiasm to carry him away into
costly mistakes. He carefully drew the line between the cases in which the
locomotive could be usefully employed and those in which stationary
engines were calculated to be more economical. This led him, as in the
instance of the Hetton Railway, to execute lines through and over rough
countries, where gradients within the powers of the locomotive engine of
that day could not be secured, employing in their stead stationary engines
where locomotives were not practicable. In the present case, this course was
adopted by him most successfully. On the original Hetton line there were
five self-acting inclines—the full wagons drawing the empty ones up—and
two inclines worked by fixed reciprocating engines of sixty-horse power
each. The locomotive traveling engine, or "the iron horse," as the people of
the neighborhood then styled it, worked the rest of the line. On the day of
the opening of the Hetton Railway, the 18th of November, 1822, crowds of
spectators assembled from all parts to witness the first operations of this
ingenious and powerful machinery, which was entirely successful. On that
day five of Stephenson's locomotives were at work upon the railway, under
the direction of his brother Robert; and the first shipment of coal was then
made by the Hetton Company at their new staiths on the Wear. The speed at
which the locomotives traveled was about four miles an hour, and each
engine dragged after it a train of seventeen wagons weighing about sixty-
four tons.
While thus advancing step by step—attending to the business of the
Killingworth Colliery, and laying out railways in the neighborhood—he
was carefully watching over the education of his son. We have already seen
that Robert was sent to school at Newcastle, where he remained about four

years. While Robert was at school, his father, as usual, made his son's
education instrumental to his own. He entered him a member of the
Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Institute, the subscription to which
was three guineas a year. Robert spent much of his leisure hours there,
reading and studying; and when he went home in the afternoons, he was
accustomed to carry home with him a volume of the "Repertory of Arts and
Sciences," or of some work on practical science, which furnished the
subject of interesting reading and discussion in the evening hours. Both
father and son were always ready to acknowledge the great advantages they
had derived from the use of so excellent a library of books; and, toward the
close of his life, the latter, in recognition of his debt of gratitude to the
institution, contributed a large sum for the purpose of clearing off the debt,
but conditional on the annual subscription being reduced to a guinea, in
order that the usefulness of the Institute might be extended.
Robert left school in the summer of 1819, and was put apprentice to Mr.
Nicholas Wood, the head viewer at Killingworth, to learn the business of
the colliery. He served in that capacity for about three years, during which
time he became familiar with most departments of underground work. His
occupation was not unattended with peril, as the following incident will
show. Though the use of the Geordy lamp had become general in the
Killingworth pits, and the workmen were bound, under a penalty of half a
crown, not to use a naked candle, it was difficult to enforce the rule, and
even the masters themselves occasionally broke it. One day Nicholas Wood,
the head viewer, Moodie, the under viewer, and Robert Stephenson, were
proceeding along one of the galleries, Wood with a naked candle in his
hand, and Robert following him with a lamp. They came to a place where a
fall of stones from the roof had taken place, on which Wood, who was first,
proceeded to clamber over the stones, holding high the naked candle. He
had nearly reached the summit of the heap, when the fire-damp, which had
accumulated in the hollow of the roof, exploded, and instantly the whole
party were blown down, and the lights extinguished. They were a mile from
the shaft, and quite in the dark. There was a rush of the work-people from
all quarters toward the shaft, for it was feared that the fire might extend to
more dangerous parts of the pit, where, if the gas had exploded, every soul
in the mine must inevitably have perished. Robert Stephenson and Moodie,
on the first impulse, ran back at full speed along the dark gallery leading to
the shaft, coming into collision, on their way, with the hind quarters of a

horse stunned by the explosion. When they had gone half way, Moodie
halted, and bethought him of Nicholas Wood. "Stop, laddie!" said he to
Robert, "stop; we maun gang back and seek the maister." So they retraced
their steps. Happily, no farther explosion took place. They found the master
lying on the heap of stones, stunned and bruised, with his hands severely
burnt. They led him to the bottom of the shaft; and he afterward took care
not to venture into the dangerous parts of the mine without the protection of
a Geordy lamp.
The time that Robert spent at Killingworth as viewer's apprentice was of
advantage both to his father and himself. The evenings were generally
devoted to reading and study, the two from this time working together as
friends and co-laborers. One who used to drop in at the cottage of an
evening well remembers the animated and eager discussions which on some
occasions took place, more especially with reference to the growing powers
of the locomotive engine. The son was even more enthusiastic than his
father on the subject. Robert would suggest numerous alterations and
improvements in detail. His father, on the contrary, would offer every
possible objection, defending the existing arrangements—proud,
nevertheless, of his son's suggestions, and often warmed and excited by his
brilliant anticipations of the ultimate triumph of the locomotive.
These discussions probably had considerable influence in inducing
Stephenson to take the next important step in the education of his son.
Although Robert, who was only nineteen years of age, was doing well, and
was certain, at the expiration of his apprenticeship, to rise to a higher
position, his father was not satisfied with the amount of instruction which
he had as yet given him. Remembering the disadvantages under which he
had himself labored through his ignorance of practical chemistry during his
investigations connected with the safety-lamp, more especially with
reference to the properties of gas, as well as in the course of his experiments
with the object of improving the locomotive engine, he determined to
furnish his son with a better scientific culture than he had yet attained. He
also believed that a proper training in technical science was indispensable to
success in the higher walks of the engineer's profession, and he determined
to give Robert the education, in a certain degree, which he so much desired
for himself. He would thus, he knew, secure an able co-worker in the
elaboration of the great ideas now looming before him, and with their

united practical and scientific knowledge he probably felt that they would
be equal to any enterprise.
He accordingly took Robert from his labors as under viewer in the West
Moor Pit, and in October, 1822, sent him for a short course of instruction to
the Edinburg University. Robert was furnished with letters of introduction
to several men of literary eminence in Edinburg, his father's reputation in
connection with the safety-lamp being of service to him in this respect. He
lodged in Drummond Street, in the immediate vicinity of the college, and
attended the Chemical Lectures of Dr. Hope, the Natural Philosophy
Lectures of Sir John Leslie, and the Natural History Class of Professor
Jameson. He also devoted several evenings in each week to the study of
practical Chemistry under Dr. John Murray, himself one of the numerous
designers of a safety-lamp. He took careful notes of the lectures, which he
copied out at night before he went to bed, so that, when he returned to
Killingworth, he might read them over to his father. He afterward had the
notes bound up and placed in his library.
Long years after, when conversing with Thomas Harrison, C.E., at his
house in Gloucester Square, he rose from his seat and took down a volume
from the shelves. Mr. Harrison observed that the book was in MS., neatly
written out. "What have we here?" he asked. The answer was, "When I went
to college, I knew the difficulty my father had in collecting the funds to
send me there. Before going I studied short-hand; while at Edinburg I took
down verbatim every lecture; and in the evenings, before I went to bed, I
transcribed those lectures word for word. You see the result in that range of
books." From this it will be observed that the maxim of "Like father, like
son," was one that strictly applied to the Stephensons.
Robert was not without the pleasure of social intercourse either during
his stay at Edinburg. Among the letters of introduction which he took with
him was one to Robert Bald, the mining engineer, which proved of much
service to him. "I remember Mr. Bald very well," he said on one occasion,
when recounting his reminiscences of his Edinburg college life. "He
introduced me to Dr. Hope, Dr. Murray, and several of the distinguished
men of the North. Bald was the Buddle of Scotland. He knew my father
from having visited the pits at Killingworth, with the object of describing
the system of working them in his article intended for the 'Edinburg
Encyclopædia.' A strange adventure befell that article before it appeared in

print. Bald was living at Alloa when he wrote it, and when finished he sent
it to Edinburg by the hands of young Maxton, his nephew, whom he
enjoined to take special care of it, and deliver it safely into the hands of the
editor. The young man took passage for New Haven by one of the little
steamers which then plied on the Forth; but on the voyage down the Firth
she struck upon a rock nearly opposite Queen's Ferry, and soon sank. When
the accident happened, Maxton's whole concern was about his uncle's
article. He durst not return to Alloa if he lost it, and he must not go on to
Edinburg without it. So he desperately clung to the chimney chains with the
paper parcel under his arm, while most of the other passengers were washed
away and drowned. And there he continued to cling until rescued by some
boatmen, parcel and all, after which he made his way to Edinburg, and the
article duly appeared."
Returning to the subject of his life in Edinburg, Robert continued:
"Besides taking me with him to the meetings of the Royal and other
societies, Mr. Bald introduced me to a very agreeable family, relatives of his
own, at whose house I spent many pleasant evenings. It was there I met
Jeannie M——. She was a bonnie lass, and I, being young and susceptible,
fairly fell in love with her. But, like most very early attachments, mine
proved evanescent. Years passed, and I had all but forgotten Jeannie, when
one day I received a letter from her, from which it appeared that she was in
great distress through the ruin of her relatives. I sent her a sum of money,
and continued to do so for several years; but the last remittance not being
acknowledged, I directed my friend Sanderson to make inquiries. I
afterward found that the money had reached her at Portobello just as she
was dying, and so, poor thing, she had been unable to acknowledge it."
One of the practical sciences in the study of which Robert Stephenson
took special interest while at Edinburg was that of geology. The situation of
the city, in the midst of a district of highly interesting geological formation,
easily accessible to pedestrians, is indeed most favorable to the pursuit of
such a study; and it was the practice of Professor Jameson frequently to
head a band of his pupils, armed with hammers, chisels, and clinometers,
and take them with him on a long ramble into the country, for the purpose
of teaching them habits of observation, and reading to them from the open
book of Nature itself. The professor was habitually grave and taciturn, but
on such occasions he would relax and even become genial. For his own

special science he had an almost engrossing enthusiasm, which on such
occasions he did not fail to inspire into his pupils, who thus not only got
their knowledge in the pleasantest possible way, but also fresh air and
exercise in the midst of glorious scenery and in joyous company.
At the close of this session, the professor took with him a select body of
his pupils on an excursion along the Great Glen of the Highlands, in the line
of the Caledonian Canal, and Robert formed one of the party. They passed
under the shadow of Ben Nevis, examined the famous old sea-margins
known as the "parallel roads of Glen Roy," and extended their journey as far
as Inverness, the professor teaching the young men, as they traveled, how to
observe in a mountain country. Not long before his death, Robert
Stephenson spoke in glowing terms of the great pleasure and benefit which
he had derived from that interesting excursion. "I have traveled far, and
enjoyed much," he said, "but that delightful botanical and geological tour I
shall never forget; and I am just about to start in the Titania for a trip round
the east coast of Scotland, returning south through the Caledonian Canal, to
refresh myself with the recollection of that first and brightest tour of my
life."
Toward the end of the summer the young student returned to
Killingworth to re-enter upon the active business of life. The six months'
study had cost his father £80—a considerable sum to him in those days; but
he was amply repaid by the additional scientific culture which his son had
acquired, and the evidence of ability and industry which he was enabled to
exhibit in a prize for mathematics which he had won at the University.

WEST MOOR PIT, KILLINGWORTH.

We may here add that by this time George Stephenson, after remaining a
widower fourteen years, had married, in 1820, his second wife, Elizabeth
Hindmarsh, the daughter of a respectable farmer at Black Callerton. She
was a woman of excellent character, sensible, and intelligent, and of a
kindly and affectionate nature. George's son Robert, whom she loved as if
he had been her own, to the last day of his life spoke of her in the highest
terms; and it is unquestionable that she contributed in no small degree to the
happiness of her husband's home.
The story was for some time current that, while living at Black Callerton
in the capacity of engine-man, twenty years before, George had made love
to Miss Hindmarsh, and, failing to obtain her hand, in despair he had
married Paterson's servant. But the author has been assured by Mr. Thomas
Hindmarsh, of Newcastle, the lady's brother, that the story was mere idle
gossip, and altogether without foundation.

CHAPTER VIII.

GEORGE STEPHENSON ENGINEER OF THE STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON
RAILWAY.

It is not improbable that the slow progress made by railways in public
estimation was, in a considerable measure, due to the comparative want of
success which had attended the first projects. We do not refer to the tram-
roads and railroads which connected the collieries and iron-works with the
shipping-places. These were found convenient and economical, and their
use became general in Durham and Northumberland, in South Wales, in
Scotland, and throughout the colliery districts. But none of these were
public railways. Though the Merthyr Tydvil Tram-road, the Sirhoway
Railroad, and others in South Wales, were constructed under the powers of
special acts,[51] they were exclusively used for the private purposes of the
coal-owners and iron-masters at whose expense they were made.
The first public Railway Act was that passed in 1801, authorizing the
construction of a line from Wandsworth to Croydon, under the name of
"The Surrey Iron Railway." By a subsequent act, powers were obtained to
extend the line to Reigate, with a branch to Godstone. The object of this
railway was to furnish a more ready means for the transport of coal and
merchandise from the Thames to the districts of south London, and at the
same time to enable the lime-burners and proprietors of stone-quarries to
send the lime and stone to London. With this object, the railroad was
connected with a dock or basin in Wandsworth Creek capable of containing
thirty barges, with an entrance lock into the Thames.
The works had scarcely been commenced ere the company got into
difficulties, but eventually 26 miles of iron-way were constructed and
opened for traffic. Any person was then at liberty to put wagons on the line,
and to carry goods within the prescribed rates, the wagons being worked by
horses, mules, and donkeys. Notwithstanding the very sanguine
expectations which were early formed as to the paying qualities of this
railway, it never realized any adequate profit to the owners. But it continued
to be worked, principally by donkeys for the sake of cheapness, down to the
passing of the act for constructing the London and Brighton line in 1837,
when the proprietors disposed of their undertaking to the new company. The
line was accordingly dismantled; the stone blocks and rails were taken up
and sold; and all that remains of the Wandsworth, Croydon, and Merstham
Railway is the track still observable to the south of Croydon, along

Smitham Bottom, nearly parallel with the line of the present Brighton
Railway, and an occasional cutting and embankment, which still mark the
route of this first public railway.
The want of success of this undertaking doubtless had the effect of
deterring projectors from embarking in any similar enterprise. If a line of
the sort could not succeed near London, it was thought improbable that it
should succeed any where else. The Croydon and Merstham line was a
beacon to warn capitalists against embarking in railways, and many years
passed before another was ventured upon.
Sir Richard Phillips was one of the few who early recognized the
important uses of the locomotive and its employment on a large scale for
the haulage of goods and passengers by railway. In his "Morning Walk to
Kew" he crossed the line of the Wandsworth and Croydon Railway, when
the idea seems to have occurred to him, as it afterwards did to Thomas
Gray, that in the locomotive and the railway were to be found the germs of
a great and peaceful social revolution:
"I found delight," said Sir Richard, in his book published in 1813, "in witnessing at
Wandsworth the economy of horse labor on the iron railway. Yet a heavy sigh escaped
me as I thought of the inconceivable millions of money which have been spent about
Malta, four or five of which might have been the means of extending double lines of
iron railway from London to Edinburg, Glasgow, Holyhead, Milford, Falmouth,
Yarmouth, Dover, and Portsmouth. A reward of a single thousand would have
supplied coaches and other vehicles, of various degrees of speed, with the best tackle
for readily turning out; and we might, ere this, have witnessed our mail-coaches
running at the rate of ten miles an hour drawn by a single horse, or impelled fifteen
miles an hour by Blenkinsop's steam-engine. Such would have been a legitimate
motive for over-stepping the income of a nation, and the completion of so great and
useful a work would have afforded rational ground for public triumph in general
jubilee."

There was, however, as yet, no general recognition of the advantages
either of railways or locomotives. The government of this country never
leads in any work of public enterprise, and is usually rather a drag upon
industrial operations than otherwise. As for the general public, it was
enough for them that the Wandsworth and Croydon Railway did not pay.
Mr. Tredgold, in his "Practical Treatise on Railroads and Carriages,"
published in 1825, observes:
"Up to this period railways have been employed with success only in the
conveyance of heavy mineral products, and for short distances where immense
quantities were to be conveyed. In the few instances where they have been intended

for the general purposes of trade, they have never answered the expectations of their
projectors. But this seems to have arisen altogether from following too closely the
models adopted for the conveyance of minerals, such modes of forming and using
railways not being at all adapted for the general purposes of trade."

The ill success of railways was generally recognized. Joint-stock
companies for all sorts of purposes were formed during the joint-stock
mania of 1821, but few projectors were found daring enough to propose
schemes so unpromising as railways. Hence nearly twenty years passed
between the construction of the first and the second public railway in
England; and this brings us to the projection of the Stockton and
Darlington, which may be regarded as the parent public locomotive railway
in the kingdom.
The district lying to the west of Darlington, in the county of Durham, is
one of the richest mineral fields of the North. Vast stores of coal underlie
the Bishop Auckland Valley, and from an early period it was felt to be an
exceedingly desirable object to open up new communications to enable the
article to be sent to market. But the district lay a long way from the sea,
and, the Tees being unnavigable, there was next to no vend for the Bishop
Auckland coal.
It is easy to understand, therefore, how the desire to obtain an outlet for
this coal for land sale, as well as for its transport to London by sea, should
have early occupied the attention of the coal-owners in the Bishop
Auckland district. The first idea that found favor was the construction of a
canal. About a century ago, in 1766, shortly after the Duke of Bridgewater's
Canal had been opened between Worsley and Manchester, a movement was
set on foot at Darlington with the view of having the country surveyed
between that place and Stockton-on-Tees.
Brindley was requested to lay out the proposed line of canal; but he was
engrossed at the time by the prosecution of the works on the Duke's Canal
to Liverpool, and Whitworth, his pupil and assistant, was employed in his
stead; George Dixon, grandfather of John Dixon, engineer of the future
Stockton and Darlington Railway, taking an active part in the survey. In
October, 1768, Whitworth presented his plan of the proposed canal from
Stockton by Darlington to Winston, and in the following year, to give
weight to the scheme, Brindley concurred with him in a joint report as to
the plan and estimate.

Nothing was, however, done in the matter. Enterprise was slow to move.
Stockton waited for Darlington, and Darlington waited for Stockton, but
neither stirred until twenty years later, when Stockton began to consider the
propriety of straightening the Tees below that town, and thereby shortening
and improving the navigation. When it became known that some
engineering scheme was afoot at Stockton, that indefatigable writer of
prospectuses and drawer of plans, Ralph Dodd, the first projector of a
tunnel under the Thames, the first projector of the Waterloo Bridge, and the
first to bring a steam-boat from Glasgow into the Thames, addressed the
Mayor and Corporation of Stockton in 1796 on the propriety of forming a
line of internal navigation by Darlington and Staindrop to Winston. Still
nothing was done. Four years later, another engineer, George Atkinson,
reported in favor of a water-way to connect the then projected Great Trunk
Canal, from about Boroughbridge to Piersebridge, with the Tees above
Yarm.
At length, in 1808, the Tees Navigation Company, slow in their
movements, obtained an act enabling them to make the short cut projected
seventeen years before, and two years later the cut was opened, and
celebrated by the inevitable dinner. The Stockton people, who adopted as
the motto of their company "Meliora speramus," held a public meeting after
the dinner to meditate upon and discuss the better things to come. They
appointed a committee to inquire into the practicability and advantages of
forming a railway or canal from Stockton by Darlington to Winston. Here,
then, in 1810, we have the first glimpse of the railway; but it was long
before the idea germinated and bore fruit. The collieries must be got at to
make the new cut a success, but how for a long time remained the question.
Sixteen months passed, and the committee at Stockton went to sleep. But
it came up again, and this time at Darlington, with Edward Pease as one of
the members. The Darlington committee met and made their report, but
they could not decide between the respective merits of a railroad and a
canal. It was felt that either would be of great advantage. To settle the
question, they determined to call the celebrated engineer, John Rennie, to
their aid, and he was ready with his report in 1813. His report was not
published, but it is understood that he was in favor of a canal on Brindley
and Whitworth's line, though he afterward inclined to a tram-road. Still
nothing was done. War was on foot in Europe, and enterprise was every

where dormant. The scheme must therefore wait the advent of peace. At
length peace came, and with it a revival of former projects.
At Newcastle, a plan was set on foot for connecting the Tyne with the
Solway Firth by a canal. A county meeting was held on the subject in
August, 1817, under the presidency of the high sheriff. Previous to this
time, Sir John Swinburne had stood up for a railway in preference to a
canal; but when the meeting took place, the opinion of those present was in
favor of a canal—Mr. William Armstrong (father of the present Sir William)
being one of the most zealous advocates of the water-road. Yet there were
even then railroads in the immediate neighborhood of Newcastle, at Wylam
and Killingworth, which had been successfully and economically worked
by the locomotive for years past, but which the Northumbrians seem
completely to have ignored. The public head is usually very thick, and it is
difficult to hammer a new idea into it. Canals were established methods of
conveyance, and were every where recognized; whereas railways were new
things, and were struggling hard to gain a footing. Besides, the only public
railway in England, the Wandsworth, Croydon, and Merstham, had proved a
commercial failure, and was held up as a warning to all speculators in tram-
ways. But, though the Newcastle meeting approved of a canal in preference
to a railway from the Tyne to the Solway, nothing was really done to
promote the formation of either.
The movement in favor of a canal was again revived at Stockton. A
requisition, very numerously signed by persons of influence in South
Durham, was presented to the Mayor of Stockton in May, 1818, requesting
him to convene a public meeting "to consider the expediency of forming a
canal for the conveyance of coal, lime, etc., from Evenwood Bridge, near
West Auckland, to the River Tees, upon a plan recently made by Mr. George
Leatham, engineer." Among the names attached to the petition we find
those of Edward, John, and Thomas Pease, and John Dixon, Darlington.
They were doubtless willing to pull with any party that would open up a
way, whether by rail or by water, between the Bishop Auckland coal-field
and Stockton, whether the line passed through Darlington or not.
An enthusiastic meeting was held at Stockton, and a committee was
appointed, by whom it was resolved to apply to Parliament for an act to
make the intended canal "if funds are forthcoming." Never was there greater
virtue in an if. Funds were not forthcoming; the project fell through, and a

great blunder was prevented. When the Stockton men had discussed and
resolved without any practical result, the leading men of Darlington took up
the subject by themselves, determined, if possible, to bring it to some
practical issue. In September, 1818, they met under the presidency of
Thomas Meynell, Esq. Mr. Overton, who had laid down several coal
railways in Wales, was consulted, and, after surveying the district between
the Bishop Auckland coal-field and the Tees, sent in his report. Mr. Rennie
also was again consulted. Both engineers gave their opinion in favor of a
railway by Darlington in preference to a canal by Auckland, "whether taken
as a line for the exportation of coal or as one for a local trade." The
committee accordingly reported in favor of the railway.
It is curious now to look back at the modest estimate of traffic formed by
the committee. They considered that the export trade in coal "might be
taken, perhaps, at 10,000 tons a year, which is about one cargo a week!" It
was intended to haul the coal by horse-power; a subsequent report stating
"on undoubted authority" that one horse of moderate power could easily
draw downward on the railway, between Darlington and Stockton, about ten
tons, and upward about four tons of loading, exclusively of the empty
wagons. No allusion was made to passengers in any of the reports; nor did
the committee at first contemplate the accommodation of traffic of this
description.
A survey of the line was then ordered, and steps were taken to apply to
Parliament for the necessary powers to construct the railway. But the
controversy was not yet at an end. Stockton stood by its favorite project of a
canal, and would not subscribe a farthing toward the projected railway; but
neither did it subscribe toward the canal. The landlords, the road trustees,
the carriers, the proprietors of donkeys (by whom coals were principally
carried for inland sale), were strenuously opposed to the new project; while
the general public, stupid and skeptical, for the most part stood aloof,
quoting old saws and keeping their money in their pockets.
Several energetic men, however, were now at the head of the Stockton
and Darlington Railway project, and determined to persevere with it.
Among these, the Peases were the most zealous. Edward Pease might be
regarded as the back-bone of the concern. Opposition did not daunt him,
nor failure discourage him. When apparently overthrown and prostrate, he
would rise again like Antæus, stronger than before, and renew his efforts

with increased vigor. He had in him the energy and perseverance of many
men. One who knew him in 1818 said, "He was a man who could see a
hundred years ahead." When the author last saw him in 1854, a few years
before his death, Mr. Pease was in his eighty-eighth year; yet he still
possessed the hopefulness and mental vigor of a man in his prime. Still
sound in health, his eye had not lost its brilliancy, nor his cheek its color,
and there was an elasticity in his step which younger men might have
envied.

EDWARD PEASE.

In getting up a company for surveying and forming a railway, Mr. Pease
had great difficulties to encounter. The people of the neighborhood spoke of

it as a ridiculous undertaking, and predicted that it would be ruinous to all
concerned in it. Even those most interested in the opening up of new
markets for the sale of their coal were indifferent, if not hostile. Mr. Pease
nevertheless persevered in the formation of a company, and he induced
many of his friends and relations to follow his example. The Richardsons
and Backhouses, members, like himself, of the Society of Friends,
influenced by his persuasion, united themselves with him; and so many of
the same denomination (having confidence in these influential Darlington
names) followed their example and subscribed for shares, that the railway
obtained the designation, which it long retained, of "The Quakers' Line."
The Stockton and Darlington scheme had to run the gauntlet of a fierce
opposition in three successive sessions of Parliament. The application of
1818 was defeated by the Duke of Cleveland, who afterward profited so
largely by the railway. The ground of his opposition was that the line would
interfere with one of his fox-covers, and it was mainly through his influence
that the bill was thrown out, but only by a majority of thirteen, upward of
one hundred members having voted for the bill. A nobleman said, when he
heard of the division, "Well, if the Quakers in these times, when nobody
knows any thing about railways, can raise such a phalanx in their support, I
should recommend the country gentlemen to be very wary how they oppose
them in future."
The next year, in 1819, an amended survey of the line was made, and, the
duke's fox-cover being avoided, his opposition was thus averted; but, on
Parliament becoming dissolved on the death of George III., the bill was
necessarily suspended until another session.
In the mean time the local opposition to the measure revived, and now it
was led by the road trustees, who spread it abroad that the mortgagees of
the tolls arising from the turnpike-road leading from Darlington to West
Auckland would be seriously injured by the formation of the proposed
railway. On this, Edward Pease issued a printed notice, requesting any
alarmed mortgagee to apply to the company's solicitors at Darlington, who
were authorized to purchase their securities at the prices originally given for
them. This notice had the effect of allaying the alarm spread abroad; and the
bill, though still strongly opposed, passed both houses of Parliament in
1821.

MAP OF STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON RAILWAY.

The preamble of the act sets forth the public utility of the proposed line
for the conveyance of coal and other commodities from the interior of the
county of Durham to Stockton and the northern parts of Yorkshire. Nothing
was said about passengers, for passenger-traffic was not yet contemplated;
and nothing was said about locomotives, as it was at first intended to work
the line entirely by horse-power. The road was to be free to all persons who
chose to place their wagons and horses upon it for the haulage of coal and
merchandise, provided they paid the tolls fixed by the act.
The company were empowered to charge fourpence a ton per mile for all
coal intended for land sale, but only a halfpenny a ton per mile for coal
intended for shipment at Stockton. This latter proviso was inserted at the
instance of Mr. Lambton, afterward Earl of Durham, for the express
purpose of preventing the line being used in competition against his coal
loaded at Sunderland; for it was not believed possible that coal could be
carried at that low rate except at a heavy loss. As it was, however, the rate
thus fixed by the act eventually proved the vital element of success in the
working of the undertaking.
While the Stockton and Darlington Railway scheme was still before
Parliament, we find Edward Pease writing letters to a York paper, urging the
propriety of extending it southward into Yorkshire by a branch from Croft.
It is curious now to look back upon the arguments by which Mr. Pease
sought to influence public opinion in favor of railways, and to observe the

very modest anticipations which even its most zealous advocate entertained
as to their supposed utility and capabilities:
"The late improvements in the construction of railways," Mr. Pease wrote, "have
rendered them much more perfect than when constructed after the old plan. To such a
degree of utility have they now been brought that they may be regarded as very little
inferior to canals.
"If we compare the railway with the best lines of common road, it may be fairly
stated that in the case of a level railway the work will be increased in at least an
eightfold degree. The best horse is sufficiently loaded with three quarters of a ton on a
common road, from the undulating line of its draught, while on a railway it is
calculated that a horse will easily draw a load of ten tons. At Lord Elgin's works, Mr.
Stevenson, the celebrated engineer, states that he has actually seen a horse draw
twenty-three tons thirteen cwt. upon a railway which was in some parts level, and at
other parts presented a gentle declivity!
"The formation of a railway, if it creates no improvement in a country, certainly
bars none, as all the former modes of communication remain unimpaired; and the
public obtain, at the risk of the subscribers, another and better mode of carriage,
which it will always be to the interest of the proprietors to make cheap and
serviceable to the community.
"On undertakings of this kind, when compared with canals, the advantages of
which (where an ascending or descending line can be obtained) are nearly equal, it
may be remarked that public opinion is not easily changed on any subject. It requires
the experience of many years, sometimes ages, to accomplish this, even in cases
which by some may be deemed obvious. Such is the effect of habit, and such the
aversion of mankind to any thing like innovation or change. Although this is often
regretted, yet, if the principle be investigated in all its ramifications, it will perhaps be
found to be one of the most fortunate dispositions of the human mind.
"The system of cast-iron railways is as yet to be considered but in its infancy. It will
be found to be an immense improvement on the common road, and also on the
wooden railway. It neither presents the friction of the tram-way, nor partakes of the
perishable nature of the wooden railway, and, as regards utility, it may be considered
as the medium between the navigable canal and the common road. We may therefore
hope that as this system develops itself, our roads will be laid out as much as possible
on one level, and in connection with the great lines of communication throughout the
country."

Such were the modest anticipations of Edward Pease respecting railways
in the year 1821. Ten years later, an age of progress, by comparison, had
been effected.
Some time elapsed before any active steps were taken to proceed with the
construction of the railway. Doubts were raised whether the line was the
best that could be adopted for the district, and the subscribers generally
were not so sanguine about the undertaking as to induce them to press it
forward.

One day, about the end of the year 1821, two strangers knocked at the
door of Mr. Pease's house in Darlington, and a message was brought to him
that some persons from Killingworth wanted to speak with him. They were
invited in, on which one of the visitors introduced himself as Nicholas
Wood, viewer at Killingworth, and then turning to his companion, he
introduced him as George Stephenson, engine-wright, of the same place.
Mr. Pease entered into conversation with his visitors, and was soon told
their object. Stephenson had heard of the passing of the Stockton and
Darlington Act, and desiring to increase his railway experience, and also to
employ in some larger field the practical knowledge he had already
acquired, he determined to visit the known projector of the undertaking,
with the view of being employed to carry it out. He had brought with him
his friend Wood for the purpose at the same time of relieving his diffidence
and supporting his application.
Mr. Pease liked the appearance of his visitor: "there was," as he afterward
remarked when speaking of Stephenson, "such an honest, sensible look
about him, and he seemed so modest and unpretending. He spoke in the
strong Northumbrian dialect of his district, and described himself as 'only
the engine-wright at Killingworth; that's what he was.'"
Mr. Pease soon saw that our engineer was the very man for his purpose.
The whole plans of the railway were still in an undetermined state, and Mr.
Pease was therefore glad to have the opportunity of profiting by
Stephenson's experience. In the course of their conversation, the latter
strongly recommended a railway in preference to a tram-road. They also
discussed the kind of tractive power to be employed, Mr. Pease stating that
the company had based their whole calculations on the employment of
horse-power. "I was so satisfied," said he afterward, "that a horse upon an
iron road would draw ten tons for one ton on a common road, that I felt sure
that before long the railway would become the king's highway."
But Mr. Pease was scarcely prepared for the bold assertion made by his
visitor, that the locomotive engine with which he had been working the
Killingworth Railway for many years past was worth fifty horses, and that
engines made after a similar plan would yet entirely supersede all horse-
power upon railroads. Stephenson was daily becoming more positive as to
the superiority of his locomotive, and hence he strongly urged Mr. Pease to

adopt it. "Come over to Killingworth," said he, "and see what my engines
can do; seeing is believing, sir." Mr. Pease accordingly promised that on
some early day he would go over to Killingworth, and take a look at the
wonderful machine that was to supersede horses.
The result of the interview was, that Mr. Pease promised to bring
Stephenson's application for the appointment of engineer before the
directors, and to support it with his influence; whereon the two visitors
prepared to take their leave, informing Mr. Pease that they intended to
return to Newcastle "by nip;" that is, they expected to get a smuggled lift on
the stage-coach by tipping Jehu—for in those days the stage-coachmen
regarded all casual roadside passengers as their proper perquisites. They
had, however, been so much engrossed by their conversation that the lapse
of time was forgotten, and when Stephenson and his friend made inquiries
about the return coach, they found the last had left, and they had to walk
eighteen miles to Durham on their way back to Newcastle.
Mr. Pease having made farther inquiries respecting Stephenson's
character and qualifications, and having received a very strong
recommendation of him as the right man for the intended work, he brought
the subject of his application before the directors of the Stockton and
Darlington Company. They resolved to adopt his recommendation that a
railway be formed instead of a tram-road; and they farther requested Mr.
Pease to write to Stephenson, desiring him to undertake a resurvey of the
line at the earliest practicable period.
A man was dispatched on a horse with the letter, and when he reached
Killingworth he made diligent inquiry after the person named on the
address, "George Stephenson, Esquire, Engineer." No such person was
known in the village. It is said that the man was on the point of giving up all
farther search, when the happy thought struck some of the colliers' wives
who had gathered about him that it must be "Geordie the engine-wright" the
man was in search of, and to Geordie's cottage he accordingly went, found
him at home, and delivered the letter.
About the end of September Stephenson went carefully over the line of
the proposed railway for the purpose of suggesting such improvements and
deviations as he might consider desirable. He was accompanied by an
assistant and a chainman, his son Robert entering the figures while his

father took the sights. After being engaged in the work at intervals for about
six weeks, Stephenson reported the result of his survey to the Board of
Directors, and showed that, by certain deviations, a line shorter by about
three miles might be constructed at a considerable saving in expense, while
at the same time more favorable gradients—an important consideration—
would be secured.
It was, however, determined in the first place to proceed with the works
at those parts of the line where no deviation was proposed, and the first rail
of the Stockton and Darlington Railway was laid with considerable
ceremony, near Stockton, on the 23d of May, 1822.
It is worthy of note that Stephenson, in making his first estimate of the
cost of forming the railway according to the instructions of the directors, set
down, as part of the cost, £6200 for stationary engines, not mentioning
locomotives at all. It was the intention of the directors, in the first place, to
employ only horses for the haulage of the coals, and fixed engines and
ropes where horse-power was not applicable. The whole question of steam-
locomotive power was, in the estimation of the public, as well as of
practical and scientific men, as yet in doubt. The confident anticipations of
George Stephenson as to the eventual success of locomotive engines were
regarded as mere speculations; and when he gave utterance to his views, as
he frequently took the opportunity of doing, it even had the effect of
shaking the confidence of some of his friends in the solidity of his judgment
and his practical qualities as an engineer.
When Mr. Pease discussed the question with Stephenson, his remark was,
"Come over and see my engines at Killingworth, and satisfy yourself as to
the efficiency of the locomotive. I will show you the colliery books, that
you may ascertain for yourself the actual cost of working. And I must tell
you that the economy of the locomotive engine is no longer a matter of
theory, but a matter of fact." So confident was the tone in which Stephenson
spoke of the success of his engines, and so important were the
consequences involved in arriving at a correct conclusion on the subject,
that Mr. Pease at length resolved on paying a visit to Killingworth in the
summer of 1822, in company with his friend Thomas Richardson, a
considerable subscriber to the Stockton and Darlington undertaking,[52] to
inspect the wonderful new power so much vaunted by their engineer.

When Mr. Pease arrived at Killingworth village, he inquired for George
Stephenson, and was told that he must go over to the West Moor, and seek
for a cottage by the roadside with a dial over the door—"that was where
George Stephenson lived." They soon found the house with the dial, and, on
knocking, the door was opened by Mrs. Stephenson. In answer to Mr.
Pease's inquiry for her husband, she said he was not in the house at present,
but that she would send for him to the colliery. And in a short time
Stephenson appeared before them in his working dress, just as he had come
out of the pit.
He very soon had his locomotive brought up to the crossing close by the
end of the cottage, made the gentlemen mount it, and showed them its
paces. Harnessing it to a train of loaded wagons, he ran it along the railroad,
and so thoroughly satisfied his visitors of its power and capabilities, that
from that day Edward Pease was a declared supporter of the locomotive
engine. In preparing the Amended Stockton and Darlington Act, at
Stephenson's urgent request Mr. Pease had a clause inserted, taking power
to work the railway by means of locomotive engines, and to employ them
for the haulage of passengers as well as of merchandise[53] The act was
obtained in 1823, on which Stephenson was appointed the company's
engineer, at a salary of £300 per annum; and it was determined that the line
should be constructed and opened for traffic as soon as practicable.
He at once proceeded, accompanied by his assistants, with the working
survey of the line, laying out every foot of the ground himself. Railway
surveying was as yet in its infancy, and was slow and difficult work. It
afterward became a separate branch of railway business, and was intrusted
to a special staff. Indeed, on no subsequent line did George Stephenson take
the sights through the spirit-level with his own hands and eyes as he did on
this railway. He started very early—dressed in a blue tailed coat, breeches,
and top-boots—and surveyed until dusk. He was not at any time particular
as to his living; and, during the survey, he took his chance of getting a little
milk and bread at some cottager's house along the line, or occasionally
joined in a homely dinner at some neighboring farm-house. The country
people were accustomed to give him a hearty welcome when he appeared at
their door, for he was always full of cheery and homely talk, and, when
there were children about the house, he had plenty of humorous chat for
them as well as for their seniors.

After the day's work was over, George would drop in at Mr. Pease's to
talk over the progress of the survey, and discuss various matters connected
with the railway. Mr. Pease's daughters were usually present; and, on one
occasion, finding the young ladies learning the art of embroidery, he
volunteered to instruct them.[54] "I know all about it," said he, "and you will
wonder how I learned it. I will tell you. When I was a brakesman at
Killingworth, I learned the art of embroidery while working the pitmen's
button-holes by the engine fire at nights." He was never ashamed, but, on
the contrary, rather proud, of reminding his friends of these humble pursuits
of his early life. Mr. Pease's family were greatly pleased with his
conversation, which was always amusing and instructive; full of all sorts of
experience, gathered in the oddest and most out-of-the-way places. Even at
that early period, before he mixed in the society of educated persons, there
was a dash of speculativeness in his remarks which gave a high degree of
originality to his conversation; and he would sometimes, in a casual remark,
throw a flash of light upon a subject which called up a train of pregnant
suggestions.
One of the most important subjects of discussion at these meetings with
Mr. Pease was the establishment of a manufactory at Newcastle for the
building of locomotive engines. Up to this time all the locomotives
constructed after Stephenson's designs had been made by ordinary
mechanics working at the collieries in the North of England. But he had
long felt that the accuracy and style of their workmanship admitted of great
improvement, and that upon this the more perfect action of the locomotive
engine, and its general adoption, in a great measure depended. One
principal object that he had in view in establishing the proposed factory was
to concentrate a number of good workmen for the purpose of carrying out
the improvements in detail which he was from time to time making in his
engine; for he felt hampered by the want of efficient help from skilled
mechanics, who could work out in a practical form the ideas of which his
busy mind was always so prolific. Doubtless, too, he believed that the
manufactory would prove a remunerative investment, and that, on the
general adoption of the railway system which he anticipated, he would
derive solid advantages from the fact of his establishment being the only
one of the kind for the special construction of locomotive engines.

Mr. Pease approved of his design, and strongly recommended him to
carry it into effect. But there was the question of means; and Stephenson did
not think he had capital enough for the purpose. He told Mr. Pease that he
could advance £1000—the amount of the testimonial presented by the coal-
owners for his safety-lamp invention, which he had still left untouched; but
he did not think this sufficient for the purpose, and he thought that he
should require at least another £1000. Mr. Pease had been very much struck
with the successful performances of the Killingworth engine; and, being an
accurate judge of character, he believed that he could not go far wrong in
linking a portion of his fortune with the energy and industry of George
Stephenson. He consulted his friend Thomas Richardson in the matter, and
the two consented to advance £500 each for the purpose of establishing the
engine factory at Newcastle. A piece of land was accordingly purchased in
Forth Street, in August, 1823, on which a small building was erected—the
nucleus of the gigantic establishment which was afterward formed around
it; and active operations were begun early in 1824.
While the Stockton and Darlington Railway works were in progress, our
engineer had many interesting discussions with Mr. Pease on points
connected with its construction and working, the determination of which in
a great measure affected the formation and working of future railways. The
most important points were these: 1. The comparative merits of cast and
wrought iron rails. 2. The gauge of the railway. 3. The employment of horse
or engine power in working it when ready for traffic.
The kind of rails to be laid down to form the permanent road was a
matter of considerable importance. A wooden tram-road had been
contemplated when the first act was applied for; but Stephenson having
advised that an iron road should be laid down, he was instructed to draw up
a specification of the rails. He went before the directors to discuss with
them the kind of material to be specified. He was himself interested in the
patent for cast-iron rails, which he had taken out in conjunction with Mr.
Losh in 1816, and, of course, it was to his interest that his articles should be
used. But when requested to give his opinion on the subject, he frankly said
to the directors, "Well, gentlemen, to tell you the truth, although it would
put £500 in my pocket to specify my own patent rails, I can not do so after
the experience I have had. If you take my advice, you will not lay down a
single cast-iron rail." "Why?" asked the directors. "Because they will not

stand the weight, and you will be at no end of expense for repairs and
relays." "What kind of road, then," he was asked, "would you recommend?"
"Malleable rails, certainly," said he; "and I can recommend them with the
more confidence from the fact that at Killingworth we have had some
Swedish bars laid down—nailed to wooden sleepers—for a period of
fourteen years, the wagons passing over them daily, and there they are, in
use yet, whereas the cast rails are constantly giving way."[55]
The price of malleable rails was, however, so high—being then worth
about £12 per ton as compared with cast-iron rails at about £5 10s.—and
the saving of expense was so important a consideration with the
subscribers, that Stephenson was directed to provide in the specification
that only one half of the rails required—or about 800 tons—should be of
malleable iron, and the remainder of cast iron. The malleable rails were of
the kind called "fish-bellied," and weighed 28 lbs. to the yard, being 2-1/4
inches broad at the top, with the upper flange 3/4 inch thick. They were
only 2 inches in depth at the points at which they rested on the chairs, and
3-1/4 inches in the middle or bellied part.
When forming the road, the proper gauge had also to be determined.
What width was this to be? The gauge of the first tram-road laid down had
virtually settled the point. The gauge of wheels of the common vehicles of
the country—of the carts and wagons employed on common roads, which
were first used on the tram-roads—was about 4 feet 8-1/2 inches. And so
the first tram-roads were laid down of this gauge. The tools and machinery
for constructing coal-wagons and locomotives were formed with this gauge
in view. The Wylam wagon-way, afterward the Wylam plate-way, the
Killingworth railroad, and the Hetton railroad, were as nearly as possible on
the same gauge. Some of the earth-wagons used to form the Stockton and
Darlington road were brought from the Hetton Railway; and others which
were specially constructed were formed of the same dimensions, these
being intended to be afterward employed in the working of the traffic.
As the period drew near for the opening of the line, the question of the
tractive power to be employed was anxiously discussed. At the Brusselton
incline, fixed engines must necessarily be made use of; but with respect to
the mode of working the railway generally, it was decided that horses were
to be largely employed, and arrangements were made for their purchase.

Although locomotives had been regularly employed in hauling coal-
wagons on the Middleton Colliery Railway, near Leeds, for more than
twelve years, and on the Wylam and Killingworth Railways near Newcastle
for more than ten years, great skepticism still prevailed as to the economy
of employing them for the purpose in lieu of horses. In this case, it would
appear that seeing was not believing. The popular skepticism was as great at
Newcastle, where the opportunities for accurate observation were the
greatest, as any where else. In 1824 the scheme of a canal between that
town and Carlisle again came up, and, though a few timid voices were
raised on behalf of a railway, the general opinion was still in favor of a
canal. The example of the Hetton Railway, which had been successfully
worked by Stephenson's locomotives for two years past, was pointed to in
proof of the practicability of a locomotive line between the two places; but
the voice of the press as well as of the public was decidedly against the
"new-fangled roads."
"There has been some talk," wrote the "Whitehaven Gazette," "from a
puff criticism in the 'Monthly Review,' of an improvement on the principle
of railways; but we suspect that this improvement will turn out like the
steam-carriages, of which we have been told so much, that were to
supersede the use of horses entirely, and travel at a rate almost equal to the
speed of the fleetest horse!" The idea was too chimerical to be entertained,
and the suggested railway was accordingly rejected as impracticable.
The "Tyne Mercury" was equally decided against railways. "What
person," asked the editor (November 16th, 1824), "would ever think of
paying any thing to be conveyed from Hexham to Newcastle in something
like a coal-wagon, upon a dreary wagon-way, and to be dragged for the
greater part of the distance by a ROARING STEAM-ENGINE!" The very
notion of such a thing was preposterous, ridiculous, and utterly absurd.
When such was the state of public opinion as to railway locomotion,
some idea may be formed of the clearsightedness and moral courage of the
Stockton and Darlington directors in ordering three of Stephenson's
locomotive engines, at a cost of several thousand pounds, against the
opening of the railway.
These were constructed after Stephenson's most matured designs, and
embodied all the improvements which he had contrived up to that time. No.

1 engine, the "Locomotion," which was first delivered, weighed about eight
tons. It had one large flue or tube through the boiler, by which the heated air
passed direct from the furnace at one end, lined with fire-bricks, to the
chimney at the other. The combustion in the furnace was quickened by the
adoption of the steam-blast in the chimney. The heat raised was sometimes
so great, and it was so imperfectly abstracted by the surrounding water, that
the chimney became almost red-hot. Such engines, when put to their speed,
were found capable of running at the rate of from twelve to sixteen miles an
hour; but they were better adapted for the heavy work of hauling coal-trains
at low speeds—for which, indeed, they were specially constructed—than
for running at the higher speeds afterward adopted. Nor was it contemplated
by the directors as possible, at the time when they were ordered, that
locomotives could be made available for the purposes of passenger
traveling. Besides, the Stockton and Darlington Railway did not run
through a district in which passengers were supposed to be likely to
constitute any considerable portion of the traffic.
We may easily imagine the anxiety felt by George Stephenson during the
progress of the works toward completion, and his mingled hopes and doubts
(though his doubts were but few) as to the issue of this great experiment.
When the formation of the line near Stockton was well advanced, the
engineer one day, accompanied by his son Robert and John Dixon, made a
journey of inspection of the works. The party reached Stockton, and
proceeded to dine at one of the inns there. After dinner, Stephenson
ventured on the very unusual measure of ordering in a bottle of wine, to
drink success to the railway. John Dixon relates with pride the utterance of
the master on the occasion. "Now, lads," said he to the two young men, "I
venture to tell you that I think you will live to see the day when railways
will supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this country—
when mail-coaches will go by railway, and railroads will become the great
highways for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming when it will
be cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot. I
know there are great and almost insurmountable difficulties to be
encountered, but what I have said will come to pass as sure as you now hear
me. I only wish I may live to see the day, though that I can scarcely hope
for, as I know how slow all human progress is, and with what difficulty I
have been able to get the locomotive introduced thus far, notwithstanding
my more than ten years' successful experiment at Killingworth." The result,

however, outstripped even George Stephenson's most sanguine
anticipations; and his son Robert, shortly after his return from America in
1827, saw his father's locomotive adopted as the tractive power on railways
generally.
Tuesday, the 27th of September, 1825, was a great day for Darlington.
The railway, after having been under construction for more than three years,
was at length about to be opened. The project had been the talk of the
neighborhood for so long that there were few people within a range of
twenty miles who did not feel more or less interested about it. Was it to be a
failure or a success? Opinions were pretty equally divided as to the railway,
but as regarded the locomotive the general belief was that it would "never
answer." However, there the locomotive was—"No. 1"—delivered on to the
line, and ready to draw the first train of wagons on the opening day.
A great concourse of people assembled on the occasion. Some came from
Newcastle and Durham, many from the Aucklands, while Darlington held a
general holiday, and turned out all its population. To give éclat to the
opening, the directors of the company issued a programme of the
proceedings, intimating the times at which the procession of wagons would
pass certain points along the line. The proprietors assembled as early as six
in the morning at the Brusselton fixed engine, where the working of the
inclined planes was successfully rehearsed. A train of wagons laden with
coals and merchandise was drawn up the western incline by the fixed
engine, a length of 1960 yards, in seven and a half minutes, and then
lowered down the incline on the eastern side of the hill, 880 yards, in five
minutes.
At the foot of the incline the procession of vehicles was formed,
consisting of the locomotive engine No. 1, driven by George Stephenson
himself; after it six wagons loaded with coals and flour, then a covered
coach containing directors and proprietors, next twenty-one coal-wagons
fitted up for passengers (with which they were crammed), and lastly six
more wagons loaded with coals.
Strange to say, a man on a horse, carrying a flag, with the motto of the
company inscribed on it, Periculum privatum utilitas publica, headed the
procession! A lithographic view of the great event, published shortly after,
duly exhibits the horseman and his flag. It was not thought so dangerous a

place after all. The locomotive was only supposed to be able to go at the
rate of from four to six miles an hour, and an ordinary horse could easily
keep ahead of that.
Off started the procession, with the horseman at its head. A great
concourse of people stood along the line. Many of them tried to accompany
it by running, and some gentlemen on horseback galloped across the fields
to keep up with the train. The railway descending with a gentle incline
toward Darlington, the rate of speed was consequently variable. At a
favorable part of the road Stephenson determined to try the speed of the
engine, and he called upon the horseman with the flag to get out of the way!
Most probably, deeming it unnecessary to carry his Periculum privatum
farther, the horseman turned aside, and Stephenson "put on the steam." The
speed was at once raised to twelve miles an hour, and, at a favorable part of
the road, to fifteen. The runners on foot, the gentlemen on horseback, and
the horseman with the flag, were consequently soon left far behind. When
the train reached Darlington, it was found that four hundred and fifty
passengers occupied the wagons, and that the load of men, coals, and
merchandise amounted to about ninety tons.

PROCESSION AT THE OPENING OF THE STOCKTON AND
DARLINGTON RAILWAY.
[Fac-simile of a local lithograph.]

At Darlington the procession was rearranged. The six loaded coal-
wagons were left behind, and other wagons were taken on with a hundred
and fifty more passengers, together with a band of music. The train then
started for Stockton—a distance of only twelve miles—which was reached
in about three hours. The day was kept throughout the district as a holiday;
and horses, gigs, carts, and other vehicles, filled with people, stood along
the railway, as well as crowds of persons on foot, waiting to see the train
pass. The whole population of Stockton turned out to receive the
procession, and, after a walk through the streets, the inevitable dinner in the
Town Hall wound up the day's proceedings.
All this, however, was but gala work. The serious business of the
company began on the following day. Upon the result of the experiment
now fairly initiated by the Stockton and Darlington Company the future of
railways in a great measure depended. If it failed, like the Wandsworth,
Croydon, and Merstham undertaking, then a great check would
unquestionably be given to speculation in railways. If it succeeded, the
Stockton and Darlington enterprise would mark the beginning of a new era,
and issue in neither more nor less than a complete revolution of the means
of communication in all civilized countries.
The circumstances were on the whole favorable, and boded success
rather than failure. Prudent, careful, thoughtful men were at the head of the
concern, interested in seeing it managed economically and efficiently; and
they had the advantage of the assistance of an engineer possessed of large
resources of mother wit, mechanical genius, and strong common sense.
There was an almost unlimited quantity of coal to be carried, the principal
difficulty being in accommodating it satisfactorily. Yet it was only after the
line had been at work for some time that the extensive character of the coal
traffic began to be appreciated. At first it was supposed that the chief trade
would be in coal for land sale. But the clause inserted in the original act, at
the instance of Mr. Lambton, by which the company were limited to 1/2d.
per ton per mile for coal led to Stockton for shipment, led to the most
unexpected consequences. It was estimated that only about 10,000 tons a
year would be shipped, and that principally by way of ballast. Instead of
which, in the course of a very few years, the coal carried on the line for
export constituted the main bulk of the traffic, while that carried for land
sale was merely subsidiary.[56] The anticipations of the company as to

passenger-traffic were in like manner more than realized. At first passengers
were not thought of, and it was only while the works were in progress that
the starting of a passenger-coach was seriously contemplated. Some eighty
years since there was only one post-chaise in Darlington, which ran on three
wheels. There are people still living who remember when a coach ran from
Stockton three days in the week, passing through Darlington and Barnard
Castle; but it was starved off the road for want of support. There was then
very little intercourse between the towns, though they were so near to each
other, and comparatively so populous; and it was not known whether people
would trust themselves to the iron road. Nevertheless, it was determined to
make trial of a railway coach, and George Stephenson was authorized to
have one built at Newcastle at the cost of the company. This was done
accordingly, and the first railway passenger-carriage was built after our
engineer's design. It was, however, a very modest, and, indeed, a somewhat
uncouth machine, more resembling a showman's caravan than a passenger-
coach of any extant form. A row of seats ran along each side of the interior,
and a long deal table was fixed in the centre, the access being by means of a
door at the back end, in the manner of an omnibus. This coach arrived from
Newcastle on the day before the opening, and formed part of the procession
above described. Stephenson was consulted as to the name of the coach,
and he at once suggested the "Experiment;" and by this name it was called.
Such was the sole passenger-carrying stock of the Stockton and Darlington
Company in the year 1825. But "The Experiment" proved the forerunner of
a mighty traffic; and long time did not elapse before it was displaced, not
only by improved coaches (still drawn by horses), but afterward by long
trains of passenger-carriages drawn by locomotive engines.
The "Experiment" was fairly started as a passenger-coach on the 10th of
October, 1825, a fortnight after the opening of the line. It was drawn by one
horse, and performed a journey daily each way between the two towns,
accomplishing the distance of twelve miles in about two hours. The fare
charged was a shilling, without distinction of class; and each passenger was
allowed fourteen pounds of luggage free. The "Experiment" was not,
however, worked by the company, but was let to contractors, who worked it
under an arrangement whereby toll was paid for the use of the line, rent of
booking-cabins, etc.[57]

THE FIRST RAILWAY COACH.

The speculation answered so well that several private coaching
companies were shortly after got up by innkeepers at Darlington and
Stockton for the purpose of running other coaches upon the railroad, and an
active competition for passenger-traffic sprang up. The "Experiment," being
found too heavy for one horse to draw, besides being found an
uncomfortable machine, was banished to the coal district. Its place was then
supplied by other and better vehicles, though they were no other than old
stage-coach bodies purchased by the company, each mounted on an under-
frame with flange wheels. These were let on hire to the coaching
companies, who horsed and managed them under an arrangement as to tolls,
in like manner as the "Experiment" had been worked. Now began the
distinction of inside and outside passengers, equivalent to first and second
class, paying different fares. The competition with each other upon the
railway, and with the ordinary stage-coaches upon the road, soon brought
up the speed, which was increased to ten miles an hour—the mail-coach
rate of traveling in those days, and considered very fast.
Mr. Clephan, a native of the district, has communicated to the author the
following account of the competition between the rival coach companies:
"There were two separate coach companies in Stockton, and amusing collisions
sometimes occurred between the drivers, who found on the rail a novel element for

contention. Coaches can not pass each other on the rail as on the road, and, as the line
was single, with four sidings in the mile, when two coaches met, or two trains, or
coach and train, the question arose which of the drivers must go back. This was not
always settled in silence. As to trains, it came to be a sort of understanding that empty
should give way to loaded wagons; and as to trains and coaches, that passengers
should have preference over coals; while coaches, when they met, must quarrel it out.
At length, midway between sidings, a post was erected, and the rule was laid down
that he who had passed the pillar must go on, and the 'coming man' go back. At the
Goose Pool and Early Nook it was common for the coaches to stop, and there, as
Jonathan would say, passengers and coachmen 'liquored.' One coach, introduced by an
innkeeper, was a compound of two mourning-coaches—an approximation to the real
railway-coach, which still adheres, with multiplying exceptions, to the stage-coach
type. One Dixon, who drove the 'Experiment' between Darlington and Shildon, is the
inventor of carriage-lighting on the rail. On a dark winter night, having compassion
on his passengers, he would buy a penny candle, and place it lighted among them on
the table of the 'Experiment'—the first railway-coach (which, by the way, ended its
days at Shildon as a railway cabin), being also the first coach on the rail (first, second,
and third class jammed all into one) that indulged its customers with light in
darkness."

The traffic of all sorts increased so steadily and so rapidly that
considerable difficulty was experienced in working it satisfactorily. It had
been provided by the first Stockton and Darlington Act that the line should
be free to all parties who chose to use it at certain prescribed rates, and that
any person might put horses and wagons on the railway, and carry for
himself. But this arrangement led to increasing confusion and difficulty, and
could not continue in the face of a large and rapidly-increasing traffic. The
goods trains got so long that the carriers found it necessary to call in the aid
of the locomotive engine to help them on their way. Then mixed trains of
passengers and merchandise began to run; and the result was that the
Railway Company found it necessary to take the entire charge and working
of the traffic. In course of time new coaches were specially built for the
better accommodation of the public, until at length regular passenger-trains
were run, drawn by the locomotive engine, though this was not until after
the Liverpool and Manchester Company had established this as a distinct
branch of their traffic.
The three Stephenson locomotives were from the first regularly
employed to work the coal-trains, and their proved efficiency for this
purpose led to the gradual increase of the locomotive power. The speed of
the engine—slow though it seems now—was in those days regarded as
something marvelous. A race actually came off between No. 1 engine, the
"Locomotion," and one of the stage-coaches traveling from Darlington to

Stockton by the ordinary road, and it was regarded as a great triumph of
mechanical skill that the locomotive reached Stockton first, beating the
stage-coach by about a hundred yards! The same engine continued in good
working order in the year 1846, when it headed the railway procession on
the opening of the Middlesborough and Redcar Railway, traveling at the
rate of about fourteen miles an hour. This engine, the first that traveled on
the first public locomotive railway, has recently been placed upon a pedestal
in front of the railway station at Darlington.
For some years, however, the principal haulage of the line was performed
by horses. The inclination of the gradients being toward the sea, this was
perhaps the cheapest mode of traction, so long as the traffic was not very
large. The horse drew the train along the level road until, on reaching a
descending gradient, down which the train ran by its own gravity, the
animal was unharnessed, when, wheeling round to the other end of the
wagons, to which a "dandy-cart" was attached, its bottom being only a few
inches from the rail, and bringing his step into unison with the speed of the
train, he leaped nimbly into his place in the hind car, which was usually
fitted with a well-filled hay-rack.

THE NO. 1 ENGINE AT DARLINGTON.

The details of the working were gradually perfected by experience, the
projectors of the line being scarcely conscious at first of the importance and
significance of the work which they had taken in hand, and little thinking
that they were laying the foundations of a system which was yet to
revolutionize the internal communications of the world, and confer the
greatest blessings on mankind. It is important to note that the commercial
results of the enterprise were considered satisfactory from the opening of
the railway. Besides conferring a great public benefit upon the inhabitants
of the district, and throwing open entirely new markets for the almost
boundless stores of coal found in the Bishop Auckland district, the profits
derived from the traffic created by the railway enabled increasing dividends
to be paid to those who had risked their capital in the undertaking, and thus
held forth an encouragement to the projectors of railways generally, which
was not without an important effect in stimulating the projection of similar
enterprises in other districts. These results, as displayed in the annual
dividends, must have been eminently encouraging to the astute commercial
men of Liverpool and Manchester, who were then engaged in the
prosecution of their railway. Indeed, the commercial success of the
Stockton and Darlington Company may be justly characterized as the
turning-point of the railway system. With that practical illustration daily in
sight of the public, it was no longer possible for Parliament to have
prevented its eventual extension.
Before leaving the subject of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, we
can not avoid alluding to one of its most remarkable and direct results—the
creation of the town of Middlesborough-on-Tees. When the railway was
opened in 1825, the site of this future metropolis of Cleveland was occupied
by one solitary farm-house and its out-buildings. All round was pasture-land
or mud-banks; scarcely another house was within sight. The corporation of
the town of Stockton being unwilling or unable to provide accommodation
for the rapidly increasing coal traffic, Mr. Edward Pease, in 1829, joined by
a few of his Quaker friends, bought about 500 or 600 acres of land five
miles lower down the river—the site of the modern Middlesborough—for
the purpose of there forming a new sea-port for the shipment of coals
brought to the Tees by the railway. The line was accordingly extended
thither; docks were excavated; a town sprang up; churches, chapels, and

schools were built, with a custom-house, mechanics' institute, banks, ship-
building yards, and iron factories, and in a few years the port of
Middlesborough became one of the most thriving on the northeast coast of
England. In ten years a busy population of some 6000 persons (since
swelled to about 25,000) occupied the site of the original farm-house. More
recently, the discovery of vast stores of ironstone in the Cleveland Hills,
close adjoining Middlesborough, has tended still more rapidly to augment
the population and increase the commercial importance of the place.
It is pleasing to relate, in connection with this great work—the Stockton
and Darlington Railway, projected by Edward Pease and executed by
George Stephenson—that when Mr. Stephenson became a prosperous and a
celebrated man, he did not forget the friend who had taken him by the hand,
and helped him on in his early days. He continued to remember Mr. Pease
with gratitude and affection, and that gentleman, to the close of his life, was
proud to exhibit a handsome gold watch, received as a gift from his
celebrated protégé, bearing these words—"Esteem and gratitude: from
George Stephenson to Edward Pease."

MIDDLESBOROUGH-ON-TEES.

CHAPTER IX.
THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY PROJECTED.

While the coal proprietors of the Bishop Auckland district were taking
steps to connect their collieries with the sea by means of an iron railroad,
the merchants of Liverpool and Manchester were considering whether some
better means could not be devised for bringing these important centres of
commerce and manufacture into more direct connection.
There were canals as well as roads between the two places, but all routes
were alike tedious and costly, especially as regarded the transit of heavy
goods. The route by turnpike road was thirty-six miles, by the Duke of
Bridgewater's Canal fifty miles, by the Mersey and Irwell navigation the
same, and by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal fifty-six miles.
These were all overburdened with traffic. The roads were bad, the tolls
heavy, and the haulage expensive. The journey by coach occupied from five
to six hours, and by wagon nearly a day. But very few heavy goods went by
road. The canals nearly monopolized this traffic, and, having contrived to
keep up the rates, the canal companies charged what they liked. They
conducted their business in a drowsy, sleepy, stupid manner. If the merchant
complained of delay, he was told to do better if he could. If he objected to
the rates, he was warned that if he did not pay them promptly his goods
might not be carried at all.
The canal companies were in a position to dictate their own terms, and
they did this in such a way as to disgust alike the senders and the receivers
of goods, so that both Liverpool and Manchester were up in arms against
them. Worse even than the heavy charges for goods was the occasional
entire stoppage of the canals. Sometimes they were frozen up; sometimes
they were blocked by the press of traffic, so that goods lay on the wharves
unmoved for weeks together; and at some seasons it occupied a longer time
to bring cotton from Liverpool to Manchester by canal-boat than it had
done to bring it from New York to Liverpool by sailing ship.

Was there no way of remedying these great and admitted evils? Were the
commercial public to continue to be bound hand and foot, and left at the
mercy of the canal proprietors? Immense interests at Liverpool and
Manchester were at stake. The Liverpool merchants wanted new facilities
for sending raw material inland, and the Manchester manufacturers for
sending the manufactured products back to Liverpool for shipment. Vast
populations had become settled in the towns of South Lancashire, to whom
it was of vital importance that the communication with the sea should be
regular, constant, and economical.
These considerations early led to the discussion of some improved mode
of transit from Liverpool into the interior for heavy goods, and one of the
most favored plans was that of a tram-road. It was first suggested by the
corn-merchants of Liverpool, who had experienced the great
inconveniences resulting from the canal monopoly. One of the most zealous
advocates of the tram-road was Mr. Joseph Sandars, who took considerable
pains to ascertain the results of the working of the coal lines in the North,
both by horse and engine power, and he satisfied himself that either method
would, if adopted between Liverpool and Manchester, afford the desired
relief to the commercial and manufacturing interests. The subject was
ventilated by him in the local papers, and in the course of the year 1821 Mr.
Sandars succeeded in getting together a committee of Liverpool gentlemen
for the purpose of farther considering the subject, and, if found practicable,
of starting a company with the object of forming a tram-road between the
two towns.
While the project was still in embryo, the rumor of it reached the ears of
Mr. William James, then of West Bromwich, an enthusiastic advocate of
tram-roads and railways. As a land-surveyor and land-agent, as well as coal-
owner, he had already laid down many private railroads. He had also laid
out and superintended the execution and the working of canals, projected
extensive schemes of drainage and inclosure, and, on the whole, was one of
the most useful and active men of his time. But a series of unfortunate
speculations in mines having seriously impaired his fortunes, he again
reverted to his original profession of land-surveyor, and was so occupied in
the neighborhood of Liverpool when he heard of the scheme set on foot for
the construction of the proposed tram-road to Manchester.

He at once called upon Mr. Sandars and offered his services as its
surveyor. We believe he at first offered to survey the line at his own
expense, to which Mr. Sandars could not object; but his means were too
limited to enable him to do this successfully, and Mr. Sandars and several of
his friends agreed to pay him £300 for the survey, or at the rate of about £10
a mile. Mr. James's first interview with Mr. Sandars was in the beginning of
July, 1821, when it was arranged that he should go over the ground and
form a general opinion as to the practicability of a tram-way.
A trial survey was then begun, but it was conducted with great difficulty,
the inhabitants of the district entertaining much prejudice against the
scheme. In some places Mr. James and his surveying party had even to
encounter personal violence. At St. Helen's one of the chain-men was laid
hold of by a mob of colliers, and threatened to be hurled down a coal-pit. A
number of men, women, and children assembled, and ran after the
surveyors wherever they made their appearance, bawling nicknames and
throwing stones at them. As one of the chain-men was climbing over a gate
one day, a laborer made at him with a pitchfork, and ran it through his
clothes into his back; other watchers running up, the chain-man, who was
more stunned than hurt, took to his heels and fled. But that mysterious-
looking instrument—the theodolite—most excited the fury of the natives,
who concentrated on the man who carried it their fiercest execrations and
most offensive nicknames.
A powerful fellow, a noted bruiser, was hired by the surveyors to carry
the instrument, with a view to its protection against all assailants; but one
day an equally powerful fellow, a St. Helen's collier, cock of the walk in his
neighborhood, made up to the theodolite bearer to wrest it from him by
sheer force. A battle took place, the collier was soundly pommeled, but the
natives poured in volleys of stones upon the surveyors and their
instruments, and the theodolite was smashed in pieces.
Met by these and other obstructions, it turned out that the survey could
not be completed in time for depositing the proper plans, and the intended
application to Parliament in the next session could not be made. In the mean
time, Mr. James proceeded to Killingworth to see Stephenson's locomotives
at work. Stephenson was not at home at the time, but James saw his
engines, and was very much struck by their power and efficiency. He saw at
a glance the magnificent uses to which the locomotive might be applied.

"Here," said he, "is an engine that will, before long, effect a complete
revolution in society." Returning to Moreton-in-the-Marsh, he wrote to Mr.
Losh (Stephenson's partner in the patent) expressing his admiration of the
Killingworth engine. "It is," said he, "the greatest wonder of the age, and
the forerunner, as I firmly believe, of the most important changes in the
internal communications of the kingdom." Shortly after, Mr. James,
accompanied by his two sons, made a second journey to Killingworth,
where he met both Losh and Stephenson. The visitors were at once taken to
where one of the locomotives was working, and invited to "jump up." The
uncouth and extraordinary appearance of the machine, as it came snorting
along, was somewhat alarming to the youths, who expressed their fears lest
it should burst; and they were with some difficulty induced to mount.

MAP OF LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. [Western Part.]

The engine went through its usual performances, dragging a heavy load
of coal-wagons at about six miles an hour with apparent ease, at which Mr.
James expressed his extreme satisfaction, and declared to Mr. Losh his
opinion that Stephenson "was the greatest practical genius of the age," and
that, "if he developed the full powers of that engine (the locomotive), his
fame in the world would rank equal with that of Watt." Mr. James informed
Stephenson and Losh of his survey of the proposed tram-road between
Liverpool and Manchester, and did not hesitate to state that he would
thenceforward advocate the construction of a locomotive railroad instead of
the tram-road which had originally been proposed.

MAP OF LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. [Eastern Part.]

Stephenson and Losh were naturally desirous of enlisting James's good
services on behalf of their patent locomotive, for as yet it had proved
comparatively unproductive. They believed that he might be able so to
advocate it in influential quarters as to insure its more extensive adoption,
and with that object they proposed to give him an interest in the patent.
Accordingly, they entered into an agreement by which they assigned to him
one fourth of any profits which might be derived from the use of the patent
locomotive on any railways constructed south of a line drawn across
England from Liverpool to Hull. The arrangement, however, led to no
beneficial results. Mr. James endeavored to introduce the engine on the
Moreton-on-Marsh Railway, but it was opposed by the engineer of the line,
and the attempt failed. He next urged that a locomotive should be sent for
trial upon the Merstham tram-road; but, anxious though Stephenson was as
to its extended employment, he was too cautious to risk an experiment
which might bring discredit upon the engine; and the Merstham Road being
only laid with cast-iron plates which would not bear its weight, the
invitation was declined.
The first survey made of the Liverpool and Manchester line having been
found very imperfect, it was determined to have a second and more
complete one made in the following year. Robert Stephenson, though then a
lad of only nineteen, had already obtained some practical knowledge of
surveying, having been engaged on the preliminary survey of the Stockton

and Darlington Railway in the previous year, and he was sent over to
Liverpool by his father to give Mr. James such assistance as he could.
Robert Stephenson was present with Mr. James on the occasion on which he
tried to lay out the line across Chat Moss—a proceeding which was not
only difficult, but dangerous. The Moss was very wet at the time, and only
its edges could be ventured on. Mr. James was a heavy, thick-set man; and
one day, when endeavoring to obtain a stand for his theodolite, he felt
himself suddenly sinking. He immediately threw himself down, and rolled
over and over until he reached firm ground again, in a sad mess. Other
attempts which he subsequently made to advance into the Moss for the
same purpose were abandoned for the same reason—the want of a solid
stand for the theodolite.
As Mr. James proceeded with his survey, he found a host of opponents
springing up in all directions, some of whom he conciliated by deviations,
but others refused to be conciliated on any terms. Among these last were
Lords Derby and Wilton, Mr. Bradshaw, and the Strafford family. The
proposed line passed through their lands, and, regarding it as a nuisance,
without the slightest compensating advantage to them, they determined to
oppose it at every stage. Their agents drove the surveyors off their land; the
farmers set men at the gates armed with pitchforks to resist their progress;
and the survey proceeded with great difficulty. Mr. James endeavored to
avoid Lord Derby's Knowsley estate, but as he had received instructions
from Messrs. Ewart and Gladstone to lay out the line so as to enable it to be
extended to the docks, he found it difficult to accomplish this object and at
the same time avert the hostility of the noble lord. The only large land-
owners who gave the scheme their support were Mr. Legh and Mr. Wyrley
Birch, who not only subscribed for shares, but attended several public
meetings, and spoke in favor of the proposed railroad. Public opinion was,
however, beginning to be roused, and the canal companies began at length
to feel alarmed.
"At Manchester," Mr. James wrote to Mr. Sandars, "the subject engages all men's
thoughts, and it is curious as well as amusing to hear their conjectures. The canal
companies (southward) are alive to their danger. I have been the object of their
persecution and hate; they would immolate me if they could; but if I can die the death
of Samson, by pulling away the pillars, I am content to die with these Philistines. Be
assured, my dear sir, that not a moment shall be lost, nor shall my attention for a day
be diverted from this concern, which increases in importance every hour, as well as in
the certainty of ultimate success."

Mr. James was one of the most enthusiastic of men, especially about
railways and locomotives. He believed, with Thomas Gray, who brought
out his book about this time, that railways were yet to become the great
high roads of civilization. The speculative character of the man may be
inferred from the following passage in one of his letters to Mr. Sandars,
written from London:
"Every Parliamentary friend I have seen—and I have many of both houses—
eulogizes our plan, and they are particularly anxious that engines should be
introduced in the south. I am now negotiating about the Wandsworth Railroad. A
fortune is to be made by buying the shares, and introducing the engine system upon it.
I am confident capital will treble itself in two years. I do not choose to publish my
views here, and I wish to God some of our Liverpool friends would take this
advantage. I have bought some shares, but my capital is locked up in unproductive
lands and mines."

As the survey of the Liverpool and Manchester line proceeded, Mr.
James's funds fell short, and he was under the necessity of applying to Mr.
Sandars and his friends from time to time for farther contributions. It was
also necessary for him to attend to his business as a surveyor in other parts
of the country, and he was at such times under the necessity of leaving the
work to be done by his assistants. Thus the survey was necessarily
imperfect, and when the time arrived for lodging the plans, it was found that
they were practically worthless. Mr. James's pecuniary difficulties had also
reached their climax. "The surveys and plans," he wrote to Mr. Sandars,
"can't be completed, I see, till the end of the week. With illness, anguish of
mind, and inexpressible distress, I perceive I must sink if I wait any longer;
and, in short, I have so neglected the suit in Chancery I named to you, that
if I do not put in an answer I shall be outlawed."
Mr. James's embarrassments increased, and he was unable to shake
himself free from them. He was confined for many months in the Queen's
Bench Prison, during which time this indefatigable railway propagandist
wrote an essay illustrative of the advantages of direct inland communication
by a line of engine railroad between London, Brighton, and Portsmouth.
Meanwhile the Liverpool and Manchester scheme seemed to have fallen to
the ground. But it only slept. When its promoters found that they could no
longer rely on Mr. James's services, they determined to employ another
engineer.

Mr. Sandars had by this time visited George Stephenson at Killingworth,
and, like all who came within reach of his personal influence, was charmed
with him at first sight. The energy which he had displayed in carrying on
the works of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, now approaching
completion; his readiness to face difficulties, and his practical ability in
overcoming them; the enthusiasm which he displayed on the subject of
railways and railway locomotion, concurred in satisfying Mr. Sandars that
he was, of all men, the best calculated to help forward the undertaking at
this juncture; and having, on his return to Liverpool, reported this opinion
to the committee, they approved his recommendation, and George
Stephenson was unanimously appointed engineer of the projected railway.
On the 25th of May, 1824, Mr. Sandars wrote to Mr. James as follows:
"I think it right to inform you that the committee have engaged your friend George
Stephenson. We expect him here in a few days. The subscription-list for £300,000 is
filled, and the Manchester gentlemen have conceded to us the entire management. I
very much regret that, by delays and promises, you have forfeited the confidence of
the subscribers. I can not help it. I fear now that you will only have the fame of being
connected with the commencement of this undertaking."

It will be observed that Mr. Sandars had held to his original purpose with
great determination and perseverance, and he gradually succeeded in
enlisting on his side an increasing number of influential merchants and
manufacturers both at Liverpool and Manchester. Early in 1824 he
published a pamphlet, in which he strongly urged the great losses and
interruptions to the trade of the district by the delays in the forwarding of
merchandise; and in the same year he had a Public Declaration drawn up,
and signed by upward of 150 of the principal merchants of Liverpool,
setting forth that they considered "the present establishments for the
transport of goods quite inadequate, and that a new line of conveyance has
become absolutely necessary to conduct the increasing trade of the country
with speed, certainty, and economy."
A public meeting was then held to consider the best plan to be adopted,
and resolutions were passed in favor of a railroad. A committee was
appointed to take the necessary measures; but, as if reluctant to enter upon
their arduous struggle with the "vested interests," they first waited on Mr.
Bradshaw, the Duke of Bridgewater's canal agent, in the hope of persuading
him to increase the means of conveyance, as well as to reduce the charges;
but they were met by an unqualified refusal. He would not improve the

existing means of conveyance; he would have nothing to do with the
proposed railway; and, if persevered in, he would oppose it with all his
power. The canal proprietors, confident in their imagined security, ridiculed
the proposed railway as a chimera. It had been spoken about years before,
and nothing had come of it then; it would be the same now.
In order to form a better opinion as to the practicability of the railroad, a
deputation of gentlemen interested in the project proceeded to Killingworth
to inspect the engines which had been so long in use there. They first went
to Darlington, where they found the works of the Stockton line in progress,
though still unfinished. Proceeding next to Killingworth with George
Stephenson, they there witnessed the performances of his locomotive
engines. The result of their visit was, on the whole, so satisfactory, that on
their return to Liverpool it was determined to form a company of the
proprietors for the construction of a double line of railway between
Liverpool and Manchester.
The original promoters of the undertaking included men of the highest
standing and local influence in Liverpool and Manchester, with Charles
Lawrence as chairman, Lister Ellis, Robert Gladstone, John Moss, and
Joseph Sandars as deputy chairmen; while among the ordinary members of
the committee were Robert Benson, James Cropper, John Ewart, Wellwood
Maxwell, and William Rathbone, of Liverpool, and the brothers Birley,
Peter Ewart, William Garnett, John Kennedy, and William Potter, of
Manchester.
The committee also included another important name—that of Henry
Booth, then a corn-merchant of Liverpool, and afterward the secretary and
manager of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Mr. Booth was a man of
admirable business qualities, sagacious and far-seeing, shrewd and
practical, of considerable literary ability, and he also possessed a knowledge
of mechanics, which afterward proved of the greatest value to the railway
interest; for to him we owe the suggestion of the multitubular boiler in the
form in which it has since been employed upon all railways, and the
coupling-screw, as well as other important mechanical appliances which
have come into general use.
The first prospectus, issued in October, 1824, set forth in clear and
vigorous language the objects of the company, the urgent need of additional

means of communication between Liverpool and Manchester, and the
advantages offered by the railway over all other proposed expedients. It was
shown that the water-carriers not only exacted the most arbitrary terms from
the public, but were positively unable to carry the traffic requiring
accommodation. Against the indefinite continuance or recurrence of those
evils, said the prospectus, the public have but one security: "It is
competition that is wanted; and the proof of this assertion may be adduced
from the fact that shares in the Old Quay Navigation, of which the original
cost was £70, have been sold as high as £1250 each!" The advantages of the
railway over the canals for the carriage of coals was also urged, and it was
stated that the charge for transit would be very materially reduced.
"In the present state of trade and of commercial enterprise (the prospectus
proceeded), dispatch is no less essential than economy. Merchandise is frequently
brought across the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool in twenty-one days, while,
owing to the various causes of delay above enumerated, goods have in some instances
been longer on their passage from Liverpool to Manchester. But this reproach must
not be perpetual. The advancement in mechanical science renders it unnecessary—the
good sense of the community makes it impossible. Let it not, however, be imagined
that, were England to be tardy, other countries would pause in the march of
improvement. Application has been made, on behalf of the Emperor of Russia, for
models of the locomotive engine; and other of the Continental governments have been
duly apprised of the important schemes for the facilitating of inland traffic, now under
discussion by the British public. In the United States of America, also, they are fully
alive to the important results to be anticipated from the introduction of railroads; a
gentleman from the United States having recently arrived in Liverpool, with whom it
is a principal object to collect the necessary information in order to the establishment
of a railway to connect the great rivers Potomac and Ohio."

It will be observed that the principal, indeed almost the sole, object
contemplated by the projectors of the undertaking was the improved
carriage of merchandise and coal, and that the conveyance of passengers
was scarcely calculated on, the only paragraph in the prospectus relating to
the subject being the following: "Moreover, as a cheap and expeditious
means of conveyance for travelers, the railway holds out the fair prospect of
a public accommodation, the magnitude and importance of which can not
be immediately ascertained." The estimated expense of forming the line was
set down at £400,000—a sum which was eventually found quite inadequate.
The subscription list, when opened, was filled up without difficulty.
While the project was still under discussion, its promoters, desirous of
removing the doubts which existed as to the employment of steam-power
on the proposed railway, sent a second deputation to Killingworth for the

purpose of again observing the action of Stephenson's engines. The cautious
projectors of the railway were not yet quite satisfied, and a third journey
was made to Killingworth in January, 1825, by several gentlemen of the
committee, accompanied by practical engineers, for the purpose of being
personal eye-witnesses of what steam-carriages were able to perform upon
a railway. There they saw a train, consisting of a locomotive and loaded
wagons, weighing in all 54 tons, traveling at the average rate of about 7
miles an hour, the greatest speed being about 9-1/2 miles an hour. But when
the engine was run with only one wagon attached containing twenty
gentlemen, five of whom were engineers, the speed attained was from 10 to
12 miles an hour.
In the mean time the survey was proceeded with, in the face of great
opposition on the part of the proprietors of the lands through which the
railway was intended to pass. The prejudices of the farming and laboring
classes were strongly excited against the persons employed upon the
ground, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the levels could be taken.
This opposition was especially manifested when the attempt was made to
survey the line through the properties of Lords Derby and Sefton, and also
where it crossed the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal. At Knowsley,
Stephenson and his surveyors were driven off the ground by the keepers,
and threatened with rough handling if found there again. Lord Derby's
farmers also turned out their men to watch the surveying party, and prevent
them entering on any lands where they had the power of driving them off.
Afterward Stephenson suddenly and unexpectedly went upon the ground
with a body of surveyors and their assistants who outnumbered Lord
Derby's keepers and farmers, hastily collected to resist them, and this time
they were only threatened with the legal consequences of their trespass.
The same sort of resistance was offered by Lord Sefton's keepers and
farmers, with whom the following ruse was adopted. A minute was
concocted, purporting to be a resolution of the Old Quay Canal Company to
oppose the projected railroad by every possible means, and calling upon
land-owners and others to afford every facility for making such a survey of
the intended line as should enable the opponents to detect errors in the
scheme of the promoters, and thereby insure its defeat. A copy of this
minute, without any signature, was exhibited by the surveyors who went
upon the ground, and the farmers, believing them to have the sanction of the

landlords, permitted them to proceed with the hasty completion of their
survey.
The principal opposition, however, was experienced from Mr. Bradshaw,
the manager of the Duke of Bridgewater's canal property, who offered a
vigorous and protracted resistance to the survey in all its stages. The duke's
farmers obstinately refused permission to enter upon their fields, although
Stephenson offered to pay for any damage that might be done. Mr.
Bradshaw positively refused his sanction in any case; and being a strict
preserver of game, with a large staff of keepers in his pay, he declared that
he would order them to shoot or apprehend any persons attempting a survey
over his property. But one moonlight night a survey was effected by the
following ruse. Some men, under the orders of the surveying party, were set
to fire off guns in a particular quarter, on which all the gamekeepers on the
watch made off in that direction, and they were drawn away to such a
distance in pursuit of the supposed poachers as to enable a rapid survey to
be made during their absence. Describing before Parliament the difficulties
which he encountered in making the survey, Stephenson said: "I was
threatened to be ducked in the pond if I proceeded, and, of course, we had a
great deal of the survey to take by stealth, at the time when the people were
at dinner. We could not get it done by night; indeed, we were watched day
and night, and guns were discharged over the grounds belonging to Captain
Bradshaw to prevent us. I can state farther that I was myself twice turned
off Mr. Bradshaw's grounds by his men, and they said if I did not go
instantly they would take me up and carry me off to Worsley."
The same kind of opposition had to be encountered all along the line of
the intended railway. Mr. Clay, one of the company's solicitors, wrote to Mr.
Sandars from the Bridgewater Arms, Prescott, on the 31st of December, that
the landlords, occupiers, trustees of turnpike roads, proprietors of bleach-
works, carriers and carters, and even the coal-owners, were dead against the
railroad. "In a word," said he, "the country is up in arms against us." There
were only three considerable land-owners who remained doubtful; and "if
these be against us," said Mr. Clay, "then the whole of the great proprietors
along the whole line are dissentient, excepting only Mr. Trafford."
The cottagers and small proprietors were equally hostile. "The trouble we
have with them," wrote Mr. Clay, "is beyond belief; and those patches of
gardens at the end of Manchester bordering on the Irwell, and the tenants of

Hulme Hall, who, though insignificant, must be seen, give us infinite
trouble, all of which, as I have reason to believe, is by no means
accidental." There was also the opposition of the great Bradshaw, the duke's
agent. "I wrote you this morning," said Mr. Clay, in a wrathful letter of the
same date, "since which we have been into Bradshaw's warehouse, now
called the Knot Mill, and, after traversing two of the rooms, we got very
civilly turned out, which, under all the circumstances, I thought very lucky,
and more than we deserved. However, we have seen more than half of his d
—d cottagers."
There were also the canal companies, who made common cause, formed
a common purse, and determined to wage war to the knife against all
railways. The following circular, issued by the Liverpool Railroad
Company, with the name of Mr. Lawrence, the chairman, attached, will
serve to show the resolute spirit in which the canal proprietors were
preparing to resist the bill:
"Sir,—The Leeds and Liverpool, the Birmingham, the Grand Trunk, and other
canal companies having issued circulars, calling upon 'every canal and navigation
company in the kingdom' to oppose in limine and by a united effort the establishment
of railroads wherever contemplated, I have most earnestly to solicit your active
exertions on behalf of the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad Company, to counteract
the avowed purpose of the canal proprietors, by exposing the misrepresentations of
interested parties, by conciliating good will, and especially by making known, as far
as you have opportunity, not only the general superiority of railroads over other
modes of conveyance, but, in our peculiar case, the absolute necessity of a new and
additional line of communication, in order to effect with economy and dispatch the
transport of merchandise between this port and Manchester.

"(Signed) Charles Lawrence, Chairman."
Such was the state of affairs and such the threatenings of war on both
sides immediately previous to the Parliamentary session of 1825.
When it became known that the promoters of the undertaking were
determined—imperfect though the plans were believed to be, from the
obstructions thrown in the way of the surveying parties—to proceed with
the bill in the next session of Parliament, the canal companies appealed to
the public through the press. Pamphlets were published and newspapers
hired to revile the railway. It was declared that its formation would prevent
the cows grazing and hens laying, while the horses passing along the road
would be driven distracted. The poisoned air from the locomotives would
kill the birds that flew over them, and render the preservation of pheasants