CHAPTER I.

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.

[Picture: George Stephenson]

LIVES

OF THE

ENGINEERS.

THE LOCOMOTIVE.

GEORGE AND ROBERT STEPHENSON.

BY SAMUEL SMILES,

AUTHOR OF 'CHARACTER,' 'SELF-HELP,' ETC.

"Bid Harbours open, Public Ways extend;

Bid Temples, worthier of God, ascend;

Bid the broad Arch the dang'rous flood contain,

The Mole projected break the roaring main,

Back to his bounds their subject sea command,

And roll obedient rivers through the land.

These honours, Peace to happy Britain brings;

These are imperial works, and worthy kings."

POPE.

_A NEW AND REVISED EDITION_.

* * * * *

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

1879.

_The right of Translation is reserved_.

INTRODUCTION.

Since the appearance of this book in its original form, some seventeen

years since, the construction of Railways has continued to make

extraordinary progress. 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 railway, it has, during the

last seventeen years, expended about 288 millions more in constructing

7780 additional miles.

But the construction of railways has proceeded with equal rapidity on the

Continent. France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland,

Holland, have largely added to their railway mileage. Austria is

actively engaged in carrying new lines across the plains of Hungary,

which Turkey is preparing to meet by lines carried up the valley of the

Lower Danube. Russia is also 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 is employing her new-born liberty in vigorously extending railways

throughout her dominions. A direct line of communication has already

been opened between France and Italy, through the Mont Cenis Tunnel;

while another has been opened between Germany and Italy through the

Brenner Pass,--so that the entire journey may now be made by two

different railway routes (excepting only the short sea-passage across the

English Channel) from London to Brindisi, situated in the south-eastern

extremity of the Italian peninsula.

During the last sixteen years, nearly the whole of the 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 anything better than the

ourang-outang or the tiger."

But that reproach no longer exists. Some of the greatest bridges erected

in modern times--such as those over the Sone near Patna, and over the

Jumna at Allahabad--have been erected in connection with the Indian

railways. More than 5000 miles are now at work, and they have been

constructed at an expenditure of about 88,000,000 pounds of British

capital, guaranteed by the British Government. The Indian railways

connect the capitals of the three Presidencies--uniting Bombay with

Madras on the south, and with Calcutta on the north-east--while a great

main line, 2200 miles in extent, passing through the north-western

provinces, and connecting Calcutta with Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore, Moultan,

and Kurrachee, unites 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. The Colony of Canada has now more than

3000 miles in active operation along the great valley of the St.

Lawrence, connecting Riviere du Loup at the mouth of that river, and the

harbour 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. During the same time the Australian Colonies have

been actively engaged in providing themselves with railways, many of

which are at work, and others are in course of formation. The Cape of

Good Hope has several lines open, and others making. France has

constructed about 400 miles in Algeria; while the Pasha of Egypt is the

proprietor of 360 miles in operation across the Egyptian desert. The

Japanese are also making railroads.

But in no country has railway construction been prosecuted with greater

vigour 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, 35,000 miles; and at the 31st of December, 1873, not less than

70,651 miles were in operation, of which 3916 had been made during that

year. One of the most extensive trunk-lines 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

means of which it is 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 stagecoaches. 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 the line 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 advertised to

be run upon it, by way of experiment. Greatly to the surprise of the

directors, more passengers presented themselves as travellers 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. Everything was found to have been in the first instance

made too light and too slight. The prize 'Rocket,' which weighed only

4.5 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, travelling 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 1873, 401,465,086 passengers were carried by day

tickets in Great Britain alone. But this was not all. For in that year

257,470 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

47,024,000 journeys, or a total of 448,489,086 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-five 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 greatly fall short of the passengers carried in

1873.

Mr. Porter, in his 'Progress of the Nation,' estimated that thirty

millions of passengers, or about eighty-two thousand a day, travelled 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 448 millions are now carried by railway an average

distance of 8.5 miles each, at an average cost of 1s. 1.5d. per

passenger, or about three halfpence per mile, in considerably less than

one-fourth of the time.

But besides the above number of passengers, over one hundred and

sixty-two million tons of minerals and merchandise were carried by

railway in the United Kingdom in 1873, besides mails, cattle, parcels,

and other traffic. The distance run by passenger and goods trains in the

year was 162,561,304 miles; to accomplish which it is estimated that four

miles of railway must have been covered by running trains during every

second all the year round.

To perform this service, there were, in 1873, 11,255 locomotives at work

in the United Kingdom, consuming about four million tons of coal and

coke, and flashing into the air every minute some forty tons of water in

the form of steam in a high state of elasticity. There were also 24,644

passenger-carriages, 9128 vans and breaks attached to passenger-trains,

and 329,163 trucks, waggons, and other vehicles appropriated to

merchandise. Buckled together, buffer to buffer, the locomotives and

tenders would extend from London to Peterborough; 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 more than three-fourths of the whole

number carried. In 1873, there were about 23 million first-class

passengers, 62 million second-class, and not less than 306 million

third-class. 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 verified.

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

organisation 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 travelling by railway at high speed 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 are killed by lightning in Great Britain than are killed

on railways from causes beyond their own control. Most persons would

consider the probability of their dying by hanging to be extremely

remote; yet, according to the Registrar-General's returns, it is

considerably greater than that of being killed by railway accident.

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.

Few are aware of the complicated means and agencies that are in constant

operation on railways day and night, to ensure the safety of the

passengers to their journey's end. The road is under a system of

continuous inspection. The railway is watched by foremen, with "gangs"

of men under them, in lengths varying from twelve to five miles,

according to circumstances. Their continuous duty is to see that the

rails and chairs are sound, their fastenings complete, and the line clear

of all 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

colours were used; next fixed signals, with arms or discs 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 21 hours--an amount of traffic requiring not only the

utmost 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 South-Eastern Railway, 627 trains

pass in and out daily, many of them crossing each other's 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 signalmen 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 pianoforte 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 signalmen 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

ensuring the safe working of large railway traffics. Though the

locomotive may run at 60 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 the

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 signalled

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, it may be of hundreds of miles, it is signalled on from

station to station--it "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 South-Eastern Railway, where the system has been brought

to a state of high efficiency, it is no unusual thing during Easter week

to send 600,000 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 ensure safety, others equally

ingenious are adopted to ensure 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 North-Western

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 841 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 laid out so as to pass through Lyons, a local prophet predicted that

if the line were made the city would be ruined--"_Ville traversee_,

_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 civilisation.

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 sixteen 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

South-Eastern 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 within about five miles of Charing Cross.

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 inwards to their

offices and counting-houses, and in the afternoon between four and six,

when they are returning outwards 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 outwards and inwards 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 neighbourhood 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 south-east 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 the 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. 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 513,867; and in the ten

years ending 1861, 441,753: until now, to quote the words of the

Registrar-General in a recent 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 organisation of the

railway service, and the regularity and despatch 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 towards 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 north-west of Britain, as far as the Highlands

of Scotland, which have, through the instrumentality of railways, 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 is brought by the Great Eastern

Railway, which delivers in London in one 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 is 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 in one year, the Great Eastern brings

654,000 sacks, the Great Northern 232,022 sacks, and the Great Western

136,312 sacks; the principal contribution of the London and North-Western

Railway towards 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. In 1867, not fewer than 172,300 head of cattle

were brought to 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 North-Western, 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.

In 1867, 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 North-Western 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 North-Western Railway consists of pigs, of which they delivered

54,700 in London, principally Irish; while the Great Eastern brought up

27,500 of the same animal, partly foreign.

While the cattle-plague had the effect of greatly reducing the number of

live stock brought into London yearly, it gave a considerable impetus to

the Fresh Meat traffic. Thus, in addition to the above large numbers of

cattle and sheep delivered in London in 1867, 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 North-Western;--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 0.5d. 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 North-Western brought

about 6000 tons, 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 south-west 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 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 South-Western

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 the Midland each

brought about 3000 tons of cheese, the South-Western 2600 tons, and the

London and North-Western 10,034 cheeses in number; while the

South-Western 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 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 favourite 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 neighbourhood 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 in 1867 5279 tons of potatoes, 1046 tons of vegetables, and 5386

tons of fruit, besides 542 tons of vegetables from France. The

South-Eastern 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 brought from Cornwall, with about 5000 tons of

broccoli, 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 were

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.

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 amongst workmen, such a contingency is quite within the limits of

possibility. Another contingency, which might arise during 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 ironclads 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 ensuring 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 (but for

strikes) the supply is more regular at all seasons.

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 North-Western Company, at Camden Town; and sometimes as many as

20,000 parcels daily. Every other metropolitan station is similarly

alive with traffic inwards and outwards, 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 recognised 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 5.5 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 44.5 millions; whereas,

in 1865, the numbers of letters had increased to 720 millions, and in

1867 to 775 millions, or more than ten-fold, while the number of

newspapers, books, samples and patterns (a new branch of postal business

began in 1864) had increased, in 1865, to 98.5 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

pounds in the former year, and 559,575 pounds 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 pounds and the net

revenue 500,789 pounds; in 1854, the gross revenue was 2,574,407 pounds,

and the net revenue 1,173,723 pounds; and in 1867, the gross revenue was

4,548,129 pounds, and the net revenue 2,127,125 pounds, 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 despatched from London by twenty-eight mail coaches was 4 tons 6

cwt., or an average of about 3.25 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 ten-fold 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 coachman and guards.

Whatever may be said of the financial management 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 financing and jobbing, have been found to prove

of unquestionable public convenience and utility. And notwithstanding

all the faults and imperfections that have been alleged against railways,

we think that they must, nevertheless, be recognised 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, was to

describe, in connection with the 'Life of George Stephenson,' the origin

and progress of the railway system,--to show by what moral and material

agencies its founders were enabled to carry their ideas into effect, and

work out results which even then were of a remarkable character, though

they have since, as above described, become so much more extraordinary.

The favour 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.

The book was written with the concurrence and assistance of Robert

Stephenson, who also 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 lifetime, and

the remaining portions have since been added, with the object of

rendering more complete the record of the son's life as well as of the

early history of the Railway system.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

NEWCASTLE AND THE GREAT NORTHERN COAL-FIELDS.

The colliery districts of the Pages 1-11

North--Newcastle-upon-Tyne in ancient times--The

Roman settlement--Social insecurity in the Middle

Ages--Northumberland roads--The coal-trade--Modern

Newcastle--Coal haulage--Early waggon-roads,

tram-roads, and railways--Machinery of

coal-mines--Newcomen's fire-engine--The colliers,

their character and habits--Coal-staiths--The

keelmen

CHAPTER II.

WYLAM AND DEWLEY BURN--GEORGE STEPHENSON'S EARLY YEARS.

Wylam Colliery and village--George Stephenson's 12-30

birth-place--His parents--The Stephenson family--Old

Robert Stephenson--George's boyhood--Dewley Burn

Colliery--Sister Nell's bonnet--Employed as a

herd-boy--Makes clay engines--Follows the

plough--Employed as corf-bitter--Drives the

gin-horse--Black Callerton Colliery--Love of

animals--Made assistant-fireman--Old Robert and

family shift their home--Jolly's Close,

Newburn--Family earnings--George as fireman--His

athletic feats--Throckley Bridge--"A made man for

life!"--Appointed engineman--Studies his

engine--Experiments in egg-hatching--Puts himself to

school, and learns to read--His

schoolmasters--Progress in arithmetic--His

dog--Learns to brake--Brakesman at Black

Callerton--Duties of brakesman--Begins

shoe-making--Fanny Henderson--Saves his first

guinea--Fight with a pitman

CHAPTER III.

ENGINEMAN AT WILLINGTON QUAY AND KILLINGWORTH.

Sobriety and studiousness--Inventiveness--Removes to 31-46

Willington Quay--Marries Fanny Henderson--Their

cottage at Willington--Attempts at perpetual

motion--William Fairbairn and George

Stephenson--Ballast-heaving--Chimney on fire, and

clock-cleaning--Birth of Robert Stephenson--George

removes to West Moor, Killingworth--Death of his

wife--Engineman at Montrose, Scotland--His

pump-boot--Saves money--His return to

Killingworth--Brakesman at West Moor--Is drawn for

the Militia--Thinks of emigrating to America--Takes

a contract for brakeing engines--Improves the

winding-engine--Cures a pumping-engine--Becomes

famous as an engine-doctor--Appointed engine-wright

of a colliery

CHAPTER IV.

THE STEPHENSONS AT KILLINGWORTH--EDUCATION AND SELF-EDUCATION OF

FATHER AND SON.

George Stephenson's self-improvement--John 47-62

Wigham--Studies in Natural

Philosophy--Sobriety--Education of Robert

Stephenson--Sent to Rutter's school, Benton--Bruce's

school, Newcastle--Literary and Philosophical

Institute--George educates his son in

Mechanics--Ride to Killingworth--Robert's boyish

tricks--Repeats the Franklin

kite-experiment--Stephenson's cottage, West

Moor--Odd mechanical expedients--Competition in

last-making--Father and son make a

sun-dial--Colliery improvements--Stephenson's

mechanical expertness

CHAPTER V.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE LOCOMOTIVE--GEORGE STEPHENSON BEGINS ITS

IMPROVEMENT.

Various expedients for 63-88

coal-haulage--Sailing-waggons--Mr. Edgworth's

experiments--Cugnot's first locomotive

steam-carriage--Murdock's model

locomotive--Trevithick's steam-carriage and

tram-engine--Blenkinsop's engine--Chapman and

Brunton's locomotives--The Wylam waggon-way--Mr.

Blackett's experiments--Jonathan Foster--William

Hedley--The Wylam engine--Stephenson determines to

build a locomotive--Lord Ravensworth--The first

Killingworth engine described--The steam-blast

invented--Stephenson's second locomotive

CHAPTER VI.

INVENTION OF THE "GEORDY" SAFETY-LAMP.

Frequency of colliery explosions--Accident in the 89-108

Killingworth Pit--Stephenson's heroic conduct--A

safety-lamp described--Dr. Clanny's

lamp--Stephenson's experiments on fire-damp--Designs

a lamp, and tests it in the pit--Cottage experiments

with coal-gas--Stephenson's second and third

lamps--The Stephenson and Davy controversy--Scene at

the Newcastle Institute--The Davy testimonial--The

Stephenson testimonial--Merits of the "Geordy" lamp

CHAPTER VII.

GEORGE STEPHENSON'S FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOCOMOTIVE--THE

HETTON RAILWAY--ROBERT STEPHENSON AS VIEWER'S APPRENTICE AND STUDENT.

The Killingworth mine machinery--Stephenson improves 109-122

his locomotive--Strengthens the road--His

patent--His steam-springs--Experiments on

friction--Steam-locomotion on common roads--Early

neglect of the locomotive--Stephenson again thinks

of emigration--Constructs the Hetton Railway--The

working power employed--Robert Stephenson viewer's

apprentice--His pursuits at Killingworth--His father

sends him to Edinburgh University--His application

to the studies of Chemistry, Natural History, and

Natural Philosophy--His MS. volumes of

Lectures--Geological tour with Professor Jameson in

the Highlands

CHAPTER VIII.

GEORGE STEPHENSON ENGINEER OF THE STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON RAILWAY.

The Bishop Auckland Coal-field--Edward Pease 123-145

projects a railway from Witton to Stockton--The Bill

rejected--The line re-surveyed, and the Act

obtained--George Stephenson's visit to Edward

Pease--Appointed engineer of the railway--Again

surveys the line--Mr. Pease visits Killingworth--The

Newcastle locomotive works projected--The railway

constructed--Locomotives ordered--Stephenson's

anticipations as to railways--Public opening of the

line--The coal traffic--The first railway

passenger-coach--The coaching traffic described--The

"Locomotion" engine--Race with

stage-coach--Commercial results of the Stockton and

Darlington Railway--The town of Middlesborough

created

CHAPTER IX.

THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY PROJECTED.

Insufficient communications between Manchester and 146-172

Liverpool--The canal monopoly--A tramroad

projected--Joseph Sanders--Sir R. Phillip's

speculations as to railways--Thomas Gray--William

James surveys a line between Liverpool and

Manchester--Opposition to the survey--Mr. James's

visits to Killingworth--Robert Stephenson assists in

the survey--George Stephenson appointed

engineer--The first prospectus--Stephenson's survey

opposed--The canal companies--Speculations as to

railway speed--Stephenson's notions thought

extravagant--Article in the 'Quarterly'--The Bill

before Parliament--The Evidence--George Stephenson

in the witness box--Examined as to speed--His

cross-examination--The survey found defective--Mr.

Harrison's speech--Evidence of opposing

engineers--Mr. Alderson's speech--The Bill

withdrawn--Stephenson's vexation--The scheme

prosecuted--The line re-surveyed--Sir Isaac Coffin's

speech--The Act passed

CHAPTER X.

CHAT MOSS--CONSTRUCTION OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY.

George Stephenson appointed engineer--Chat Moss 173-192

described--The resident engineers--Mr. Dixon's visit

of inspection--Stephenson's theory of a floating

road--Operations begun--Tar-barrel drains--The

embankment sinks in the Moss--Proposed abandonment

of the work--Stephenson perseveres--The obstacles

conquered--Road across Parr Moss--The road

formed--Stephenson's organization of labour--The

Liverpool Tunnel--Olive Mount Cutting--Sankey

Viaduct--Stephenson and Cropper--Stephenson's

labours--Pupils and assistants--His daily

life--Practical education--Evenings at home

CHAPTER XI.

ROBERT STEPHENSON'S RESIDENCE IN COLOMBIA AND RETURN--THE BATTLE OF

THE LOCOMOTIVE--THE "ROCKET."

Robert Stephenson mining engineer in Colombia--Mule 193-220

journey to Bogota--Mariquita--Silver

mining--Difficulties with the Cornishmen--His

cottage at Santa Anna--Longs to return home--Resigns

his post--Meeting with Trevithick--Voyage to New

York, and shipwreck--Returns to Newcastle, and takes

charge of the factory--The working power of the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway--Fixed engines and

locomotives, and their respective advocates--Walker

and Rastrick's report--A prize offered for the best

locomotive--Conferences of the Stephensons--Boiler

arrangements and heating surface--Mr. Booth's

contrivance--Building of the "Rocket"--The

competition of engines at Rainhill--The "Novelty"

and "Sanspareil"--Triumph of the "Rocket," and its

destination

CHAPTER XII.

OPENING OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY, AND EXTENSION OF THE

RAILWAY SYSTEM.

The railway finished--The traffic arrangements 221-236

organized--Public opening of the line--Accident to

Mr. Huskisson--Arrival of the trains at

Manchester--The traffic results--Improvement of the

road and rolling stock--Improvements in the

locomotive--The railway a wonder--Extension of the

railway system--Joint-stock railway companies--New

lines projected--New engineers--The Grand

Junction--Public opposition to railways--Robert

Stephenson engineer to the Leicester and Swannington

Railway--George Stephenson removes to

Snibston--Sinks for and gets coal--Stimulates local

enterprise--His liberality

CHAPTER XIII.

ROBERT STEPHENSON CONSTRUCTS THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.

The line projected--George and Robert Stephenson 237-252

appointed engineers--Opposition--Hostile pamphlets

and public meetings--Robert Stephenson and Sir

Astley Cooper--The survey obstructed--The opposing

clergyman--The Bill in Parliament--Thrown out in the

Lords--Proprietors conciliated, and the Act

obtained--The works let in contracts--The

difficulties of the undertaking--The line

described--Blisworth Cutting--Primrose Hill

Tunnel--Kilsby Tunnel--Its construction

described--Cost of the Railway greatly

increased--Failure of contractors--Magnitude of the

works--Railway navvies

CHAPTER XIV.

MANCHESTER AND LEEDS, AND MIDLAND RAILWAYS--STEPHENSON'S LIFE AT

ALTON--VISIT TO BELGIUM--GENERAL EXTENSION OF RAILWAYS AND THEIR

RESULTS.

Projection of new lines--Dutton Viaduct, Grand 253-274

Junction--The Manchester and Leeds--Summit Tunnel,

Littleborough--Magnitude of the work--The Midland

Railway--The works compared with the Simplon

road--Slip near Ambergate--Bull Bridge--The York and

North Midland--George Stephenson on his surveys--His

quick observation--Travelling and

correspondence--Life at Alton Grange--The

Stephensons' London office--Visits to

Belgium--Interviews with the King--Public openings

of English railways--Stephenson's pupils and

assistants--Prophecies falsified concerning

railways--Their advantageous results

CHAPTER XV.

GEORGE STEPHENSON'S COAL MINES--THE ATMOSPHERIC SYSTEM--RAILWAY

MANIA--VISITS TO BELGIUM AND SPAIN.

George Stephenson on railways and 275-300

coal-traffic--Leases the Claycross estate, and sinks

for coal--His extensive lime-works--Removes to

Tapton House--British Association at

Newcastle--Appears at Mechanics' Institutes--Speech

at Leeds--His self-acting brake--His views of

railway speed--Theory of "undulating lines"--Chester

and Birkenhead Company--Stephenson's

liberality--Atmospheric railways

projected--Stephenson opposes the principle of

working--The railway mania--Stephenson resists, and

warns against it--George Hudson, "Railway

King"--Parliament and the mania--Stephenson's letter

to Sir R. Peel--Again visits Belgium--Interviews

with King Leopold--Journey into Spain

CHAPTER XVI.

ROBERT STEPHENSON'S CAREER--THE STEPHENSONS AND BRUNEL--EAST COAST

ROUTE TO SCOTLAND--ROYAL BORDER BRIDGE, BERWICK--HIGH LEVEL BRIDGE,

NEWCASTLE.

George Stephenson's retirement--Robert's employment 301-319

as Parliamentary Engineer--His rival Brunel--The

Great Western Railway--The 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--Royal Border Bridge, Berwick--Progress of

iron-bridge building--Robert Stephenson constructs

the High Level Bridge, Newcastle--Pile-driving by

steam--Characteristics of the structure--Through

railway to Scotland completed

CHAPTER XVII.

ROBERT STEPHENSON'S TUBULAR BRIDGES AT MENAI AND CONWAY.

George Stephenson surveys a line from Chester to 320-340

Holyhead--Robert Stephenson's construction of the

works at Penmaen Mawr--Crossing of the Menai

Strait--Various plans proposed--A tubular beam

determined on--Strength of wrought-iron tubes--Mr.

William Fairbairn consulted--His experiments--The

design settled--The Britannia Bridge described--The

Conway Bridge--Floating of the tubes--Lifting of the

tubes--Robert Stephenson's anxieties--Bursting of

the Hydraulic Press--The works completed--Merits of

the Britannia and Conway Bridges

CHAPTER XVIII.

GEORGE STEPHENSON'S CLOSING YEARS--ILLNESS AND DEATH.

George Stephenson's Life at Tapton--Experiments in 341-356

Horticulture, Gardening, and Farming--Affection for

animals--Bird-hatching and bee-keeping--Reading and

conversation--Rencontre with Lord

Denman--Hospitality at Tapton--Experiments with the

microscope--Frolics--"A crowdie night"--Visits to

London--Visit to Sir Robert Peel at Drayton

Manor--Encounter with Dr. Buckland--Coal formed by

the sun's light--Opening of the Trent Valley

Railway--Meeting with Emerson--Illness, death, and

funeral--Memorial Statues

CHAPTER XIX.

ROBERT STEPHENSON'S VICTORIA BRIDGE, LOWER CANADA--ILLNESS AND

DEATH--STEPHENSON CHARACTERISTICS.

Robert Stephenson's inheritances--Gradual retirement 357-380

from the profession of engineer--His last great

works--Tubular Bridges over the St. Lawrence and the

Nile--The Grand Trunk Railway, Canada--Necessity for

a great railway bridge near Montreal--Discussion as

to the plan--Robert Stephenson's report--A tubular

bridge determined on--Massiveness of the

piers--Ice-floods in the St. Lawrence--Victoria

Bridge constructed and completed--Tubular bridges in

Egypt--The Suez Canal--Robert Stephenson's

employment as arbitrator--Assists Brunel at

launching of the "Great Eastern"--Regardlessness of

health--Death and Funeral--Characteristics of the

Stephensons and resume of their history--Politics of

father and son--Services rendered to civilization by

the Stephensons

INDEX 381

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Portrait of George Stephenson _to face title page_

High Level Bridge, _to face_ 1

Map of Newcastle District 2

Flange rail 6

Coal-staith on the Tyne 10

Coal waggons 11

Wylam Colliery and village 12

High Street House, Wylam--George Stephenson's birthplace 14

Newburn on the Tyne 20

Colliery Whimsey 30

Stephenson's Cottage, Willington Quay 31

West Moor Colliery 37

Killingworth High Pit 46

Glebe Farm House, Benton 47

Rutter's School House, Long Benton 51

Bruce's School, Newcastle 53

Stephenson's Cottage, West Moor 57

Sun-dial at Killingworth 60

Colliers' Cottages at Long Benton 62

Cugnot's Engine 64

Section of Murdock's Model Locomotive 66

Trevithick's high-pressure Tram-Engine 70

Improved Wylam Engine 78

Spur-gear 83

The Pit-head, West Moor 91

Davy's and Stephenson's Safety-lamps 101

West Moor Pit, Killingworth 108

Half-lap joint 111

Old Killingworth Locomotive 113

Map of Stockton and Darlington Railway 123

Portrait of Edward Pease 124

The first Railway Coach 139

The No. 1 Engine at Darlington 142

Middlesborough-on-Tees 145

Map of Liverpool and Manchester Railway (Western Part) 150

,, (Eastern part) 151

Surveying on Chat Moss 172

Olive Mount Cutting 184

Sankey Viaduct 186

Robert Stephenson's Cottage at Santa Anna 198

The "Rocket" 212

Locomotive competition, Rainhill 215

Railway _versus_ Road 220

Map of Leicester and Swannington Railway 233

Stephenson's House at Alton Grange 236

Portrait of Robert Stephenson, _to face_ 237

Map of London and Birmingham Railway (Rugby to Watford) 242

Blisworth Cutting 243

Shafts over Kilsby Tunnel 246

Dutton Viaduct 254

Entrance to Summit Tunnel, Lancashire and Yorkshire 256

Railway

Land-slip, near Ambergate, North Midland Railway 259

Bullbridge, near Ambergate 260

Coalville and Snibston Colliery 274

Tapton House, near Chesterfield 275

Lime-works at Ambergate 278

Newcastle, from the High Level Bridge 301

Royal Border Bridge, Berwick-upon-Tweed 311

High Level Bridge--Elevation of one Arch 318

Penmaen Mawr 322

Map of Menai Straits 325

Conway Tubular Bridge 334

Britannia Bridge 339

Conway Bridge--Floating the first Tube 340

View in Tapton Gardens 341

Pathway to Tapton House 347

Trinity Church, Chesterfield 355

Tablet in Trinity Church, Chesterfield 356

The Victoria Bridge, Montreal 357

Robert Stephenson's Burial-place in Westminster Abbey 369

The Stephenson Memorial Schools, Willington Quay 380

[Picture: Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the High-level Bridge]

CHAPTER I.

NEWCASTLE AND THE GREAT NORTHERN COAL-FIELD.

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

north-west 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 neighbourhood

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.

[Picture: Map of Newcastle District]

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 derived 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 civilisation.

The nearness of Newcastle to the Scotch Border was a great hindrance 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 bloodhounds 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 tract of

the old Roman road continued to be the most practicable route between

Newcastle and Carlisle, the traffic between the two towns having been

carried along it upon packhorses until 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

neighbourhood of Newcastle and Durham. It then became an article of

increasing export, and "seacoal" fires gradually supplanted those of

wood. Hence an old writer described Newcastle as "the Eye of the North,

and the Hearth that warmeth the South parts of this kingdom with Fire."

Fuel has become the staple product of the district, the quantity exported

increasing from year to year, until the coal raised from these northern

mines amounts to upwards 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 mediaeval 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 defence 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, {4} 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 to be a

glowing belt of fire.

From the necessity which existed for facilitating the transport of coals

from the pits to the shipping places, it is easy to understand how the

railway and the locomotive should have first found their home in such a

district as we have thus briefly described. At an early period the coal

was carried to the boats in panniers, or in sacks upon horses' backs.

Then carts were used, to facilitate the progress of which tramways of

flag-stone were laid down. This led to the enlargement of the vehicle,

which became known as a waggon, and it was mounted on four wheels instead

of two. A local writer about the middle of the seventeenth century says,

"Many thousand people are engaged in this trade of coals; many live by

working of them in the pits; and many live by conveying them in waggons

and wains to the river Tyne."

Still further to facilitate the haulage of the waggons, pieces of

planking were laid parallel upon wooden sleepers, or imbedded in the

ordinary track, by which friction was still further diminished. It is

said that these wooden rails were first employed by one Beaumont, about

1630; and on a road thus laid, a single horse was capable of drawing a

large loaded waggon from the coal-pit to the shipping staith. Roger

North, in 1676, found the practice had become extensively adopted, and he

speaks of the large sums then paid for way-leaves; that is, the

permission granted by the owners of lands lying between the coal-pit and

the river-side to lay down a tramway between the one and the other. A

century later, Arthur Young observed that not only had these roads become

greatly multiplied, but important works had been constructed to carry

them along upon the same level. "The coal-waggon 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 waggons to run on, by which one horse is enabled to

draw, and that with ease, fifty or sixty bushels of coals." {5}

Similar waggon-roads were laid down in the coal districts of Wales,

Cumberland, and Scotland. At the time of the Scotch rebellion in 1745, a

tramroad existed between the Tranent coal-pits and the small harbour 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 rails

of this kind are supposed to have been used 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 tramway, 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 labouring people of the colliery,

who got up a riot in which they tore up the road and burnt the

coal-staith, whilst Mr. Curr fled into a neighbouring wood for

concealment, and lay there _perdu_ for three days and nights, to escape

the fury of the populace. The plates of these early tramways had a ledge

cast on their edge to guide the wheel along the road, after the manner

shown in the annexed cut.

[Picture: Flange rail]

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 waggon-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, in 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 were found in general

use all over the mining districts.

Such was the growth of the railway, 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

labours of that which preceded it, and carrying them onward to further

stages of improvement. We shall afterwards find that the invention of

the locomotive was made by like 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."

The same circumstances which led to the rapid extension of railways in

the coal districts of the north tended to direct the attention of the

mining engineers to the early development of the powers of the

steam-engine as a useful instrument of motive power. The necessity which

existed for a more effective method of hauling the coals from the pits to

the shipping places was constantly present to many minds; and the daily

pursuits of a large class of mechanics occupied in the management of

steam power, by which the coal was raised from the pits, and the mines

were pumped clear of water, had the effect of directing their attention

to the same agency as the best means for accomplishing that object.

Among the upper-ground workmen employed at the coal-pits, the principal

are the firemen, enginemen, and brakes-men, 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 travelling 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, whilst the pump-rod works in connexion 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 croak, a wheeze, another bump, and then a

strong rush of water as it was lifted and poured out. Where engines of a

more powerful and improved description are used, 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 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 labouring 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 labouring population.

The coals, when raised from the pits, are emptied into the waggons placed

alongside, from whence they are sent along the rails to the staiths

erected by the river-side, the waggons sometimes descending by their own

gravity along inclined planes, the waggoner 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 waggons are emptied at once into the

ships waiting alongside for cargo. Any one who has sailed down the Tyne

from Newcastle Bridge cannot 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.

[Picture: Coal-Staith on the Tyne]

But a great deal of the coal shipped from the Tyne comes from

above-bridge, where sea-going craft cannot 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 amongst brother workers in the coal districts. One of the most

curious sights upon 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 general reader.

[Picture: Coal Waggons]

[Picture: Wylam Colliery and Village]