as he denominated the locomotive, under the notice of the lessees of the
Killingworth Colliery,[16] 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, 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 upon 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 colliery were rude
and clumsy, and there were no such facilities, as now exist, for turning
out machinery of any 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
new engine was built in the workshops at the West Morr, 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. 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 purposes of
traction.[17]
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 working. 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 travelling 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 Mr. Smiles 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 Feb. 28, 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 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 upon 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 wheels were united by rods on the
_outside_ instead of rods and crank-axles inside, as specified in the
original patent; and this expedient completely answered the purpose
required, without involving any expensive or difficult workmanship.
"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 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 to escape
uselessly. 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 cannot 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."
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 a rate of a little more than five or six miles an
hour.
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
decline, 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 scepticism 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 scepticism was
as great at Newcastle, where the opportunities for accurate observation
were the greatest, as anywhere else. In 1824 the scheme of a canal
between that town and Carlisle again came up; and although 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."
When such was the state of public opinion as to railway locomotion, some
idea may be formed of the clear-sightedness 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 the 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 speed--for
which, indeed, they were specially constructed--than for running at the
higher speed 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 travelling. 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 the 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 expectations; and his
son Robert, shortly after his return from America in 1827, saw his
father's locomotive generally adopted as the tractive power on
mining-railways.
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 was the
locomotive "No. 1" delivered upon 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 nineteen hundred and sixty yards in
seven and a half minutes, and then lowered down the incline on the
eastern side of the hill, eight hundred and eighty 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_,[18]
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 decline 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 his 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.
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.
The principal circumstances connected with the construction of the
"Rocket," as described by Robert Stephenson to Mr. Smiles, may be
briefly stated. The tubular principle was adopted in a more complete
manner than had yet been attempted. Twenty-five copper tubes, each three
inches in diameter, extended from one end of the boiler to the other,
the heated air passing through them on its way to the chimney; and the
tubes being surrounded by the water of the boiler. It will be obvious
that a large extension of the heating surface was thus effectually
secured. The principal difficulty was in fitting the copper tubes in the
boiler ends so as to prevent leakage. They were manufactured by a
Newcastle copper-smith, and soldered to brass screws which were screwed
into the boiler ends, standing out in great knobs. When the tubes were
thus fitted, and the boiler was filled with water, hydraulic pressure
was applied; but the water squirted out at every joint, and the factory
floor was soon flooded. Robert went home in despair; and in the first
moment of grief he wrote to his father that the whole thing was a
failure. By return of post came a letter from his father, telling him
that despair was not to be thought of,--that he must "try again;" and he
suggested a mode of overcoming the difficulty, which his son had already
anticipated and proceeded to adopt. It was to bore clean holes in the
boiler ends, fit in the smooth copper tubes as tightly as possible,
solder up, and then raise the steam. This plan succeeded perfectly; the
expansion of the copper completely filling up all interstices, and
producing a perfectly water-tight boiler, capable of standing extreme
external pressure.