A small collection of houses in a mining district, called Wylam, about
nine miles west of Newcastle-on-Tyne, we find to be the birth-place of
George Stephenson, born June 9th, 1781.
His father was a very humble workman, who filled the position of fireman
of the pumping-engine in use at the colliery, at three dollars a week.
With a wife and six children to support, there was not much left after
satisfying the cravings of hunger. The children, soon as opportunity
afforded, were set at work to help support the family. We find young
George beginning life pulling turnips at two pence a day. At eight years
old he tended Widow Ainslie's cows at five cents a day. Later, he
received fifty cents a week when caring for horses.
Of course, it is the rule to find something in the boy indicative of the
man, and in Stephenson's case, legend or history furnishes the material.
It seems that while acting as herder, in company with other boys, it was
his favorite amusement to model engines out of clay. After a time he
received a dollar a week as assistant to his father, and at the age of
sixteen he was appointed to work as attendant upon the pumping-engine,
at men's wages,--three dollars per week. He was delighted, and it is
doubtful if he was ever happier over subsequent triumphs as a locomotive
builder, than when he was elevated to this position. He was employed at
various collieries, as fireman, and afterwards as plugman, and gradually
acquired so complete a knowledge of the engine as to be able to take it
apart and make ordinary repairs. His ingenuity in repairing an obstinate
defect in a steam engine gained him the charge of the engine.
After this his fondness for his work increased until, with study, he had
thoroughly mastered all its details. At the age of eighteen he could not
even read, and he began to long for some education, so that he might fit
himself for a higher place in his business. He accordingly commenced his
studies by taking lessons in reading, of a neighboring school-master,
three nights in a week, at a small tuition. At the end of a year he
could read and spell some, and could write his own name. He now had a
great thirst for mathematics, which he studied faithfully the second
year; at the close of which, by his attentiveness, he could cipher with
tolerable facility.
During odd moments he gave some attention to mending shoes, by which he
was able to earn a few extra pence. Among some shoes that were sent him
to repair was a pair belonging to a young lady, whom he afterward
married. In 1805 he removed to Killingworth colliery, and about this
time he was desirous of emigrating to the United States, but was unable
to raise money for his outfit and passage. He continued to work at his
home evenings and leisure hours, cutting out clothes for the miners,
mending clocks and shoes, and all this time studying mechanics and
engineering with a view to perpetual motion, which a great many others
of his time were studying.
His first opportunity to show his superiority was when an expensive pump
had been put in the colliery, and utterly failed to do the work required
of it. Various experts gave it their best efforts, but it still refused
to do what was required of it. Stephenson was heard to say, by some of
the workmen, that he could repair it. After all others had failed, the
overseer, in despair, with but little expectation that anything could be
accomplished by a raw colliery hand, employed him to attempt a remedy.
He took the engine to pieces and at the end of a few days repaired it
ready for work, and in two days it cleared the pit of water.
For this, and other improvements made upon old machinery, he was
appointed chief engineer in 1813, at Killingworth, at a salary of £100
per year. Besides erecting a winding engine for drawing up coal, and a
pumping-engine, he projected and laid down a self-acting incline along
the declivity of the Willington ballast quay, so arranged that full
wagons descending to the vessels drew up the empty ones. But the
construction of an efficient and economical locomotive steam engine
mainly occupied his mind. He was among those who saw the Blenkinsop
engine first put on the track, and watched its mechanism for some time,
when he concluded he could make a better machine. He found a friend in
his employer, Lord Ravensworth, who furnished the money, and in the
work-shops at West Moor, Killingworth, with the aid of the colliery
blacksmith, he constructed a locomotive which was completed in July,
1814. The affair, though clumsy, worked successfully on the Killingworth
railway, drawing eight loaded carriages, of thirty tons each, at the
rate of four miles an hour. It was the first locomotive made with smooth
wheels, for he rejected the contrivance which Trevithick, Blenkinsop and
others had thought necessary to secure sufficient adhesion between the
wheels and the rails.
While engaged on plans for an improved engine his attention was
attracted to the increase in the draught of the furnace obtained by
turning the waste steam up the chimney, at first practiced solely in the
desire to lessen the noise caused by the escape of the steam. Hence
originated the steam-blast, the most important improvement in the
locomotive up to that time. The steam-blast, the joint action of the
wheels by connecting them with horizontal bars on the outside, and a
simplifying connection between the cylinder and the wheels, were
embodied in the second engine, completed in 1815. For some years
Stephenson had been experimenting with the fire-damp in the mines, and
in the above year completed a miner's safety lamp, which he finally
perfected under the name of the "Gregory Lamp," which is still in use in
the Killingworth collieries. The invention of a safety lamp by Sir
Humphry Davy was nearly simultaneous, and to him the mining proprietors
presented a service of plate worth £2,000, at the same time awarding
£100 to Stephenson. This led to a protracted discussion as to the
priority of the invention, and in 1817 Stephenson's friends presented
him with a purse of $5,000 and a silver tankard.
Having now brought the locomotive to a considerable degree of
perfection, Stephenson next turned his attention to the improvement of
railways, his opinion being that both were parts of one mechanism, and
that the employment of steam carriages on common roads was
impracticable. For the purpose of making railways solid and level, and
preventing jerks at the junction of the rails, he took out a patent for
an improved rail and chair, and recommended the employment of heavier
rails, and the substitution of wrought for cast-iron. In connection with
these improvements he added considerably to the lightness and strength
of the locomotive, simplified the construction of the working parts, and
substituted steel springs for the small cylinder, on which the boiler
had at first rested.
His next important undertaking was the construction of a railway eight
miles in length, for the owners of the Helton Colliery, which was
successfully opened November 18th, 1822. The level parts were traversed
by five of Stephenson's locomotives, while stationary engines were
employed to overcome the heavy grades.
In 1820 an act of Parliament was obtained for a railway between Stockton
and Darlington, which was opened September 27th, 1825. Stephenson, who
made the preliminary surveys and specifications, was appointed engineer.
The line was intended to be worked by stationary engines for the steep
gradients, with horse-power on the level portions; but at Stephenson's
urgent request, the act was amended so as to permit the use of
locomotives on all parts of the road. In the meantime he had opened, in
connection with Edward Pease, an establishment for the manufacture of
locomotives, at Newcastle-on-Tyne.
In 1825 he was appointed principal engineer of the Liverpool &
Manchester railroad, which employed him during the next four years.
Canals connected the two towns, Liverpool and Manchester, but it was
believed that the carrying trade would support this new railway if it
could be made to work. The people were told by the newspapers that
locomotives would prevent cows from grazing and hens from laying. The
poisoned air from the locomotives would kill birds as they passed over
them, and render the preservation of pheasants and foxes no longer
possible. Householders adjoining the line were told that their houses
would be burned up by fire thrown from the engine chimneys, while the
air around would be polluted by the clouds of smoke. There would be no
longer any use for horses, and if the railways extended the species
would become extinct, and therefore oats and hay would become unsalable.
Traveling by road would be rendered exceedingly dangerous, and country
inns would be ruined. Boilers would burst and blow the passengers to
pieces.
Of course, the inculcation of such theories rendered it extremely
difficult for Stephenson and his party to survey for the proposed line.
The land-owners along the line made all sorts of trouble for them. Their
instruments were smashed and they were mobbed, yet, on they went,--at
meal times they worked, before the residents awoke in the morning, and
nights, in some instances were employed. At last the survey was
accomplished, the plans drawn, and the estimates furnished the company,
were approved.
In Parliament even more opposition was experienced. Public sentiment
can be inferred from an article which appeared in the Quarterly Review
for March, 1825. Among other things it said: "What can be more palpably
absurd and ridiculous than the prospect held out of locomotives
travelling twice as fast as horses. We should as soon expect the people
of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be fired off upon one of Congreve's
richochet rockets as to trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine,
going at such a rate. We trust that Parliament will, in all the railways
it may grant, limit the speed to eight or nine miles an hour, which we
entirely agree with Mr. Sylvester is as great as can be ventured on."
But despite all such seemingly insurmountabilities, Stephenson succeeded
in getting the railway bill passed. But the troubles of George
Stephenson were not at an end. The company, not fully satisfied with his
opinion alone, conferred with two of the leading engineers of England,
who reported averse to the locomotive, recommending stationary engines
at a distance of one and a-half miles apart. But at last Stephenson
prevailed upon the company to offer a prize of about $2,500 for the best
locomotive produced at a trial to take place on the 6th of October,
1829. At last the eventful day came, and with it thousands of
spectators. Four engines appeared to compete for the prizes. "The
Novelty," the "Rocket," the "Perseverance" and the "Sanspareil." The
"Perseverance" could only make six miles an hour, and as the rules
called for at least ten, it was ruled out. The "Sanspareil" made an
average of fourteen miles an hour, but as it burst a water-pipe, it lost
its chance. The "Novelty" did splendidly, but unluckily also burst a
pipe, and was crowded out, leaving the field to the "Rocket," which
carried off the honors. The average speed made by this engine, which
belonged to Stephenson, was fifteen miles, and even attained twenty-nine
miles an hour.
The distinguishing features of the Rocket, the first high-speed
locomotive of the standard modern type, were the multitubular boiler,
which was not Stephenson's invention, but was first applied by him to
locomotives; the blast pipe; and the direct connection of the steam
cylinders to one axle, and one pair of wheels. At the opening of the
road, September 15th, 1830, eight locomotives, constructed at the
Stephenson works, were employed, and Mr. Huskinson, having been
accidentally struck down and fatally injured by the Rocket, was conveyed
in the Northumbrian, driven by George Stephenson, from Parkside to
Eccles, fifteen miles, at the unprecedented rate of thirty-six miles an
hour.
Stephenson was almost incessantly employed for the next fifteen years on
new roads, and was called three times to Belgium, and once to Spain as a
consulting engineer. With his increasing wealth he also engaged
extensively and profitably in coal mining and lime works, particularly
in the neighborhood of Tapton Park, an elegant seat in Derbyshire, where
he passed his latter years. He declined the honor of Knighthood.
To Watt is due the honor of giving the world a practical stationary
engine; George Stephenson picked that engine up bodily and placed it on
wheels, and against the most direful predictions of the foremost
engineers of his age, proved the practicability of harnessing steam to
coaches for rapid transportation.
On August 12th, 1848, Stephenson died, leaving an immense fortune, which
was the honest reward he deserved.