CHAPTER I.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

Bold text is denoted by =equals signs=.

The oe ligature has been replaced by 'oe' or 'OE'.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been

corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences

within the text and consultation of external sources.

More detail can be found at the end of the book.

[Illustration: (George Stephenson.)

_Engraved by W. Hall after the portrait by John Lucas._

NEW YORK, HARRER & BROTHERS.]

THE LIFE

OF

GEORGE STEPHENSON

AND OF HIS SON

ROBERT STEPHENSON;

COMPRISING ALSO

A HISTORY OF THE INVENTION AND INTRODUCTION

OF THE RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE.

BY SAMUEL SMILES,

AUTHOR OF "SELF-HELP," "THE HUGUENOTS," ETC.

With Portraits and Numerous Illustrations.

NEW YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,

FRANKLIN SQUARE.

1868.

PREFACE.

The present is a revised edition of the Life of George Stephenson and

of his son Robert Stephenson, to which is prefixed a history of the

Railway and the Locomotive in its earlier stages, uniform with the

early history of the Steam-engine given in vol. iv. of "Lives of the

Engineers" containing the memoirs of Boulton and Watt. A memoir of

Richard Trevithick has also been included in this introductory portion

of the book, which will probably be found more complete than any notice

which has yet appeared of that distinguished mechanical engineer.

* * * * *

Since the appearance of this Life in its original form ten years ago,

the construction of Railways has continued to make extraordinary

progress. The length of lines then open in Europe was estimated at

about 18,000 miles: it is now more than 50,000 miles. Although Great

Britain, first in the field, had then, after about twenty-five years'

work, expended nearly 300 millions sterling in the construction of 8300

miles of double railway, it has during the last ten years expended

about 200 millions more in constructing 5600 additional miles.

But the construction of railways has proceeded with equal rapidity on

the Continent. France has now 9624 miles at work; Germany (including

Austria), 13,392 miles; Spain, 3161 miles; Sweden, 1100 miles;

Belgium, 1073 miles; Switzerland, 795 miles; Holland, 617 miles;

besides railways in other states. These have, for the most part, been

constructed and opened during the last ten years, while a considerable

length is still under construction. Austria is actively engaged in

carrying new lines across the plains of Hungary to the frontier of

Turkey, which Turkey is preparing to meet by lines carried up the

valley of the Lower Danube; and Russia, with 2800 miles already at

work, is occupied with extensive schemes for connecting Petersburg and

Moscow with her ports in the Black Sea on the one hand, and with the

frontier towns of her Asiatic empire on the other.

Italy also is employing her new-born liberty in vigorously extending

railways throughout her dominions. The length of Italian lines in

operation in 1866 was 2752 miles, of which not less than 680 were

opened in that year. Already has a direct line of communication been

opened between Germany and Italy through the Brenner Pass, by which

it is now possible to make the entire journey by railway (excepting

only the short sea-passage across the English Channel) from London to

Brindisi on the southeastern extremity of the Italian peninsula; and,

in the course of a few more years, a still shorter route will be opened

through France, when that most formidable of all railway borings, the

seven-mile tunnel under Mont Cenis, has been completed.

During the last ten years, nearly the whole of the existing Indian

railways have been made. When Edmund Burke in 1783 arraigned the

British government for their neglect of India in his speech on Mr.

Fox's Bill, he said, "England has built no bridges, made no high

roads, cut no navigations, dug out no reservoirs.... Were we to be

driven out of India this day, nothing would remain to tell that it

had been possessed, during the inglorious period of our dominion,

by any thing better than the orang-outang or the tiger." But that

reproach no longer applies. Some of the greatest bridges erected in

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

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

railways, of which there are already 3637 miles at work, and above

2000 more under construction. When these lines have been completed,

at an expenditure of about £88,000,000 of British capital guaranteed

by the British government, India will be provided with a magnificent

system of internal communication, connecting the capitals of the

three Presidencies--uniting Bombay with Madras on the south, and with

Calcutta on the northeast--while a great main line, 2200 miles in

extent, passing through the northwestern provinces, and connecting

Calcutta with Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore, Moultan, and Kurrachee, will

unite the mouths of the Hooghly in the Bay of Bengal with those of the

Indus in the Arabian Sea.

When the first edition of this work appeared in the beginning of 1857,

the Canadian system of railways was but in its infancy. The Grand

Trunk was only begun, and the Victoria Bridge--the greatest of all

railway structures--was not half erected. Now, that fine colony has

more than 2200 miles in active operation along the great valley of the

St. Lawrence, connecting Rivière du Loup at the mouth of that river,

and the harbor of Portland in the State of Maine, _via_ Montreal and

Toronto, with Sarnia on Lake Huron, and with Windsor, opposite Detroit,

in the State of Michigan. The Australian Colonies also have during the

same time been actively engaged in providing themselves with railways,

many of which are at work, and others are in course of formation. Even

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

also has constructed about 400 miles in Algeria, while the Pasha of

Egypt is the proprietor of 360 miles in operation across the Egyptian

desert.

But in no country has railway construction been prosecuted with

greater vigor than in the United States. There the railway furnishes

not only the means of intercommunication between already established

settlements, as in the Old World, but it is regarded as the pioneer

of colonization, and as instrumental in opening up new and fertile

territories of vast extent in the west--the food-grounds of future

nations. Hence railway construction in that country was scarcely

interrupted even by the great Civil War; at the commencement of which

Mr. Seward publicly expressed the opinion that "physical bonds, such

as highways, railroads, rivers, and canals, are vastly more powerful

for holding civil communities together than any mere covenants, though

written on parchment or engraved on iron."

The people of the United States were the first to follow the example of

England, after the practicability of steam locomotion had been proved

on the Stockton and Darlington and Liverpool and Manchester Railways.

The first sod of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway was cut on the 4th

of July, 1828, and the line was completed and opened for traffic in

the following year, when it was worked partly by horse-power, and

partly by a locomotive built at Baltimore, which is still preserved

in the Company's workshops. In 1830 the Hudson and Mohawk Railway was

begun, while other lines were under construction in Pennsylvania,

Massachusetts, and New Jersey; and in the course of ten years, 1843

miles were finished and in operation. In ten more years, 8827 miles

were at work; at the end of 1864, not less than 35,000 miles, mostly

single tracks; while about 15,000 miles more were under construction.

One of the most extensive trunk-lines still unfinished is the

Great Pacific Railroad, connecting the lines in the valleys of the

Mississippi and the Missouri with the city of San Francisco on the

shores of the Pacific, by which, when completed, it will be possible to

make the journey from England to Hong Kong, _via_ New York, in little

more than a month.

* * * * *

The results of the working of railways have been in many respects

different from those anticipated by their projectors. One of the most

unexpected has been the growth of an immense passenger-traffic. The

Stockton and Darlington line was projected as a coal line only, and the

Liverpool and Manchester as a merchandise line. Passengers were not

taken into account as a source of revenue; for, at the time of their

projection, it was not believed that people would trust themselves to

be drawn upon a railway by an "explosive machine," as the locomotive

was described to be. Indeed, a writer of eminence declared that he

would as soon think of being fired off on a ricochet rocket as travel

on a railway at twice the speed of the old stage-coaches. So great was

the alarm which existed as to the locomotive, that the Liverpool and

Manchester Committee pledged themselves in their second prospectus,

issued in 1825, "not to require any clause empowering its use;" and

as late as 1829, the Newcastle and Carlisle Act was conceded on the

express condition that it should not be worked by locomotives, but by

horses only.

Nevertheless, the Liverpool and Manchester Company obtained powers to

make and work their railway without any such restriction; and when the

line was made and opened, a locomotive passenger-train was ordered to

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

directors, more passengers presented themselves as travelers by the

train than could conveniently be carried.

The first arrangements as to passenger-traffic were of a very primitive

character, being mainly copied from the old stage-coach system. The

passengers were "booked" at the railway office, and their names were

entered in a way-bill which was given to the guard when the train

started. Though the usual stage-coach bugleman could not conveniently

accompany the passengers, the trains were at first played out of the

terminal stations by a lively tune performed by a trumpeter at the

end of the platform, and this continued to be done at the Manchester

Station until a comparatively recent date.

But the number of passengers carried by the Liverpool and Manchester

line was so unexpectedly great, that it was very soon found necessary

to remodel the entire system. Tickets were introduced, by which a

great saving of time was effected. More roomy and commodious carriages

were provided, the original first-class compartments being seated for

four passengers only. Every thing was found to have been in the first

instance made too light and too slight. The prize "Rocket," which

weighed only 4-1/2 tons when loaded with its coke and water, was found

quite unsuited for drawing the increasingly heavy loads of passengers.

There was also this essential difference between the old stage-coach

and the new railway train, that, whereas the former was "full" with

six inside and ten outside, the latter must be able to accommodate

whatever number of passengers came to be carried. Hence heavier and

more powerful engines, and larger and more substantial carriages, were

from time to time added to the carrying stock of the railway.

The speed of the trains was also increased. The first locomotives

used in hauling coal-trains ran at from four to six miles an hour.

On the Stockton and Darlington line the speed was increased to about

ten miles an hour; and on the Liverpool and Manchester line the first

passenger-trains were run at the average speed of seventeen miles an

hour, which at that time was considered very fast. But this was not

enough. When the London and Birmingham line was opened, the mail-trains

were run at twenty-three miles an hour; and gradually the speed went

up, until now the fast trains are run at from fifty to sixty miles an

hour--the pistons in the cylinders, at sixty miles, traveling at the

inconceivable rapidity of 800 feet per minute!

To bear the load of heavy engines run at high speeds, a much stronger

and heavier road was found necessary; and shortly after the opening

of the Liverpool and Manchester line, it was entirely relaid with

stronger materials. Now that express passenger-engines are from thirty

to thirty-five tons each, the weight of the rails has been increased

from 35 lbs. to 75 lbs. or 86 lbs. to the yard. Stone blocks have given

place to wooden sleepers; rails with loose ends resting on the chairs,

to rails with their ends firmly "fished" together; and in many places,

where the traffic is unusually heavy, iron rails have been replaced by

those of steel.

And now see the enormous magnitude to which railway passenger-traffic

has grown. In the year 1866, 274,293,668 passengers were carried by

day tickets in Great Britain alone. But this was not all; for in that

year 110,227 periodical tickets were issued by the different railways;

and assuming half of them to be annual, one fourth half-yearly, and

the remainder quarterly tickets, and that their holders made only five

journeys each way weekly, this would give an additional number of

39,405,600 journeys, or a total of 313,699,268 passengers carried in

Great Britain in one year.

It is difficult to grasp the idea of the enormous number of persons

represented by these figures. The mind is merely bewildered by them,

and can form no adequate notion of their magnitude. To reckon them

singly would occupy twenty years, counting at the rate of one a second

for twelve hours every day. Or take another illustration. Supposing

every man, woman, and child in Great Britain to make ten journeys by

rail yearly, the number would fall short of the passengers carried in

1866.

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

millions of passengers, or about eighty-two thousand a day, traveled

by coaches in Great Britain in 1834, an average distance of twelve

miles each, at an average cost of 5_s._ a passenger, or at the rate of

5_d._ a mile; whereas above 313 millions are now carried by railway

an average distance of 8-1/2 miles each, at an average cost of 1_s._

1-1/2_d._ per passenger, or about three half-pence per mile, in

considerably less than half the time.

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

twenty-four million tons of minerals and merchandise were carried

by railway in the United Kingdom in 1866, and fifteen millions of

cattle, besides mails, parcels, and other traffic. The distance run

by passenger and goods trains in the year was 142,807,853 miles, to

accomplish which it is estimated that four miles of railway on an

average must be covered by running trains during every second all the

year round.

To perform this service, there were, in 1866, 8125 locomotives at work

in the United Kingdom, consuming about three million tons of coal

and coke, and flashing into the air every minute some thirty tons

of water in the form of steam in a high state of elasticity. There

were also 19,228 passenger-carriages, 7276 vans and breaks attached

to passenger-trains, and 242,947 trucks, wagons, and other vehicles

appropriated to merchandise. Buckled together, buffer to buffer, the

locomotives and tenders would extend for a length of about 54 miles,

or more than the distance from London to Brighton; while the carrying

vehicles, joined together, would form two trains occupying a double

line of railway extending from London to beyond Inverness.

A notable feature in the growth of railway traffic of late years has

been the increase in the number of third-class passengers, compared

with first and second class. Sixteen years since, the third-class

passengers constituted only about one third; ten years later they were

about one half; whereas now they form nearly two thirds of the whole

number carried. Thus George Stephenson's prediction "that the time

would come when it would be cheaper for a working man to make a journey

by railway than to walk on foot" is already realized.

The degree of safety with which this great traffic has been conducted

is not the least remarkable of its features. Of course, so long as

railways are worked by men, they will be liable to the imperfections

belonging to all things human. Though their machinery may be perfect,

and their organization as complete as skill and forethought can make

it, workmen will at times be forgetful and listless, and a moment's

carelessness may lead to the most disastrous results. Yet, taking all

circumstances into account, the wonder is that traveling by railway at

high speeds should have been rendered comparatively so safe.

To be struck by lightning is one of the rarest of all causes of

death, yet more persons were killed by lightning in Great Britain,

in 1866, than were killed on railways from causes beyond their own

control; the number in the former case having been nineteen, and in

the latter fifteen, or one in every twenty millions of passengers

carried. Most persons would consider the probability of their dying

by hanging to be extremely remote; yet, according to the Registrar

General's returns for 1867, it is thirty times greater than that of

being killed by railway accident. Taking the number of persons who

traveled in Great Britain in 1866 at 313,699,268, of whom fifteen were

accidentally killed, it would appear that, even supposing a person to

have a permanent existence, and to make a journey by railway daily,

the probability of his being killed in an accident would occur on an

average once in above 50,000 years.

The remarkable safety with which railway traffic is on the whole

conducted, is due to constant watchfulness and highly-applied skill.

The men who work the railways are for the most part the picked men of

the country, and every railway station may be regarded as a practical

school of industry, attention, and punctuality. Where railways fail in

these respects, it will usually be found that it is because the men are

personally defective, or because better men are not to be had. It must

also be added that the onerous and responsible duties which railway

workmen are called upon to perform require a degree of consideration on

the part of the public which is not very often extended to them.

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

constant operation on railways day and night to insure the safety of

the passengers to their journeys' end. The road is under a system of

continuous inspection, under gangs of men--about twelve to every five

miles, under a foreman or "ganger"--whose duty it is to see that the

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

clear of obstructions.

Then, at all the junctions, sidings, and crossings, pointsmen are

stationed, with definite instructions as to the duties to be performed

by them. At these places signals are provided, worked from the station

platforms, or from special signal-boxes, for the purpose of protecting

the stopping or passing trains. When the first railways were opened

the signals were of a very simple kind. The station-men gave them

with their arms stretched out in different positions; then flags of

different colors were used; next fixed signals, with arms or discs,

or of rectangular or triangular shape. These were followed by a

complete system of semaphore signals, near and distant, protecting all

junctions, sidings, and crossings.

When government inspectors were first appointed by the Board of

Trade to examine and report upon the working of railways, they were

alarmed by the number of trains following each other at some stations

in what then seemed to be a very rapid succession. A passage from a

Report written in 1840 by Sir Frederick Smith, as to the traffic at

"Taylor's Junction," on the York and North Midland Railway, contrasts

curiously with the railway life and activity of the present day:

"Here," wrote the alarmed inspector, "the passenger trains from York,

as well as Leeds and Selby, meet four times a day. No less than 23

passenger-trains stop at or pass this station in the 24 hours--an

amount of traffic requiring not only the most perfect arrangements on

the part of the management, but the utmost vigilance and energy in the

servants of the Company employed at this place." Contrast this with the

state of things now. On the Metropolitan Line, 667 trains pass a given

point in one direction or the other during the eighteen hours of the

working day, or an average of 36 trains an hour. At the Cannon-street

Station of the Southeastern Railway, 527 trains pass in and out

daily, many of them crossing each others' tracks under the protection

of the station signals. Forty-five trains run in and out between 9

and 10 A.M., and an equal number between 4 and 5 P.M. Again, at the

Clapham Junction, near London, about 700 trains pass or stop daily;

and though to the casual observer the succession of trains coming and

going, running and stopping, coupling and shunting, appears a scene of

inextricable confusion and danger, the whole is clearly intelligible

to the signal-men in their boxes, who work the trains in and out with

extraordinary precision and regularity.

The inside of a signal-box reminds one of a piano-forte on a large

scale, the lever-handles corresponding with the keys of the

instrument; and, to an uninstructed person, to work the one would be

as difficult as to play a tune on the other. The signal-box outside

Cannon-street Station contains 67 lever-handles, by means of which

the signal-men are enabled at the same moment to communicate with the

drivers of all the engines on the line within an area of 800 yards.

They direct by signs, which are quite as intelligible as words, the

drivers of the trains starting from inside the station, as well as

those of the trains arriving from outside. By pulling a lever-handle,

a distant signal, perhaps out of sight, is set some hundred yards off,

which the approaching driver--reading it quickly as he comes along--at

once interprets, and stops or advances, as the signal may direct.

The precision and accuracy of the signal-machinery employed at

important stations and junctions have of late years been much improved

by an ingenious contrivance, by means of which the setting of the

signal prepares the road for the coming train. When the signal is set

at "Danger," the points are at the same time worked, and the road is

"locked" against it; and when at "Safety," the road is open--the signal

and the points exactly corresponding.

The Electric Telegraph has also been found a valuable auxiliary

in insuring the safe working of large railway traffics. Though

the locomotive may run at sixty miles an hour, electricity, when

at its fastest, travels at the rate of 288,000 miles a second,

and is therefore always able to herald the coming train. The

electric telegraph may, indeed, be regarded as the nervous system

of the railway. By its means the whole line is kept throbbing with

intelligence. The method of working electric signals varies on

different lines; but the usual practice is to divide a line into so

many lengths, each protected by its signal-stations, the fundamental

law of telegraph working being that two engines are not to be allowed

to run on the same line between two signal-stations at the same time.

When a train passes one of such stations, it is immediately signaled

on--usually by electric signal-bells--to the station in advance,

and that interval of railway is "blocked" until the signal has been

received from the station in advance that the train has passed it. Thus

_an interval of space_ is always secured between trains following each

other, which are thereby alike protected before and behind. And thus,

when a train starts on a journey of it may be hundreds of miles, it is

signaled on from station to station, and "lives along the line," until

at length it reaches its destination, and the last signal of "train in"

is given. By this means an immense number of trains can be worked with

regularity and safety. On the Southeastern Railway, where the system

has been brought to a state of high efficiency, it is no unusual thing

during Easter week to send 570,000 passengers through the London Bridge

Station alone; and on some days as many as 1200 trains a day.

While such are the expedients adopted to insure safety, others equally

ingenious are adopted to insure speed. In the case of express and mail

trains, the frequent stopping of the engines to take in a fresh supply

of water occasions a considerable loss of time on a long journey, each

stoppage for this purpose occupying from ten to fifteen minutes. To

avoid such stoppages larger tenders have been provided, capable of

carrying as much as 2000 gallons of water each. But as a considerable

time is occupied in filling these, a plan has been contrived by Mr.

Ramsbottom, the locomotive engineer of the London and Northwestern

Railway, by which the engines are made to _feed themselves_ while

running at full speed! The plan is as follows: An open trough, about

440 feet long, is laid longitudinally between the rails. Into this

trough, which is filled with water, a dip-pipe, or scoop attached to

the bottom of the tender of the running train, is lowered, and, at a

speed of 50 miles an hour, as much as 1070 gallons of water are scooped

up in the course of a few minutes. The first of such troughs was laid

down between Chester and Holyhead, to enable the Express Mail to run

the distance of 84-3/4 miles in two hours and five minutes without

stopping; and similar troughs have since been laid down at Bushey,

near London; at Castlethorpe, near Wolverton; and at Parkside, near

Liverpool. At these four troughs about 130,000 gallons of water are

scooped up daily.

* * * * *

Wherever railways have been made, new towns have sprung up, and old

towns and cities been quickened into new life. When the first English

lines were projected, great were the prophecies of disaster to the

inhabitants of the districts through which they were proposed to be

forced. Such fears have long since been dispelled in this country.

The same prejudices existed in France. When the railway from Paris

to Marseilles was projected to pass through Lyons, a local prophet

predicted that if the line were made the city would be ruined--"_Ville

traversée, ville perdue_;" while a local priest denounced the

locomotive and the electric telegraph as heralding the reign of

Antichrist. But such nonsense is no longer uttered. Now it is the city

without the railway that is regarded as the "city lost;" for it is in a

measure shut out from the rest of the world, and left outside the pale

of civilization.

Perhaps the most striking of all the illustrations that could be

offered of the extent to which railways facilitate the locomotion, the

industry, and the subsistence of the population of large towns and

cities, is afforded by the working of the railway system in connection

with the capital of Great Britain.

The extension of railways to London has been of comparatively recent

date, the whole of the lines connecting it with the provinces and

terminating at its outskirts having been opened during the last thirty

years, while the lines inside London have for the most part been opened

within the last ten years.

The first London line was the Greenwich Railway, part of which was

opened for traffic to Deptford in February, 1836. The working of this

railway was first exhibited as a show, and the usual attractions were

employed to make it "draw." A band of musicians in the garb of the

Beef-eaters was stationed at the London end, and another band at

Deptford. For cheapness' sake, the Deptford band was shortly superseded

by a large barrel-organ, which played in the passengers; but when the

traffic became established, the barrel-organ, as well as the Beef-eater

band at the London end, were both discontinued. The whole length of

the line was lit up at night by a row of lamps on either side like a

street, as if to enable the locomotives or the passengers to see their

way in the dark; but these lamps also were eventually discontinued as

unnecessary.

As a show, the Greenwich Railway proved tolerably successful. During

the first eleven months it carried 456,750 passengers, or an average

of about 1300 a day. But the railway having been found more convenient

to the public than either the river boats or the omnibuses, the number

of passengers rapidly increased. When the Croydon, Brighton, and

Southeastern Railways began to pour their streams of traffic over the

Greenwich Viaduct, its accommodation was found much too limited, and it

was widened from time to time, until now nine lines of railway are laid

side by side, over which more than twenty millions of passengers are

carried yearly, or an average of about 60,000 a day all the year round.

Since the partial opening of the Greenwich Railway in 1836, a large

extent of railways has been constructed in and about the metropolis,

and convenient stations have been established almost in the heart of

the city. Sixteen of these stations are within a circle of half a mile

radius from the Mansion House, and above three hundred stations are

in actual use or in course of construction within about five miles

of Charing Cross. The most important lines recently opened for the

accommodation of the London local traffic have been the London, Chatham

and Dover Metropolitan Extensions (1861), the Metropolitan (1863), the

North London Extension to Liverpool Street (1865), the Charing Cross

and Cannon-street Extensions of the Southeastern Railway (1864-6), and

the South London Extension of the Brighton Railway (1866). Of these

railways, the London, Chatham and Dover carried 5,228,418 passengers

in 1867; the Metropolitan, 23,405,282; the North London, 17,535,502;

the Southeastern, 17,473,934; and the Brighton, 12,686,417. The total

number carried into and out of London, as well as from station to

station in London, in the same year, was 104 millions of passengers.

To accommodate this vast traffic, not fewer than 3600 local trains are

run in and out daily, besides 340 trains which depart to and arrive

from distant places, north, south, east, and west. In the morning

hours, between 8 30 and 10 30, when business men are proceeding inward

to their offices and counting-houses, and in the afternoon between four

and six, when they are returning outward to their homes, as many as

two thousand stoppages are made in the hour, within the metropolitan

district, for the purpose of taking up and setting down passengers,

while about two miles of railway are covered by the running trains.

One of the remarkable effects of railways has been to extend the

residential area of all large towns and cities. This is especially

notable in the case of London. Before the introduction of railways, the

residential area of the metropolis was limited by the time occupied by

business men in making the journey outward and inward daily; and it was

for the most part bounded by Bow on the east, by Hampstead and Highgate

on the north, by Paddington and Kensington on the west, and by Clapham

and Brixton on the south. But now that stations have been established

near the centre of the city, and places so distant as Waltham, Barnet,

Watford, Hanwell, Richmond, Epsom, Croydon, Reigate, and Erith can be

more quickly reached by rail than the old suburban quarters were by

omnibus, the metropolis has become extended in all directions along

its railway lines, and the population of London, instead of living in

the city or its immediate vicinity as formerly, have come to occupy a

residential area of not less than six hundred square miles!

The number of new towns which have consequently sprung into existence

near London within the last twenty years has been very great; towns

numbering from ten to twenty thousand inhabitants, which before were

but villages, if, indeed, they existed. This has especially been the

case along the lines south of the Thames, principally in consequence of

the termini of those lines being more conveniently situated for city

men of business. Hence the rapid growth of the suburban towns up and

down the river, from Richmond and Staines on the west, to Erith and

Gravesend on the east, and the hives of population which have settled

on the high grounds south of the Thames, in the neighborhood of Norwood

and the Crystal Palace, rapidly spreading over the Surrey Downs,

from Wimbledon to Guildford, and from Bromley to Croydon, Epsom, and

Dorking. And now that the towns on the south and southeast coast can

be reached by city men in little more time than it takes to travel to

Clapham or Bayswater by omnibus, such places have become, as it were,

parts of the great metropolis, and Brighton and Hastings are but marine

suburbs of London.

The improved state of the communications of the city with the country

has had a marked effect upon its population. While the action of the

railways has been to add largely to the number of persons living in

London, it has also been accompanied by their dispersion over a much

larger area. Thus the population of the central parts of London is

constantly decreasing, whereas that of the suburban districts is

as constantly increasing. The population of the city fell off more

than 10,000 between 1851 and 1861; and during the same period, that

of Holborn, the Strand, St Martin's-in-the-Fields, St. James's,

Westminster, East and West London, showed a considerable decrease.

But, as regards the whole mass of the metropolitan population, the

increase has been enormous, especially since the introduction of

railways. Thus, starting from 1801, when the population of London was

958,863, we find it increasing in each decennial period at the rate

of between two and three hundred thousand, until the year 1841, when

it amounted to 1,948,369. Railways had by that time reached London,

after which its population increased at nearly double the former ratio.

In the ten years ending 1851, the increase was 413,867; and in the

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

Registrar General in his last annual Report, "the population within the

registration limits is by estimate 2,993,513; but beyond this central

mass there is a ring of life growing rapidly, and extending along

railway lines over a circle of fifteen miles from Charing Cross. The

population within that circle, patrolled by the metropolitan police, is

about 3,463,771!"

The aggregation of so vast a number of persons within so comparatively

limited an area--the immense quantity of food required for their daily

sustenance, as well as of fuel, clothing, and other necessaries--would

be attended with no small inconvenience and danger but for the

facilities again provided by the railways. The provisioning of a

garrison of even four thousand men is considered a formidable affair;

how much more so the provisioning of nearly four millions of people!

The whole mystery is explained by the admirable organization of the

railway service, and the regularity and dispatch with which it is

conducted. We are enabled by the courtesy of the general managers of

the London railways to bring together the following brief summary of

facts relating to the food supply of London, which will probably be

regarded by most readers as of a very remarkable character.

Generally speaking, the railways to the south of the Thames contribute

comparatively little toward the feeding of London. They are, for the

most part, passenger and residential lines, traversing a limited and

not very fertile district bounded by the sea-coast, and, excepting in

fruit and vegetables, milk and hops, they probably carry more food from

London than they bring to it. The principal supplies of grain, flour,

potatoes, and fish are brought by railway from the eastern counties

of England and Scotland; and of cattle and sheep, beef and mutton,

from the grazing counties of the west and northwest of Britain, as far

as from the Highlands of Scotland, which, through the instrumentality

of railways, have become part of the great grazing-grounds of the

metropolis.

Take first "the staff of life"--bread and its constituents. Of wheat,

not less than 222,080 quarters were brought into London by railway in

1867, besides what was brought by sea; of oats, 151,757 quarters; of

barley, 70,282 quarters; of beans and peas, 51,448 quarters. Of the

wheat and barley, by far the largest proportion was brought by the

Great Eastern Railway, which delivered in London last year 155,000

quarters of wheat and 45,500 quarters of barley, besides 600,429

quarters more in the form of malt. The largest quantity of oats was

brought by the Great Northern Railway, principally from the north

of England and the east of Scotland--the quantity delivered by that

company in 1867 having been 97,500 quarters, besides 24,664 quarters of

wheat, 5560 quarters of barley, and 103,917 quarters of malt. Again, of

1,250,566 sacks of flour and meal delivered in London last year, the

Great Eastern brought 654,000 sacks, the Great Northern 232,022 sacks,

and the Great Western 136,312 sacks; the principal contribution of the

London and Northwestern Railway toward the London bread-stores being

100,760 boxes of American flour, besides 24,300 sacks of English. The

total quantity of malt delivered at the London railway stations in 1867

was thirteen hundred thousand sacks.

Next, as to flesh meat. Last year not fewer than 172,300 head of cattle

were brought into London by railway, though this was considerably less

than the number carried before the cattle plague, the Great Eastern

Railway alone having carried 44,672 less than in 1864. But this loss

has since been more than made up by the increased quantities of fresh

beef, mutton, and other kinds of meat imported in lieu of the live

animals. The principal supplies of cattle are brought, as we have said,

by the western, northern, and eastern lines: by the Great Western from

the western counties and Ireland; by the London and Northwestern, the

Midland, and the Great Northern, from the northern counties and from

Scotland; and by the Great Eastern from the eastern counties, and from

the ports of Harwich and Lowestoft.

Last year also, 1,147,609 sheep were brought to London by railway,

of which the Great Eastern delivered not less than 265,371 head. The

London and Northwestern and Great Northern between them brought 390,000

head from the northern English counties, with a large proportion from

the Scotch Highlands; while the Great Western brought up 130,000 head

from the Welsh mountains, and from the rich grazing districts of

Wilts, Gloucester, Somerset, and Devon. Another important freight of

the London and Northwestern Railway consists of pigs, of which they

delivered 54,700 in London last year, principally Irish; while the

Great Eastern brought up 27,500 of the same animal, partly foreign.

While the cattle plague has had the effect of greatly reducing the

number of live-stock brought into London yearly, it has given a

considerable impetus to the Fresh Meat traffic. Thus, in addition to

the above large numbers of cattle and sheep delivered in London last

year, the railways brought 76,175 tons of meat, which--taking the

meat of an average beast at 800 lbs., and of an average sheep at 64

lbs.--would be equivalent to about 112,000 more cattle, and 1,267,500

more sheep. The Great Northern brought the largest quantity; next, the

London and Northwestern--these two companies having brought up between

them, from distances as remote as Aberdeen and Inverness, about 42,000

tons of fresh meat in 1867, at an average freight of about 1/2_d._ a lb.

Again, as regards Fish, of which six tenths of the whole quantity

consumed in London is now brought by rail. The Great Eastern and the

Great Northern are by far the largest importers of this article, and

justify their claim to be regarded as the great food lines of London.

Of the 61,358 tons of fish brought by railway in 1867, not less than

24,500 tons were delivered by the former, and 22,000 tons, brought

from much longer distances, by the latter company. The London and

Northwestern brought about 6000 tons last year, the principal part of

which was salmon from Scotland and Ireland. The Great Western also

brought about 4000 tons, partly salmon, but the greater part mackerel

from the southwest coast. During the mackerel season, as much as a

hundred tons at a time are brought into the Paddington Station by

express fish-train from Cornwall.

The Great Eastern and Great Northern Companies are also the principal

carriers of turkeys, geese, fowls, and game, the quantity delivered

in London last year by the former company having been 5042 tons. In

Christmas week no fewer than 30,000 turkeys and geese were delivered

at the Bishopsgate Station, besides about 300 tons of poultry, 10,000

barrels of beer, and immense quantities of fish, oysters, and other

kinds of food. As much as 1600 tons of poultry and game were brought

last year by the Southwestern Railway; 600 tons by the Great Northern

Railway; and 130 tons of turkeys, geese, and fowls by the London,

Chatham and Dover line, principally from France.

Of miscellaneous articles, the Great Northern and Midland each brought

about 3000 tons of cheese, the Southwestern 2600 tons, and the London

and Northwestern 10,034 cheeses in number; while the Southwestern

and Brighton lines brought a splendid contribution to the London

breakfast-table in the shape of 11,259 _tons_ of French eggs; these

two companies delivering between them an average of more than three

millions of eggs a week all the year round! The same companies last

year delivered in London 14,819 tons of butter, for the most part the

produce of the farms of Normandy, the greater cleanness and neatness

with which the Normandy butter is prepared for market rendering it a

favorite both with dealers and consumers of late years compared with

Irish butter. The London, Chatham and Dover Company also brought from

Calais 96 tons of eggs.

Next, as to the potatoes, vegetables, and fruit brought by rail.

Forty years since, the inhabitants of London relied for their supply

of vegetables on the garden-grounds in the immediate neighborhood of

the metropolis, and the consequence was that they were both very dear

and limited in quantity. But railways, while they have extended the

grazing-grounds of London as far as the Highlands, have at the same

time extended the garden-grounds of London into all the adjoining

counties--into East Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, the vale of

Gloucester, and even as far as Penzance in Cornwall. The London,

Chatham and Dover, one of the youngest of our main lines, brought

up from East Kent last year 5279 tons of potatoes, 1046 tons of

vegetables, and 5386 tons of fruit, besides 542 tons of vegetables

from France. The Southeastern brought 25,163 tons of the same produce.

The Great Eastern brought from the eastern counties 21,315 tons of

potatoes, and 3596 tons of vegetables and fruit; while the Great

Northern brought no less than 78,505 tons of potatoes--a large part of

them from the east of Scotland--and 3768 tons of vegetables and fruit.

About 6000 tons of early potatoes were last year brought from Cornwall,

with about 5000 tons of brocoli, and the quantities are steadily

increasing. "Truly London hath a large belly," said old Fuller two

hundred years since. But how much more capacious is it now!

One of the most striking illustrations of the utility of railways

in contributing to the supply of wholesome articles of food to the

population of large cities is to be found in the rapid growth of the

traffic in Milk. Readers of newspapers may remember the descriptions

published some years since of the horrid dens in which London cows

are penned, and of the odious compound sold by the name of milk, of

which the least deleterious ingredient in it was supplied by the "cow

with the iron tail." That state of affairs is now completely changed.

What with the greatly improved state of the London dairies and the

better quality of the milk supplied by them, together with the large

quantities brought by railway from a range of a hundred miles and

more all round London, even the poorest classes in the metropolis are

now enabled to obtain as wholesome a supply of the article as the

inhabitants of most country towns.

The milk traffic has in some cases been rapid, almost sudden, in its

growth. Though the Great Western is at present the greatest of the

milk lines, it brought very little into London prior to the year 1865.

In the month of August in that year it brought 23,474 gallons, and in

the month of October following the quantity had increased to 103,214

gallons. Last year the total quantity delivered in London by this

single railway was 1,514,836 gallons, or an average of 30,000 gallons

a week. The largest proportion of this milk was brought from beyond

Swindon in Wiltshire, about 100 miles from London; but considerable

quantities were also brought from the vale of Gloucester and from

Somerset. The London and Southwestern also is a great milk-carrying

line, having brought as much as 1,480,272 gallons to London last year,

or an average of 28,000 gallons a week. The Great Eastern brought

nearly the same quantity, 1,322,429 gallons, or an average of about

25,400 gallons a week. The London and Northwestern ranks next, having

brought 643,432 gallons in 1867; then the Great Northern, 455,916

gallons; the Southeastern, 435,668 gallons; and the Brighton, 419,254

gallons. The total quantity of milk delivered in London by railway last

year was 6,309,446 gallons, or above 120,000 gallons a week. Yet this

traffic, large though it may appear, is as yet but in its infancy,

and in the course of a few more years it will be found very largely

increased, according as facilities are provided for its accommodation

and transit.

These great streams of food, which we have thus so summarily

described, flow into London so continuously and uninterruptedly, that

comparatively few persons are aware of the magnitude and importance

of the process thus daily going forward. Though gathered from an

immense extent of country--embracing England, Scotland, Wales, and

Ireland--the influx is so unintermitted that it is relied upon with

as much certainty as if it only came from the counties immediately

adjoining London. The express meat-train from Aberdeen arrives in

town as punctually as the Clapham omnibus, and the express milk-train

from Aylesbury is as regular in its delivery as the penny post.

Indeed, London now depends so much upon railways for its subsistence,

that it may be said to be fed by them from day to day, having never

more than a few days' food in stock. And the supply is so regular

and continuous, that the possibility of its being interrupted never

for a moment occurs to any one. Yet, in these days of strikes among

workmen, such a contingency is quite within the limits of possibility.

Another contingency, arising in a state of war, is probably still

more remote. But, were it possible for a war to occur between England

and a combination of foreign powers possessed of stronger iron-clads

than ours, and that they were able to ram our ships back into port

and land an enemy of overpowering force on the Essex coast, it would

be sufficient for them to occupy or cut the railways leading from the

north, to starve London into submission in less than a fortnight.

Besides supplying London with food, railways have also been

instrumental in insuring the more regular and economical supply of

fuel--a matter of almost as vital importance to the population in a

climate such as that of England. So long as the market was supplied

with coal brought by sea in sailing ships, fuel in winter often rose

to a famine price, especially during long-continued easterly winds.

But, now that railways are in full work, the price is almost as steady

in winter as in summer, and the supply is more regular at all seasons.

The following statement of the coals brought into London by sea and

by railway, at decennial periods since 1827, as supplied by Mr. J. R.

Scott, Registrar of the Coal Exchange, shows the effect of railways in

increasing the supply of fuel, at the same time that they have lowered

the price to the consumer:

+--------+-----------------+-------------------------+---------------+

| Years. | Sea-borne Coal. |Coals brought by Railway.| Price per Ton.|

+--------+-----------------+-------------------------+---------------+

| | Tons. | Tons. | _s._ _d._ |

| 1827 | 1,882,321 | nil | 28 6 |

| 1847 | 3,280,420 | 19,336 | 20 10 |

| 1857 | 3,133,459 | 1,206,775 | 18 8 |

| 1867 | 3,016,416 | 3,295,652 | 20 8 |

+--------+-----------------+-------------------------+---------------+

Thus the price of coal has been reduced 7_s._ 10_d._ a ton since 1827,

while the quantity delivered has been enormously increased, the total

saving on the quantity consumed in the metropolis in 1867, compared

with 1827, being equal to £2,388,000.

But the carriage of food and fuel to London forms but a small part

of the merchandise traffic carried by railway. Above 600,000 tons of

goods of various kinds yearly pass through one station only, that of

the London and Northwestern Company, at Camden Town; and sometimes

as many as 20,000 parcels daily. Every other metropolitan station is

similarly alive with traffic inward and outward, London having since

the introduction of railways become more than ever a great distributive

centre, to which merchandise of all kinds converges, and from which it

is distributed to all parts of the country. Mr. Bazley, M.P., stated at

a late public meeting at Manchester that it would probably require ten

millions of horses to convey by road the merchandise traffic which is

now annually carried by railway.

Railways have also proved of great value in connection with the Cheap

Postage system. By their means it has become possible to carry letters,

newspapers, books, and post parcels in any quantity, expeditiously

and cheaply. The Liverpool and Manchester line was no sooner opened

in 1830 than the Post-office authorities recognized its utility, and

used it for carrying the mails between the two towns. When the London

and Birmingham line was opened eight years later, mail trains were at

once put on, the directors undertaking to perform the distance of 113

miles within 5 hours by day and 5-1/2 hours by night. As additional

lines were opened, the old four-horse mail-coaches were gradually

discontinued, until, in 1858, the last of them, the "Derby Dilly,"

which ran between Manchester and Derby, was taken off on the opening of

the Midland line to Rowsley.

The increased accommodation provided by railways was found of essential

importance, more particularly after the adoption of the Cheap Postage

system; and that such accommodation was needed will be obvious from the

extraordinary increase which has taken place in the number of letters

and packets sent by post. Thus, in 1839, the number of chargeable

letters carried was only 76 millions, and of newspapers 44-1/2

millions; whereas, in 1865, the number of letters had increased to 720

millions, and in 1867 to 775 millions, or more than tenfold, while

the number of newspapers, books, samples, and patterns (a new branch

of postal business begun in 1864) had increased, in 1865, to 98-1/2

millions.

To accommodate this largely-increasing traffic, the bulk of which

is carried by railway, the mileage run by mail trains in the United

Kingdom has increased from 25,000 miles a day in 1854 (the first year

of which we have any return of the mileage run) to 60,000 miles a day

in 1867, or an increase of 240 per cent. The Post-office expenditure on

railway service has also increased, but not in like proportion, having

been £364,000 in the former year, and £559,575 in the latter, or an

increase of 154 per cent. The revenue, gross and net, has increased

still more rapidly. In 1841, the first complete year of the Cheap

Postage system, the gross revenue was £1,359,466, and the net revenue

£500,789; in 1854, the gross revenue was £2,574,407, and the net

revenue £1,173,723; and in 1867, the gross revenue was £4,548,129, and

the net revenue £2,127,125, being an increase of 420 per cent. compared

with 1841, and of 180 per cent. compared with 1854. How much of this

net increase might fairly be credited to the Railway Postal service we

shall not pretend to say, but assuredly the proportion must be very

considerable.

One of the great advantages of railways in connection with the postal

service is the greatly increased frequency of communication which

they provide between all the large towns. Thus Liverpool has now six

deliveries of Manchester letters daily, while every large town in the

kingdom has two or more deliveries of London letters daily. In 1863,

393 towns had two mails daily from London; 50 had three mails daily; 7

had four mails a day _from_ London, and 15 had four mails a day _to_

London; while 3 towns had five mails a day _from_ London, and 6 had

five mails a day _to_ London.

Another feature of the railway mail train, as of the passenger train,

is its capacity to carry any quantity of letters and post parcels

that may require to be carried. In 1838, the aggregate weight of all

the evening mails dispatched from London by twenty-eight mail-coaches

was 4 tons 6 cwt., or an average of about 3-1/4 cwt. each, though the

maximum contract weight was 15 cwt. The mails now are necessarily much

heavier, the number of letters and packets having, as we have seen,

increased more than tenfold since 1839. But it is not the ordinary so

much as the extraordinary mails that are of considerable weight, more

particularly the American, the Continental, and the Australian mails.

It is no unusual thing, we are informed, for the last-mentioned mail

to weigh as much as 40 tons. How many of the old mail-coaches it would

take to carry such a mail the 79 miles' journey to Southampton, with a

relay of four horses every five or seven miles, is a problem for the

arithmetician to solve. But even supposing each coach to be loaded

to the maximum weight of 15 cwt. per coach, it would require about

sixty vehicles and about 1700 horses to carry the 40 tons, besides the

coachmen and guards.

* * * * *

A few words, in conclusion, as to the number of men employed in

working and maintaining railways. According to Mr. Mills,[1] 166,047

men and officers were employed in the working of 13,289 miles open

in the United Kingdom in 1865, besides 53,923 employed on lines then

under construction. The most numerous body of workmen is that of

the laborers (81,284) employed in the maintenance of the permanent

way. Being mostly picked men from the laboring class of the adjoining

districts, they are paid considerably higher wages, and hence one of

the direct effects of railways on the laboring population (besides

affording them greater facilities for locomotion) has been to raise

the standard of wages of ordinary labor at least 2_s_. a week in all

the districts into which they have penetrated. The workmen next in

number is that of the artificers (40,167) employed in constructing and

repairing the rolling-stock; the porters (25,381), the plate-layers

(12,901), guards and brakesmen (5799), firemen (5266), and

engine-drivers (5171). But, besides the employés directly engaged in

the working and maintenance of railways, large numbers of workmen are

also occupied in the manufacture of locomotives and rolling-stock, and

in providing the requisite materials for the permanent way. Thus the

consumption of rails alone averages nearly 400,000 tons a year in the

United Kingdom alone, while the replacing of decayed sleepers requires

about 10,000 acres of forest to be cut down annually and sawn into

sleepers. Taking the various railway workmen into account, with their

families, it will be found that they represent a total of about three

quarters of a million persons, or about one in fifty of our population,

who are dependent on railways for their subsistence.

* * * * *

While the practical working of railways has, on the whole, been so

satisfactory, the case has been very different as regards their

direction and financial management. The men employed in the working of

railways make it their business to learn it, and, being responsible,

they are under the necessity of taking pains to do it well; whereas the

men who govern and direct them are practically irresponsible, and may

possess no qualification whatever for the office excepting only the

holding of so much stock. The consequence has been much blundering on

the part of these amateurs, and great loss on the part of the public.

Indeed, what between the confused, contradictory, and often unjust

legislation of Parliament on the one hand, and the carelessness or

incompetency of directors on the other, many once flourishing concerns

have been thrown into a state of utter confusion and muddle, until

railway government has become a by-word of reproach.

And this state of things will probably continue until the fatal defect

of government by Boards--an extremely limited responsibility, or no

responsibility at all--has been rectified by the appointment, as in

France, of executives consisting of a few men of special ability

and trained administrative skill, personally responsible to their

constituents for the due performance of their respective functions. But

the discussion of this subject would require a treatise, whereas we are

now but writing a preface.

Whatever may be said of the financial mismanagement of railways, there

can be no doubt as to the great benefits conferred by them on the

public wherever made. Even those railways which have exhibited the

most "frightful examples" of scheming and financing, so soon as placed

in the hands of practical men to work, have been found to prove of

unquestionable public convenience and utility. And notwithstanding all

the faults and imperfections that are alleged against railways have

been admitted, we think that they must, nevertheless, be recognized as

by far the most valuable means of communication between men and nations

that has yet been given to the world.

* * * * *

The author's object in publishing this book in its original form,

some ten years since, was to describe, in connection with the "Life

of George Stephenson," the origin and progress of the railway system,

and to show by what moral and material agencies its founders were

enabled to carry their ideas into effect, and to work out results which

even then were of a remarkable character, though they have since, as

above described, become so much more extraordinary. The favor with

which successive editions of the book have been received has justified

the author in his anticipation that such a narrative would prove of

general, if not of permanent interest, and he has taken pains, in

preparing for the press the present, and probably final edition, to

render it, by careful amendment and revision, more worthy of the public

acceptance.

_London, May, 1868._

FOOTNOTE:

[1] "The Railway Service, its Exigencies, Provisions, and

Requirements." By W. F. Mills. London, 1867.

PREFACE

TO THE EIGHTH EDITION, 1864.

The following is a revised and improved edition of "The Life of George

Stephenson," with which is incorporated a Memoir of his son Robert,

late President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Since its original

appearance in 1857, much additional information has been communicated

to the author relative to the early history of Railways and the men

principally concerned in establishing them, of which he has availed

himself in the present edition.

In preparing the original work for publication, the author enjoyed

the advantage of the cordial co-operation and assistance of Robert

Stephenson, on whom he mainly relied for information as to the

various stages through which the Locomotive passed, and especially as

to his father's share in its improvement. Through Mr. Stephenson's

instrumentality also, the author was enabled to obtain much valuable

information from gentlemen who had been intimately connected with his

father and himself in their early undertakings--among others, from Mr.

Edward Pease, of Darlington; Mr. Dixon, C.E.; Mr. Sopwith, F.R.S.; Mr.

Charles Parker; and Sir Joshua Walmsley.

Most of the facts relating to the early period of George Stephenson's

career were collected from colliers, brakesmen, engine-men, and others,

who had known him intimately, or been fellow-workmen with him, and

were proud to communicate what they remembered of his early life. The

information obtained from these old men--most of them illiterate, and

some broken down by hard work--though valuable in many respects, was

confused, and sometimes contradictory; but, to insure as much accuracy

and consistency of narrative as possible, the author submitted the MS.

to Mr. Stephenson, and had the benefit of his revision of it previous

to publication.

Mr. Stephenson took a lively interest in the improvement of the "Life"

of his father, and continued to furnish corrections and additions for

insertion in the successive editions of the book which were called for

by the public. After the first two editions had appeared, he induced

several gentlemen, well qualified to supply additional authentic

information, to communicate their recollections of his father, among

whom may be mentioned Mr. T. L. Gooch, C.E.; Mr. Vaughan, of Snibston;

Mr. F. Swanwick, C.E.; and Mr. Binns, of Clayross, who had officiated

as private secretaries to George Stephenson at different periods of his

life, and afterward held responsible offices either under him or in

conjunction with him.

The author states these facts to show that the information contained

in this book is of an authentic character, and has been obtained

from the most trustworthy sources. Whether he has used it to the

best purpose or not, he leaves others to judge. This much, however,

he may himself say--that he has endeavored, to the best of his

ability, to set forth the facts communicated to him in a simple,

faithful, and straightforward manner; and, even if he has not wholly

succeeded in doing this, he has, at all events, been the means of

collecting information on a subject originally unattractive to

professional literary men, and thereby rendered its farther prosecution

comparatively easy to those who may feel called upon to undertake it.

The author does not pretend to have steered clear of errors in

treating a subject so extensive, and, before he undertook the labor,

comparatively uninvestigated; but, wherever errors have been pointed

out, he has taken the earliest opportunity of correcting them. With

respect to objections taken to the book because of the undue share of

merit alleged to be therein attributed to the Stephensons in respect

of the Railway and the Locomotive, there will necessarily be various

opinions. There is scarcely an invention or improvement in mechanics

but has been the subject of dispute, and it was to be expected that

those who had counter claims would put them forward in the present

case; nor has the author any reason to complain of the manner in which

this has been done.

While George Stephenson is the principal subject in the following book,

his son Robert also forms an essential part of it. Father and son were

so intimately associated in the early period of their career, that it

is difficult, if not impossible, to describe the one apart from the

other. The life and achievements of the son were in a great measure the

complement of the life and achievements of the father. The care, also,

with which the elder Stephenson, while occupying the position of an

obscure engine-wright, devoted himself to his son's education, and the

gratitude with which the latter repaid the affectionate self-denial of

his father, furnish some of the most interesting illustrations of the

personal character of both.

These views were early adopted by the author and carried out by him in

the preparation of the original work, with the concurrence of Robert

Stephenson, who supplied the necessary particulars relating to himself.

Such portions of these were accordingly embodied in the narrative

as could with propriety be published during his life-time, and the

remaining portions are now added with the object of rendering more

complete the record of the son's life, as well as the early history of

the Railway System.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

SCHEMERS AND PROJECTORS.

Man's Desire for rapid Transit.--Origin of the Railway.--Early Coal

Wagon-ways in the North of England.--Early Attempts to apply the Power

of Wind to drive Carriages.--Sailing-coaches.--Sir Isaac Newton's

Proposal to employ Steam-power.--Dr. Darwin's Speculations on the

Subject.--Mr. Edgeworth's Speculations.--Dr. Darwin's Prophecy. Pg 47

CHAPTER II.

EARLY LOCOMOTIVE MODELS.

Watt and Robison's proposed Steam-carriage.--Memoir of Joseph Cugnot

and his Road-locomotive.--Francis Moore.--James Watt's Specification

of a Locomotive-engine.--William Murdoch's Model.--William Symington's

model Steam-carriage.--Oliver Evans's model Locomotive. 60

CHAPTER III.

THE CORNISH LOCOMOTIVE--MEMOIR OF TREVITHICK.

Early Welsh Railway Acts.--Wandsworth, Croydon, and Merstham

Railway.--Boyhood of Trevithick.--Becomes an Engineer.--His

Career.--Constructs a Steam-carriage.--Its Exhibition in

London.--Constructs a Tram-engine.--Its Trial on the Merthyr

Railroad.--Trevithick's Improvements in the Steam-engine.--Attempts

to construct a Tunnel under the Thames.--His numerous Inventions

and Patents.--Engines ordered of him for Peru.--Trevithick a Mining

Engineer in South America.--Is ruined by the Peruvian Revolution.--His

return Home.--His last Patents.--Death and Characteristics. 73

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

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

Newcastle in ancient Times.--The Coal-trade.--Modern Newcastle.--The

Colliery Workmen.--The Pumping-engines.--The Pitmen.--The

Keelmen.--Wylam Colliery and Village.--George Stephenson's

Birthplace.--The Stephenson Family.--Old Robert Stephenson.--George's

Boyhood.--Employed as a Herd-boy.--Makes Clay Engines.--Employed as

Corf-bitter.--Drives the Gin-horse.--Appointed assistant Fireman. 97

CHAPTER II.

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

Stephenson's Life at Newburn.--Appointed Engine-man.--Duties

of Plugman.--Study of the Steam-engine.--Experiments in

Bird-hatching.--Learns to Read.--His Schoolmasters.--Progress in

Arithmetic.--His Dog.--Learns to Brake.--Duties of Brakesman.--Begins

Shoe-mending.--Fight with a Pitman. 111

CHAPTER III.

ENGINE-MAN AT WILLINGTON QUAY AND KILLINGWORTH.

Sobriety and Studiousness.--Removal to Willington Quay, and

Marriage.--Attempts a Perpetual-motion Machine.--William Fairbairn,

C.E., and George Stephenson.--Ballast-heaving.--Cottage Chimney

takes fire--Birth of his son Robert.--Removal to West Moor,

Killingworth.--Death of his Wife.--Appointed Engine-man at

Montrose.--Return to Killingworth.--Appointed Brakesman at West

Moor.--Is drawn for the Militia.--Thinks of Emigrating.--Takes

a contract for Brakeing.--Improves the Winding-engine.--Cures a

Pumping-engine.--Is appointed Engine-wright of the Colliery. 121

CHAPTER IV.

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

Efforts at Self-improvement.--John Wigham.--Studies in Natural

Philosophy.--Education of Robert Stephenson.--Sent to Bruce's

School, Newcastle.--His boyish Tricks.--Stephenson's Cottage,

West Moor.--Mechanical Contrivances.--The Sun-dial at West

Moor.--Stephenson's various Duties as Colliery Engineer. 137

CHAPTER V.

THE LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE--GEORGE STEPHENSON BEGINS ITS IMPROVEMENT.

Slow Progress heretofore made in the Improvement of the

Locomotive.--The Wylam Wagon-way.--Mr. Blackett orders a

Locomotive.--Mr. Blenkinsop's Leeds Locomotive.--Mr. Blackett's second

Engine a Failure.--The improved Wylam Engine.--George Stephenson's

Study of the Subject.--His first Locomotive constructed.--His

Improvement of the Engine, as described by his Son.--Invention of the

Steam-blast. 152

CHAPTER VI.

INVENTION OF THE "GEORDY" SAFETY-LAMP.

Frequency of Colliery Explosions.--Accidents in the Killingworth

Pit.--Stephenson's heroic Conduct.--Proposes to invent a

Safety-lamp.--His first Lamp and its Trial.--Cottage Experiments

with Coal-gas.--His second and third Lamps.--Scene at the Newcastle

Institute.--The Stephenson and Davy Controversy.--The Davy and

Stephenson Testimonials.--Merits of the "Geordy" Lamp. 175

CHAPTER VII.

GEORGE STEPHENSON'S FARTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOCOMOTIVE--ROBERT

STEPHENSON AS VIEWER'S APPRENTICE AND STUDENT.

Stephenson's Improvements in the Mine-machinery.--Farther Improvements

in the Locomotive and in the Road.--Experiments on Friction.--Early

Neglect of the Locomotive.--Stephenson again meditates emigrating

to America.--Employed as Engineer of the Hetton Railway.--Robert

Stephenson put Apprentice to a Coal-viewer.--His Father sends him

to Edinburg University.--His Studies there.--Geological Tour in the

Highlands. 198

CHAPTER VIII.

GEORGE STEPHENSON ENGINEER OF THE STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON RAILWAY.

Failure of the first public Railways near London.--Want of improved

communications in the Bishop Auckland Coal-district.--Various Projects

devised.--A Railway projected at Darlington.--Edward Pease.--George

Stephenson employed as Engineer.--Mr. Pease's Visit to Killingworth.--A

Locomotive Factory begun at Newcastle.--The Stockton and Darlington

Line constructed.--The public Opening.--The Coal-traffic.--The first

Passenger-traffic by Railway.--The Town of Middlesborough-on-Tees

created by the Railway. 216

CHAPTER IX.

THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY PROJECTED.

Insufficiency of the Communication between Liverpool and Manchester.--A

Tram-road projected by Mr. Sandars.--The Line surveyed by William

James.--The Survey a failure.--George Stephenson appointed Engineer.--A

Company formed and a Railroad projected.--The first Prospectus

issued.--Opposition to the Survey.--Speculations as to Railway

Speed.--George Stephenson's Views thought extravagant.--Article in the

"Quarterly". 247

CHAPTER X.

PARLIAMENTARY CONTEST ON THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER BILL.

The Bill before Parliament.--The Evidence.--George Stephenson in the

Witness-box.--Examined as to Speed.--His Cross-examination.--Examined

as to the possibility of constructing a Line on Chat Moss.--Mr.

Harrison's Speech.--Mr. Giles's Evidence as to Chat Moss.--Mr.

Alderson's Speech.--The Bill lost.--Stephenson's Vexation.--The Bill

revived, with the Messrs. Rennie as Engineers.--Sir Isaac Coffin's

prophecies of Disaster.--The Act passed. 265

CHAPTER XI.

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

George Stephenson again appointed Engineer of the Railway.--Chat Moss

described.--The resident Engineers of the Line.--George Stephenson's

Theory of a Floating Road on the Moss.--Operations begun.--The

Tar-barrel Drains.--The Embankment sinks in the Moss.--Proposed

Abandonment of the Works.--Stephenson's Perseverance.--The Obstacles

conquered.--The Tunnel at Liverpool.--The Olive Mount Cutting.--The

Sankey Viaduct.--Stephenson's great Labors.--His daily Life.--Evenings

at Home. 281

CHAPTER XII.

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

THE LOCOMOTIVE."

Robert Stephenson appointed Mining Engineer in Colombia.--Mule

Journey to Bogotá.--Mariquita.--Silver Mining.--Difficulties

with the Cornishmen.--His Cottage at Santa Anna.--Resigns his

Appointment.--Meeting with Trevithick.--Voyage to New York, and

Shipwreck.--Returns to Newcastle, and takes Charge of the Locomotive

Factory.--Discussion as to the Working Power of the Liverpool and

Manchester Railway.--Walker and Rastrick's Report.--A Prize offered

for the best Locomotive.--Invention of the Multitubular Boiler.--Henry

Booth.--Construction of the "Rocket."--The Locomotive Competition at

Rainhill.--Triumph of the "Rocket". 301

CHAPTER XIII.

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

RAILWAY SYSTEM.

The Railway finished.--Organization of the Working.--The

public Opening.--Fatal Accident to Mr. Huskisson.--The

Traffic begun.--Improvements in the Road, Rolling Stock, and

Locomotive.--Steam-carriages tried on common Roads.--New Railway

Projects.--Opposition to Railways in the South of England.--Robert

Stephenson appointed Engineer of Leicester and Swannington

Railway.--George removes to Snibston and sinks for Coal.--His character

as a Master. 329

CHAPTER XIV.

ROBERT STEPHENSON CONSTRUCTS THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.

The London and Birmingham Railway projected.--George and Robert

Stephenson appointed Engineers.--An Opposition organized.--Public

Meetings against the Scheme.--Robert Stephenson's Interview with Sir

A. Cooper.--The Survey obstructed.--The Line resurveyed.--The Bill

in Parliament.--Thrown out in the Lords.--The Project revived.--The

Act obtained.--The Works let in Contracts.--Difficulties of the

Undertaking.--The Line described.--Blisworth Cutting.--Primrose Hill

Tunnel.--Kilsby Tunnel.--Its Construction described.--Failures of

Contractors.--Magnitude of the Works.--The Railway navvies. 349

CHAPTER XV.

MANCHESTER AND LEEDS, MIDLAND, AND OTHER RAILWAYS--GENERAL EXTENSION OF

RAILWAYS AND THEIR RESULTS.

Projection of new Lines.--Dutton Viaduct on the Grand Junction.--The

Manchester and Leeds.--Incident in Committee.--Summit Tunnel,

Littleborough.--The Midland Railway.--The Works compared with the

Simplon Road.--Slip near Ambergate.--Bull Bridge.--The York and

North Midland.--The Scarborough Branch.--George Stephenson on

Estimates.--Stephenson on his Surveys.--His quick Observation.--His

extensive Labors.--Traveling and Correspondence.--Life at Alton

Grange.--Stephenson's London Office.--Journeys to Belgium.--Interviews

with the King.--Public Openings of English Railways.--Stephenson's

Assistants.--Results of Railroads. 365

CHAPTER XVI.

GEORGE STEPHENSON'S COAL-MINES--OPINIONS ON RAILWAY SPEEDS--RAILWAY

MANIA.

George Stephenson on Railways and Coal Traffic.--Leases the

Claycross Estate.--His Residence at Tapton.--His Appearance at

Mechanics' Institutes.--His Views on Railway Speed.--Undulating Lines

favored.--Stephenson on Railway Speculation.--Atmospheric Railways

projected.--Opposed by Stephenson.--The Railway Mania.--Action

of Parliament.--Rage for direct Lines.--Stephenson's Letter to

Peel.--George Hudson, the "Railway King."--His Fall.--Stephenson again

visits Belgium.--Interview with King Leopold.--Journey into Spain. 392

CHAPTER XVII.

ROBERT STEPHENSON'S CAREER--EAST COAST ROUTE TO SCOTLAND--HIGH-LEVEL

BRIDGE, NEWCASTLE.

Robert Stephenson's Career.--His extensive Employment as Parliamentary

Engineer.--His rival, Brunel.--The Great Western Railway.--Width

of Gauge.--Robert Stephenson's caution as to Investments.--The

Newcastle and Berwick Railway.--Contest in Parliament.--George

Stephenson's Interview with Lord Howick.--The Royal Border Bridge,

Berwick.--Progress of Iron Bridge-building.--Robert Stephenson

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

Steam.--Merits of the Structure.--The through Railway to Scotland

completed. 421

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAILWAY--MENAI AND CONWAY BRIDGES.

George Stephenson Surveys a line from Chester to Holyhead.--Robert

Stephenson afterward appointed Engineer.--The Railway Works under

Penmaen Mawr.--The Crossing of the Menai Strait.--Various Plans

proposed.--A Tubular Beam determined on.--Strength of wrought-iron

Tubes.--Mr. William Fairbairn consulted.--His Experiments.--Professor

Hodgkinson.--Chains proposed, and eventually discarded.--The Bridge

Works.--The Conway Bridge.--Britannia Bridge described.--Floating

of the Tubes.--Robert Stephenson's great Anxiety.--Raising of the

Tubes.--The Hydraulic Press bursts.--The Works completed.--Merits of

the Britannia Bridge. 438

CHAPTER XIX.

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

George Stephenson's Life at Tapton.--Experiments in Horticulture.--His

Farming Operations.--Affection for Animals.--Bee-keeping.--Reading

and Conversation.--Rencounter with Lord Denman.--Hospitality at

Tapton.--His Microscope.--A "Crowdie Night."--Visits to London.--Visits

Sir Robert Peel at Drayton Manor.--His Conversation.--Encounter with

Dr. Buckland.--Coal formed by the Sun's Light.--Opening of the Trent

Valley Line and its Celebration.--Meeting with Emerson.--Illness,

Death, and Funeral.--Statues of George Stephenson.--Personal

Characteristics. 460

CHAPTER XX.

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

DEATH--THE STEPHENSON CHARACTERISTICS.

Robert Stephenson's gradual Retirement from the profession

of Engineer.--His Tubular Bridge over the Nile.--Railways

in Canada.--Proposed Bridge at Montreal.--A Tubular Bridge

proposed.--Robert Stephenson appointed Engineer.--Design of the

Victoria Bridge.--The Piers.--Getting in of the Foundations.--Progress

of the Works.--Erection of the Tubes.--Scene at the breaking-up

of the Ice in 1858.--The Night-work.--Erection of main

central Tube.--Completion of the Works.--Robert Stephenson in

Parliament.--His Opinion of the Suez Canal.--His Honors.--Launch

of the Great Eastern.--Last Illness and Death.--The Stephenson

Characteristics.--Conclusion. 474

INDEX 497

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Portrait of George Stephenson

_to face Title Page._

Portrait of Trevithick 46

Tyne Coal-staith 49

Flange-rail 50

Cugnot's Steam-carriage 62

Murdock's Model Locomotive 66

Symington's Model Steam-carriage 69

Oliver Evans's Model Locomotive 71

Trevithick's Tram-engine 81

High-Level Bridge, Newcastle 96

Map of Newcastle District 98

Wylam 103

High-Street House, Wylam 104

Colliery Wagons 110

Newburn 111

Colliery Gin 120

Stephenson's Cottage at Willington

Quay 121

Stephenson's Signature 123

West Moor Colliery 127

Killingworth High Pit 136

Glebe Farm-house, Benton 137

Rutter's School-house at Long Benton 140

Bruce's School, Newcastle 142

Stephenson's Cottage, West Moor 146

Sun-dial, Killingworth 149

Colliers' Cottages, Long Benton 151

Blenkinsop's Leeds Engine 155

The Wylam Engine 160

Spur-gear 164

Killingworth Locomotive (Section) 168

Colliery Whimsey 174

Pit-head, West Moor 177

Davy's and Stephenson's Safety-lamps 187

Literary and Philosophical Institute,

Newcastle 189

The Stephenson Tankard 197

Half-lap Joint 200

Old Killingworth Locomotive 201

West Moor Pit, Killingworth 214

Portrait of Edward Pease 223

Map of Stockton and Darlington

Railway 224

Opening of Stockton and Darlington

Railway 238

The First Railway Coach 241

No. 1 Engine at Darlington 244

Middlesborough-on-Tees 246

Map of Liverpool and Manchester

Railway 250-1

Surveying on Chat Moss 264

Olive Mount Cutting 291

Sankey Viaduct 292

Baiting-place at Sankey 296

Chat Moss--Works in progress 299

Robert Stephenson's Cottage at Santa

Anna 306

The "Rocket" 321

Locomotive Competition at Rainhill 324

Railway _versus_ Road 328

Map of Leicester and Swannington

Railway 343

Alton Grange 346

Portrait of Robert Stephenson 348

Map of London and Birmingham

Railway 354

Blisworth Cutting 355

Shafts, Kilsby Tunnel 357

Kilsby Tunnel (North end) 363

Dutton Viaduct 366

Littleborough Tunnel (West entrance) 368

Littleborough Tunnel (Walsden end) 369

Map of Midland Railway 370

Land-slip, Ambergate 372

Bull Bridge 373

Coalville and Snibston Colliery 391

Tapton House 392

Lime-works, Ambergate 394

Forth-Street Works, Newcastle 396

Claycross Works 420

Newcastle from High-Level Bridge 421

Royal Border Bridge, Berwick 430

Elevation and Plan of Arch, High-Level

Bridge 436

Railway at Penmaen Mawr 440

Map of Menai Strait 442

Construction of Britannia Tube on

Staging 450

Conway Bridge 451

Menai Bridge 457

Floating First Tube, Conway Bridge 459

View in Tapton Gardens 460

Footpath to Tapton House 465

Trinity Church, Chesterfield 471

Tablet in Trinity Church 473

Victoria Bridge, Montreal 474

Elevation of Pier, Victoria Bridge 478

Works in Progress, Victoria Bridge 480

Erection of the Main Central Tube,

Victoria Bridge 483

Stephenson Memorial Schools, Willington 496

EARLY INVENTORS IN LOCOMOTION.

[Illustration: RICHARD TREVITHICK, C.E.]

EARLY INVENTORS IN LOCOMOTION.

CHAPTER I.

SCHEMERS AND PROJECTORS.

It is easy to understand how rapid transit from place to place should,

from the earliest times, have been an object of desire. The marvelous

gift of speed conferred by Fortunatus's Wishing Cap was what all must

have envied: it conferred power. It also conferred pleasure. "Life has

not many things better than this," said Samuel Johnson as he rolled

along in the post-chaise. But it also conferred comfort and well-being;

and hence the easy and rapid transit of persons and commodities became

in all countries an object of desire in proportion to their growth in

civilization.

We have elsewhere[2] endeavored to describe the obstructions to the

progress of society occasioned by the defective internal communications

of Britain in early times, which were to a considerable extent removed

by the adoption of the canal system, and the improvement of our roads

and highways, toward the end of last century. But the progress of

industry was so rapid--the invention of new tools, machines, and

engines so greatly increased the productive wealth of the nation--that

some forty years since it was found that these roads and canals,

numerous and excellent though they might be, were altogether inadequate

for the accommodation of the traffic of the country, which was

increasing in almost a direct ratio with the increased application of

steam-power to the purposes of productive industry.

The inventive minds of the nation, always on the alert--the "schemers"

and the "projectors," to whom society has in all times been so greatly

indebted--proceeded to apply themselves to the solution of the problem

of how the communications of the country were best to be improved; and

the result was, that the power of steam itself was applied to remedy

the inconveniences which it had caused.

Like most inventions, that of the Steam Locomotive was very gradually

made. The idea of it, born in one age, was revived in the ages that

followed. It was embodied first in one model, then in another--the

labors of one inventor being taken up by his successors--until at

length, after many disappointments and many failures, the practicable

working locomotive was achieved.

The locomotive engine was not, however, sufficient for the purposes of

cheap and rapid transit. Another expedient was absolutely essential to

its success--that of the Railway: the smooth rail to bear the load, as

well as the steam-engine to draw it.

Expedients were early adopted for the purpose of diminishing friction

between the wheels of vehicles and the roads along which they were

dragged by horse-power. The Romans employed stone blocks with that

object; and the streets of the long-buried city of Pompeii still bear

the marks of the ancient Roman chariot-wheels, as the stone track for

heavy vehicles on our modern London Bridge shows the wheel-marks of

the wagons which cross it. These stone blocks were merely a simple

expedient to diminish friction, and were the first steps toward a

railroad.

The railway proper doubtless originated in the coal districts of the

North of England and Wales, where it was found useful in facilitating

the transport of coals from the pits to the shipping-places. At an

early period the coal was carried to the boats in panniers, or in sacks

upon horses' backs. Next carts were used, and tram-ways of flag-stone

were laid down, along which they were easily hauled. The carts were

then converted into wagons, and mounted on four wheels instead of two.

Still farther to facilitate the haulage of the wagons, pieces of

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

ordinary track. It is said that these wooden rails were first employed

by a Mr. Beaumont, a gentleman from the South, who, about the year

1630, adventured in the northern mines with about thirty thousand

pounds, and after introducing many improvements in the working of the

coal, as well as in the methods of transporting it to the staithes on

the river, was ruined by his enterprise, and "within a few Years," to

use the words of the ancient chronicler, "he consumed all his Money,

and rode Home upon his light Horse."[3]

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

The use of wooden rails gradually extended, and they were laid down

between most of the collieries on the Tyne and the places at which the

coal was shipped. Roger North, in 1676, found the practice had become

extensively adopted, and he speaks of the large sums then paid for

way-leave--that is, the permission granted by the owners of lands lying

between the coal-pits and the river-side to lay down a tram-way for the

purpose of connecting the one with the other.

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

become greatly multiplied, but formidable works had been constructed

to carry them along upon the same level. "The coal wagon-roads from

the pits to the water," he says, "are great works, carried over all

sorts of inequalities of ground, so far as the distance of nine or ten

miles. The tracks of the wheels are marked with pieces of wood let

into the road for the wheels of the wagons to run on, by which one

horse is enabled to draw, and that with ease, fifty or sixty bushels of

coals."[4]

Saint Fond, the French traveler, who visited Newcastle in 1791,

described the colliery wagon-ways in that neighborhood as superior to

any thing of the kind he had seen. The wooden rails were formed with a

rounded upper surface, like a projecting moulding, and the wagon-wheels

being "made of cast iron, and hollowed in the manner of a metal

pulley," readily fitted the rounded surface of the rails. The economy

with which the coal was thus hauled to the shipping-places was urged

by Saint Fond as an inducement to his own countrymen to adopt a like

method of transit.[5]

Similar wagon-roads were early laid down in the coal districts of

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

1745, a tram-road existed between the Tranent coal-pits and the small

harbor of Cockenzie, in East Lothian; and a portion of the line was

selected by General Cope as a position for his cannon at the battle of

Prestonpans.

In these rude wooden tracks we find the germ of the modern railroad.

Improvements were gradually made in them. Thus, at some collieries,

thin plates of iron were nailed upon their upper surface, for the

purpose of protecting the parts most exposed to friction. Cast-iron

rails were also tried, the wooden rails having been found liable to

rot. The first iron rails are supposed to have been laid down at

Whitehaven as early as 1738. This cast-iron road was denominated a

"plate-way," from the plate-like form in which the rails were cast.

In 1767, as appears from the books of the Coalbrookdale Iron Works,

in Shropshire, five or six tons of rails were cast, as an experiment,

on the suggestion of Mr. Reynolds, one of the partners; and they were

shortly after laid down to form a road.

[Illustration: (Flange-rail)]

In 1776, a cast-iron tram-way, nailed to wooden sleepers, was laid

down at the Duke of Norfolk's colliery near Sheffield. The person who

designed and constructed this coal line was Mr. John Curr, whose son

has erroneously claimed for him the invention of the cast-iron railway.

He certainly adopted it early, and thereby met the fate of men before

their age; for his plan was opposed by the laboring people of the

colliery, who got up a riot, in which they tore up the road and burned

the coal-staith, while Mr. Curr fled into a neighboring wood for

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

the fury of the populace.[6] The plates of these early tram-ways had a

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

the manner shown in the preceding cut.

In 1789, Mr. William Jessop constructed a railway at Loughborough,

in Leicestershire, and there introduced the cast-iron edge-rail,

with flanches cast upon the tire of the wagon-wheels to keep them on

the track, instead of having the margin or flanch cast upon the rail

itself; and this plan was shortly after adopted in other places. In

1800, Mr. Benjamin Outram, of Little Eaton, Derbyshire (father of the

distinguished General Outram), used stone props instead of timber

for supporting the ends or joinings of the rails. Thus the use of

railroads, in various forms, gradually extended, until they became

generally adopted in the mining districts.

Such was the growth of the railroad, which, it will be observed,

originated in necessity, and was modified according to experience;

progress in this, as in all departments of mechanics, having been

effected by the exertions of many men; one generation entering upon

the labors of that which preceded it, and carrying them onward to

farther stages of improvement. The invention of the locomotive was in

like manner made by successive steps. It was not the invention of one

man, but of a succession of men, each working at the proper hour, and

according to the needs of that hour; one inventor interpreting only

the first word of the problem which his successors were to solve after

long and laborious efforts and experiments. "The locomotive is not the

invention of one man," said Robert Stephenson at Newcastle, "but of a

nation of mechanical engineers."

Down to the end of last century, and indeed down almost to our own

time, the only power used in haulage was that of the horse. Along the

common roads of the country the poor horses were "tearing their hearts

out" in dragging cumbersome vehicles behind them, and the transport

of merchandise continued to be slow, dear, and in all respects

unsatisfactory. Many expedients were suggested with the view of getting

rid of the horse. The power of wind was one of the first expedients

proposed. It was cheap, though by no means regular. It impelled ships

by sea; why should it not be used to impel carriages by land?

The first sailing-coach was invented by one Simon Stevinius, or

Stevins, a Fleming, toward the end of the sixteenth century. Pierre

Gassendi gives an account of its performances as follows:

"Purposing to visit Grotius, Peireskius went to Scheveling that he

might satisfy himself of the carriage and swiftness of a coach a

few years before invented, and made with that artifice that with

expanded sails it would fly upon the shore as a ship upon the

sea. He had formerly heard that Count Maurice, a little after his

victory at Nieuport [1600], had put himself thereinto, together

with Francis Mendoza, his prisoner, on purpose to make trial

thereof, and that, within two hours, they arrived at Putten, which

is distant from Scheveling fourteen leagues, or two-and-forty

miles. He had, therefore, a mind to make the experiment himself,

and he would often tell us with what admiration he was seized when

he was carried with a quick wind and yet perceived it not, the

coach's motion being equally quick."[7]

The sailing-coach, however, was only a curiosity. As a practicable

machine, it proved worthless, for the wind could not be depended

upon for land locomotion. The coach could not tack as the ship did.

Sometimes the wind did not blow at all, while at other times it blew a

hurricane. After being used for some time as a toy, the sailing-coach

was given up as impracticable, and the project speedily dropped out of

sight.

But, strange to say, the expedient of driving coal-wagons by the

wind was revived in Wales about a century later. On this occasion,

Sir Humphry Mackworth, an ingenious coal-miner at Neath, was the

projector. Waller, in his "Essay on Mines," published in 1698, takes

the opportunity of eulogizing Sir Humphry's "new sailing-wagons, for

the cheap carriage of his coal to the water-side, whereby one horse

does the work of ten at all times; but when any wind is stirring (which

is seldom wanting near the sea), one man and a small sail do the work

of twenty."[8] It does not, however, appear that any other coal-owner

had the courage to follow Sir Humphry's example, and the sailing-wagon

was forgotten until, after the lapse of another century, it was revived

by Mr. Edgeworth.

The employment of steam-power as a means of land locomotion was the

subject of much curious speculation long before any practical attempt

was made to carry it into effect. The merit of promulgating the first

idea with reference to it probably belongs to no other than the great

Sir Isaac Newton. In his "Explanation of the Newtonian Philosophy,"

written in 1680, he figured a spherical generator, supported on wheels,

and provided with a seat for a passenger in front, and a long jet-pipe

behind, and stated that "the whole is to be mounted on little wheels,

so as to move easily on a horizontal plane, and if the hole, or

jet-pipe, be opened, the vapor will rush out violently one way, and the

wheels and the ball at the same time will be carried the contrary way."

This, it will be observed, was but a modification of the earliest known

steam-engine, or OEolopile, of Hero of Alexandria. It is not believed

that Sir Isaac Newton ever made any experiment of his proposed method

of locomotion, or did more than merely throw out the idea for other

minds to work upon.

The idea of employing steam in locomotion was revived from time to

time, and formed the subject of much curious speculation. About the

middle of last century we find Benjamin Franklin, then agent in London

for the United Provinces of America, Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham,

and Erasmus Darwin, of Lichfield, engaged in a correspondence relative

to steam as a motive power. Boulton had made a model of a fire-engine,

which he sent to London for Franklin's inspection; and though the

original purpose for which the engine had been contrived was the

pumping of water, it was believed to be practicable to employ it also

as a means of locomotion. Franklin was too much occupied at the time

by grave political questions to pursue the subject; but the sanguine

and speculative mind of Erasmus Darwin was inflamed by the idea of a

"fiery chariot," and he pressed his friend Boulton to prosecute the

contrivance of the necessary steam machine.[9]

Erasmus Darwin was in many respects a remarkable man. In his own

neighborhood he was highly esteemed as a physician, and by many

intelligent readers of his day he was greatly prized as a poet. Horace

Walpole said of his "Botanic Garden" that it was "the most delicious

poem upon earth," and he declared that he "could read it over and over

again forever." The doctor was accustomed to write his poems with a

pencil on little scraps of paper while riding about among his patients

in his "sulky." The vehicle, which was worn and bespattered outside,

had room within it for the doctor and his appurtenances only. On one

side of him was a pile of books reaching from the floor to nearly

the front window of the carriage, while on the other was a hamper

containing fruit and sweetmeats, with a store of cream and sugar, with

which the occupant regaled himself during his journey. Lashed on to the

place usually appropriated to the "boot" was a large pail for watering

the horses, together with a bag of oats and a bundle of hay. Such was

the equipage of a fashionable country physician of the last century.

Dr. Darwin was a man of large and massive person, bearing a rather

striking resemblance to his distinguished townsman, Dr. Johnson, in

manner, deportment, and force of character. He was full of anecdote,

and his conversation was most original and entertaining. He was a very

outspoken man, vehemently enunciating theories which some thought

original and others dangerous. As he drove through the country in

his "sulky," his mind teemed with speculation on all subjects, from

zoonomy, botany, and physiology, to physics, æsthetics, and mental

philosophy. Though his speculations were not always sound, they were

clever and ingenious, and, at all events, they had the effect of

setting other minds a-thinking and speculating on science and the

methods for its advancement. From his "Loves of the Plants"--afterward

so cleverly parodied by George Canning in his "Loves of the

Triangles"--it would appear that the doctor even entertained a theory

of managing the winds by a little philosophic artifice. His scheme of a

steam locomotive was of a more practical character. This idea, like so

many others, first occurred to him in his "sulky."

"As I was riding home yesterday," he wrote to his friend Boulton in

the year 1765, "I considered the scheme of the fiery chariot, and

the longer I contemplated this favorite idea, the more practicable

it appeared to me. I shall lay my thoughts before you, crude and

undigested though they may appear to be, telling you as well what I

thought would not do as what would do, as by those hints you may be

led into various trains of thinking upon this subject, and by that

means (if any hints can assist your genius, which, without hints,

is above all others I am acquainted with) be more likely to improve

or disapprove. And as I am quite mad of this scheme, I beg you will

not mention it, or show this paper to Wyat or any body.

"These things are required: 1st, a rotary motion; 2d, easily

altering its direction to any other direction; 3d, to be

accelerated, retarded, destroyed, revived instantly and easily;

4th, the bulk, the weight, and expense of the machine to be as

small as possible in proportion to its use."[10]

He then goes on to throw out various suggestions as to the form and

arrangement of the machine, the number of wheels on which it was to

run, and the mode of applying the power. The text of this letter is

illustrated by rough diagrams, showing a vehicle mounted on three

wheels, the foremost or guiding wheel being under the control of the

driver; but in a subsequent passage he says, "I think four wheels will

be better."

"Let there be two cylinders," he proceeds. "Suppose one piston

up, and the vacuum made under it by the _jet d'eau froid_. That

piston can not yet descend because the cock is not yet opened

which admits the steam into its antagonist cylinder. Hence the two

pistons are in equilibrio, being either of them pressed by the

atmosphere. Then I say, if the cock which admits the steam into the

antagonist cylinder be opened gradually and not with a jerk, that

the first-mentioned [piston in the] cylinder will descend gradually

and not less forcibly. Hence, by the management of the steam

cocks, the motion may be accelerated, retarded, destroyed, revived

instantly and easily. And if this answers in practice as it does in

theory, the machine can not fail of success! Eureka!

"The cocks of the cold water may be moved by the great work, but

the steam cocks must be managed by the hand of the charioteer, who

also directs the rudder-wheel. [Then follow his rough diagrams.] The

central wheel ought to have been under the rollers, so as it may be

out of the way of the boiler."[11]

After farther explaining himself, he goes on to say:

"If you could learn the expense of coals to a common fire-engine

and the weight of water it draws, some certain estimate may be made

if such a scheme as this would answer. Pray don't show Wyat this

scheme, for if you think it feasible and will send me a critique

upon it, I will certainly, if I can get somebody to bear half the

expense with me, endeavor to build a fiery chariot, and, if it

answers, get a patent. If you choose to be partner with me in the

profit, and expense, and trouble, let me know, as I am determined

to execute it if you approve of it.

"Please to remember the pulses of the common fire-engines, and say

in what manner the piston is so made as to keep out the air in

its motion. By what way is the _jet d'eau froid_ let out of the

cylinder? How full of water is the boiler? How is it supplied, and

what is the quantity of its waste of water?"[12]

It will be observed from these remarks that the doctor's notions

were of the crudest sort, and, as he obviously contemplated but a

modification of the Newcomen engine, then chiefly employed in pumping

water from mines, the action of which was slow, clumsy, and expensive,

the steam being condensed by injection of cold water, it is clear that,

even though Boulton had taken up and prosecuted Darwin's idea, it could

not have issued in a practicable or economical working locomotive.

But, although Darwin himself--his time engrossed by his increasing

medical practice--proceeded no farther with his scheme of a

"fiery chariot," he succeeded in inflaming the mind of his young

friend, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who had settled for a time in

his neighborhood, and induced him to direct his attention to the

introduction of improved means of locomotion by steam. In a letter

written by Dr. Small to Watt in 1768, we find him describing Edgeworth

as "a gentleman of fortune, young, mechanical, and indefatigable, who

has taken a resolution to move land and water carriages by steam, and

has made considerable progress in the short space of time that he has

devoted to the study."

One of the first-fruits of Edgeworth's investigations was his paper

"On Railroads," which he read before the Society of Arts in 1768, and

for which he was awarded the society's gold medal. He there proposed

that four iron railroads be laid down on one of the great roads out

of London; two for carts and wagons, and two for light carriages and

stage-coaches. The post-chaises and gentlemen's carriages might, he

thought, be made to go at eight miles an hour, and the stage-coaches

at six miles an hour, drawn by a single horse. He urged that such a

method of transport would be attended with great economy of power and

consequent cheapness. Many years later, in 1802, he published his

views on the same subject in a more matured form. By that time Watt's

steam-engine had come into general use, and he suggested that small

stationary engines should be fixed along his proposed railroad, and

made, by means of circulating chains, to draw the carriages along with

a great diminution of horse labor and expense.

It is creditable to Mr. Edgeworth's forethought that both the models

proposed by him have since been adopted. Horse-traction of carriages on

railways is now in general use in the towns of the United States; and

omnibuses on the same principle regularly ply between the Place de la

Concorde at Paris and St. Cloud, both being found highly convenient for

the public, and profitable to the proprietors. The system of working

railways by fixed engines was also regularly employed on some lines

in the infancy of the railway system, though it has since fallen into

disuse, in consequence of the increased power given to the modern

locomotive, which enables it to surmount gradients formerly considered

impracticable.

Besides his speculations on railways worked by horse and steam power,

Mr. Edgeworth--unconscious of the early experiments of Stevins and

Mackworth--made many attempts to apply the power of the wind with the

same object. It is stated in his "Memoirs" that he devoted himself to

locomotive traction by various methods for a period of about forty

years, during which he made above a hundred working models, in a

great variety of forms; and though none of his schemes were attended

with practical success, he adds that he gained far more in amusement

than he lost by his unsuccessful labors. "The only mortification that

affected me," he says, "was my discovery, many years after I had taken

out my patent [for the sailing-carriage], that the rudiments of my

whole scheme were mentioned in an obscure memoir of the French Academy."

The sailing-wagon scheme, as revived by Mr. Edgeworth, was doubtless

of a highly ingenious character, though it was not practicable. One of

his expedients was a portable railway, of a kind somewhat similar to

that since revived by Mr. Boydell. Many experiments were tried with the

new wagons on Hare Hatch Common, but they were attended with so much

danger when the wind blew strong--the vehicles seeming to fly rather

than roll along the ground--that farther experiments were abandoned,

and Mr. Edgeworth himself at length came to the conclusion that a

power so uncertain as that of the wind could never be relied upon for

the safe conduct of ordinary traffic. His thoughts finally settled on

steam as the only practicable power for this purpose; but, though his

enthusiasm in the cause of improved transit of persons and of goods

remained unabated, he was now too far advanced in life to prosecute

his investigations in that direction. When an old man of seventy he

wrote to James Watt (7th August, 1813): "I have always thought that

steam would become the universal lord, and that we should in time scorn

post-horses. An iron railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road

on the common construction." Four years later he died, and left the

problem, which he had nearly all his life been trying ineffectually to

solve, to be worked out by younger men.

Dr. Darwin had long before preceded him into the silent land. Down to

his death in 1802, Edgeworth had kept up a continuous correspondence

with him on his favorite topic; but it does not appear that Darwin

ever revived his project of the "fiery chariot." He was satisfied to

prophesy its eventual success in the lines which are perhaps more

generally known than any he has written--for, though Horace Walpole

declared that he could "read the Botanic Garden over and over again

forever," the poetry of Darwin is now all but forgotten. The following

was his prophecy, published in 1791, before any practical locomotive or

steam-boat had been invented:

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar

Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;

Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear

The flying chariot through the fields of air.

Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above,

Shall wave their flutt'ring kerchiefs as they move;

Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd,

And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud."

The prophecy embodied in the first two lines of the passage has

certainly been fulfilled, but the triumph of the steam balloon has yet

to come.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] "Lives of the Engineers," vols. i. and ii.

[3] Harleian MSS., vol. iii., 269.

[4] "Six Months' Tour," vol. iii., 9.

[5] "Travels in England, Scotland, and the Hebrides," vol. i., 142.

[6] "Railway Locomotion and Steam Navigation, their Principles and

Practice." By John Curr. London, 1847.

[7] A curious account of this early project is to be found in the

library of the British Museum, under the name "Stevin, 1652."

[8] The writer adds--"I believe he (Sir Humphry Mackworth) is the first

gentleman in this part of the world that hath set up sailing engines on

land, driven by the wind; not for any curiosity or vain applause, but

for real profit; whereby he could not fail of Bishop Malkin's blessing

on his undertakings, in case he were in a capacity to bestow it."

[9] See farther, "Lives of the Engineers," vol. iv., Boulton and Watt,

p. 182-4.

[10] Soho MSS.

[11] Soho MSS.

[12] Ibid.

CHAPTER II.

EARLY LOCOMOTIVE MODELS.

The application of steam-power to the driving of wheel-carriages on

common roads was in 1759 brought under the notice of James Watt by his

young friend John Robison, then a student at the University of Glasgow.

Robison prepared a rough sketch of his suggested steam-carriage, in

which he proposed to place the cylinder with its open end downward,

to avoid the necessity for using a working beam. Watt was then only

twenty-three years old, and was very much occupied in conducting

his business of a mathematical instrument maker, which he had only

recently established. Nevertheless, he proceeded to construct a model

locomotive provided with two cylinders of tin-plate, intending that

the pistons and their connecting-rods should act alternately on two

pinions attached to the axles of the carriage-wheels. But the model,

when made, did not answer Watt's expectations; and when, shortly after,

Robison left college to go to sea, he laid the project aside, and did

not resume it for many years.

In the mean time, an ingenious French mechanic had taken up the

subject, and proceeded to make a self-moving road engine worked by

steam-power. It has been incidentally stated that a M. Pouillet was the

first to make a locomotive machine,[13] but no particulars are given

of the invention, which is more usually attributed to Nicholas Joseph

Cugnot, a native of Void, in Lorraine, where he was born in 1729. Not

much is known of Cugnot's early history beyond that he was an officer

in the army, that he published several works on military science, and

that on leaving the army he devoted himself to the invention of a

steam-carriage to be run on common roads.

It appears from documents collected by M. Morin that Cugnot

constructed his first carriage at the Arsenal in 1769, at the cost of

the Comte de Saxe, by whom he was patronized and liberally helped. It

ran on three wheels, and was put in motion by an engine composed of two

single-acting cylinders, the pistons of which acted alternately on the

single front wheel. While this machine was in course of construction, a

Swiss officer, named Planta, brought forward a similar project; but, on

perceiving that Cugnot's carriage was superior to his own, he proceeded

no farther with it.

When Cugnot's carriage was ready, it was tried in the presence of the

Duc de Choiseul, the Comte de Saxe, and other military officers. On

being first set in motion, it ran against a stone wall which stood in

its way, and threw it down. There was thus no doubt about its power,

though there were many doubts about its manageableness. At length it

was got out of the Arsenal and put upon the road, when it was found

that, though only loaded with four persons, it could not travel faster

than about two and a quarter miles an hour; and that, the size of the

boiler not being sufficient, it would not continue at work for more

than twelve or fifteen minutes, when it was necessary to wait until

sufficient steam had been raised to enable it to proceed farther.

The experiment was looked upon with great interest, and admitted to

be of a very remarkable character; and, considering that it was a

first attempt, it was not by any means regarded as unsuccessful. As

it was believed that such a machine, if properly proportioned, might

be employed to drag cannon into the field independent of horse-power,

the Minister of War authorized Cugnot to proceed with the construction

of a new and improved machine, which was finished and ready for trial

in the course of the following year. The new locomotive was composed

of two parts, one being a carriage supported on two wheels, somewhat

resembling a small brewer's cart, furnished with a seat for the driver,

while the other contained the machinery, which was supported on a

single driving-wheel 4 ft. 2 in. in diameter. The engine consisted of

a round copper boiler with a furnace inside provided with two small

chimneys, two single-acting 13-in. brass cylinders communicating with

the boiler by a steam-pipe, and the arrangements for communicating

the motion of the pistons to the driving-wheel, together with the

steering-gear.

[Illustration: CUGNOT'S ENGINE.]

The two parts of the machine were united by a movable pin and a

toothed sector fixed on the framing of the front or machine part of

the carriage. When one of the pistons descended, the piston-rod drew

with it a crank, the catch of which caused the driving-wheel to make

a quarter of a revolution by means of the ratchet-wheel fixed on the

axle of the driving-wheel. At the same time, a chain fixed to the

crank on the same side also descended and moved a lever, the opposite

end of which was thereby raised, restoring the second piston to its

original position at the top of the cylinder by the interposition of

a second chain and crank. The piston-rod of the descending piston, by

means of a catch, set other levers in motion, the chain fixed to them

turning a half-way cock so as to open the second cylinder to the steam

and the first to the atmosphere. The second piston, then descending

in turn, caused the driving-wheel to make another quarter revolution,

restoring the first piston to its original position; and the process

being repeated, the machine was thereby kept in motion. To enable it

to run backward, the catch of the crank was arranged in such a manner

that it could be made to act either above or below, and thereby reverse

the action of the machinery on the driving-wheel. It will thus be

observed that Cugnot's locomotive presented a simple and ingenious form

of a high-pressure engine; and, though of rude construction, it was a

highly-creditable piece of work, considering the time of its appearance

and the circumstances under which it was constructed.

Several successful trials were made with the new locomotive in the

streets of Paris, which excited no small degree of interest. Unhappily,

however, an accident which occurred to it in one of the trials had the

effect of putting a stop to farther experiments. Turning the corner

of a street near the Madeleine one day, when the machine was running

at a speed of about three miles an hour, it became overbalanced, and

fell over with a crash; after which, the running of the vehicle being

considered dangerous, it was thenceforth locked up securely in the

Arsenal to prevent its doing farther mischief.

The merit of Cugnot was, however, duly recognized. He was granted a

pension of 300 livres, which continued to be paid to him until the

outbreak of the Revolution. The Girondist Roland was appointed to

examine the engine and report upon it to the Convention; but his

report, which was favorable, was not adopted; on which the inventor's

pension was stopped, and he was left for a time without the means of

living. Some years later, Bonaparte, on his return from Italy after the

peace of Campo Formio, interested himself in Cugnot's invention, and

expressed a favorable opinion of his locomotive before the Academy;

but his attention was shortly after diverted from the subject by the

Expedition to Egypt. Napoleon, however, succeeded in restoring Cugnot's

pension, and thus soothed his declining years. He died in Paris in

1804, at the age of seventy-five. Cugnot's locomotive is still to be

seen in the Museum of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers at Paris;

and it is, without exception, the most venerable and interesting of all

the machines extant connected with the early history of locomotion.

While Cugnot was constructing his first machine at Paris, one Francis

Moore, a linen-draper, was taking out a patent in London for moving

wheel-carriages by steam. On the 14th of March, 1769, he gave notice

of a patent for "a machine made of wood or metal, and worked by fire,

water, or air, for the purpose of moving bodies on land or water," and

on the 13th of July following he gave notice of another "for machines

made of wood and metal, moved by power, for the carriage of persons and

goods, and for accelerating boats, barges, and other vessels." But it

does not appear that Moore did any thing beyond lodging the titles of

his inventions, so that we are left in the dark as to what was their

precise character.

James Watt's friend and correspondent, Dr. Small, of Birmingham, when

he heard of Moore's intended project, wrote to the Glasgow inventor

with the object of stimulating him to perfect his steam-engine, then in

hand, and urging him to apply it, among other things, to purposes of

locomotion. "I hope soon," said Small, "to travel in a fiery chariot

of your invention." Watt replied to the effect that "if Linen-draper

Moore does not use my engines to drive his carriages, he can't drive

them by steam. If he does, I will stop them." But Watt was still a

long way from perfecting his invention. The steam-engine capable of

driving carriages was a problem that remained to be solved, and it was

a problem to the solution of which Watt never fairly applied himself.

It was enough for him to accomplish the great work of perfecting his

condensed engine, and with that he rested content.

But Watt continued to be so strongly urged by those about him to apply

steam-power to purposes of locomotion that, in his comprehensive patent

of the 24th of August, 1784, he included an arrangement with that

object. From his specification we learn that he proposed a cylindrical

or globular boiler, protected outside by wood strongly hooped together,

with a furnace inside entirely surrounded by the water to be heated

except at the ends. Two cylinders working alternately were to be

employed, and the pistons working within them were to be moved by the

elastic force of the steam; "and after it has performed its office,"

he says, "I discharge it into the atmosphere by a proper regulating

valve, or I discharge it into a condensing vessel made air-tight,

and formed of thin plates and pipes of metal, having their outsides

exposed to the wind;" the object of this latter arrangement being to

economize the water, which would otherwise be lost. The power was

to be communicated by a rotative motion (of the nature of the "sun

and planet" arrangement) to the axle of one or more of the wheels of

the carriage, or to another axis connected with the axle by means of

toothed wheels; and in other cases he proposed, instead of the rotative

machinery, to employ "toothed racks, or sectors of circles, worked with

reciprocating motion by the engines, and acting upon ratched wheels

fixed on the axles of the carriage." To drive a carriage containing

two persons would, he estimated, require an engine with a cylinder 7

in. in diameter, making sixty strokes per minute of 1 ft. each, and so

constructed as to act both on the ascent and descent of the piston;

and, finally, the elastic force of the steam in the boiler must be such

as to be occasionally equal to supporting a pillar of mercury 30 in.

high.

Though Watt repeatedly expressed his intention of constructing a

model locomotive after his specification, it does not appear that

he ever carried it out. He was too much engrossed with other work;

and, besides, he never entertained very sanguine views as to the

practicability of road locomotion by steam. He continued, however, to

discuss the subject with his partner Boulton, and from his letters we

gather that his mind continued undetermined as to the best plan to

be pursued. Only four days after the date of the above specification

(_i.e._, on the 28th of August, 1784) we find him communicating his

views on the subject to Boulton at great length, and explaining his

ideas as to how the proposed object might best be accomplished.

He first addressed himself to the point of whether 80 lbs. was a

sufficient power to move a post-chaise on a tolerably good and level

road at four miles an hour; secondly, whether 8 ft. of boiler surface

exposed to the fire would be sufficient to evaporate a cube foot of

water per hour without much waste of fuel; thirdly, whether it would

require steam of more than eleven and a half times atmospheric density

to cause the engine to exert a power equal to 6 lbs. on the inch. "I

think," he observed, "the cylinder must either be made larger or make

more than sixty strokes per minute. As to working gear, stopping and

backing, with steering the carriage, I think these things perfectly

manageable."

"My original ideas on the subject," he continued, "were prior to

my invention of these improved engines, or before the crank, or

any other of the rotative motions were thought of. My plan then

was to have two inverted cylinders, with toothed racks instead of

piston-rods, which were to be applied to two ratchet-wheels on the

axle-tree, and to act alternately; and I am partly of opinion that

this method might be applied with advantage yet, because it needs

no fly and has some other conveniences. From what I have said, and

from much more which a little reflection will suggest to you, you

will see that without several circumstances turn out more favorable

than has been stated, the machine will be clumsy and defective, and

that it will cost much time to bring it to any tolerable degree of

perfection, and that for me to interrupt the career of our business

would be imprudent; I even grudge the time I have taken to make

these comments on it. There is, however, another way in which much

mechanism might be saved if it be in itself practicable, which

is to apply to it one of the self-moving rotatives, which has no

regulators, but turns like a mill-wheel by the constant influx and

efflux of steam; but this would not abridge the size of the boiler,

and I am not sure that such engines are practicable."

It will be observed from these explanations that Watt's views as to

road locomotion were still crude and undefined; and, indeed, he never

carried them farther. While he was thus discussing the subject with

Boulton, William Murdock, one of the most skilled and ingenious workmen

of the Soho firm--then living at Redruth, in Cornwall--was occupying

himself during his leisure hours, which were but few, in constructing

a model locomotive after a design of his own. He had doubtless heard

of the proposal to apply steam to locomotion, and, being a clever

inventor, he forthwith set himself to work out the problem. The

plan he pursued was very simple and yet efficient. His model was of

small dimensions, standing little more than a foot high, but it was

sufficiently large to demonstrate the soundness of the principle

on which it was constructed. It was supported on three wheels, and

carried a small copper boiler, heated by a spirit-lamp, with a flue

passing obliquely through it. The cylinder, of 3/4 in. diameter and 2

in. stroke, was fixed in the top of the boiler, the piston-rod being

connected with the vibrating beam attached to the connecting-rod which

worked the crank of the driving-wheel. This little engine worked by

the expansive force of the steam only, which was discharged into the

atmosphere after it had done its work of alternately raising and

depressing the piston in the cylinder.

[Illustration: SECTION OF MURDOCK'S MODEL.]

Mr. Murdock's son informed the author that this model was invented

and constructed in 1781, but, from the correspondence of Boulton and

Watt, we infer that it was not ready for trial until 1784. The first

experiment with it was made in Murdock's own house at Redruth, when

it successfully hauled a model wagon round the room--the single wheel

placed in front of the engine, and working in a swivel frame, enabling

it to run round in a circle.

Another experiment was made out of doors, on which occasion, small

though the engine was, it fairly outran the speed of its inventor. It

seems that one night, after returning from his duties at the Redruth

mine, Murdock determined to try the working of his model locomotive.

For this purpose he had recourse to the walk leading to the church,

about a mile from the town. It was rather narrow, and was bounded on

each side by high hedges. The night was dark, and Murdock set out alone

to try his experiment. Having lit his lamp, the water soon boiled, when

off started the engine, with the inventor after it. Shortly after he

heard distant shouts of terror. It was too dark to perceive objects;

but he found, on following up the machine, that the cries proceeded

from the worthy pastor of the parish, who, going toward the town, was

met on this lonely road by the hissing and fiery little monster, which

he subsequently declared he had taken to be the Evil One in _propria

persona_!

Watt was by no means pleased when he learned that Murdock was giving

his mind to these experiments. He feared that it might have the effect

of withdrawing him from the employment of the firm, to which his

services had become almost indispensable; for there was no more active,

skillful, or ingenious workman in all their concern. Watt accordingly

wrote to Boulton, recommending him to advise Murdock to give up his

locomotive-engine scheme; but, if he could not succeed in that, then,

rather than lose Murdock's services, Watt proposed that he should be

allowed an advance of £100 to enable him to prosecute his experiments,

and if he succeeded within a year in making an engine capable of

drawing a post-chaise carrying two passengers and the driver at four

miles an hour, it was suggested that he should be taken as partner into

the locomotive business, for which Boulton and Watt were to provide the

necessary capital.

Two years later (in September, 1786) we find Watt again expressing

his regret to Boulton that Murdock was "busying himself with the

steam-carriage." "I have still," said he, "the same opinion concerning

it that I had, but to prevent as much as possible more fruitless

argument about it, I have one of some size under hand, and am resolved

to try if God will work a miracle in favor of these carriages. I

shall in some future letter send you the words of my specification on

that subject. In the mean time I wish William could be brought to do

as we do, to mind the business in hand, and let such as Symington

and Sadler throw away their time and money in hunting shadows." In

a subsequent letter Watt expressed his gratification at finding

"that William applies to his business." From that time Murdock as

well as Watt dropped all farther speculation on the subject, and

left it to others to work out the problem of the locomotive engine.

Murdock's model remained but a curious toy, which he himself took

pleasure in exhibiting to his intimate friends; and though he long

continued to speculate about road locomotion, and was persuaded of its

practicability, he refrained from embodying his ideas of it in any more

complete working form.

Symington and Sadler, "the hunters of shadows" referred to by Watt, did

little to advance the question. Of Sadler we know nothing beyond that

in 1786 he was making experiments as to the application of steam-power

to the driving of wheel-carriages. This came to the knowledge of

Boulton and Watt, who gave him notice, on the 4th of July of the same

year, that "the sole privilege of making steam-engines by the elastic

force of steam acting on a piston, with or without condensation,

had been granted to Mr. Watt by Act of Parliament, and also that

among other improvements and applications of his principle he hath

particularly specified the application of steam-engines for driving

wheel carriages in a patent which he took out in the year 1784." They

accordingly cautioned him against proceeding farther in the matter; and

as we hear no more of Sadler's steam-carriage, it is probable that the

notice had its effect.

The name of William Symington is better known in connection with

the history of steam locomotion by sea. He was born at Leadhills,

in Scotland, in 1763. His father was a practical mechanic, who

superintended the engines and machinery of the Mining Company at

Wanlockhead, where one of Boulton and Watt's pumping-engines was

at work. Young Symington was of an ingenious turn of mind from his

boyhood, and at an early period he seems to have conceived the idea

of employing the steam-engine to drive wheel-carriages. His father

and he worked together, and by the year 1786, when the son was only

twenty-three years of age, they succeeded in completing a working model

of a road locomotive. Mr. Meason, the manager of the mine, was so

much pleased with the model, the merit of which principally belonged

to young Symington, that he sent him to Edinburg for the purpose of

exhibiting it before the scientific gentlemen of that city, in the hope

that it might lead, in some way, to his future advancement in life. Mr.

Meason also allowed the model to be exhibited at his own house there,

and he invited many gentlemen of distinction to inspect it.

[Illustration: SYMINGTON'S MODEL STEAM-CARRIAGE, 1786.]

The machine consisted of a carriage and locomotive behind, supported on

four wheels. The boiler was cylindrical, communicating by a steam-pipe

with the two horizontal cylinders, one on each side of the engine.

When the piston was raised by the action of the steam, a vacuum was

produced by the condensation of the steam in a cold-water tank placed

underneath the engine, on which the piston was again forced back by the

pressure of the atmosphere. The motion was communicated to the wheels

by rack-rods connected with the piston-rod, which worked on each side

of a drum fixed on the hind axle, the alternate action of which rods

upon the tooth and ratchet wheels with which the drum was provided

producing the rotary motion. It will thus be observed that Symington's

engine was partly atmospheric and partly condensing, the condensation

being effected by a separate vessel and air-pump, as patented by Watt;

and though the arrangement was ingenious, it is clear that, had it ever

been brought into use, the traction by means of such an engine would

have been of the very slowest kind.

But Symington's engine was not destined to be applied to road

locomotion. He was completely diverted from employing it for that

purpose by his connection with Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, then engaged

in experimenting on the application of mechanical power to the driving

of his double paddle-boat. The power of men was first tried, but the

labor was found too severe; and when Mr. Miller went to see Symington's

model, and informed the inventor of his difficulty in obtaining a

regular and effective power for driving his boat, Symington--his mind

naturally full of his own invention--at once suggested his steam-engine

for the purpose. The suggestion was adopted, and Mr. Miller authorized

him to proceed with the construction of a steam-engine to be fitted

into his double pleasure boat on Dalswinton Lock, where it was tried

in October, 1788. This was followed by farther experiments, which

eventually led to the construction of the _Charlotte Dundas_ in 1801,

which may be regarded as the first practical steam-boat ever built.

Symington took out letters patent in the same year, securing the

invention, or rather the novel combination of inventions, embodied in

his steam-boat, but he never succeeded in getting it introduced into

practical use. From the date of completing his invention, fortune

seemed to run steadily against him. The Duke of Bridgewater, who had

ordered a number of Symington's steam-boats for his canal, died, and

his executors countermanded the order. Symington failed in inducing

any other canal company to make trial of his invention. Lord Dundas

also took the _Charlotte Dundas_ off the Forth and Clyde Canal, where

she had been at work, and from that time the vessel was never more

tried. Symington had no capital of his own to work upon, and he seems

to have been unable to make friends among capitalists. The rest of his

life was for the most part thrown away. Toward the close of it his

principal haunt was London, amid whose vast population he was one of

the many waifs and strays. He succeeded in obtaining a grant of £100

from the Privy Purse in 1824, and afterward an annuity of £50, but he

did not live long to enjoy it, for he died in March, 1831, and was

buried in the church-yard of St. Botolph, Aldgate, where there is not

even a stone to mark the grave of the inventor of the first practicable

steam-boat.

[Illustration: OLIVER EVANS'S MODEL LOCOMOTIVE.]

While the inventive minds of England were thus occupied, those of

America were not idle. The idea of applying steam-power to the

propulsion of carriages on land is said to have occurred to John

Fitch in 1785; but he did not pursue the idea "for more than a week,"

being diverted from it by his scheme of applying the same power to the

propulsion of vessels on the water.[14] About the same time, Oliver

Evans, a native of Newport, Delaware, was occupied with a project for

driving steam-carriages on common roads; and in 1786 the Legislature

of Maryland granted him the exclusive right for that state. Several

years, however, passed before he could raise the means for erecting

a model carriage, most of his friends regarding the project as

altogether chimerical and impracticable. In 1800 or 1801, Evans began

a steam-carriage at his own expense; but he had not proceeded far with

it when he altered his intention, and applied the engine intended for

the driving of a carriage to the driving of a small grinding-mill, in

which it was found efficient. In 1804 he constructed at Philadelphia

a second engine of five-horse power, working on the high-pressure

principle, which was placed on a large flat or scow, mounted upon

wheels. "This," says his biographer, "was considered a fine opportunity

to show the public that his engine could propel both land and water

conveyances. When the machine was finished, Evans fixed under it, in

a rough and temporary manner, wheels with wooden axle-trees. Although

the whole weight was equal to two hundred barrels of flour, yet his

small engine propelled it up Market Street, and round the circle to the

water-works, where it was launched into the Schuylkill. A paddle-wheel

was then applied to its stern, and it thus sailed down that river to

the Delaware, a distance of sixteen miles, in the presence of thousands

of spectators."[15] It does not, however, appear that any farther trial

was made of this engine as a locomotive; and, having been dismounted

and applied to the driving of a small grinding-mill, its employment as

a traveling engine was shortly forgotten. FOOTNOTES:

[13] "Portfeuille du Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers," Livraison 1,

p. 3.

[14] This statement is made in "The Life of John Fitch," by Thompson

Westcott, Philadelphia, 1857. Mr. Thompson there states that the idea

of employing a steam-engine to propel carriages on land occurred to

John Fitch at a time when, he avers, "he was altogether ignorant that

a steam-engine had ever been invented!" (p. 120). Such a statement is

calculated to damage the credibility of the entire book, in which the

invention of the steam-boat, as well as of the screw propeller, is

unhesitatingly claimed for John Fitch.

[15] Horne's "Memoirs of the Most Eminent American Mechanics," New

York, 1858, p. 76.

CHAPTER III.

THE CORNISH LOCOMOTIVE--MEMOIR OF RICHARD TREVITHICK.

While the discussion of steam-power as a means of locomotion

was proceeding in England, other projectors were advocating the

extension of wagon-ways and railroads. Mr. Thomas, of Denton, near

Newcastle-on-Tyne, read a paper before the Philosophical Society of

that town in 1800, in which he urged the laying down of railways

throughout the country, on the principle of the coal wagon-ways,

for the general carriage of goods and merchandise; and Dr. James

Anderson, of Edinburg, about the same time published his "Recreations

of Agriculture," wherein he recommended that railways should be laid

along the principal turnpike-roads, and worked by horse-power, which,

he alleged, would have the effect of greatly reducing the cost of

transport, and thereby stimulating all branches of industry.

Railways were indeed already becoming adopted in places where the

haulage of heavy loads was for short distances; and in some cases lines

were laid down of considerable length. One of the first of such lines

constructed under the powers of an Act of Parliament was the Cardiff

and Merthyr railway or tram-road, about twenty-seven miles in length,

for the accommodation of the iron-works of Plymouth, Pen-y-darran, and

Dowlais, all in South Wales, the necessary Act for which was obtained

in 1794. Another, the Sirhoway railroad, about twenty-eight miles in

length, was constructed under the powers of an act obtained in 1801;

it accommodated the Tredegar and Sirhoway Iron-works and the Trevill

Lime-works, as well as the collieries along its route.

In the immediate neighborhood of London there was another very early

railroad, the Wandsworth and Croydon tram-way, about ten miles long,

which was afterward extended southward to Merstham, in Surrey, for

about eight miles more, making a total length of nearly eighteen

miles. The first act for the purpose of authorizing the construction of

this road was obtained in 1800.

All these lines were, however, worked by horses, and in the case of the

Croydon and Merstham line, donkeys shared in the work, which consisted

chiefly in the haulage of stone, coal, and lime. No proposal had yet

been made to apply the power of steam as a substitute for horses on

railways, nor were the rails then laid down of a strength sufficient to

bear more than a loaded wagon of the weight of three tons, or, at the

very outside, of three and a quarter tons.

It was, however, observed from the first that there was an immense

saving in the cost of haulage; and on the day of opening the southern

portion of the Merstham Railroad in 1805, a train of twelve wagons

laden with stone, weighing in all thirty-eight tons, was drawn six

miles in an hour by one horse, with apparent ease, down an incline of

1 in 120; and this was bruited about as an extraordinary feat, highly

illustrative of the important uses of the new iron-ways.

About the same time, the subject of road locomotion was again brought

into prominent notice by an important practical experiment conducted

in a remote corner of the kingdom. The experimenter was a young man,

then obscure, but afterward famous, who may be fairly regarded as

the inventor of the railway locomotive, if any single individual be

entitled to that appellation. This was Richard Trevithick, a person

of extraordinary mechanical skill but of marvelous ill fortune, who,

though the inventor of many ingenious contrivances, and the founder of

the fortunes of many, himself died in cold obstruction and in extreme

poverty, leaving behind him nothing but his great inventions and the

recollection of his genius.

Richard Trevithick was born on the 13th of April, 1771, in the parish

of Illogan, a few miles west of Redruth, in Cornwall. In the immediate

neighborhood rises Castle-Carn-brea, a rocky eminence, supposed by

Borlase to have been the principal seat of Druidic worship in the

West of England. The hill commands an extraordinary view over one of

the richest mining fields of Cornwall, from Chacewater and Redruth to

Camborne.

Trevithick's father acted as purser at several of the mines. Though a

man in good position and circumstances, he does not seem to have taken

much pains with his son's education. Being an only child, he was very

much indulged--among other things, in his dislike for the restraints

and discipline of school; and he was left to wander about among the

mines, spending his time in the engine-rooms, picking up information

about pumping-engines and mining machinery.

His father, observing the boy's strong bent toward mechanics, placed

him for a time as pupil with William Murdock, while the latter lived

at Redruth superintending the working and repairs of Boulton and

Watt's pumping-engines in that neighborhood. During his pupilage,

young Trevithick doubtless learned much from that able mechanic. It

is probable that he got his first idea of the high-pressure road

locomotive which he afterward constructed from Murdock's ingenious

little model above described, the construction and action of which must

have been quite familiar to him, for no secret was ever made of it, and

its performances were often exhibited.

Many new pumping-engines being in course of erection in the

neighborhood about that time, there was an unusual demand for

engineers, which it was found difficult to supply; and young

Trevithick, whose skill was acknowledged, had no difficulty in getting

an appointment. The father was astonished at his boy's presumption (as

he supposed it to be) in undertaking such a responsibility, and he

begged the mine agents to reconsider their decision. But the result

showed that they were justified in making the appointment; for young

Trevithick, though he had not yet attained his majority, proved fully

competent to perform the duties devolving upon him as engineer.

So long as Boulton and Watt's patent continued to run, constant

attempts were made in Cornwall and elsewhere to upset it. Their engines

had cleared the mines of water, and thereby rescued the mine lords

from ruin, but it was felt to be a great hardship that they should

have to pay for the right to use them. They accordingly stimulated the

ingenuity of the local engineers to contrive an engine that should

answer the same purpose, and enable them to evade making any farther

payments to Boulton and Watt. The first to produce an engine that

seemed likely to answer the purpose was Jonathan Hornblower, who had

been employed in erecting Watt's engines in Cornwall. After him one

Edward Bull, who had been first a stoker and then an assistant-tender

of Watt's engines, turned out another pumping-engine, which promised to

prove an equally safe evasion of the existing patent. But Boulton and

Watt having taken the necessary steps to defend their right, several

actions were tried, in which they proved successful, and then the mine

lords were compelled to disgorge. When they found that Hornblower could

be of no farther use to them, they abandoned him--threw him away like a

sucked orange; and shortly after we find him a prisoner for debt in the

King's Bench, almost in a state of starvation. Nor do we hear any thing

more of Edward Bull after the issue of the Boulton and Watt trial.

Like the other Cornish engineers, young Trevithick took an active part

from the first in opposing the Birmingham patent, and he is said to

have constructed several engines, with the assistance of William Bull

(formerly an erector of Watt's machines), with the object of evading

it. These engines are said to have been highly creditable to their

makers, working to the entire satisfaction of the mine-owners. The

issue of the Watt trial, however, which declared all such engines to be

piracies, brought to an end for a time a business which would otherwise

have proved a very profitable one, and Trevithick's partnership with

Bull then came to an end.

While carrying on his business, Trevithick had frequent occasion to

visit Mr. Harvey's iron foundery at Hayle, then a small work, but now

one of the largest in the West of England, the Cornish pumping-engines

turned out by Harvey and Co. being the very best of their kind. During

these visits Trevithick became acquainted with the various members of

Mr. Harvey's family, and in course of time he contracted an engagement

with one of his daughters, Miss Jane Harvey, to whom he was married in

November, 1797.

A few years later we find Trevithick engaged in partnership with his

cousin, Andrew Vivian, also an engineer. They carried on their business

of engine-making at Camborne, a mining town situated in the midst of

the mining district, a few miles south of Redruth. Watt's patent-right

expired in 1800, and from that time the Cornish engineers were free to

make engines after their own methods. Trevithick was not content to

follow in the beaten paths, but, being of a highly speculative turn,

he occupied himself in contriving various new methods of employing

steam with the object of economizing fuel and increasing the effective

power of the engine.

From an early period he entertained the idea of making the expansive

force of steam act directly on both sides of the piston on the

high-pressure principle, and thus getting rid of the process of

condensation as in Watt's engines. Although Cugnot had employed

high-pressure steam in his road locomotive, and Murdock in his model,

and although Watt had distinctly specified the action of steam at

high-pressure as well as low in his patents of 1769, 1782, and 1784,

the idea was not embodied in any practicable working engine until the

subject was taken in hand by Trevithick. The results of his long and

careful study were embodied in the patent which he took out in 1802,

in his own and Vivian's name, for an improved steam-engine, and "the

application thereof for driving carriages and for other purposes."

The arrangement of Trevithick's engine was exceedingly ingenious.

It exhibited a beautiful simplicity of parts; the machinery was

arranged in a highly effective form, uniting strength with solidity

and portability, and enabling the power of steam to be employed with

very great rapidity, economy, and force. Watt's principal objection

to using high-pressure steam consisted in the danger to which the

boiler was exposed of being burst by internal pressure. In Trevithick's

engine, this was avoided by using a cylindrical wrought-iron boiler,

being the form capable of presenting the greatest resistance to the

expansive force of steam. Boilers of this kind were not, however, new.

Oliver Evans, of Delaware, had made use of them in his high-pressure

engines prior to the date of Trevithick's patent; and, as Evans did

not claim the cylindrical boiler, it is probable that the invention

was in use before his time. Nevertheless, Trevithick had the merit of

introducing the round boilers into Cornwall, where they are still known

as "Trevithick boilers." The saving in fuel effected by their use was

such that in 1812 the Messrs. Williams, of Scorrier, made Trevithick

a present of £300, in acknowledgment of the benefits arising to their

mines from that source alone.

Trevithick's steam-carriage was the most compact and handsome vehicle

of the kind that had yet been invented, and, indeed, as regards

arrangement, it has scarcely to this day been surpassed. It consisted

of a carriage capable of accommodating some half-dozen passengers,

underneath which was the engine and machinery inclosed, about the size

of an orchestra drum, the whole being supported on four wheels--two in

front, by which it was guided, and two behind, by which it was driven.

The engine had but one cylinder. The piston-rod outside the cylinder

was double, and drove a cross-piece, working in guides, on the opposite

side of the cranked axle to the cylinder, the crank of the axle

revolving between the double parts of the piston-rod. Toothed wheels

were attached to this axle, which worked into other toothed wheels

fixed on the axle of the driving-wheels. The steam-cocks were opened

and shut by a connection with the crank-axle; and the force-pump, with

which the boiler was supplied with water, was also worked from it, as

were the bellows to blow the fire and thereby keep up the combustion in

the furnace.

The specification clearly alludes to the use of the engine on railroads

as follows: "It is also to be noticed that we do occasionally, or in

certain cases, make the external periphery of the wheels uneven by

projecting heads of nails or bolts, or cross grooves or fittings to

railroads where required, and that in cases of hard pull we cause a

lever, belt, or claw to project through the rim of one or both of the

said wheels, so as to take hold of the ground, but that, in general,

the ordinary structure or figure of the external surface of those

wheels will be found to answer the intended purpose."

The specification also shows the application of the high-pressure

engine on the same principle to the driving of a sugar-mill, or for

other purposes where a fixed power is required, dispensing with

condenser, cistern, air-pump, and cold-water pump. In the year 1803,

a small engine of this kind was erected after Trevithick's plan at

Marazion, which worked by steam of at least 30 lbs. on the inch above

atmospheric pressure, and gave much satisfaction.

The first experimental steam-carriage was constructed by Trevithick

and Vivian in their workshops at Camborne in 1803, and was tried by

them on the public road adjoining the town, as well as in the street

of the town itself. John Petherick, a native of Camborne, who was

alive in 1858, stated in a letter to Mr. Edward Williams that he well

remembered seeing the engine, worked by Mr. Trevithick himself, come

through the place, to the great wonder of the inhabitants. He says,

"The experiment was satisfactory only as long as the steam pressure

could be kept up. During that continuance Trevithick called upon the

people to 'jump up,' so as to create a load on the engine; and it soon

became covered with men, which did not seem to make any difference to

the power or speed so long as the steam was kept up. This was sought to

be done by the application of a cylindrical horizontal bellows worked

by the engine itself; but the attempt to keep up the power of the steam

for any considerable time proved a failure."

Trevithick, however, made several alterations in the engine which had

the effect of improving it, and its success was such that he determined

to take it to London and exhibit it there as the most recent novelty

in steam mechanism. It was successfully run by road from Camborne to

Plymouth, a distance of about ninety miles. At Plymouth it was shipped

for London, where it shortly after arrived in safety, and excited

considerable curiosity. It was run on the waste ground in the vicinity

of the present Bethlehem Hospital, as well as on Lord's cricket-ground.

There Sir Humphry Davy, Mr. Davies Gilbert, and other scientific

gentlemen inspected the machine and rode upon it. Several of them

took the steering of the carriage by turns, and they expressed their

satisfaction with the mechanism by which it was directed. Sir Humphry,

writing to a friend in Cornwall, said, "I shall soon hope to hear that

the roads of England are the haunts of Captain Trevithick's dragons--a

characteristic name." After the experiment at Lord's, the carriage was

run along the New-road, and down Gray's-Inn Lane, to the premises of a

carriage-builder in Long Acre. To show the adaptability of the engine

for fixed uses, Trevithick had it taken from the carriage on the day

after this trial and removed to the shop of a cutler, where he applied

it with success to the driving of the machinery.

The steam-carriage shortly became the talk of the town, and the public

curiosity being on the increase, Trevithick resolved on inclosing a

piece of ground on the site of the present Euston station of the London

and Northwestern Railway, and admitting persons to see the exhibition

of his engine at so much a head. He had a tram-road laid down in an

elliptical form within the inclosure, and the carriage was run round

it on the rails in the sight of a great number of spectators. On the

second day another crowd collected to see the exhibition, but, for

what reason is not known, although it is said to have been through one

of Trevithick's freaks of temper, the place was closed and the engine

removed. It is, however, not improbable that the inventor had come to

the conclusion that the state of the roads at that time was such as to

preclude its coming into general use for purposes of ordinary traffic.

While the steam-carriage was being exhibited, a gentleman was laying

heavy wagers as to the weight which could be hauled by a single

horse on the Wandsworth and Croydon iron tram-way; and the number

and weight of wagons drawn by the horse were something surprising.

Trevithick very probably put the two things together--the steam-horse

and the iron-way--and kept the performance in mind when he proceeded

to construct his second or railway locomotive. In the mean time,

having dismantled his steam-carriage, sent back the phaeton to the

coach-builder to whom it belonged, and sold the little engine which had

worked the machine, he returned to Camborne to carry on his business.

In the course of the year 1803 he went to Pen-y-darran, in South Wales,

to erect a forge engine for the iron-works there; and, when it was

finished, he began the erection of a railway locomotive--the first ever

constructed. There were already, as above stated, several lines of rail

laid down in the district for the accommodation of the coal and iron

works. That between Merthyr Tydvil and Cardiff was the longest and most

important, and it had been at work for some years. It had probably

occurred to Trevithick that here was a fine opportunity for putting

to practical test the powers of the locomotive, and he proceeded to

construct one accordingly in the workshops at Pen-y-darran.

This first railway locomotive was finished and tried upon the Merthyr

tram-road on the 21st of February, 1804. It had a cylindrical

wrought-iron boiler with flat ends. The furnace and flue were inside

the boiler, the flue returning, having its exit at the same end at

which it entered, so as to increase the heating surface. The cylinder,

4-3/4 in. in diameter, was placed horizontally in the end of the

boiler, and the waste steam was thrown into the stack. The wheels were

worked in the same manner as in the carriage engine already described;

and a fly-wheel was added on one side, to secure a continuous rotary

motion at the end of each stroke of the piston. The pressure of the

steam was about 40 lbs. on the inch. The engine ran upon four wheels,

coupled by cog-wheels, and those who remember the engine say that the

four wheels were smooth.

[Illustration: TREVITHICK'S HIGH-PRESSURE TRAM-ENGINE.]

On the first trial, this engine drew for a distance of nine miles ten

tons of bar iron, together with the necessary carriages, water, and

fuel, at the rate of five and a half miles an hour. Rees Jones, an old

engine-fitter, who helped to erect the engine, and was alive in 1858,

gave Mr. Menelaus the following account of its performances: "When the

engine was finished, she was used for bringing down metal from the old

forge. She worked very well; but frequently, from her weight, broke the

tram-plates, and also the hooks between the trams. After working for

some time in this way, she took a journey of iron from Pen-y-darran

down the Basin Road, upon which road she was intended to work. On the

journey she broke a great many of the tram-plates; and, before reaching

the Basin, she ran off the road, and was brought back to Pen-y-darran

by horses. The engine was never used as a locomotive after this; but

she was used as a stationary engine, and worked in this way for several

years."

So far as the locomotive was concerned it was a remarkable success. The

defect lay not in the engine so much as in the road. This was formed of

plate-rails of cast iron, with a guiding flange upon the rail instead

of on the engine wheels, as in the modern locomotive. The rails were

also of a very weak form, considering the quantity of iron in them;

and, though they were sufficient to bear the loaded wagons mounted upon

small wheels, as ordinarily drawn along them by horses, they were found

quite insufficient to bear the weight of Trevithick's engine. To relay

the road of sufficient strength would have involved a heavy outlay,

which the owners were unwilling to incur, not yet perceiving the

advantage, in an economical point of view, of employing engine in lieu

of horse power. The locomotive was accordingly taken off the road, and

the experiment, successful though it had been, was brought to an end.

Trevithick had, however, by means of his Pen-y-darran engine, in a

great measure solved the problem of steam locomotion on railways. He

had produced a compact engine, working on the high-pressure principle,

capable of carrying fuel and water sufficient for a journey of

considerable length, and of drawing loaded wagons at five and a half

miles an hour. He had shown by his smooth-wheeled locomotive that the

weight of the engine had given sufficient adhesion for the haulage of

the load. He had discharged the steam into the chimney, though not for

the purpose of increasing the draught, as he employed bellows for that

purpose. It appears, however, that Trevithick's friend, Mr. Davies

Gilbert, afterward President of the Royal Society, especially noticed

the effect of discharging the waste steam into the chimney of the

Pen-y-darran engine. He observed that when the engine moved, at each

puff the fire brightened, while scarcely any visible steam or smoke

came from the chimney.

Mr. Gilbert published the result of his observations in "Nicholson's

Journal" for September, 1805, and the attention of Mr. Nicholson, the

editor, having thereby been called to the subject, he proceeded to make

a series of experiments, the result of which was that in 1806 he took

out a patent for a steam-blasting apparatus, by which he proposed to

apply high-pressure steam to force along currents of air for various

useful purposes, including the urging of furnace and other fires. It

is thus obvious that the principle of the blast-pipe was known to

both Gilbert and Nicholson at this early period; but it is somewhat

remarkable that Trevithick himself should have remained skeptical as to

its use, for as late as 1815 we find him taking out a patent, in which,

among other improvements, he included a method of urging his fire by

fanners, similar to a winnowing machine.

In the mean time Trevithick occupied himself in carrying on the

various business of a general engineer, and was ready to embark in

any enterprise likely to give scope for his inventive skill. In

whatever work he was employed, he was sure to introduce new methods

and arrangements, if not new inventions. He was full of speculative

enthusiasm, a great theorist, and yet an indefatigable experimenter.

At the beginning of 1806--the year after the locomotive had been taken

off the Merthyr Tydvil tram-road--he made arrangements for entering

into a contract for ballasting all the shipping in the Thames. At the

end of a letter written by him on the 18th of February in that year to

Davies Gilbert, respecting a _puffer_ engine, he said, "I am about to

enter into a contract with the Trinity Board for lifting up ballast out

of the bottom of the Thames for all the shipping. The first quantity

stated was 300,000 tons a year, but now they state 500,000 tons. I am

to do nothing but wind up the chain for 6_d._ per ton, which is now

done by men. They never lift it above twenty-five feet high--a man

will now get up ten tons for 7_s._ My engine at Dalcoath has lifted

about 100 tons that height with one bushel of coals. I have two engines

already finished for the purpose, and shall be in town in about fifteen

days for to set them to work. They propose to engage with me for

twenty-one years."[16] The contract was not, however, entered into.

Trevithick quarreled with the capitalists who had found the money for

the trials, and the "Blazer" and "Plymouth," the vessels in which his

engines and machinery had been fitted, fell into other hands.

Trevithick, nevertheless, seems to have been on the highway to fortune,

for, at the beginning of 1806, he had received orders for nine engines

in one month, all for Cornwall; and he expected orders for four others.

He had also in view the construction of a railway; but nothing came of

this project. More hopeful still, as regarded immediate returns, was

the Cornish engine business, which presented a very wide field. Now

that the trade had been thrown open by the expiry of Boulton and Watt's

patent, competition had sprung up, and many new makers and inventors of

engines were ready to supply the demand.

Among the most prominent of these were Trevithick and Woolf. Trevithick

was the most original and speculative, Woolf the most plodding and

practical, and the most successful. Trevithick's ingenuity exhibited

itself in his schemes for working Boulton and Watt's pumping-engine by

high-pressure steam, by means of his cylindrical wrought-iron boiler.

He proposed to expand the steam down to low pressure previous to

condensation, thereby anticipating by many years the Cornish engine now

in use. The suggestion was not, however, then acted on, and he fell

back on his original design of a simple non-condensing high-pressure

engine. One of these was erected at Dalcoath mine to draw the ores

there. It was called "the puffer" by the mining people, from its

puffing the steam direct into the air; but its performances did not

compare favorably with those of the ordinary condensing engines of

Boulton and Watt, and the engine did not come into general use.

Trevithick was not satisfied to carry on a prosperous engine business

in Cornwall. Camborne was too small for him, and the Cornish mining

districts presented too limited a field for his ambitious spirit. So

he came to London, the Patent-office drawing him as the loadstone does

the needle. In 1808 he took out two patents, one for "certain machinery

for towing, driving, or forcing and discharging ships and other vessels

of their cargoes," and the other for "a new method of stowing cargoes

of ships." In 1809 he took out another patent for constructing docks,

ships, etc., and propelling vessels.

In these patents, Trevithick was associated with one Robert Dickinson,

of Great Queen Street, but his name stands first in the specification,

wherein he describes himself as "of Rotherhithe, in the county of

Surrey, engineer." By the first of these patents he proposed to tow

vessels by means of a rowing wheel shaped like an undershot water-wheel

furnished with floats placed vertically in a box, and worked by a

steam-engine, which he also proposed to employ in the loading and

unloading of the vessel, but it is not known that the plan was ever

introduced into practical use. The patent of 1809 included a floating

dock or caisson made of wrought-iron plates, in which a ship might be

docked while afloat, and, after the water had been pumped out of the

caisson, repaired without moving her stores, masts, or furniture. This

invention has since been carried out in practice by the Messrs. Rennie

in the floating iron dock which they have recently constructed for the

Spanish government. Another invention included in the specification

was the construction of merchant and war ships of wrought-iron plates

strongly riveted together, with their decks supported by wrought-iron

beams, and the masts, bowsprits, and booms also of tubular wrought

iron, thereby anticipating by many years the form and structure of

vessels now in common use.

While Trevithick lived at Rotherhithe, he entered upon a remarkable

enterprise--no less than the construction of a tunnel under the

Thames--a work which was carried out with so much difficulty by Sir

Isambard Brunel some twenty years later. Several schemes had been

proposed at different times for connecting the two banks of the river

by an underground communication. As early as 1798, Ralph Dodd suggested

a tunnel under the Thames between Gravesend and Tilbury, and in 1802

Mr. Vazie projected a tunnel from Rotherhithe to Limehouse. A company

was formed to carry out the latter scheme, and a shaft was sunk, at

considerable expense, to a depth of 76 feet below high water. The works

were from time to time suspended, and it was not until the year 1807,

when Trevithick was appointed engineer of the work, that arrangements

were made for proceeding with the driftway under the bed of the Thames.

After about five months' working, the drift was driven for a length of

953 feet, when the roof gave way and the water burst in. The opening

was, however, plugged by clay in bags thrown into the river, and the

work proceeded until 1028 feet had been accomplished. Then the water

burst in again, and the process of plugging and pumping the water out

of the drift was repeated. After seventy more feet had been added to

the excavation, there was another irruption, which completely flooded

the driftway, and the water rose nearly to the top of the shaft. This

difficulty was, however, again overcome, and with great danger twenty

more feet were accomplished; but the bursts of water became so frequent

and unmanageable that at length the face of the drift was timbered up

and the work abandoned. Trevithick, who had been promised a reward of

£1000 if the tunnel succeeded, thus lost both his labor and his reward.

The only remuneration he received from the Company was a hundred

guineas, which were paid to him according to agreement, provided he

carried the excavation to the extent of 1000 yards, which he did.

Trevithick returned to Camborne in 1809, where we find him busily

occupied with new projects, and introducing his new engine worked by

water-power, the first of which was put up at the Druid mine, as well

as in perfecting his high-pressure engine and its working by expansion.

One of the first of such engines was erected at the Huel Prosper mine,

of which he was engineer; and this, as well as others subsequently

constructed on the same principle, proved quite successful.

In 1815 Trevithick took out a farther patent, embodying several

important applications of steam-power. One of these consisted in

"causing steam of a high pressure to spout out against the atmosphere,

and by its recoiling force to produce motion in a direction contrary to

the issuing steam, similar to the motion produced in a rocket, or to

the recoil of a gun." This was, however, but a revival of the ancient

OEolipile described by Hero, and known as "Hero's engine."

In another part of his specification Trevithick described the

screw-propeller as "a screw or a number of leaves placed obliquely

round an axis similar to the vanes of a smoke-jack, which shall be made

to revolve with great speed in a line with the required motion of the

ship, or parallel to the same line of motion." In a second part of the

specification, he described a plunger or pole-engine in which the steam

worked at high-pressure. The first engine of this kind was erected by

Trevithick at Herland in 1815, but the result was not equal to his

expectations, though the principle was afterward successfully applied

by Mr. William Sims, who purchased the patent-right.

In this specification Trevithick also described a tubular boiler

of a new construction for the purpose of more rapidly producing

high-pressure steam, the heating surface being extended by constructing

the boiler of a number of small perpendicular tubes, closed at the

bottom, but all opening at the top into a common reservoir, from

whence they received their water, and into which the steam of all the

tubes was united.

While Trevithick was engaged in these ingenious projects, an event

occurred which, though it promised to issue in the most splendid

results, proved the greatest misfortune of his life. We refer to his

adventures in connection with the gold mines of Peru. Many of the

richest of them had been drowned out, the pumping machinery of the

country being incapable of clearing them of water. The districts in

which they were situated were almost inaccessible to ordinary traffic,

all transport being conducted on the backs of men or of mules. The

parts of an ordinary condensing engine were too ponderous to be carried

up these mountain heights, and it was evident that, unless some lighter

sort of engine could be employed, the mines in question must be

abandoned.

Mr. Uvillé, a Swiss gentleman interested in South American mining,

came over from Peru to England in 1811 for the purpose of making

inquiries about such an engine, but he received no encouragement. He

was about to return to Lima, in despair of accomplishing his object,

when, one day, accidentally passing a shop-window in Fitzroy Square, he

caught sight of an engine exposed for sale which immediately attracted

his attention. It was the engine constructed by Trevithick for his

first locomotive, which he had sold some years before, on the sudden

abandonment of the exhibition of its performances in London. Mr. Uvillé

was so much pleased with its construction and mode of action that he at

once purchased it and took it out with him to South America. Arrived

there, he had the engine transported across the mountains to the rich

mining district of Pasco, about a hundred miles north of Lima, to try

its effects on the highest mountain ridges.

The experiment was so satisfactory that an association of influential

gentlemen was immediately formed to introduce the engine on a large

scale, and enter into contracts with the mine-owners for clearing their

shafts of the water which drowned them. The Viceroy of Peru approved

the plan, and the association dispatched Mr. Uvillé to England to

purchase the requisite engines. He took ship for Falmouth about the

end of 1812 for the purpose of finding out Trevithick. He only knew

of Trevithick by name, and that he lived in Cornwall, but nothing

farther. Being full of his subject, however, he could not refrain from

conversing on the subject with the passengers on board the ship by

which he sailed, and it so happened that one of them--a Mr. Teague--was

a relative of Trevithick, who promised, shortly after their landing, to

introduce him to the inventor.

Mr. Teague was as good as his word, and in the course of a few days

Uvillé was enabled to discuss the scheme with Trevithick at his own

house at Camborne, where he still resided. The result was an order for

a number of high-pressure pumping-engines, which were put in hand at

once; and on the 1st of September, 1814, nine of them were shipped at

Portsmouth for Lima, accompanied by Uvillé and three Cornish engineers,

one of whom was William Bull, of Chasewater, Trevithick's first partner.

The engines reached Lima in safety, and were welcomed by a royal

salute and with public rejoicings. Such, however, was the difficulty

of transporting the materials across the mountains, that it was not

until the middle of the year 1816 that the first engine was erected

and set to work to pump out the Santa Rosa mine, in the royal mineral

territory of Yaüricocha. The association of gentlemen to whom the

engines belonged had entered into a contract to drain this among

other mines, on condition of sharing in the gross produce of the ores

to the extent of about 25 per cent. of the whole amount raised. The

result of the first working of the engine was so satisfactory that the

projectors were filled with no less astonishment than delight, and

they characterized the undertaking as one from which they "anticipated

a torrent of silver that would fill surrounding nations with

astonishment."

In the mean time Trevithick was proceeding at home with the manufacture

of the remaining engines, as well as new coining apparatus for the

Peruvian mint, and furnaces for purifying silver ore by fusion; and

with these engines and apparatus he set sail for America in October,

1816, reaching Lima in safety in the following February. He was

received with almost royal honors. The government "Gazette" officially

announced "the arrival of Don Ricardo Trevithick, an eminent professor

of mechanics, machinery, and mineralogy, inventor and constructor

of the engines of the last patent, and who directed in England the

execution of the machinery now at work in Pasco." The lord warden was

ordered by the viceroy to escort Trevithick to the mines accompanied

by a guard of honor. The news of his expected arrival there occasioned

great rejoicings, and the chief men of the district came down the

mountains to meet and welcome him. Uvillé wrote to his associates that

Trevithick had been sent out "by heaven for the prosperity of the

mines, and that the lord warden proposed to erect his statue in solid

silver." Trevithick himself wrote home to his friends in Cornwall that

he had before him the prospect of almost boundless wealth, having, in

addition to his emoluments as patentee, obtained a fifth share in the

Lima Company, which, he expected, on a moderate computation, would

yield him about £100,000 a year!

But these brilliant prospects were suddenly blasted by the Peruvian

revolution which broke out in the following year. While Mr. Boaze was

reading his paper[17] before the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall,

in which these anticipations of Trevithick's fame and fortune were so

glowingly described, Lord Cochrane was on his way to South America to

take the command of the Chilian fleet in its attack of the ports of

Peru, still in the possession of the Spaniards.

Toward the end of 1818, Lord Cochrane hoisted his flag, and shortly

after proceeded to assail the Spanish fleet in Callao Harbor. This

proved the signal for a general insurrection, during the continuance

of which the commercial and industrial affairs of the province were

completely paralyzed. The pumping-engines of Trevithick were now

of comparatively little use in pumping water out of mines in which

the miners would no longer work. Although Lima was abandoned by the

Spaniards toward the end of 1821, the civil war continued to rage

for several years longer, until at length the independence of Peru

was achieved; but it was long before the population were content to

settle down as before, and follow the ordinary pursuits of industry and

commerce.

The result to Trevithick was, that he and his partners in the Mining

Company were consigned to ruin. It has been said that the engineer

joined the patriotic party, and invented for Lord Cochrane an

ingenious gun-carriage centred and equally balanced on pivots, and

easily worked by machinery; but of this no mention is made by Lord

Cochrane in his "Memoirs." The Patriots kept Trevithick on the

mountains as a sort of patron and protector of their interests; but for

this very reason he became proportionately obnoxious to the Royalists,

who, looking upon him as the agent through whom the patriotic party

obtained the sinews of war, destroyed his engines, and broke up his

machinery wherever they could. At length he determined to escape from

Peru, and fled northward across the mountains, accompanied by a single

friend, making for the Isthmus of Panamá. In the course of this long,

toilsome, and dangerous journey, he encountered great privations; he

slept in the forest at night, traveled on foot by day, and crossed the

streams by swimming. At length, his clothes torn, worn, and hanging

almost in shreds, and his baggage all lost, he succeeded in reaching

the port of Cartagena, on the Gulf of Darien, almost destitute.

Here he encountered Robert Stephenson, who was waiting at the one inn

of the place until a ship was ready to set sail for England. Stephenson

had finished his engagement with the Colombian Mining Company for which

he had been working, and was eager to return home. When Trevithick

entered the room in which he was sitting, Stephenson at once saw that

he was an Englishman. He stood some six feet in height, and, though

well proportioned when in ordinary health, he was now gaunt and hollow,

the picture of privation and misery.

Stephenson made up to the stranger, and was not a little surprised to

find that he was no other than the famous engineer, Trevithick, the

builder of the first patent locomotive, and who, when he last heard

of him, was accumulating so gigantic a fortune in Peru. Though now

penniless, Trevithick was as full of speculation as ever, and related

to Stephenson that he was on his way home for the purpose of organizing

another gold-mining company, which should make the fortunes of all

who took part in it. He was, however, in the mean time, unable to pay

for his passage, and Stephenson lent him the requisite money for the

purpose of reaching his home in Cornwall.

As there was no vessel likely to sail for England for some time,

Stephenson and Trevithick took the first ship bound for New York.

After a stormy passage, full of adventure and peril, the vessel was

driven on a lee-shore, and the passengers and crew barely escaped with

their lives. On reaching New York, Trevithick immediately set sail for

England, and he landed safe at Falmouth in October, 1827, bringing

back with him a pair of silver spurs, the only remnant which he had

preserved of those "torrents of silver" which his engines were to raise

from the mines of Peru.

Immediately on his return home, Trevithick memorialized the government

for some remuneration adequate to the great benefit which the country

had derived from his invention of the high-pressure steam-engine, and

his introduction of the cylindrical boiler. The petition was prepared

in December, 1827, and was cheerfully signed by the leading mine-owners

and engineers in Cornwall; but there their efforts on his behalf ended.

He took out two more patents--one in 1831, for a new method of heating

apartments, and another in 1832, for improvements in the steam-engine,

and the application of steam-power to navigation and locomotion; but

neither of them seems to have proved of any service to him. His new

improvement in the steam-engine was neither more nor less than the

invention of an apparatus similar to that which has quite recently come

into use for employing superheated steam as a means of working the

engine more effectively and economically. The patent also included a

method of propelling ships by ejecting water through a tube with great

force and speed in a direction opposite to the course of the vessel,

a method since reinvented in many forms, though not yet successfully

introduced in practice.

Strange to say, though Trevithick had been so intimately connected with

the practical introduction of the Locomotive, he seems to have taken

but little interest in its introduction upon railways, but confined

himself to advocating its employment on common roads as its most useful

application.[18] Though in many things he was before his age, here he

was unquestionably behind it. But Trevithick was now an old man; his

constitution was broken, and his energy worked out. Younger men were

in the field, less ingenious and speculative, but more practical and

energetic; and in the blaze of their fame the Cornish engineer was

forgotten.

During the last year of his life Trevithick resided at Dartford,

in Kent. He had induced the Messrs. Hall, the engineers of that

place, to give him an opportunity of testing the value of his last

invention--that of a vessel driven by the ejection of water through

a tube--and he went there to superintend the construction of the

necessary engine and apparatus. The vessel was duly fitted up, and

several experiments were made with it in the adjoining creek, but it

did not realize a speed of more than four miles an hour. Trevithick,

being of opinion that the engine-power was insufficient, proceeded

to have a new engine constructed, to the boiler of which, within the

furnace, numerous tubes were attached, round which the fire played. So

much steam was raised by this arrangement that the piston "blew;" but

still the result of the experiments was unsatisfactory. While laboring

at these inventions, and planning new arrangements never to be carried

out, the engineer was seized by the illness of which he died, on the

22d of April, 1833, in the 62d year of his age.

As Trevithick was entirely without means at his death, besides being

some sixty pounds in debt to the landlord of the Bull Inn, where

he had been lodging for nearly a year, he would probably have been

buried at the expense of the parish but for the Messrs. Hall and their

workmen, who raised a sum sufficient to give the "great inventor" a

decent burial; and they followed his remains to the grave in Deptford

Church-yard, where he lies without a stone to mark his resting-place.

* * * * *

There can be no doubt as to the great mechanical ability of Trevithick.

He was a man of original and intuitive genius in invention. Every

mechanical arrangement which he undertook to study issued from his

hands transformed and improved. But there he rested. He struck out many

inventions, and left them to take care of themselves. His great failing

was the want of perseverance. His mind was always full of projects;

but his very genius led him astray in search of new things, while his

imagination often outran his judgment. Hence his life was but a series

of beginnings.

Look at the extraordinary things that Trevithick began. He made the

first railway locomotive, and cast the invention aside, leaving it

to others to take it up and prosecute it to a successful issue. He

introduced, if he did not invent, the cylindrical boiler and the

high-pressure engine, which increased so enormously the steam-power

of the world; but he reaped the profits of neither. He invented

an oscillating engine and a screw propeller; he took out a patent

for using superheated steam, as well as for wrought-iron ships and

wrought-iron floating docks; but he left it to others to introduce

these several inventions.

Never was there such a series of splendid mechanical beginnings. He

began a Thames Tunnel and abandoned it. He went to South America

with the prospect of making a gigantic fortune, but he had scarcely

begun to gather in his gold than he was forced to fly, and returned

home destitute. This last event, however, was a misfortune which no

efforts on his part could have prevented. But even when he had the

best chances, Trevithick threw them away. When he had brought his

road locomotive to London to exhibit, and was beginning to excite

the curiosity of the public respecting it, he suddenly closed the

exhibition in a fit of caprice, removed the engine, and returned to

Cornwall in a tiff. The failure, also, of the railroad on which his

locomotive traveled so provoked him that he at once abandoned the

enterprise in disgust.

There may have been some moral twist in the engineer's character, into

which we do not seek to pry; but it seems clear that he was wanting in

that resolute perseverance, that power of fighting an up-hill battle,

without which no great enterprise can be conducted to a successful

issue. In this respect the character of Richard Trevithick presents

a remarkable contrast to that of George Stephenson, who took up only

one of the many projects which the other had cast aside, and by dint

of application, industry, and perseverance, carried into effect one

of the most remarkable but peaceful revolutions which has ever been

accomplished in any age or country.

We now proceed to describe the history of this revolution in connection

with the Life of George Stephenson, and to trace the locomotive through

its several stages of development until we find it recognized as one of

the most vigorous and untiring workers in the entire world of industry.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Weale's "Papers on Engineering," vol. i., "On the Dredging

Machine," p. 7.

[17] Paper read by Henry Boaze, Esq., "On Captain Trevithick's

Adventures," at the Anniversary Meeting of September,

1817.--"Transactions of Royal Geological Society of Cornwall," vol. i.,

p. 212.

[18] On the 12th of August, 1831, by which time the Liverpool and

Manchester line was in full work, Trevithick appeared as a witness

before the select committee of the House of Commons on the employment

of steam-carriages on common roads. He said "he had been abroad a

good many years, and had had nothing to do with steam-carriages until

very lately. He had it now, however, in contemplation to do a great

deal on common roads, and, with that view, had taken out a patent for

an entirely new engine, the arrangements in which were calculated to

obviate all the difficulties which had hitherto stood in the way of

traveling on common roads."

LIVES

OF

GEORGE AND ROBERT STEPHENSON.

[Illustration: NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE AND THE HIGH-LEVEL BRIDGE.

[By R. P. Leitch, after his Original Drawing.]]

LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON, ETC.

CHAPTER I.

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

In no quarter of England have greater changes been wrought by the

successive advances made in the practical science of engineering

than in the extensive colliery districts of the North, of which

Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the centre and the capital.

In ancient times the Romans planted a colony at Newcastle, throwing a

bridge across the Tyne near the site of the low-level bridge shown in

the prefixed engraving, and erecting a strong fortification above it

on the high ground now occupied by the Central Railway Station. North

and northwest lay a wild country, abounding in moors, mountains, and

morasses, but occupied to a certain extent by fierce and barbarous

tribes. To defend the young colony against their ravages, a strong

wall was built by the Romans, extending from Wallsend on the north

bank of the Tyne, a few miles below Newcastle, across the country to

Burgh-upon-Sands on the Solway Firth. The remains of the wall are still

to be traced in the less populous hill-districts of Northumberland. In

the neighborhood of Newcastle they have been gradually effaced by the

works of succeeding generations, though the "Wallsend" coal consumed in

our household fires still serves to remind us of the great Roman work.

After the withdrawal of the Romans, Northumbria became planted by

immigrant Saxons from North Germany and Norsemen from Scandinavia,

whose eorls or earls made Newcastle their principal seat. Then came

the Normans, from whose _New_ Castle, built some eight hundred years

since, the town derives its present name. The keep of this venerable

structure, black with age and smoke, still stands entire at the

northern end of the noble high-level bridge--the utilitarian work

of modern times thus confronting the warlike relic of the older

civilization.

[Illustration: MAP OF NEWCASTLE DISTRICT.]

The nearness of Newcastle to the Scotch Border was a great hinderance

to its security and progress in the middle ages of English history.

Indeed, the district between it and Berwick continued to be ravaged

by moss-troopers long after the union of the crowns. The gentry

lived in their strong Peel castles; even the larger farm-houses were

fortified; and blood-hounds were trained for the purpose of tracking

the cattle-reavers to their retreats in the hills. The judges of Assize

rode from Carlisle to Newcastle guarded by an escort armed to the

teeth. A tribute called "dagger and protection money" was annually paid

by the sheriff of Newcastle for the purpose of providing daggers and

other weapons for the escort; and, though the need of such protection

has long since ceased, the tribute continues to be paid in broad gold

pieces of the time of Charles the First.

Until about the middle of last century the roads across Northumberland

were little better than horse-tracks, and not many years since the

primitive agricultural cart with solid wooden wheels was almost as

common in the western parts of the county as it is in Spain now. The

track of the old Roman road long continued to be the most practicable

route between Newcastle and Carlisle, the traffic between the two towns

having been carried on pack-horses until within a comparatively recent

period.

Since that time great changes have taken place on the Tyne. When wood

for firing became scarce and dear, and the forests of the South of

England were found inadequate to supply the increasing demand for fuel,

attention was turned to the rich stores of coal lying underground in

the neighborhood of Newcastle and Durham. It then became an article of

increasing export, and "sea-coal" fires gradually superseded those of

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

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

Fuel became the staple product of the district, the quantity exported

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

mines amounts to upward of sixteen millions of tons a year, of which

not less than nine millions are annually conveyed away by sea.

Newcastle has in the mean time spread in all directions far beyond

its ancient boundaries. From a walled mediæval town of monks and

merchants, it has been converted into a busy centre of commerce and

manufactures inhabited by nearly 100,000 people. It is no longer a

Border fortress--a "shield and defense against the invasions and

frequent insults of the Scots," as described in ancient charters--but

a busy centre of peaceful industry, and the outlet for a vast amount

of steam-power, which is exported in the form of coal to all parts

of the world. Newcastle is in many respects a town of singular and

curious interest, especially in its older parts, which are full of

crooked lanes and narrow streets, wynds, and chares, formed by tall,

antique houses, rising tier above tier along the steep northern bank of

the Tyne, as the similarly precipitous streets of Gateshead crowd the

opposite shore.

All over the coal region, which extends from the Coquet to the Tees,

about fifty miles from north to south, the surface of the soil exhibits

the signs of extensive underground workings. As you pass through the

country at night, the earth looks as if it were bursting with fire at

many points, the blaze of coke-ovens, iron-furnaces, and coal-heaps

reddening the sky to such a distance that the horizon seems like a

glowing belt of fire.

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

are the firemen, engine-men, and brakesmen, who fire and work the

engines, and superintend the machinery by means of which the collieries

are worked. Previous to the introduction of the steam-engine, the

usual machine employed for the purpose was what is called a "gin."

The gin consists of a large drum placed horizontally, round which

ropes attached to buckets and corves are wound, which are thus drawn

up or sent down the shafts by a horse traveling in a circular track

or "gin race." This method was employed for drawing up both coals and

water, and it is still used for the same purpose in small collieries;

but where the quantity of water to be raised is great, pumps worked by

steam-power are called into requisition.

Newcomen's atmospheric engine was first made use of to work the pumps,

and it continued to be so employed long after the more powerful and

economical condensing engine of Watt had been invented. In the Newcomen

or "fire-engine," as it was called, the power is produced by the

pressure of the atmosphere forcing down the piston in the cylinder,

on a vacuum being produced within it by condensation of the contained

steam by means of cold-water injection. The piston-rod is attached to

one end of a lever, while the pump-rod works in connection with the

other, the hydraulic action employed to raise the water being exactly

similar to that of a common sucking-pump.

The working of a Newcomen engine was a clumsy and apparently a very

painful process, accompanied by an extraordinary amount of wheezing,

sighing, creaking, and bumping. When the pump descended, there was

heard a plunge, a heavy sigh, and a loud bump; then, as it rose, and

the sucker began to act, there was heard a creak, a wheeze, another

bump, and then a rush of water as it was lifted and poured out. Where

engines of a more powerful and improved description were used, as is

now the case, the quantity of water raised is enormous--as much as a

million and a half gallons in the twenty-four hours.

The pitmen, or "the lads belaw," who work out the coal below ground,

are a peculiar class, quite distinct from the workmen on the surface.

They are a people with peculiar habits, manners, and character, as

much so as fishermen and sailors, to whom, indeed, they bear, in some

respects, a considerable resemblance. Some fifty years since, they

were a much rougher and worse educated class than they are now; hard

workers, but very wild and uncouth; much given to "steeks," or strikes;

and distinguished, in their hours of leisure and on pay-nights, for

their love of cock-fighting, dog-fighting, hard drinking, and cuddy

races. The pay-night was a fortnightly saturnalia, in which the

pitman's character was fully brought out, especially when the "yel"

was good. Though earning much higher wages than the ordinary laboring

population of the upper soil, the latter did not mix nor intermarry

with them, so that they were left to form their own communities,

and hence their marked peculiarities as a class. Indeed, a sort of

traditional disrepute seems long to have clung to the pitmen, arising

perhaps from the nature of their employment, and from the circumstance

that the colliers were among the last classes enfranchised in England,

as they were certainly the last in Scotland, where they continued

bondmen down to the end of last century. The last thirty years,

however, have worked a great improvement in the moral condition of the

Northumbrian pitmen; the abolition of the twelve months' bond to the

mine, and the substitution of a month's notice previous to leaving,

having given them greater freedom and opportunity for obtaining

employment; and day-schools and Sunday-schools, together with the

important influences of railways, have brought them fully up to a level

with the other classes of the laboring population.

The coals, when raised from the pits, are emptied into the wagons

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

staiths erected by the river-side, the wagons sometimes descending by

their own gravity along inclined planes, the wagoner standing behind to

check the speed by means of a convoy or wooden brake bearing upon the

rims of the wheels. Arrived at the staiths, the wagons are emptied at

once into the ships waiting alongside for cargo. Any one who has sailed

down the Tyne from Newcastle Bridge can not but have been struck with

the appearance of the immense staiths, constructed of timber, which are

erected at short distances from each other on both sides of the river.

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

above-bridge, where sea-going craft can not reach, and is floated

down the river in "keels," in which the coals are sometimes piled up

according to convenience when large, or, when the coal is small or

tender, it is conveyed in tubs to prevent breakage. These keels are

of a very ancient model--perhaps the oldest extant in England: they

are even said to be of the same build as those in which the Norsemen

navigated the Tyne centuries ago. The keel is a tubby, grimy-looking

craft, rounded fore and aft, with a single large square sail, which

the keel-bullies, as the Tyne watermen are called, manage with great

dexterity; the vessel being guided by the aid of the "swape," or great

oar, which is used as a kind of rudder at the stern of the vessel.

These keelmen are an exceedingly hardy class of workmen, not by any

means so quarrelsome as their designation of "bully" would imply--the

word being merely derived from the obsolete term "boolie," or beloved,

an appellation still in familiar use among brother workers in the coal

districts. One of the most curious sights on the Tyne is the fleet of

hundreds of these black-sailed, black-hulled keels, bringing down at

each tide their black cargoes for the ships at anchor in the deep water

at Shields and other parts of the river below Newcastle.

These preliminary observations will perhaps be sufficient to explain

the meaning of many of the occupations alluded to, and the phrases

employed, in the course of the following narrative, some of which might

otherwise have been comparatively unintelligible to the reader.

* * * * *

The colliery village of Wylam is situated on the north bank of the

Tyne, about eight miles west of Newcastle. The Newcastle and Carlisle

Railway runs along the opposite bank; and the traveler by that line

sees the usual signs of a colliery in the unsightly pumping-engines

surrounded by heaps of ashes, coal-dust, and slag, while a neighboring

iron-furnace in full blast throws out dense smoke and loud jets of

steam by day and lurid flames at night. These works form the nucleus

of the village, which is almost entirely occupied by coal-miners and

iron-furnace-men. The place is remarkable for its large population, but

not for its cleanness or neatness as a village; the houses, as in most

colliery villages, being the property of the owners or lessees, who

employ them in temporarily accommodating the work-people, against whose

earnings there is a weekly set-off for house and coals. About the end

of last century, the estate of which Wylam forms part belonged to Mr.

Blackett, a gentleman of considerable celebrity in coal-mining, then

more generally known as the proprietor of the "Globe" newspaper.

There is nothing to interest one in the village itself. But a few

hundred yards from its eastern extremity stands a humble detached

dwelling, which will be interesting to many as the birthplace of

one of the most remarkable men of our times--George Stephenson, the

Railway Engineer. It is a common, two-storied, red-tiled, rubble house,

portioned off into four laborers' apartments. It is known by the name

of High-street House, and was originally so called because it stands by

the side of what used to be the old riding post-road or street between

Newcastle and Hexham, along which the post was carried on horseback

within the memory of persons living.

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

The lower room in the west end of this house was the home of the

Stephenson family, and there George Stephenson was born, the second of

a family of six children, on the 9th of June, 1781. The apartment is

now, what it was then, an ordinary laborer's dwelling; its walls are

unplastered, its floor is of clay, and the bare rafters are exposed

overhead.

Robert Stephenson, or "Old Bob," as the neighbors familiarly called

him, and his wife Mabel, were a respectable couple, careful and

hard-working. Robert Stephenson's father was a Scotchman, who came

into England in the capacity of a gentleman's servant.[19] Mabel, his

wife, was the second daughter of Robert Carr, a dyer at Ovingham.

The Carrs were for several generations the owners of a house in that

village adjoining the church-yard; and the family tomb-stone may still

be seen standing against the east end of the chancel of the parish

church, underneath the centre lancet window, as the tomb-stone of

Thomas Bewick, the wood-engraver, occupies the western gable. Mabel

Stephenson was a woman of somewhat delicate constitution, and troubled

occasionally, as her neighbors said, with "the vapors." But those who

remembered her concurred in describing her as "a real canny body;"

and a woman of whom this is said by general consent in the Newcastle

district may be pronounced a worthy person indeed, for it is about the

highest praise of a woman which Northumbrians can express.

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

For some time after their marriage, Robert resided with his wife at

Walbottle, a village situated between Wylam and Newcastle, where he

was employed as a laborer at the colliery; after which the family

removed to Wylam, where he found employment as fireman of the old

pumping-engine at that colliery.

George Stephenson was the second of a family of six children.[20]

It does not appear that the birth of any of the children was registered

in the parish books, the author having made an unsuccessful search in

the registers of Ovingham and Heddon-on-the-Wall to ascertain the fact.

An old Wylam collier, who remembered George Stephenson's father, thus

described him: "Geordie's fayther war like a peer o' deals nailed

thegither, an' a bit o' flesh i' th' inside; he war as queer as Dick's

hatband--went thrice aboot, an' wudn't tie. His wife Mabel war a

delicat' boddie, an' varry flighty. They war an honest family, but

sair hadden doon i' th' world." Indeed, the earnings of old Robert did

not amount to more than twelve shillings a week; and, as there were

six children to maintain, the family, during their stay at Wylam, were

necessarily in very straitened circumstances. The father's wages being

barely sufficient, even with the most rigid economy, for the sustenance

of the household, there was little to spare for clothing, and nothing

for education, so that none of the children were sent to school.

Old Robert was a general favorite in the village, especially among the

children, whom he was accustomed to draw about him while tending the

engine-fire, and feast their young imaginations with tales of Sinbad

the Sailor and Robinson Crusoe, besides others of his own invention;

so that "Bob's engine-fire" came to be the most popular resort in

the village. Another feature in his character, by which he was long

remembered, was his affection for birds and animals; and he had many

tame favorites of both sorts, which were as fond of resorting to his

engine-fire as the boys and girls themselves. In the winter time he had

usually a flock of tame robins about him; and they would come hopping

familiarly to his feet to pick up the crumbs which he had saved for

them out of his humble dinner. At his cottage he was rarely without one

or more tame blackbirds, which flew about the house, or in and out at

the door. In summer time he would go bird-nesting with his children;

and one day he took his little boy George to see a blackbird's nest for

the first time. Holding him up in his arms, he let the wondering boy

peep down, through the branches held aside for the purpose, into a nest

full of young birds--a sight which the boy never forgot, but used to

speak of with delight to his intimate friends when he himself had grown

an old man.

The boy George led the ordinary life of working people's children.

He played about the doors; went bird-nesting when he could; and ran

errands to the village. He was also an eager listener, with the other

children, to his father's curious tales, and he early imbibed from him

his affection for birds and animals. In course of time he was promoted

to the office of carrying his father's dinner to him while at work, and

at home he helped to nurse his younger brothers and sisters. One of his

earliest duties was to see that the other children were kept out of the

way of the chaldron wagons, which were then dragged by horses along the

wooden tram-road immediately in front of the cottage door.

This wagon-way was the first in the northern district on which the

experiment of a locomotive engine was tried. But, at the time of which

we speak, the locomotive had scarcely been dreamt of in England as a

practicable working power; horses only were used to haul the coal;

and one of the first sights with which the boy was familiar was the

coal-wagons dragged by them along the wooden railway at Wylam.

Thus eight years passed; after which, the coal having been worked out

on the north side, the old engine, which had grown "dismal to look

at," as an old workman described it, was pulled down; and then old

Robert, having obtained employment as a fireman at the Dewley Burn

Colliery, removed with his family to that place.

Dewley Burn, at this day, consists of a few old-fashioned, low-roofed

cottages standing on either side of a babbling little stream. They are

connected by a rustic wooden bridge, which spans the rift in front of

the doors. In the central one-roomed cottage of this group, on the

right bank, Robert Stephenson lived for a time with his family, the pit

at which he worked standing in the rear of the cottages.

Young though he was, George was now of an age to be able to contribute

something toward the family maintenance; for, in a poor man's house,

every child is a burden until his little hands can be turned to

profitable account. That the boy was shrewd and active, and possessed

of a ready mother-wit, will be evident enough from the following

incident. One day his sister Nell went into Newcastle to buy a bonnet,

and Geordie went with her "for company." At a draper's shop in the

Bigg Market Nell found a "chip" quite to her mind, but on pricing it,

alas! it was found to be fifteen pence beyond her means. Girl-like, she

had set her mind upon that bonnet, and no other would please her. She

accordingly left the shop very much dejected. But Geordie said, "Never

heed, Nell; come wi' me, and I'll see if I canna win siller enough to

buy the bonnet; stand ye there till I come back." Away ran the boy,

and disappeared amid the throng of the market, leaving the girl to

wait his return. Long and long she waited, until it grew dusk, and the

market-people had nearly all left. She had begun to despair, and fears

crossed her mind that Geordie must have been run over and killed, when

at last up he came running, almost breathless. "I've gotten the siller

for the bonnet, Nell!" cried he. "Eh, Geordie!" she said, "but hoo

hae ye gotten it?" "Hauddin the gentlemen's horses!" was the exultant

reply. The bonnet was forthwith bought, and the two returned to Dewley

in triumph.

George's first regular employment was of a very humble sort. A widow,

named Grace Ainslie, then occupied the neighboring farm-house of

Dewley. She kept a number of cows, and had the privilege of grazing

them along the wagon-ways. She needed a boy to herd the cows, to

keep them out of the way of the wagons, and prevent their straying or

trespassing on the neighbors' "liberties;" the boy's duty was also

to bar the gates at night after all the wagons had passed. George

petitioned for this post, and, to his great joy, he was appointed, at

the wage of twopence a day.

It was light employment, and he had plenty of spare time on his

hands, which he spent in bird-nesting, making whistles out of reeds

and scrannel straws, and erecting Liliputian mills in the little

water-streams that ran into the Dewley bog. But his favorite amusement

at this early age was erecting clay engines in conjunction with his

playmate, Bill Thirlwall. The place is still pointed out where the

future engineers made their first essays in modeling. The boys found

the clay for their engines in the adjoining bog, and the hemlocks

which grew about supplied them with imaginary steam-pipes. They even

proceeded to make a miniature winding-machine in connection with their

engine, and the apparatus was erected upon a bench in front of the

Thirlwalls' cottage. Their corves were made out of hollowed corks;

their ropes were supplied by twine; and a few bits of wood gleaned from

the refuse of the carpenters' shop completed their materials. With

this apparatus the boys made a show of sending the corves down the pit

and drawing them up again, much to the marvel of the pitmen. But some

mischievous person about the place seized the opportunity early one

morning of smashing the fragile machinery, greatly to the grief of the

young engineers. We may mention, in passing, that George's companion

afterward became a workman of repute, and creditably held the office

of engineer at Shilbottle, near Alnwick, for a period of nearly thirty

years.

As Stephenson grew older and abler to work, he was set to lead the

horses when plowing, though scarce big enough to stride across the

furrows; and he used afterward to say that he rode to his work in the

mornings at an hour when most other children of his age were asleep

in their beds. He was also employed to hoe turnips, and do similar

farm-work, for which he was paid the advanced wage of fourpence a day.

But his highest ambition was to be taken on at the colliery where his

father worked; and he shortly joined his elder brother James there as

a "corf-bitter," or "picker," to clear the coal of stones, bats, and

dross. His wages were then advanced to sixpence a day, and afterward

to eightpence when he was sent to drive the gin-horse.

Shortly after, George went to Black Callerton Colliery to drive the gin

there; and, as that colliery lies about two miles across the fields

from Dewley Burn, the boy walked that distance early in the morning to

his work, returning home late in the evening. One of the old residents

at Black Callerton, who remembered him at that time, described him to

the author as "a grit growing lad, with bare legs an' feet;" adding

that he was "very quick-witted, and full of fun and tricks: indeed,

there was nothing under the sun but he tried to imitate." He was

usually foremost also in the sports and pastimes of youth.

Among his first strongly developed tastes was the love of birds and

animals, which he inherited from his father. Blackbirds were his

special favorites. The hedges between Dewley and Black Callerton were

capital bird-nesting places, and there was not a nest there that he

did not know of. When the young birds were old enough, he would bring

them home with him, feed them, and teach them to fly about the cottage

unconfined by cages. One of his blackbirds became so tame that, after

flying about the doors all day, and in and out of the cottage, it would

take up its roost upon the bed-head at night. And, most singular of

all, the bird would disappear in the spring and summer months, when it

was supposed to go into the woods to pair and rear its young, after

which it would reappear at the cottage, and resume its social habits

during the winter. This went on for several years. George had also a

stock of tame rabbits, for which he built a little house behind the

cottage, and for many years he continued to pride himself upon the

superiority of his breed.

After he had driven the gin for some time at Dewley and Black

Callerton, he was taken on as assistant to his father in firing the

engine at Dewley. This was a step of promotion which he had anxiously

desired, his only fear being lest he should be found too young for

the work. Indeed, he afterward used to relate how he was wont to hide

himself when the owner of the colliery went round, in case he should

be thought too little a boy to earn the wages paid him. Since he had

modeled his clay engines in the bog, his young ambition was to be an

engine-man; and to be an assistant fireman was the first step toward

this position. Great, therefore, was his joy when, at about fourteen

years of age, he was appointed assistant fireman, at the wage of a

shilling a day.

But the coal at Dewley Burn being at length worked out, the pit was

ordered to be "laid in," and old Robert and his family were again under

the necessity of shifting their home; for, to use the common phrase,

they must "follow the wark."

[Illustration: (Colliery Wagons)]

FOOTNOTES:

[19] A tradition exists in the family that Robert Stephenson's father

came across the Border on the loss of considerable property. Miss

Stephenson, the daughter of Robert's third son, John, has stated that

a suit was commenced for recovery of the property, but was dropped for

want of the requisite means to prosecute it.

[20] The family Bible of Robert and Mabel Stephenson, which seems

to have come into their possession in November, 1790, contains the

following record of the births of these children, evidently written by

one hand and at one time:

"A Rechester of the children belonging Robert and Mabel Stepheson--

"James Stepheson Was Born March the 4 day 1779

"George Stepheson Was Born June 9 day 1781

"Elender Stepheson Was Born April the 16 day 1784

"Robert Stepheson Was Born March the 10 day 1788

"John Stepheson Was Born November the 4 day 1789

"Ann Stepheson Was Born July the 19 day 1792."

Of the two daughters, Eleanor married Stephen Liddell, afterward

employed in the Locomotive Factory in Newcastle. Ann married John

Nixon, with whom she emigrated to the United States; she died at

Pittsburg in 1860. John Stephenson was accidentally killed at the

Locomotive Factory in January, 1831.

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