THE STEPHENSONS AT KILLINGWORTH--EDUCATION AND SELF-EDUCATION OF FATHER
AND SON.
George Stephenson had now been diligently employed for several years in
the work of self-improvement, and he experienced the usual results in
increasing mental strength, capability, and skill. Perhaps the secret
of every man's best success in life is to be found in the alacrity
and industry with which he takes advantage of the opportunities which
present themselves for well-doing. Our engine-man was an eminent
illustration of the importance of cultivating this habit of life. Every
spare moment was laid under contribution by him, either for the purpose
of adding to his earnings or to his knowledge. He missed no opportunity
of extending his observations, especially in his own department of
work, aiming at improvement, and trying to turn all that he did know to
useful practical account.
He continued his attempts to solve the mystery of Perpetual Motion,
and contrived several model machines with the object of embodying his
ideas in a practical working shape. He afterward used to lament the
time he had lost in these futile efforts, and said that if he had
enjoyed the opportunities which most young men now have, of learning
from books what previous experimenters had accomplished, he would
have been spared much labor and mortification. Not being acquainted
with what other mechanics had done, he groped his way in pursuit of
some idea originated by his own independent thinking and observation,
and, when he had brought it into some definite form, lo! he found
that his supposed invention had long been known and recorded in
scientific books. Often he thought he had hit upon discoveries which
he subsequently found were but old and exploded fallacies. Yet his
very struggle to overcome the difficulties which lay in his way was
of itself an education of the best sort. By wrestling with them, he
strengthened his judgment and sharpened his skill, stimulating and
cultivating his inventiveness and mechanical ingenuity. Being very much
in earnest, he was compelled to consider the subject of his special
inquiry in all its relations, and thus he gradually acquired practical
ability through his very efforts after the impracticable.
Many of his evenings were spent in the society of John Wigham, whose
father occupied the Glebe farm at Benton close at hand. John was a fair
penman and good arithmetician, and Stephenson frequented his society
chiefly for the purpose of improving himself in writing and "figuring."
Under Andrew Robertson he had never quite mastered the Rule of Three,
and it was only when Wigham took him in hand that he made progress in
the higher branches of arithmetic. He generally took his slate with him
to the Wighams' cottage, when he had his sums set, that he might work
them out while tending his engine on the following day. When too busy
with other work to be able to call upon Wigham in person, he sent the
slate by a fellow-workman to have the former sums corrected and new
ones set. Sometimes also, at leisure moments, he was enabled to do a
little "figuring" with chalk upon the sides of the coal-wagons. So much
patient perseverance could not but eventually succeed; and by dint of
practice and study, Stephenson was enabled to master the successive
rules of arithmetic.
John Wigham was of great use to his pupil in many ways. He was a good
talker, fond of argument, an extensive reader as country reading
went in those days, and a very suggestive thinker. Though his store
of information might be comparatively small when measured with that
of more highly cultivated minds, much of it was entirely new to
Stephenson, who regarded him as a very clever and extraordinary person.
Wigham also taught him to draw plans and sections, though in this
branch Stephenson proved so apt that he soon surpassed his master. A
volume of "Ferguson's Lectures on Mechanics" which fell into their
hands was a great treasure to both the students. One who remembers
their evening occupations says he "used to wonder what they meant by
weighing the air and water in so odd a way." They were trying the
specific gravities of objects; and the devices which they employed,
the mechanical shifts to which they were put, were often of the rudest
kind. In these evening entertainments the mechanical contrivances were
supplied by Stephenson, while Wigham found the scientific rationale.
The opportunity thus afforded to the former of cultivating his mind
by contact with one wiser than himself proved of great value, and in
after life Stephenson gratefully remembered the assistance which, when
a humble workman, he had received from John Wigham, the farmer's son.
His leisure moments thus carefully improved, it will be inferred that
Stephenson continued a sober man. Though his notions were never extreme
on this point, he was systematically temperate. It appears that on the
invitation of his master, Ralph Dodds--and an invitation from a master
to a workman is not easy to resist--he had, on one or two occasions,
been induced to join him in a forenoon glass of ale in the public house
of the village. But one day, about noon, when Mr. Dodds had got him as
far as the public-house door, on his invitation to "come in and take
a glass o' yel," Stephenson made a dead stop, and said, firmly, "No,
sir, you must excuse me; I have made a resolution to drink no more at
this time of day." And he went back. He desired to retain the character
of a steady workman; and the instances of men about him who had made
shipwreck of their character through intemperance were then, as now,
unhappily too frequent.
But another consideration besides his own self-improvement had already
begun to exercise an important influence upon his life. This was the
training and education of his son Robert, now growing up an active,
intelligent boy, as full of fun and tricks as his father had been.
When a little fellow, scarce big enough to reach so high as to put a
clock-head on when placed upon the table, his father would make him
mount a chair for the purpose; and to "help father" was the proudest
work which the boy then, and ever after, could take part in. When the
little engine was set up at the Ochre Quarry to pump it dry, Robert
was scarcely absent for an hour. He watched the machine very eagerly
when it was set to work, and he was very much annoyed at the fire
burning away the grates. The man who fired the engine was a sort of
wag, and thinking to get a laugh at the boy, he said, "Those bars are
getting varra bad, Robert; I think we maun cut up some of that hard
wood, and put it in instead." "What would be the use of that, you
fool?" said the boy, quickly. "You would no sooner have put them in
than they would be burnt out again!"
[Illustration: RUTTER'S SCHOOL-HOUSE, LONG BENTON. [By R. P. Leitch.]]
So soon as Robert was of a proper age, his father sent him over to the
road-side school at Long Benton, kept by Rutter, the parish clerk.
But the education which he gave was of a very limited kind, scarcely
extending beyond the primer and pothooks. While working as a brakesman
on the pit-head at Killingworth, the father had often bethought him of
the obstructions he had himself encountered in life through his want of
schooling, and he formed the determination that no labor, nor pains,
nor self-denial on his part should be spared to furnish his son with
the best education that it was in his power to bestow.
It is true, his earnings were comparatively small at that time. He was
still maintaining his infirm parents, and the cost of living continued
excessive. But he fell back, as before, upon his old expedient of
working up his spare time in the evenings at home, or during the
night shifts when it was his turn to tend the engine, in mending and
making shoes, cleaning clocks and watches, making shoe-lasts for the
shoemakers of the neighborhood, and cutting out the pitmen's clothes
for their wives; and we have been told that to this day there are
clothes worn at Killingworth made after "Geordy Steevie's cut." To give
his own words: "In the earlier period of my career," said he, "when
Robert was a little boy, I saw how deficient I was in education, and
I made up my mind that he should not labor under the same defect, but
that I would put him to a good school, and give him a liberal training.
I was, however, a poor man; and how do you think I managed? I betook
myself to mending my neighbors' clocks and watches at nights, after my
daily labor was done, and thus I procured the means of educating my
son."[27]
By dint of such extra labor in his by-hours, with this object,
Stephenson contrived to save a sum of £100, which he accumulated
in _guineas_, each of which he afterward sold to Jews, who went
about buying up gold coins (then dearer than silver), at twenty-six
shillings apiece; and he lent out the proceeds at interest. He was now,
therefore, a comparatively thriving man.
When he was appointed engine-wright of the colliery, he was, of course,
still easier in his circumstances; and, carrying out the resolution
which he had formed as to his boy's education, Robert was sent to Mr.
Bruce's school in Percy Street, Newcastle, at mid-summer, 1815, when
he was about twelve years old. His father bought for him a donkey, on
which he rode into Newcastle and back daily; and there are many still
living who remember the little boy, dressed in his suit of homely
gray stuff cut out by his father, cantering along to school upon the
"cuddy," with his wallet of provisions for the day and his bag of books
slung over his shoulder.
When Robert went to Mr. Bruce's school he was a shy, unpolished country
lad, speaking the broad dialect of the pitmen; and the other boys would
occasionally tease him, for the purpose of provoking an outburst of
his Killingworth Doric. As the shyness got rubbed off by familiarity,
his love of fun began to show itself, and he was found able enough
to hold his own among the other boys. As a scholar he was steady and
diligent, and his master was accustomed to hold him up to the laggards
of the school as an example of good conduct and industry. But his
progress, though satisfactory, was by no means extraordinary. He used
in after life to pride himself on his achievements in mensuration,
though another boy, John Taylor, beat him at arithmetic. He also made
considerable progress in mathematics; and in a letter written to the
son of his teacher, many years after, he said, "It was to Mr. Bruce's
tuition and methods of modeling the mind that I attribute much of my
success as an engineer, for it was from him that I derived my taste
for mathematical pursuits, and the facility I possess of applying this
kind of knowledge to practical purposes, and modifying it according to
circumstances."
[Illustration: BRUCE'S SCHOOL, NEWCASTLE. [By R. P. Leitch.]]
During the time Robert attended school at Newcastle, his father made
the boy's education instrumental to his own. Robert was accustomed
to spend some of his spare time at the rooms of the Literary and
Philosophical Institute, and when he went home in the evening he would
recount to his father the results of his reading. Sometimes he was
allowed to take with him to Killingworth a volume of the "Repertory of
Arts and Sciences," which father and son studied together. But many of
the most valuable works belonging to the Newcastle Library were not
permitted to be removed from the rooms; these Robert was instructed
to read and study, and bring away with him descriptions and sketches
for his father's information. His father also practiced him in the
reading of plans and drawings without at all referring to the written
descriptions. He used to observe to his son, "A good drawing or plan
should always explain itself;" and, placing a drawing of an engine or
machine before the youth, he would say, "There, now, describe that
to me--the arrangement and the action." Thus he taught him to read a
drawing as easily as he would read a page of a book. Both father and
son profited by this excellent practice, which shortly enabled them
to apprehend with the greatest facility the details of even the most
difficult and complicated mechanical drawing.
While Robert went on with his lessons in the evenings, his father was
usually occupied with his watch and clock cleaning, or contriving
models of pumping-engines, or endeavoring to embody in a tangible shape
the mechanical inventions which he found described in the odd volumes
on Mechanics which fell in his way. This daily and unceasing example
of industry and application, working on before the boy's eyes in the
person of a loving and beloved father, imprinted itself deeply upon his
mind in characters never to be effaced. A spirit of self-improvement
was thus early and carefully planted and fostered in him, which
continued to influence his character through life; and toward the close
of his career he was proud to confess that if his professional success
had been great, it was mainly to the example and training of his father
that he owed it.
Robert was not, however, exclusively devoted to study, but, like most
boys full of animal spirits, he was very fond of fun and play, and
sometimes of mischief. Dr. Bruce relates that an old Killingworth
laborer, when asked by Robert, on one of his last visits to Newcastle,
if he remembered him, replied with emotion, "Ay, indeed! Haven't I paid
your head many a time when you came with your father's bait, for you
were always a sad hempy?"
The author had the pleasure, in the year 1854, of accompanying Robert
Stephenson on a visit to his old home and haunts at Killingworth. He
had so often traveled the road upon his donkey to and from school
that every foot of it was familiar to him, and each turn in it served
to recall to mind some incident of his boyish days.[28] His eyes
glistened when he came in sight of Killingworth pit head. Pointing to
a humble red-tiled house by the roadside at Benton, he said, "You see
that house--that was Rutter's, where I learned my A B C, and made a
beginning of my school learning; and there," pointing to a colliery
chimney on the left, "there is Long Benton, where my father put up
his first pumping-engine; and a great success it was. And this humble
clay-floored cottage you see here is where my grandfather lived till
the close of his life. Many a time have I ridden straight into the
house, mounted on my cuddy, and called upon grandfather to admire his
points. I remember the old man feeling the animal all over--he was then
quite blind--after which he would dilate upon the shape of his ears,
fetlocks, and quarters, and usually end by pronouncing him to be a
'real blood.' I was a great favorite with the old man, who continued
very fond of animals, and cheerful to the last; and I believe nothing
gave him greater pleasure than a visit from me and my cuddy."
On the way from Benton to High Killingworth, Mr. Stephenson pointed to
a corner of the road where he had once played a boyish trick upon a
Killingworth collier. "Straker," said he, "was a great bully, a coarse,
swearing fellow, and a perfect tyrant among the women and children.
He would go tearing into old Nanny the huxter's shop in the village,
and demand in a savage voice, 'What's ye'r best ham the pund?' 'What's
floor the hunder?' 'What d'ye ax for prime bacon?'--his categories
usually ending with the miserable order, accompanied with a tremendous
oath, of 'Gie's a penny rrow (roll) an' a baubee herrin'!' The poor
woman was usually set 'all of a shake' by a visit from this fellow. He
was also a great boaster, and used to crow over the robbers whom he had
put to flight; mere men in buckram, as every body knew. We boys," he
continued, "believed him to be a great coward, and determined to play
him a trick. Two other boys joined me in waylaying Straker one night at
that corner," pointing to it. "We sprang out and called upon him, in
as gruff voices as we could assume, to 'stand and deliver!' He dropped
down upon his knees in the dirt, declaring he was a poor man, with a
sma' family, asking for 'mercy,' and imploring us, as 'gentlemen, for
God's sake, t' let him a-be!' We couldn't stand this any longer, and
set up a shout of laughter. Recognizing our boys' voices, he sprang
to his feet again and rattled out a volley of oaths, on which we cut
through the hedge, and heard him shortly after swearing his way along
the road to the yel-house."
On another occasion Robert played a series of tricks of a somewhat
different character. Like his father, he was very fond of reducing
his scientific reading to practice; and after studying Franklin's
description of the lightning experiment, he proceeded to expend his
store of Saturday pennies in purchasing about half a mile of copper
wire at a brazier's shop in Newcastle. Having prepared his kite, he set
it up in the field opposite his father's door, and bringing the wire,
insulated by means of a few feet of silk cord, over the backs of some
of Farmer Wigham's cows, he soon had them skipping about the field in
all directions with their tails up. One day he had his kite flying at
the cottage-door as his father's galloway was hanging by the bridle
to the paling, waiting for the master to mount. Bringing the end of
the wire just over the pony's crupper, so smart an electric shock was
given it that the brute was almost knocked down. At this juncture his
father issued from the house, riding-whip in hand, and was witness
to the scientific trick just played off upon his galloway. "Ah! you
mischievous scoondrel!" cried he to the boy, who ran off, himself
inwardly chuckling with pride, nevertheless, at Robert's successful
experiment.[29]
At this time, and for many years after, Stephenson dwelt in a cottage
standing by the side of the road leading from the West Moor Pit to
Killingworth. The railway from West Moor crosses this road close by
the easternmost end of the cottage. The dwelling originally consisted
of but one apartment on the ground floor, with a garret overhead, to
which access was obtained by means of a step-ladder. With his own hands
Stephenson built an oven, and in the course of time he added rooms to
the cottage, until it became expanded into a comfortable four-roomed
dwelling, in which he remained as long as he lived at Killingworth.
[Illustration: STEPHENSON'S COTTAGE, WEST MOOR. [By R. P. Leitch.]]
He continued as fond of birds and animals as ever, and seemed to have
the power of attaching them to him in a remarkable degree. He had a
blackbird at Killingworth so fond of him that it would fly about the
cottage, and on holding out his finger the bird would come and perch
upon it directly. A cage was built for "blackie" in the partition
between the passage and the room, a square of glass forming its outer
wall; and Robert used afterward to take pleasure in describing the
oddity of the bird, imitating the manner in which it would cock its
head on his father's entering the house, and follow him with its eye
into the inner apartment.
Neighbors were accustomed to call at the cottage and have their clocks
and watches set to rights when they went wrong. One day, after looking
at the works of a watch left by a pitman's wife, George handed it to
his son: "Put her in the oven, Robert," said he, "for a quarter of an
hour or so." It seemed an odd way of repairing a watch; nevertheless,
the watch was put into the oven, and at the end of the appointed time
it was taken out, going all right. The wheels had merely got clogged by
the oil congealed by the cold, which at once explains the rationale of
the remedy adopted.
There was a little garden attached to the cottage, in which, while
a workman, Stephenson took a pride in growing gigantic leeks and
astonishing cabbages. There was great competition in the growing of
vegetables among the villagers, all of whom he excelled excepting one,
whose cabbages sometimes outshone his. To protect his garden-crops from
the ravages of the birds, he invented a strange sort of "fley-craw,"
which moved its arms with the wind; and he fastened his garden-door by
means of a piece of ingenious mechanism, so that no one but himself
could enter it. His cottage was quite a curiosity-shop of models of
engines, self-acting planes, and perpetual-motion machines. The last
named contrivances, however, were only unsuccessful attempts to solve a
problem which had already baffled hundreds of preceding inventors.
His odd and eccentric contrivances often excited great wonder among the
Killingworth villagers. He won the women's admiration by connecting
their cradles with the smoke-jack, and making them self-acting. Then
he astonished the pitmen by attaching an alarm to the clock of the
watchman whose duty it was to call them betimes in the morning. He also
contrived a wonderful lamp which burned under water, with which he was
afterward wont to amuse the Brandling family at Gosforth--going into
the fish-pond at night, lamp in hand, attracting and catching the fish,
which rushed wildly toward the flame.
Dr. Bruce tells of a competition which Stephenson had with the joiner
at Killingworth as to which of them could make the best shoe-last; and
when the former had done his work, either for the humor of the thing
or to secure fair play from the appointed judge, he took it to the
Morrisons in Newcastle, and got them to put their stamp upon it; so
that it is possible the Killingworth brakesman, afterward the inventor
of a safety-lamp and originator of the locomotive railway system,
and John Morrison, the last-maker, afterward the translator of the
Scriptures into the Chinese language, may have confronted each other
in solemn contemplation of the successful last, which won the verdict
coveted by its maker.
Sometimes George would endeavor to impart to his fellow-workmen the
results of his scientific reading. Every thing that he learned from
books was so new and so wonderful to him, that he regarded the facts
he drew from them in the light of discoveries, as if they had been
made but yesterday. Once he tried to explain to some of the pitmen how
the earth was round, and kept turning round. But his auditors flatly
declared the thing to be impossible, as it was clear that "at the
bottom side they must fall off!" "Ah!" said George, "you don't quite
understand it yet." His son Robert also early endeavored to communicate
to others the information which he had gathered at school; and Dr.
Bruce relates that, when visiting Killingworth on one occasion, he
found him engaged in teaching algebra to such of the pitmen's boys as
would become his pupils.
While Robert was still at school, his father proposed to him during the
holidays that he should construct a sun-dial, to be placed over their
cottage-door at West Moor. "I expostulated with him at first," said
Robert, "that I had not learned sufficient astronomy and mathematics
to enable me to make the necessary calculations. But he would have
no denial. 'The thing is to be done,' said he, 'so just set about
it at once.' Well, we got a 'Ferguson's Astronomy,' and studied the
subject together. Many a sore head I had while making the necessary
calculations to adapt the dial to the latitude of Killingworth. But
at length it was fairly drawn out on paper, and then my father got
a stone, and we hewed, and carved, and polished it, until we made a
very respectable dial of it; and there it is, you see," pointing to it
over the cottage door, "still quietly numbering the hours when the sun
shines. I assure you, not a little was thought of that piece of work
by the pitmen when it was put up, and began to tell its tale of time."
The date carved upon the dial is "August 11th, MDCCCXVI." Both father
and son were in after life very proud of their joint production.
Many years after, George took a party of savans, when attending the
meeting of the British Association at Newcastle, over to Killingworth
to see the pits, and he did not fail to direct their attention to the
sun-dial; and Robert, on the last visit which he made to the place,
a short time before his death, took a friend into the cottage, and
pointed out to him the very desk, still there, at which he had sat when
making his calculations of the latitude of Killingworth.
[Illustration: (Sun-dial, Killingworth)]
From the time of his appointment as engineer at the Killingworth Pit,
George Stephenson was in a measure relieved from the daily routine of
manual labor, having, as we have seen, advanced himself to the grade
of a higher-class workman. He had not ceased to be a worker, though he
employed his industry in a different way. It might, indeed, be inferred
that he had now the command of greater leisure; but his spare hours
were as much as ever given to work, either necessary or self-imposed.
So far as regarded his social position, he had already reached the
summit of his ambition; and when he had got his hundred a year, and his
dun galloway to ride on, he said he never wanted to be any higher. When
Robert Wetherly offered to give him an old gig, his traveling having so
much increased of late, he accepted it with great reluctance, observing
that he should be ashamed to get into it, "people would think him so
proud."
When the High Pit had been sunk and the coal was ready for working,
Stephenson erected his first winding-engine to draw the coals out of
the pit, and also a pumping-engine for Long Benton colliery, both of
which proved quite successful. Among other works of this time, he
projected and laid down a self-acting incline along the declivity
which fell toward the coal-loading place near Willington, where he had
formerly officiated as brakesman; and he so arranged it that the full
wagons, descending, drew the empty wagons up the railroad. This was
one of the first self-acting inclines laid down in the district.
The following is Stephenson's own account of his various duties and
labors at this period of his life, as given before a Committee of the
House of Commons in 1835:[30]
"After making some improvements in the steam-engines above ground,
I was requested by the manager of the colliery to go underground
along with him, to see if any improvements could be made in the
mines by employing machinery as a substitute for manual labor
and horse-power in bringing the coals out of the deeper workings
of the mine. On my first going down the Killingworth pit, there
was a steam-engine underground for the purpose of drawing water
from a pit that was sunk at some distance from the first shaft.
The Killingworth coal-field is considerably dislocated. After the
colliery was opened, at a very short distance from the shaft, one
of those dislocations was met with. The coal was thrown down about
forty yards. Considerable time was spent in sinking another pit to
this depth. And on my going down to examine the work, I proposed
making the engine (which had been erected some time previously) to
draw the coals up an inclined plane which descended immediately
from the place where it was fixed. A considerable change was
accordingly made in the mode of working the colliery, not only
in applying the machinery, but in employing putters instead
of horses in bringing the coals from the hewers; and by those
changes the number of horses in the pit was reduced from about
100 to 15 or 16. During the time I was engaged in making these
important alterations, I went round the workings in the pit with
the viewer almost every time that he went into the mine, not only
at Killingworth, but at Mountmoor, Derwentcrook, Southmoor, all of
which collieries belonged to Lord Ravensworth and his partners; and
the whole of the machinery in all these collieries was put under my
charge."
It will thus be observed that Stephenson had now much better
opportunities for improving himself in mechanics than he had heretofore
possessed. His practical knowledge of the steam-engine could not
fail to prove of the greatest value to him. His shrewd insight,
together with his intimate acquaintance with its mechanism, enabled
him to apprehend, as if by intuition, its most abstruse and difficult
combinations. The study which he had given to it when a workman, and
the patient manner in which he had groped his way through all the
details of the machine, gave him the power of a master in dealing with
it as applied to colliery purposes.
Sir Thomas Liddell was frequently about the works, and took pleasure in
giving every encouragement to the engine-wright in his efforts after
improvement. The subject of the locomotive engine was already occupying
Stephenson's careful attention, although it was still regarded in
the light of a curious and costly toy, of comparatively little real
use. But he had at an early period recognized its practical value,
and formed an adequate conception of the might which as yet slumbered
within it, and he now proceeded to bend the whole faculties of his mind
to the development of its powers.
[Illustration: COLLIERS' COTTAGES AT LONG BENTON. [By R. P. Leitch.]]
FOOTNOTES:
[27] Speech at Newcastle, on the 18th of June, 1844, at the meeting
held in celebration of the opening of the Newcastle and Darlington
Railway.
[28] At one part of the road he was once pulled off his donkey by some
mischievous boys, and released by a young man named James Burnet. Many
years after, Burnet was taken on as a workman at the Newcastle factory,
probably owing his selection in some measure to the above circumstance.
[29] Robert Stephenson was, perhaps, prouder of this little boyish
experiment than he was of many of his subsequent achievements. Not
having been quite accurately stated in the first edition of this book,
Mr. Stephenson noted the correction for the second, and wrote to the
author (Sept. 18th, 1857) as follows: "In the kite experiment, will
you say that the copper wire was insulated by a few feet of silk cord;
without this, the experiment can not be made."
[30] Evidence given before the Select Committee on Accidents in Mines,
1835.