works. "Weel, George," said one of the workmen, "what do you mak' o' her? Do you think you could do anything to improve her?" "Man, I could alter her and make her draw: in a week's time from this I could send you to the bottom.' The speech was reported to the head viewer, and George was asked to try. Making only one condition, but insisting on that, namely, that he should select his own workmen, he consented. He commenced on Sunday morning; on Wednesday, the engine was at work again; on Friday afternoon, the men were sent to the bottom. At the age of thirty-one, he was appointed engine-wright of the colliery, at the salary of £100, and a horse for his use, his business being now to superintend the construction of engines and railroads, and to watch the working of both. The locomotive was not then unknown, but was regarded very much in the light of a curious and costly toy. But Stephenson's eye was upon it, and his mind pondering the vast importance of the invention; and the more he thought, the deeper became his conviction of its practicability, its power, and its growing use.

Wooden rails were used near Newcastle very long ago, probably as early as the year 1630. About a century later, iron began to be substituted for wood; and in 1800, Mr. Benjamin Outram "used stone props instead of timber for supporting the ends and joinings of the rails." Hence the name Outram roads, abbreviated into tram-roads. On the 2nd of September, 1813, a locomotive was tried on one of the roads, which drew sixteen waggons, weighing seventy tons, at the rate of about three miles an hour; but it was unsightly and costly, and pulled the road to pieces, and shortly afterwards burst. The colliery owners did not feel disposed to repeat the experiment. Among the spectators was Stephenson, who was heard to say that he thought he could make a much better engine than that. Obtaining the consent of his employer, Lord Ravensworth, be forthwith applied himself to the task, and produced one, which, on the 25th of July, 1814, drew after it thirty tons on an ascending gradient of 1 in 450, with a speed of about four miles an hour. It was cumbrous, clumsy, noisy, barely cheaper than horse-power, and its speed only that of a horse's walk. The idea of increasing the rate of combustion, by causing the steam to escape through the chimney, at once doubled the power of the engine; and by this simple expedient, Stephenson really decided the question as to the use of locomotives for the traction of coal. In 1815, he produced another engine, "containing the germ of all that has since been effected."

George Stephenson was a truly great man, and, therefore,

not a man of one idea. In the year 1806, he was employed as brakesman at the mouth of a pit. Four men had just descended for some special work, and he had ordered a fifth to accompany them, and set them to work. They had scarcely reached the bottom ere an explosion took place, and wood, stones, and trusses of hay were blown out of the mine, and into the air like balloons. Ten men were killed, and a loss of about £20,000 incurred. From that time Stephenson studied the subject of fire-damp by the aid of books and of his own experience, his inquiries being quickened by the dreadful accidents too often spreading gloom over the neighbourhood in which he dwelt; and at length he succeeded in planning a safety-lamp; and one made according to his instructions was taken to his house on the 21st of October, 1815, where he himself arrived at nightfall. Moodie, the under-viewer, was there by appointment. Mr. Wood, who was expected, had not arrived, and a messenger was despatched a mile in the darkness, to seek him. It was nearly eleven o'clock when the three went down into the mine to try, for the first time, the daring experiment, whether a safety-lamp might be harmlessly carried, where an unprotected candle would produce a deadly explosion. Reaching one of the foulest galleries, they boarded up a part of it to confine the gas, thereby rendering it as foul as possible. After waiting about an hour, Moodie, whose practical acquaintance with fire-damp was greatest, was sent without a light to examine the spot; who, returning, reported that if a candle were introduced an explosion must inevitably follow, and warned Stephenson not to risk life and the pit, by proceeding; but, confident in his lamp, he lighted the wick, and advanced. His companions declined to throw away their lives, and retired to a place of safety; the glimmering lamp and its dauntless contriver soon disappeared in the windings of the mine. Alone. he reached the spot in which the most fearful elements of destruction had been imprisoned, entered within the partition, and held out his lighted lamp where the noxious current was the strongest. The flame at first increased, then flickered and went out. He had produced a lamp which would light the miner while it was safe to work, and by its extinction warn him of his danger, when safety was at end. To this day it is doubted whether the "Geordy Lamp," the prior invention, be not preferable to the "Davy.'"

Resuming now the history of Stephenson's greatest achievement, it will be remembered that all the locomotives, excepting his, had been abandoned; and though his was kept at work daily, it was not at such a saving of expense as could lead to its general adoption. His next step was to diminish expense

by improving the road; then followed the contrivance of springs, which further facilitated the working of the huge machine. Amidst all difficulty and ridicule, the master-mind clung with undoubting faith to the certainty of eventual success.

In 1819, the owners of the Hetton Colliery, in the county of Durham, resolved to have their waggon-way, about eight miles in length, altered into a locomotive railroad, and Stephenson was appointed engineer. It was opened on the 18th of November, 1822, amidst crowds of spectators, five engines of his manufacture being at work upon it, which moved about four miles an hour, each engine drawing after it sixty-four tons weight. The experiment was perfectly decisive as to the value of the locomotive for the traction of heavy goods, where the traffic was great, and a nearly level road could be secured; but the way was by no means clear to its adoption for the transit of general merchandise, much less of passengers.

Edward

While the Hetton road was being formed, a far more important project was also advancing to completion, namely, the Stockton and Darlington Railway for the use of the public. The history of the undertaking has the charm of a romance. Its originator was one of that rapidly diminishing class of men, whose attire and creed seem to separate them from the sordid and even material interests of the present world, and to belong rather to the monastery than the exchange; but who are found in practice to be, in mercantile energy, and sharpness, and success, second to none. Pease discerned in 1817, the desirableness of a railroad from the neighbourhood of Darlington to Stockton, his main object being the delivery of coals along the line of the road. Not twenty shares were subscribed for in Stockton; but, influenced by Mr. Pease, the Quakers took up the project, and in 1818, a bill was before Parliament. The proposed line ran near one of the Duke of Cleveland's fox covers; and, for that reason, the noble duke opposed, and just succeeded in defeating the measure. In 1819, the sturdy projectors were ready with another bill for a line, so altered as to leave the foxes undisturbed; but the turnpike-road trustees raised an alarm of the total ruin of their trusts; whereupon Mr. Pease issued a notice, offering to buy up their securities, or any of them, at the original price; and so that clamour was hushed. In January, 1820, George III. died, and the proceedings were suspended. On the 19th of April, 1821, the bill passed. Stephenson still, to use his own words, "only the engine-wright at Killingworth," introduced himself to Mr. Pease, roundly told him that locomotives would entirely supersede all horse- power upon railroads, and strongly urged him to adopt them on his projected

line. "Come over," said he, "to Killingworth, and see what my Blucher' can do; seeing is believing, sir." The sharpsighted Quaker discerned in the applicant the man he wanted; and employed him, first to make a new survey, and afterwards to construct the road. As the time for the opening approached, an eager discussion arose whether horse-power, fixed engines, or locomotives, should be employed. Mr. Pease, influenced by the engineer, induced the directors to give the locomotive a trial; and three engines were ordered for the purpose of Stephenson and Co. On an experimental trip they were found capable of running from twelve to fifteen miles an hour; but were better fitted for the slow and heavy work for which they had been built. The day of opening approached, but previously to its arrival, Stephenson, accompanied by his son and John Dixon, made a survey of the works, and then went to an inn at Stockport to dine; where he adopted the very unusual measure of ordering a bottle of wine, to drink success to the railway. To this select audience, he made this remarkable speech:

"Now, lads, I will tell you that I think you will live to see the day, though I may not live so long, when railways will come to supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this countrywhen mail coaches will go by railway, and railroads will become the great highway for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great and almost insurmountable difficulties that will have to be encountered; but what I have said will come to pass as sure as we live. I only wish I may live to see the day, though that I can scarcely hope for, as I know how slow all human progress is, and with what difficulty I have been able to get the locomotive adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years' successful experiment at Killingworth." -Pp. 196, 197.

The 27th of September, 1825, was the day of opening. The assembly to witness it was immense. Some were there to gratify curiosity, some to rejoice in the event, some to see the bubble burst.

"The train consisted of six waggons, loaded with coals and flour; after these was the passenger coach, filled with the directors and their friends, and then twenty-one waggons fitted up with temporary seats for passengers; and, lastly, came six waggon-loads of coals, making in all a train of thirty-eight vehicles. The signal being given, the train started, and it accomplished the first eight and threequarter miles in sixty-five minutes. The arrival at Stockton excited deep interest and admiration."-P. 198.

The success was decisive. A passenger and goods traffic

sprung up immediately; and in a set race between the engine "Active," and one of the regular stage coaches, "Active" won the race by about a hundred yards.

During the progress of the bill for the formation of this road, a curious incident occurred, showing the helplessness of the poor, through their want of representatives in Parliament; the tricks which even the best of our legislators will play, and the manner in which cunning often defeats itself. Mr. Lambton, afterwards Earl of Durham, held extensive colliery property near Stockton, and was anxious to guard against competition with the collieries near Darlington; and he, therefore, got inserted into the bill a clause, forbidding more than a half-penny a ton per mile to be charged on any coal brought along the line, to Stockton, for shipment; neither he, nor any one else, dreaming that its conveyance at that rate was, or ever would be, possible. His object was to establish a monopoly at the expense of the public-and he had his reward. The half-penny rate proved the vital element in the success of the railway; and in the course of a few years, the annual shipment of coal from it exceeded five hundred thousand tons.

This line was worked partly by horses, partly by fixed engines, and partly by locomotives. The passenger traffic was very rudely provided for, and did not create any general hope of the substitution of locomotives for coaches. For that, the last and crowning achievement, we have to look to the next great railway project.

The very pressing want of some improved means for the transit of merchandise, between Liverpool and Manchester, led the enterprising merchants of those towns to form a company for the construction of a double line of railway between them. A deputation was sent to Killingworth, to inspect the working of the railroad there, and they reported favourably of the locomotives, both for economy and speed. Stephenson was appointed surveyor; and when, despite the most pertinacious and annoying opposition, he had completed his survey, he was called as a witness before a committee of the House of Commons, and tormented by a three days' cross-examination, conducted by men trained to the art of perplexing witnesses, and hired to defeat the purpose he had most at heart. The bill was lost, poor Stephenson being made the butt of ridicule by the leading counsel, and stigmatized as an ignoramus, a fool, and even a maniac; though he was the only man present, and indeed the only man in the world, who understood the business for which that committee had been convened. Thoroughly honest, and, as to railroads, the wise man of all the earth, he lacked two things on which-humbling as the