GEORGE STEPHENSON. GR EORGE STEPHENSON, the eminent railway engineer, was born at the colliery village of Wylam, about eight miles west of Newcastle-on-Tyne, on the 9th of June, 1781. He was the second son of very poor, but very industrious, respectable, and amiable parents. His father had employment at Wylam as fireman of the pumping engine at the village colliery, close to which the family occupied a cottage, which stood beside the wooden tramway on which the coal-wagons were drawn by horses from the coal pit to the loading quay. George Stephenson's first employment was, at the age of eight, to keep the cows of a widow named Ainslie, who occupied a neighboring farm-house. The bent of his mind appears even then to have exhibited itself, for it is recorded of him, that "his favorite amusement was erecting clay engines, in conjunction with his chosen playmate, Tom Tholoway. They found the clay for their engines in the adjoining bog, and the hemlock, which grew about, sup * This sketch, derived from the" Quarterly Review," is chiefly an abstract of the valuable "Life of George Stephenson by Samuel Smiles," most of the narrative being in his words. 55 plied them with abundance of imaginary steam pipes." At the age of fourteen, he was taken on as an assistant to his father in firing the engine, a promotion which he had anxiously desired, for," since he had modeled his clay engines in the bog, his young ambition was to be a fireman.". A new coal-pit being opened on the Duke of Newcastle's. property, at a place called Water-row, George Stephenson, at the age of seventeen, was ap pointed to act as its plugman. "The duty of the plugman was to watch the engine and to see that it kept well in work, and that the pumps were efficient in drawing the water. When the water-level in the pit was lowered, and the suction became incomplete through the exposure of the suction holes, then his business was to proceed to the bot tom of the shaft, and plug the tube so that the pump should draw: hence the designation of plugman. If a stoppage in the engine took place through any defect in it which he was incapable of remedying, then it was his duty to call in the aid of the chief engineer of the colliery to set the engine to rights. But from the time when George Stephenson was appointed fireman, and more (433) particularly afterwards as engine-man, a small cottage at Willington Quay, he devoted himself so assiduously and near Wallsend, where he got an apso successfully to the study of the en-pointment as brakesman to an engine. gine and its gearing-taking the ma- It was here that his son, Robert, was chine to pieces in his leisure hours for born, and within a twelvemonth after, the purpose of cleaning and mastering Mrs. Stephenson died, to the great af its various parts-that he very soon fliction of her husband, who long conacquired a thorough practical knowl- tinued to cherish her memory. edge of its construction and mode of working, and thus he very rarely need ed to call to his aid the engineer of the colliery. His engine became a sort of pet with him, and he was never weary of watching and inspecting it with devoted admiration.' At this time he was wholly uneducated. There was a night-school in the village, kept by a poor teacher, and this school he determined to attend. He took a particular fancy to figures, and improved his hours by the engineside in solving the problems set him by his master, and working out new ones of his own. By the time he was nineteen he had learnt under the village dominie to read correctly, and "was proud to be able to write his own name." At the age of twenty, when he was acting as brakesman of an engine at Black Callerton, his wages being about eighteen shillings a week, he formed an attachment for a respectable young woman, named Fanny Henderson, a servant in a neighboring farm-house. His means, however, not permitting him to marry, he began to make and mend the shoes of his fellow workmen, an occupation by which he contrived to save his first guinea. He expressed an opinion to a friend, that he was "now a rich man," and the next year he married Fanny Henderson, and furnished At this time all was distress with him; his father met with an accident, by which he lost his eyesight, and was otherwise injured; the condition of the working classes was very discouraging, in consequence of high prices and heavy taxation; George himself was drawn for the militia, and had to pay a heavy sum of money to provide a substitute. He was almost in despair and contemplated the idea of emigrating to America. "But his poverty prevented him from prosecuting the idea, and rooted him to the place where he afterwards worked out his career." Conscious of the disadvantages arising from want of instruction, George Stephenson determined that his boy should be taught, as soon as he was of an age to go to school. Many years after, speaking of the resolution which he thus early formed, he said, "In the earlier period of my career, 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 night, after my daily labor was done, and thus I procured the means of educating my son." But his career was now about to take a turn. He had marked the details of the machine under his guidance, and he only wanted an opportunity to turn his practical knowledge to account. That opportunity soon presented itself. The lessees of the Killingworth Colliery had re-erected an engine, made by Smeaton, for the purpose of pumping the water from the shaft. From some cause or other the engine failed. Nobody could make it work, and George Stephenson, like many others in the neigh borhood, had examined it. One Saturday afternoon he went over to the High Pit to examine the engine more carefully than he had yet done. He had been turning the subject over in his mind; and after a long examination, he seemed to satisfy himself as to the cause of the failure. Kit Heppel, who was a sinker at the pit, said to him: Weel, George, what do you mak' o' her? Do you think you could do anything to improve her?" "Man," said George in reply, "I could alter her and make her draw; in a week's time from this I could send you to the bottom." Forthwith Heppel reported this conversation to Ralph Dods, the head viewer; and Dods, being now quite in despair, and hopeless of succeeding with the engine, determined to give George's skill a trial. The next day Stephenson entered on his labors. The engine was taken entirely to pieces. The repairs occupied about four days, and by the following Wednesday the engine was carefully put together again and set to work. It was kept pumping all Thursday, and by the Friday afternoon the pit was cleared of water, and the workmen were "sent to the bottom," as Stephenson had promised. George Stephenson received ten pounds as a present, and was appointed engine-man to the Killingworth engine at good wages. His skill as an engine doctor became noised abroad, and he was called on to cure all the old, wheezy and ineffective pumping machines in the district. He soon beat the "regular" engineers, though they treated him as a quack. In 1812, the colliery engine-wright at Killingworth having been accidentally killed, George Stephenson was appointed to succeed him at a salary of one hundred pounds a year, and the use of a horse-and now he was on the high road to fortune. The idea of applying steam power to the propulsion of wheel carriages had occupied the attention of many inventors from the time of Watt. The earlier notions all resolved themselves into its application to carriages on ordinary roads. Trevethick appears to have been the first to put together the two ideas of the steam horse and the iron way. In 1804, he constructed an engine to pass along a tram-way at Merthyr Tydvil, but although it suc ceeded in dragging after it several wagons containing ten tons of iron, at the rate of five miles an hour, this engine proved a failure, and was speedily abandoned in consequence chiefly of the imaginary notion, which Trevethick adopted, that a smooth-wheeled engine would not "grip" or "bite," upon a smooth rail. Trevethick subsequently made two other engines on the same principle for Mr. Blackett, the owner of the Wylam Colliery, on which George Stephenson was born. The first of these was never used at all, and the second, having been put upon the road with infinite labor, would not move an inch, but flew to pieces when the machinery was set in motion. This was in 1812. In 1813, Mr. Blackett, continuing his experiments, built an engine of his own, which "crept along at a snail's pace, sometimes taking six hours to travel the five miles down to the loading place. It was also very apt to get off the rail and then it stuck. On these occasions the horses had to be sent out to drag on the wagons as before." Whilst Mr. Blackett was thus experimenting, to the amusement of his friends, who pronounced that his machines would "never answer," George Stephenson was directing his attention to the best means of effecting some economy in the haulage of coal from the Killingworth Collieries to the river side. The high price of corn rendered the maintenance of horses very expensive, and with a view to save the keep of as many as possible, he laid down inclined planes, where the nature of the ground permitted, and let down his loaded coal wagons by a rope, of which the other end was attached to a train of empty wagons on a parallel incline. The rope ran upon wheels fastened to the tram-road. But this plan did not satisfy him. He recurred to the idea of a locomotive, and determined to go over to Wylam and see Mr. Blackett's "Black Billy." After mastering its arrangements, he declared "his full conviction that he could make a better engineone that would draw steadier and work more cheaply and effectively." He proceeded to bring the subject under the notice of the Killingworth lessees, and Lord Ravensworth, the principal partner, having formed a very favorable opinion of him, authorized him to construct a locomotive, and promised to advance the money for the purpose. In defiance of the theoretical difficulty which had possessed the mind of Trevethick, he made all its wheels smooth, and it was the first engine which was so constructed. It was placed on the Killingworth railroad, on the 25th of July, 1814, and its powers were tried the same day. "On an ascending gradient of 1 in 450, it succeeded in drawing after it eight loaded carriages, of thirty tons weight, at about four miles an hour; and for some time after it continued regularly at work." When this engine was put upon the rail, Mr. Stephenson was almost the only person who had implicit faith in the contrivance. Mr. Blackett's engines at Wylam were believed to be working at a loss; the machines tried elsewhere had proved failures, and had been abandoned; and even the colliery owners, who were supposed to be the only persons who could possibly profit by them, were not generally favorable to locomotive traction, and were not given to encourage experiments. "Stephenson alone remained in the field, after all the improvers and inventors of the locomotive had abandoned it in despair. He continued to entertain the most confident expectations as to its eventual success. He even went so far as to say that it would yet supersede every other tractive power." His whole thoughts were now em |