CHAPTER VI. INVENTION OF THE JORDY SAFETY LAMP. Explosions of fire-damp were unusually frequent in the coal mines of Northumberland and Durham about the time when George Stevenson was engaged in the construction of his first locomotives. These explosions were often attended with fearful loss of life and dreadful suffering to the work-people. Killing with colliery was not free from such deplorable calamities, and during the time that Stevenson was employed as a breaksman at the Westmore, several blasts took place in the pit by which many workmen were scorched and killed, and the owners of the colliery sustained heavy losses. One of the most serious of these accidents occurred in 1806, not long after he had been appointed breaksman, by which ten persons were killed. Stevenson was working at the mouth of the pit at the time, and the circumstances connected with the accident made a deep impression on his mind. Another explosion took place in the same pit in 1809 by which twelve persons lost their lives. The blast did not reach the shaft, as in the former case, the unfortunate persons in the pit having been suffocated by the after-damp. More calamitous still were the explosions which took place in the neighbouring collieries, one of the worst being that of 1812 in the felling pit near Gateshead, by which no fewer than ninety men and boys were suffocated or burnt to death, and a similar accident occurred in the same pit in the year following by which twenty-two persons perished. It was natural that George Stevenson should devote his attention to the causes of these deplorable accidents, and to the means by which they might, if possible, be prevented. His daily occupation led him to think much and deeply on the subject, as engine right of a colliery so extensive as that of Killingworth, where there were nearly a hundred and sixty miles of gallery excavation in which he personally superintended the working of the inclined planes along which the coals were sent to the pit entrance, he was necessarily very often underground, and brought face to face with the dangers of fire-damp. From fishers in the roofs of the galleries, carbureted hydrogen gas was constantly flowing. In some of the more dangerous places it might be heard escaping from the crevices of the coal with a hissing noise. Ventilation, firing, and all conceivable modes of drawing out the foul air had been adopted, and the more dangerous parts of the galleries were built up. Still the danger could not be wholly prevented. The miners must necessarily guide their steps through the extensive underground ways with lighted lamps or candles, the naked flame of which, coming into contact with the inflammable air, daily exposed them and their fellow workers in the pit to the risk of death in one of its most dreadful forms. One day in 1814 a workman hurried into Stevenson's cottage with the startling information that the deepest main of the colliery was on fire. He immediately hastened to the pithead, about a hundred yards off, whether the women and children of the colliery were running, with wildness and terror depicted in every face. In a commanding voice Stevenson ordered the engineman to lower him down to shaft in the corv. There was peril, it might be death before him, but he must go. He was soon at the bottom, and in the midst of the men, who were paralysed by the danger which threatened the lives of all in the pit. Leaping from the corv on its touching the ground, he called out, are there six men among you who have the courage to follow me? If so, come, and we will put the fire out. The killingwith pithman had the most perfect confidence in their engine right, and they readily volunteered to follow him. Silence succeeded the frantic tumult of the previous minute, and the men set to work with a will. In every mine, bricks, mortar, and tools enough are at hand, and by Stevenson's direction the materials were forthwith carried to the required spot, where, in a very short time a wall was raised at the entrance to the main, he himself taking the most active part in the work. The atmospheric air was by this means excluded, the fire was extinguished, the people were saved from death, and the mine was preserved. This anecdote of Stevenson was related to the writer, near the pit mouth, by one of the men who had been present, and helped to build up the brick wall by which the fire was stayed, though several workmen were suffocated. He related that when down the pit, some days after, seeking out the dead bodies, the cause of the accident was the subject of conversation, and Stevenson was asked, Can nothing be done to prevent such awful occurrences? His reply was that he thought something might be done. Then, said the other, the sooner you start the better, for the price of coal mining now is pitman's lives. Fifty years since, many of the best pits were so full of the inflammable gas given forth by the coal, that they could not be worked without the greatest danger, and for this reason some were altogether abandoned. The rudest possible methods were adopted of producing light sufficient to enable the pitman to work by. The phosphorescence of decayed fish skins was tried, but this, though safe, was very inefficient. The most common method employed was what was called a steel mill, the notched wheel of which, being made to revolve against a flint, struck a succession of sparks, which scarcely served to do more than make the darkness visible. A boy carried the apparatus after the miner, working the wheel, and by the imperfect light thus given, he plied his dangerous trade. Candles were only used in those parts of the pit where gas was not abundant. Under this rude system, not more than one-third of the coal could be worked, and two-thirds were left. What the workman, not less than the coal-learners, eagerly desired, was a lamp that should give forth sufficient light without communicating flame to the inflammable gas which accumulated in certain parts of the pit. Something had already been attempted towards the invention of such a lamp by Dr. Clanny of Sunderland, who, in 1813, contrived an apparatus to which he gave air from the mine through water by means of bellows. This lamp went out of itself in inflammable gas. It was found, however, too unwieldy to be used by the miners for the purpose of their work, and did not come into general use. A committee of gentlemen was formed to investigate the causes of the explosions and to devise, if possible, some means of preventing them. At the invitation of that committee Sir Humphrey Davy, then in the full zenith of his reputation, was requested to turn his attention to the subject. He accordingly visited the collieries near Newcastle on the 24th of August, 1815, and on the 9th of November following he read before the Royal Society of London his celebrated paper on the fire-damp of coal mines and on methods of lighting the mine so as to prevent its explosion. But a humbler, though not less diligent and original thinker, had been at work before him, and had already practically solved the problem of the safety lamp. Sir Humphrey Davinson was, of course, well aware of the anxiety which prevailed in the colliery district as to the invention of a lamp which should give light enough for the miners to work by without exploding the fire-damp. The painful incidents above described only served to quicken his eagerness to master the difficulty. For several years he had been engaged in his own rude way in making experiments with the fire-damp in the killing with mine. The Fitman used to expostulate with him on these occasions, believing his experiments to be fraught with danger. One of the sinkers, observing him holding up lighted candles to the windward of the blower or fissure from which the inflammable gas escaped, entreated him to desist. But Stevenson's answer was that he was busy with the plan by which he hoped to make his experiments useful for preserving men's lives. On these occasions the miners usually got out of the way before he lit the gas. In 1815, although he was very much occupied with the business of the collieries and the improvement of his locomotive engine, he was also busily engaged in making experiments upon inflammable gas in the killing with Pit. According to the explanation afterwards given by him, he imagined that if he could construct a lamp with the chimney so arranged as to cause a strong current, it would not fire at the top of the chimney, as the burned air would ascend with such a velocity as to prevent the inflammable air of the pit from descending towards the flame. And such a lamp, he thought, might be taken into a dangerous atmosphere without risk of exploding. Such was Stevenson's theory when he proceeded to embody his idea of a minor safety lamp in a practical form. In the month of August 1815 he requested his friend Nicholas Wood, the head viewer, to prepare a drawing of a lamp according to the description which he gave him. After several evenings' careful deliberation, the drawing was made and shown to several of the head men about the works. Stevenson proceeded to order a lamp to be made by a Newcastle Tinman according to his plan, and at the same time he directed a glass to be made for the lamp at the Northumberland Glass House. Both were received by him from the makers on the 21st of October, and the lamp was taken to Killingworth for the purpose of immediate experiment. "'I remember that evening as distinctly as if it had been but yesterday,' said Robert Stevenson, describing the circumstances to the author in 1857. Moody came to our cottage about dusk and asked if father had got back yet with the lamp. "'No. Then I'll wait till he comes,' said Moody. "'He can't be long now.' In about half an hour in came my father, his face all radiant. He had the lamp with him. It was at once uncovered and shown to Moody. Then he was filled with oil, trimmed and lighted. All was ready. Only the head-viewer hadn't arrived. "'Run over to Benton for Nicol, Robert,' said my father to me, and ask him to come directly. Say we're going down the pit to try the lamp. By this time it was quite dark, and off I ran to bring Nicol as wood. His house was at Benton about a mile off. There was a short cut through the churchyard, but just as I was about to pass the wicket, I saw what I thought was a white figure moving about among the gravestones. I took it for a ghost. My heart fluttered, and I was in a great fright. But towards house I must get, so I made the circuit of the churchyard, and when I got round to the other side I looked and, no, this figure was still there. But what do you think it was? Only the gravedigger, applying his work at that late hour by the light of his lantern set upon one of the gravestones, I found wood at home, and in a few minutes he was mounted and off to my father's. When I got back I was told they had just left. It was then about 11, and gone down the shaft to try the lamp in one of the most dangerous parts of the mine. Arrived at the bottom of the shaft with the lamp, the party directed their steps towards one of the foulest galleries in the pit, where the explosive gas was issuing through a blower in the roof of the mine with a loud hissing noise. By erecting some deal boarding round that part of the gallery into which the gas was escaping, the air was made more foul for the purpose of the experiment. After waiting about an hour, Moody, whose practical experience of fire-damping pits was greater than that of either Stephenson or Wood, was requested to go into the place which had thus been made foul, and having done so he returned and told them that the smell of the air was such that if a lighted candle were now introduced, an explosion must inevitably take place. He cautioned Stephenson as to the danger both to themselves and to the pit, if the gas took fire. But Stephenson declared his confidence in the safety of his lamp, and having lit the wick, he boldly proceeded with it towards the explosive air. The others, more timid and doubtful, hung back when they came within hearing of the blower, and apprehensive of the danger, they retired into a safe place, out of sight of the lamp, which gradually disappeared with its bearer in the recesses of the mine. Advancing to the place of danger, and entering within the fouled air, his lighted lamp in hand, Stephenson held it finally out in the full current of the blower, and within a few inches of its mouth. Thus exposed, the flame of the lamp at first increased, then flickered, and then went out, but there was no explosion of the gas. Returning to his companions, who were still at a distance, he told them what had occurred. Having now acquired somewhat more confidence, they advanced with him to a point from which they could observe him repeat his experiment, but still at a safe distance. They saw that when the lighted lamp was held within the explosive mixture, there was a great flame. The lamp became almost full of fire, and then it smothered out. Again returning to his companions, he relighted the lamp, and repeated the experiment several times with the same result. At length, Wood and Moody ventured to advance close to the fouled part of the pit, and in making some of the later trials, Mr. Wood himself held up the lighted lamp to the blower. Before leaving the pit, Stephenson expressed his opinion that by an alteration of the lamp which he then contemplated, he could make it burn better. This was by a change in the slide through which the air was admitted into the lower part under the flame. After making some experiments on the air collected at the blower, by bladders which were mounted with tubes of various diameters, he satisfied himself that when the tube was reduced to a certain diameter, the foul air would not pass through, and he fashioned his slide accordingly, reducing the diameter of the tube until he conceived it was quite safe. In about a fortnight, the experiments were repeated in a place purposely made foul as before. On this occasion a larger number of persons ventured to witness them, and they again proved successful. The lamp was not yet, however, so efficient as the inventor desired. It required he observed to be kept very steady when burning in the inflammable gas, otherwise it was liable to go out. In consequence, as he imagined, of the contact of the burnt air, as he then called it, or azotic gas, which lodged round the exterior of the flame. If the lamp was moved horizontally, the azote came in contact with the flame and extinguished it. It struck me, he said, that if I put more tubes in, I should discharge the poisonous matter that hung round the flame by admitting the air to its exterior part. Although he had then no access to scientific books, nor into course with scientific men, nor anything that could assist him in his investigation, besides his own indefatigable spirit of inquiry, he contrived a rude apparatus by which he tested the explosive properties of the gas and the velocity of current, for this was the direction of his inquiries, necessary to enable the explosive gas to pass through tubes of different diameters. In making these experiments in his humble cottage at the West Moor, Nicholas Wood and George's son Robert naturally acted as his assistants, and sometimes the gentlemen of the neighbourhood interested in coal mining attended as spectators. These experiments were not performed without risk, for on one occasion the experimenting party had nearly blown off the roof of the cottage. One of these blow-ups was described by Stephenson himself before the Committee on Accidents in Coal Mines in 1835. I made several experiments, said he, as to the velocity required in tubes of different diameters to prevent explosion from fire-damp. We made the mixtures in all proportions of light carbureted hydrogen with atmospheric air in the receiver, and we found by the experiments that when a current of the most explosive mixture that we could make was forced up a tube four-tenths of an inch in diameter, the necessary current was nine inches in the second to prevent it coming down that tube. These experiments were repeated several times. We had two or three blows up in making the experiments by the flame getting down into the receiver, though we had a piece of very fine wire gauze put at the bottom of the pipe between the receiver and the pipe through which we were forcing the current. In one of these experiments I was watching the flame in the tube, my son was taking the vibrations of the pendulum of the clock, and Mr Wood was attending to give me the column of water as I called it to keep the current up to a certain point. As I saw the flame descending in the tube I called for more water, and Wood unfortunately turned the cock the wrong way. The current ceased, the flame went down the tube, and all our implements were blown to pieces, which at the time we were not very able to replace. Stevenson followed up those experiments by others of a similar kind, with the view of ascertaining whether ordinary flame would pass through tubes of a small diameter, and with this object he filed off the barrels of several small keys. Placing these together he held them perpendicularly over a strong flame, an ascertained that it did not pass upward. This was a further proof to him of the soundness of the course he was pursuing. In order to correct the defect of his first lamp he resolved to alter it so as to admit the air to the flame by several tubes of reduced diameter instead of by a single tube. He inferred that a sufficient quantity of air would thus be introduced into the lamp for the purposes of combustion, while the smallness of the apertures would still prevent the explosive gas passing downwards at the same time that the burnt air, the cause in his opinion of the lamp going out, would be more effectually dislodged. He accordingly took the lamp to a tinman in Newcastle, and had it altered so that the air was admitted by three small tubes inserted in the bottom of the lamp, the openings of which were placed on the outside of the burner instead of having, as in the original lamp, the one tube opening directly under the flame. The second or altered lamp was tried in the Killingworth pit on the fourth of November, and was found to burn better than the first, and to be perfectly safe. But as it did not yet quite come up to the inventor's expectations, he proceeded to contrive a third lamp, in which he proposed to surround the oil vessel with the number of capillary tubes. Then it struck him that if he cut off the middle of the tubes, or made holes in metal plates, placed at a distance from each other, equal to the length of the tubes, the air would get in better, and the effect in preventing explosion would be the same. He was encouraged to persevere in the completion of his safety lamp by the occurrence of several fatal accidents about this time in the Killingworth pit. On the ninth of November a boy was killed by a blast in the A-pit at the very place where Stevenson had made the experiments with his first lamp, and when told of the accident he observed that if the boy had been provided with his lamp his life would have been saved. On the twentieth of November he went over to Newcastle to order his third lamp from a plumber in that town. The plumber referred him to his clerk, whom Stevenson invited to join him at a neighbouring public house, where they might quietly talk over the matter, and finally settle the plan of the new lamp. They adjourned to the Newcastle arms, near the present high-level bridge, where they had some ale, and a design of the lamp was drawn in pencil upon a half-sheet of fool's cap, with a rough specification subjoined. The sketch, when shown to us by Robert Stevenson some years since, still bore the marks of the ale. It was a very rude design, but sufficient to work from. It was immediately placed in the hands of the workmen, finished in the course of a few days, and experimentally tested in the Killingworth pit, like the previous lamps, on the thirtieth of November. At that time neither Stevenson nor Wood had heard of Sir Humphrey Davies' experiments, nor of the lamp which that gentleman proposed to construct. An angry controversy afterwards took place as to the respective merits of George Stevenson and Sir Humphrey Davy in respect of the invention of the safety lamp. A committee was formed on both sides, and the fact was stated in various ways. It is perfectly clear, however, that Stevenson had ascertained the fact that flame will not pass through tubes of a certain diameter, the principle on which the safety lamp is constructed, before Sir Humphrey Davy had formed any definite idea on the subject, or invented the model lamp, afterwards exhibited by him, before the royal society. Stevenson had actually constructed a lamp on such a principle, and proved its safety before Sir Humphrey had communicated his views on the subject to any person, and by the time that the first public intimation had been given of his discovery, Stevenson's second lamp had been constructed and tested in like manner in the killing with Pitt. The first was tried on the twenty-first of October, eighteen fifteen, the second was tried on the fourth of November, but it was not until the ninth of November that Sir Humphrey Davy presented his first lamp to the public, and by the thirtieth of the same month, as we have seen, Stevenson had constructed and tested his third safety lamp. Stevenson's theory of the burnt air and the draft was no doubt wrong, but his lamp was right, and that was the great fact which mainly concerned him. Torish Elly did not know the rationale of his tube, nor Otto Gurica, that of his air-pump, yet no one thinks of denying then the merit of their inventions on that account. The discoveries of Volta and Galvani were in like manner independent of theory, the greatest discoveries consisting in bringing to light certain grand facts on which theories are afterwards framed. Our inventor had been pursuing the Baconian method, though he did not think of that, but of inventing a safe lamp which he knew could only be done through the process of repeated experiment. He experimented upon the fire-damp at the blowers in the mine, and also by means of the apparatus which was blown up in his cottage as above described by himself. By experiment he distinctly ascertained that the explosion of fire-damp could not pass through small tubes, and he also did what had not before been done by any inventor. He constructed a lamp on this principle and repeatedly proved its safety at the risk of his life. At the same time there is no doubt that it was, to Sir Humphrey Davy, that the merit belonged of having pointed out the true law on which the safety lamp is constructed. The subject of this important invention excited so much interest in the northern mining districts, and Stevens and numerous friends considered his lamp so completely successful, having stood the test of repeated experiments, that they urged him to bring his invention before the philosophical and literary society of Newcastle of whose apparatus he had availed himself in the course of his experiments on fire-damp. After much persuasion he consented, and a meeting was appointed for the purpose of receiving his explanations on the evening of the 5th of December, 1815. Stevenson was at that time so diffident in manner and unpracticed in speech, that he took with him his friend Nicholas Wood to act as his interpreter and expositor on the occasion. From eighty to a hundred of the most intelligent members of the society were present at the meeting, when Mr. Wood stood forward to expound the principles on which the lamp had been formed, and to describe the details of its construction. Several questions were put to which Mr. Wood proceeded to give replies to the best of his knowledge, but Stevenson, who up to that time had stood behind Wood, screened from his notice, observing that the explanations given were not quite correct, could no longer control his reserve, and standing forward he proceeded in his strong Northumbrian dialect to describe the lamp, down to its minutest details. He then produced several bladders full of carbureted hydrogen, which he had collected from the blowers in the Killingworth Mine, and proved the safety of his lamp by numerous experiments with the gas, repeated in various ways. His earnest and impressive manner, exciting in the minds of his auditors, the liveliest interest, both in the inventor and his invention. Shortly after, Sir H. Davies' model lamp was received and exhibited to the coal miners at Newcastle, on which occasion the observation was made by several gentlemen, by it is the same as Stevenson's. Notwithstanding Stevenson's claim to be regarded as the first inventor of the tube safety lamp, his merits do not seem to have been generally recognized, and Sir Humphrey Davies carried off the largest share of the eclah which attached to the discovery. What chance had the unknown workman of Killingworth with so distinguished a competitor? The one was as yet but a colliery engine, right? Scarce raised above the manual labour class, pursuing his experiments in obscurity with a view only to usefulness. The other was the scientific prodigy of his day, the most brilliant of lecturers, and the most popular of philosophers. No small indignation was expressed by the friends of Sir Humphrey Davies at Stevenson's presumption in laying claim to the invention of the safety lamp. In 1831 Dr. Paris in his Life of Sir Humphrey Davies thus wrote, It will hereafter be scarcely believed that an invention so eminently scientific and which could never have been derived but from the sterling treasury of science should have been claimed on behalf of an engine right of Killingworth of the name of Stevenson, a person not even possessing a knowledge of the elements of chemistry. But Stevenson was far above claiming for himself any invention not his own. He had already accomplished a far greater feat than the making of a safety lamp. He had constructed a successful locomotive which was to be seen in daily work on the Killingworth Railway. By the improvements he had made in the engine he might almost be said to have invented it. But no one, not even the philosophers, detected the significance of that wonderful machine. What railways were to become rested in a great measure with that engine right of Killingworth of the name of Stevenson? Though he was scarcely known as yet beyond the bounds of his own district. As to the value of the invention of the safety lamp there could be no doubt and the colliery owners of Durham and Northumberland, to testify their sense of its importance, determined to present a testimonial to its inventor. The friends of Sir Humphrey Davies met in August 1816 to take steps for raising a subscription for the purpose. The advertised object of the meeting was to present him with a reward for the invention of his safety lamp. To this no objection could be taken, for though the principle on which the safety lamps of Stevenson and Davies were constructed was the same. And although Stevenson's lamp was unquestionably the first successful lamp that had been constructed on such a principle and proved to be efficient, yet Sir Humphrey Davies did invent a safety lamp, no doubt quite independent of all that Stevenson had done, and having directed his careful attention to the subject and elucidated the true theory of explosion of carbureted hydrogen, he was entitled to all praise and reward for his labours. But when the meeting of co-owners proposed to raise a subscription for the purpose of presenting Sir Humphrey Davies with a reward for his invention of THE safety lamp, the case was entirely altered, and Stevenson's friends then proceeded to assert his claims to be regarded as its first inventor. Many meetings took place on the subject, and much discussion ensued, the result of which was that a sum of two thousand pounds was presented to Sir Humphrey Davies, the inventor of the safety lamp, but at the same time a purse of one hundred guineas was voted to George Stevenson in consideration of what he had done in the same direction. This result was, however, very unsatisfactory to Stevenson as well as to his friends, and Mr. Brandling of Gosforth suggested to him that the subject being now fairly before the public he should publish a statement of the facts on which his claim was founded. This was not at all in George's line. He had never appeared in print, and it seemed to him a more formidable thing to write a letter for the papers than to invent a safety lamp or design a locomotive. However, he called to his aid his son Robert, set him down before a sheet of fool's cap, and told him to put down there just what I tell you. The composition of this letter, as we were informed by the writer of it, occupied more evenings than one, and when it was at length finished, after many corrections and fairly copied out, the father and son set out, the latter dressed in his Sunday's round jacket, to lay the joint production before Mr. Brandling at Gosforth House. Glancing over the letter, Mr. Brandling said, George, this will never do. It's all true, sir, was the reply. That may be, but it is badly written. Robert blushed, for he thought the penmanship was called in question, and he had written his best. Mr. Brandling, however, revised the letter, which was shortly after published in the local journals. Stevenson's friends, fully satisfied of his claims to priority, as the inventor of the safety lamp used in the Killingworth and other collieries, held a public meeting for the purpose of presenting him with a reward for the valuable service he had thus rendered to mankind. A subscription was immediately commenced with this object, and a committee was formed, consisting of the Earl of Strathmore, C. J. Brandling, and others. The subscriptions, when collected, amounted to a thousand pounds. Part of the money was devoted to the purchase of a silver tankard, which was presented to the inventor, together with the balance of the subscription, at a public dinner given in the assembly rooms at Newcastle. But what gave Stevenson even greater pleasure than the silver tankard and purse of sovereigns was the gift of a silver watch, purchased by small subscriptions among the colliers themselves, and presented by them as a token of their personal esteem and regard for him, as well as of their gratitude for the perseverance and skill with which he had prosecuted his valuable and life-saving invention to a successful issue. However great the merits of Stevenson, in connection with the invention of the tube safety lamp, they cannot be regarded as detracting from the reputation of Sir Humphrey Davy. His inquiries into the explosive properties of carbureted hydrogen gas were quite original, and his discovery of the fact that explosion will not pass through tubes of a certain diameter was made independently of all that Stevenson had done in verification of the same fact. It even appears that Mr. Smithson Tennant and Dr. Wooliston had observed the same facts several years before, though neither Stevenson nor Davy knew it while they were prosecuting their experiments. Sir Humphrey Davy's subsequent modification of the tube lamp, by which, while diminishing the diameter, he in the same ratio shortened the tubes without danger, and in the form of wire gores enveloping the safety lamp by a multiplicity of tubes, was a beautiful application of the true theory which he had formed upon the subject. The increased number of accidents which have occurred from explosions in coal mines since the general introduction of the Davy lamp have led to considerable doubts as to its safety, and to inquiries as to the means by which it may be further improved, for experience has shown that under certain circumstances the Davy lamp is not safe. Stevenson was himself of opinion that the modification of his own and Sir Humphrey Davy's lamp, combining the glass cylinder with the wire gores, was the most secure. At the same time it must be admitted that the Davy and Geordie lamps alike failed to stand the severe tests to which they were submitted by Dr. Pereira, before the committee on accidents in mines. Indeed, Dr. Pereira did not hesitate to say that when exposed to a current of explosive gas the Davy lamp is decidedly unsafe, and that the experiments by which its safety had been demonstrated in the lecture room had proved entirely fallacious. It is worthy of remark that under the circumstances in which the wire gores of the Davy lamp becomes red hot from the high explosiveness of the gas the Geordie lamp is extinguished, and we cannot but think that this fact testifies to the decided superior safety of the Geordie. An accident occurred in the Oaks colliery pit at Barnsley on the 20th of August 1857, which strikingly exemplified the respective qualities of the lamps. A sudden outburst of gas took place from the floor of the mine along a distance of fifty yards. Fortunately the men working in the pit at the time were all supplied with safety lamps, the hewers with Stevensons, and the hurriers with Davies. Upon this occasion the whole of the Stevensons lamps over a space of five hundred yards were extinguished almost instantaneously, whereas the Davy lamps were filled with fire and became red hot. So much so that several of the men using them had their hands burnt by the gores. Had a strong current of air been blowing through the gallery at the time an explosion would most probably have taken place. An accident which it will be observed could not under such circumstances occur from the use of the Geordie, which is immediately extinguished as soon as the air becomes explosive. Nicholas Wood, a good judge, has said of the two inventions. Priority has been claimed for each of them. I believe the inventions to be parallel. By different roads they have both arrived at the same result. Stevensons is the superior lamp. Davies is safe. Stevensons is safer. When the question of priority was under discussion at the studio of Mr. Lough, the sculptor in 1857, Sir Matthew White Ridley asks Robert Stevenson, who was present for his opinion on the subject. His answer was, I am not exactly the person to give you an unbiased opinion, but as you ask me frankly I will as frankly say that if George Stevenson had never lived, Sir Humphrey Davy could and most probably would have invented the safety lamp. But again, if Sir Humphrey Davy had never lived, George Stevenson certainly would have invented the safety lamp, as I believe he did, independent of all that Sir Humphrey Davy had ever done in the matter. End of Chapter Six Chapter Seven Of Lives of the Engineers George and Robert Stevenson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Andy Mentor Lives of the Engineers George and Robert Stevenson by Samuel Smiles Chapter Seven George Stevenson's further improvements in the locomotive, the Hetton Railway, Robert Stevenson as viewers, apprentice and student. Stevenson's experiments on fire-damp and his labours in connection with the invention of the safety lamp occupied but a small portion of his time, which was necessarily devoted for the most part to the ordinary business of the colliery. From the day of his appointment as engine-right, one of the subjects which particularly occupied his attention was the best practical method of winning and raising the coal. He was one of the first to introduce steam machinery underground with the latter of the object. Indeed, the Killingworth mines came to be regarded as the models of the district, the working arrangements generally being conducted in a skillful and efficient manner, reflecting the highest credit on the colliery engineer. Besides attending to the underground arrangements, the improved transit of the coals above ground from the pit-head to the shipping-place demanded an increasing share of his attention. Every day's experience convinced him that the locomotive constructed by him after his patent of the years 1815 was far from perfect, though he continued to entertain confident hopes of its eventual success. He even went so far as to say that the locomotive would yet supersede every other traction power for drawing heavy loads.  Nevertheless, it was daily performing its work with regularity, dragging the coal wagons between the colliery and the stithes, and saving the labour of many men and horses. There was not, however, so marked a saving in haulage as to induce the colliery masters to adopt locomotive power generally as a substitute for horses. How it could be improved and rendered more efficient as well as economical was constantly present to Stevenson's mind. At an early period of his labours, or about the time when he had completed his second locomotive, he began to direct his particular attention to the state of the road, as he perceived that the extended use of the locomotive must necessarily depend in a great measure upon the perfection, solidity, continuity, and smoothness of the way along which the engine travelled. Even at that early period he was in the habit of regarding the road and the locomotive as one machine, speaking of the rail and the wheel as man and wife. All railways were at that time laid in a careless and loose manner, and great inequalities of level were allowed to occur without much attention being paid to repairs. The consequence was a great loss of power, as well as much tear and wear of the machinery by the frequent jolts and blows of the wheels against the rails. His first object, therefore, was to remove the inequalities produced by the imperfect junction between rail and rail. At that time, in 1816, the rails were made of cast iron, each rail being about three feet long, and sufficient care was not taken to maintain the points of junction on the same level. The chairs or cast iron pedestals into which the rails were inserted were flat at the bottom, so that whenever any disturbance took place in the stone blocks or sleepers supporting them, the flat base of the chair upon which the rails rested, being tilted by unequal subsidence, the end of one rail became depressed, while that of the other was elevated. Hence constant jolts and shocks, the reaction of which very often caused the fracture of the rails, and occasionally threw the engine off the road. To remedy this imperfection, Mr. Stevenson devised a new chair, with an entirely new mode of fixing the rails therein. Instead of adopting the butt joint, which had hitherto been used in all cast iron rails, he adopted the half-flap joint, by which means the rails extended a certain distance over each other at the end, like a scarf joint. These ends, instead of resting upon the flat chair, were made to rest upon the apex of a curve forming the bottom of the chair. The supports were also extended from three feet to three feet nine inches, or four feet apart. These rails were accordingly substituted for the old cast iron plates on the Killingworth Culinary Railway, and they were found to be a very great improvement upon the previous system, adding both to the efficiency of the horsepower, still employed in working the railway, and to the smooth action of the locomotive engine, but more particularly increasing the efficiency of the latter. This improved form of rail and chair was embodied in a patent taken out in the joint names of Mr. Loche of Newcastle, iron founder, and of Mr. Stevenson, bearing date 30th of September 1816. Mr. Loche, being a wealthy enterprising iron manufacturer, and having confidence in George Stevenson and his improvements, found the money for the purpose of taking out the patent, which in those days was a very costly, as well as troublesome, affair. The specification of the same patent also described various important improvements in the locomotive itself. The wheels of the engine were improved by being altered from cars to malleable iron, in whole or in part, by which they were made lighter, as well as more durable and safe. But the most ingenious and original contrivance embodied in this patent was the substitute for springs which Mr. Stevenson invented. He contrived that the steam generated in the boiler should perform this important office. The method by which this was affected displayed such genuine mechanical genius that we would particularly call attention to the device, which was the more remarkable, as it was contrived long before the possibility of steam locomotion, had become an object of general inquiry or of public interest. It has already been observed that up to, and indeed after, the period of which we speak, there was no such class of skilled mechanics, nor were there any such machines and tools in use as are now available to inventors and manufacturers. Although skilled workmen were in course of gradual training in a few of the larger manufacturing towns, they did not at the date of Stevenson's patent exist in any considerable numbers, nor was there any class of mechanics capable of constructing springs of sufficient strength and elasticity to support locomotive engines of ten tons weight. In order to avoid the dangers arising from the inequalities of the road, Stevenson so arranged the boiler of his new patent locomotive, that it was supported upon the frame of the engine by four cylinders which opened into the interior of the boiler. These cylinders were occupied by pistons with rods which passed downwards and pressed upon the upper side of the axles. The cylinders opening into the interior of the boiler allowed the pressure of steam to be applied to the upper side of the piston, and the pressure being nearly equivalent to one fourth of the weight of the engine, each axle, whatever might be its position, had at all times nearly the same amount of weight to bear, and consequently the entire weight was pretty equally distributed amongst the four wheels of the locomotive. Thus the four floating pistons were ingeniously made to serve the purpose of springs in equalizing the weight, and in softening the jerks of the machine, the weight of which it must also be observed had been increased on the road originally calculated to bear a considerably lighter description of carriage. This mode of supporting the engine remained in use until the progress of spring making had so far advanced that steel springs could be manufactured of sufficient strength to bear the weight of locomotive engines. The result of the actual working of the new locomotive on the improved road amply justified the promises held forth in the specification. The traffic was conducted with greater regularity and economy, and the superiority of the engine, as compared with horse traction, became still more marked. It is a fact worthy of notice that the identical engines constructed in 1816, after the plan above described, are to this day to be seen in regular useful work upon the killing with railway, conveying heavy coal trains at the speed of between five and six miles an hour, probably as economically as any of the more perfect locomotives now in use. Mr. Stevenson's endeavours having been attended with such marked success in the adaptation of locomotive part of railways, his attention was called by many of his friends about the year 1818 to the application of steam to traveling on common roads. It was from this point that the locomotive started, Travithic's first engine having been constructed with this special object. Stevenson's friends having observed how far behind he had left the original projector of the locomotive in its application to railroads, perhaps naturally infer that he would be equally successful in applying it to the purpose for which Travithic and Vivian had intended their first engine. But the accuracy with which he estimated the resistance to which loads were exposed on railways, arising from friction and gravity, led him at a very early stage to reject the idea of ever applying steam power economically to common road traveling. In October 1818 he made a series of careful experiments in conjunction with Nicholas Wood on the resistance to which carriages were exposed on railways, testing the results by means of a dynamometer of his own construction. The series of practical observations made by means of this instrument were interesting as the first systematic attempt to determine the precise amount of resistance to carriages moving along railways. It was then for the first time ascertained by experiment that the friction was a constant quantity at all velocities. Although this theory had long before been developed by Vincent Coulomb and was well known to scientific men as an established truth, yet at the time when Stevenson made his experiments the deductions of philosophers on the subject were neither believed in nor acted upon by practical engineers. He ascertained that the resistance's detraction were mainly three, the first being upon the axles of the carriages, the second or rolling resistance being between the circumference of the wheel and the surface of the rail, and the third being the resistance of gravity. The amount of friction and gravity he could accurately ascertain, but the rolling resistance was a matter of greater difficulty being subject to so much variation. He satisfied himself, however, that it was so great when the surface presented to the wheel was of a rough character that the idea of working steam carriages economically on common roads was dismissed by him as entirely impracticable. Taking it as 10 pounds to a ton weight on a level railway, it became obvious to him that so small a rise as one in a hundred would diminish the useful effort of a locomotive by upwards of 50%. This was demonstrated by repeated experiments, and the important fact thus rooted in his mind was never lost sight of in the course of his future railway career. It was owing in great measure to these painstaking experiments that he early became convinced of the vital importance, in an economical point of view, of reducing the country through which a railway was intended to pass as nearly as possible to a level, where, as in the first coal railways of Northumberland and Durham, the load was nearly all one way, that is from the colliery to the shipping place, it was an advantage to have an inclination in that direction. The strain on the powers of the locomotive was thus diminished, and it was easy for it to haul the empty wagons back to the colliery, up even a pretty steep incline. But when the loads were both ways, he deemed it of great importance that the railroad should be constructed as nearly as possible on a level. These views, thus early entertained, originated in Stevenson's mind the peculiar character of railroad works as distinguished from other roads, for in railways he early contended that large sums would be wisely expended in perforating barriers of hills with long tunnels, and in racing the lower levels with the excess cut down from the adjacent high ground. In proportion as these views forced themselves upon his mind and were corroborated by his daily experience, he became more and more convinced of the hopelessness of applying steam locomotion to common roads, for every argument in favour of a level railway was, in his view, an argument against the rough and hilly course of a common road. Although Stevenson's locomotive engines were in daily use for many years on the Killingworth railway, they excited comparatively little interest. They were no longer experimental, but had become an established tractive power. The experience of years had proved that they worked more steadily, drew heavier loads, and were on the whole considerably more economical than horses. Nevertheless, eight years passed before another locomotive railway was constructed and opened for the purposes of coal or other traffic. Stevenson had no means of bringing his important invention prominently under the notice of the public. He himself knew well its importance, and he had already anticipated its eventual general adoption. But being an unlettered man, he could not give utterance to the thoughts which brooded within him on the subject. Killingworth Colliery lay far from London, the centre of scientific life in England. It was visited by no savants or nor literary men who might have succeeded in introducing to notice the wonderful machine of Stevenson. Even the local chroniclers seem to have taken no notice of the killing with railway. There seemed indeed to be so small a prospect of introducing the locomotive into general use, that Stevenson, perhaps feeling the capabilities within him, again recurred to his old idea of emigrating to the United States. Before joining Mr. Burrell as a partner in a small foundry at Fourth Banks Newcastle, he had thrown out to him the suggestion that it would be a good speculation for them to emigrate to North America and introduce steamboats upon the great inland lakes there. The first steamers were then plying upon the tine before his eyes, and he saw in them the germ of a great revolution in navigation. It occurred to him that North America presented the finest field for trying their wonderful powers. He was an engineer, his partner was an iron founder, and between them he thought they might strike out a path to fortune in the mighty west. Fortunately, this idea remained a mere speculation so far as Stevenson was concerned, and it was left to others to do what he had dreamt of achieving. After all, his patient waiting, his skill, industry, and perseverance were at length about to bear fruit. In 1819, the owners of the Hetton colliery in the county of Durham determined to have their wagon-way altered to a locomotive railroad. The results of the working of the killing-with railway had been so satisfactory that they resolved to adopt the same system. One reason why an experiment so long continued and so successful as that at killing-with should have been so slow in producing results perhaps was that to lay down a railway and furnish it with locomotives or fixed engines where necessary required a very large capital beyond the means of ordinary coal owners whilst the small amount of interest felt in railways by the general public and the supposed impracticability of working them to a profit, as yet prevented ordinary capitalists from venturing their money in the promotion of such undertakings. The Hetton coal company were, however, possessed of adequate means, and the local reputation of the killing-with-engine right pointed him out as the man best calculated to lay out their line and superintend their works. They accordingly invited him to act as the engineer of the proposed railway, which was to be the longest locomotive line that had, up to that time, been constructed. It extended from the Hetton Colliery, situated about two miles south of Houghton the Spring in the County of Durham, to the shipping places on the banks of the Weir near Sunderland. Its length was about eight miles, and in its course it crossed Warden Law, one of the highest hills in the district. The character of the country forbade the construction of a flat line, or one of comparatively easy gradients, except by the expenditure of a much larger capital than was placed at the engineer's disposal. Heavy works could not be executed. It was therefore necessary to form the line with but little deviation from the natural conformation of the district which it reversed, and also to adapt the mechanical methods employed for its working to the character of the gradients, which in some places were necessarily heavy. Although Stevenson had, with every step made towards its increased utility, become more and more identified with the success of the locomotive engine, he did not allow his enthusiasm to carry him away into costly mistakes. He carefully drew the line between the cases in which the locomotive could be usefully employed, and those in which stationary engines were calculated to be more economical. This led him, as in the instance of the Hetton Railway, to execute lines through and over rough countries where gradients within the powers of the locomotive engine of that day could not be secured, employing in their stead stationary engines where locomotives were not practicable. In the present case, this course was adopted by him most successfully. On the original Hetton line there were five self-acting inclines, the full wagons drawing the empty ones up, and two inclines worked by fixed reciprocating engines of 60 horsepower each. The locomotive travelling engine, or the iron horse, as the people of the neighbourhood then styled it, did the rest. On the day of the opening of the Hetton Railway, the 18th of November, 1822, crowds of spectators assembled from all parts to witness the first operations of this ingenious and powerful machinery, which was entirely successful. On that day, five of Stevenson's locomotives were at work upon the railway under the direction of his brother Robert, and the first shipment of coal was then made by the Hetton Company at their new stides on the Weir. The speed at which the locomotives travelled was about four miles an hour, and each engine dragged after it a train of 17 wagons, weighing about 64 tonnes. While thus advancing step by step, attending to the business of the killing with colliery and laying out railways in the neighbourhood, he was carefully watching over the education of his son. We have already seen that Robert was sent to Bruce's School at Newcastle, where he remained about four years. He left it in the summer of 1819, and was then put apprentice to Mr. Nicholas Wood, the head viewer at Killingworth, to learn the business of the colliery. He served in that capacity for about three years, during which time he became familiar with most departments of underground work. The occupation was not unattended with peril, as the following incident will show. Though the use of the Geordie lamp had become general in the Killingworth pits, and the workmen were bound, under penalty of half a crown, not to use a naked candle, it was difficult to enforce the rule, and even the masters themselves occasionally broke it. One day Nicholas Wood, the head viewer, Moody, the under viewer, and Robert Stevenson, were proceeding along one of the galleries. Wood with a naked candle in his hand and Robert following him with a lamp. They came to a place where a fall of stones from the roof had taken place, on which Wood, who was first, proceeded to clamber over the stones, holding high the naked candle. He had nearly reached the summit of the heap, when the fire-damp, which had accumulated in the hollow of the roof, exploded, and instantly the whole party were blown down and the lights extinguished. They were a mile from the shaft, and quite in the dark. There was a rush of the work people from all quarters towards the shaft. For it was feared that the fire must extend to more dangerous parts of the pit, where, if the gas had exploded, every soul in the mine must inevitably have perished. Robert Stevenson and Moody, on the first impulse, ran back at full speed along the dark gallery, leading to the shaft, coming into collision on their way with the hind-quarters of a horse, stunned by the explosion. When they had gone half-way, Moody halted and bethought him of Nicholas Wood. Stop, laddie, said he to Robert. Stop! Mooman gone back and see the master. So they retraced their steps. Happily no further explosion had taken place.  They led him to the bottom of the shaft, and he took care afterwards not to venture into the dangerous parts of the mine, without the protection of a Geordie lamp. The time that Robert spent at Killingworth, as a viewer's apprentice, was of advantage both to his father and himself. The evenings were generally devoted to reading and study, the two from this time working together as friends and co-labourers. One who used to drop in at the cottage of an evening, well remembers the animated and eager discussions, which on some occasions took place, more especially with reference to the growing powers of the locomotive engine. The son was even more enthusiastic than the father on this subject. Robert would suggest numerous alterations and improvements in details. His father, on the contrary, would offer every possible objection, defending the existing arrangements, proud nevertheless of his son's suggestions, and often warmed and excited by his brilliant anticipations of the ultimate triumph of the locomotive. These discussions probably had considerable influence in inducing Stevenson to take the next important step in the education of his son. Although Robert, who was only 19 years of age, was doing well, and was certain that the expiration of his apprenticeship to rise to a higher position, his father was not satisfied with the amount of instruction which he had as yet given him. Remembering the disadvantages under which he had himself laboured through his ignorance of practical chemistry, during his investigations connected with the safety lamp, more especially with reference to the properties of gas, as well as in the course of his experiments with the object of improving the locomotive engine, he determined to furnish his son with its complete scientific culture as his means would afford. He also believed that a proper training in technical science was indispensable to success in the higher walks of the engineer's profession, and he determined to give to his son that kind and degree of education which he so much desired for himself. He would thus he knew secure a hearty and generous co-worker in the elaboration of the great ideas now looming before him, and with their united practical and scientific knowledge he probably felt that they would be equal to any enterprise. He accordingly took Robert from his labours as under-viewer in the Westmore pit, and in October 1822 sent him to Edinburgh University, there being then no college in England accessible to persons of moderate means for the purpose of scientific culture. Robert was furnished with letters of introduction to several men of literary eminence in Edinburgh, his father's reputation in connection with the safety lamp being of service to him in this respect. He lodged in Drummond Street, in the immediate vicinity of the college, and attended the chemical lectures of Dr Hope, the natural philosophy lectures of Sir John Leslie, and the natural history class of Professor Jameson. He also devoted several evenings in each week to the study of practical chemistry under Dr John Murray, himself one of the numerous designers of a safety lamp. He took careful notes of all the lectures, which he copied out at night before he went to bed, so that when he returned to Killingworth he might read them over to his father. He afterwards had the notes bound up and placed in his library. Long years after, when conversing with Thomas Harrison, C.E., at his house in Gloucester Square, he rose from his seat and took down a volume from the shelves. Mr Harrison observed that the book was in manuscript, neatly written out. What have we here? he asked. The answer was, when I went to college I knew the difficulty my father had in collecting the funds to send me there. Before going I studied shorthand. While at Edinburgh I took down verbatim every lecture and in evenings before I went to bed I transcribed those lectures word for word. You see the result in that range of books. One of the practical sciences in the study of which Robert Stevenson took special interest while at Edinburgh was that of geology. The situation of the city in the midst of a district of highly interesting geological formation, easily accessible to pedestrians, is indeed most favourable to the pursuit of such a study. And it was the practice of Professor Jameson, frequently to head a band of his pupils, armed with hammers, chisels, and clinometers, and take them with him on a long ramble into the country, for the purpose of teaching them habits of observation and reading to them from the open book of nature itself. At the close of this session the Professor took with him a select body of his pupils on an excursion along the great Glen of the Highlands in the line of the Caledonian canal, and Robert formed one of the party. They passed under the shadow of Ben Nevis, examined the famous old sea margins known as the parallel roads of Glenroy, and extended their journey as far as in Venice. The Professor teaching the young men as they travelled, how to observe in a mountain country. Not long before his death, Robert Stevenson spoke in glowing terms of the great pleasure and benefit which he had derived from that interesting excursion. I have travelled far and enjoyed much, he said, but that delightful botanical and geological journey I shall never forget, and I am just about to start in the Titania for a trip round the east coast of Scotland, returning south through the Caledonian canal to refresh myself with the recollection of that first and brightest tour of my life. Towards the summer of 1822 the young student returned to Killingworth to re-enter upon the active business of life. The six-month study had cost his father eighty pounds, but he was amply repaid by the better scientific culture which his son had acquired, and the evidence of ability and industry which he was enabled to exhibit in a prize for mathematics which he had won at the university. End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 of Lives of the Engineers George and Robert Stevenson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Andy Minter Lives of the Engineers George and Robert Stevenson by Samuel Smiles Chapter 8 George Stevenson Engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway The district west of Darlington in Durham is one of the richest mineral fields of the North. Vast stores of coal underlie the Bishop Auckland Valley and from an early period new and good roads to market were felt to be exceedingly desirable. As yet it remained almost a closed field the cost of transport of the coal in carts or on horses or donkeys backs greatly limiting the sale. Long ago in the days of canal formations Brindley was consulted about a canal. Afterwards in 1812 a tram road was surveyed by Rennie and eventually in 1817 a railway was projected from Darlington to Stockton on Tees. Of this railway Edward Pease was the projector a thoughtful and sagacious man ready in resources possessed of indomitable energy and perseverance he was eminently qualified to undertake what appeared to many the hopeless enterprise of obtaining an act for a railway through such an unpromising district. One who knew him in 1818 said he was a man who could see a hundred years ahead. When the writer last saw him in the autumn of 1854 Mr. Pease was in his 88th year yet he still possessed the hopefulness and mental vigor of a man in his prime. Hale and hearty and full of reminiscences of the past he continued to take an active interest in all measures calculated to render men happier and better. Still sound in health his eye had not lost its brilliancy nor his cheek its color and there was an elasticity in his step which younger men might have envied. In getting up a company for surveying and forming a railway Mr. Pease had great difficulties to encounter. The people of the neighbourhood spoke of it as a ridiculous undertaking and predicted that it would be ruinous to all concerned. Even those most interested in the opening of new markets for their coal were indifferent if not actually hostile. The stockton merchants and ship owners whom it was calculated so greatly to benefit gave the project no support. And not twenty shares were subscribed for in the whole town. Mr. Pease nevertheless persevered and he induced many of his friends and relations to subscribe the capital required. The necessary preliminary steps were taken in 1818 to apply for an act to authorize the construction of a tram-road from Whitton to Stockton. The measure was, however, strongly opposed by the Duke of Cleveland because the proposed line passed close by one of his fox-govers and the bill was rejected. A new survey was then made, avoiding the Duke's cover, and in 1819 a renewed application was made to Parliament. The promoters were this time successful and the Royal Ascent was given to the first Stockton and Darlington Railway Act on 19 April 1821. The projectors did not originally contemplate the employment of locomotives. The act provided for the making and maintaining of tram-roads for the passage of wagons and other carriages, with men and horses or otherwise, and a further clause made provision for damages done in the course of traffic by the wagoners. The public were to be free to use with horses, cattle, and carriage the roads formed by the company on payment of the authorized rates between the hours of seven in the morning and six in the evening during winter, between six in the morning and eight in the evening in two of the spring and autumn months, and between five in the morning and ten in the evening in the summer months of May, June, July, and August. From this it will be obvious that the projectors of the line had themselves at first no large conceptions as to the scope of their project. One day, in the spring of 1821, two strangers knocked at the door of Mr. Pease's house in Darlington, and the message was brought to him that some persons from Killingworth wanted to speak with him. They were invited in, on which one of the visitors introduced himself as Nicholas Wood, viewer at Killingworth, and then, turning to his companion, he introduced him as George Stevenson, engine-right of the same place. Mr. Pease entered into conversation with his visitors and was soon told their object. Stevenson had heard of the passing of the Stockton and Darlington Act, and desiring to increase his railway experience, and also to employ in some larger field the practical knowledge he had already gained, he determined to visit the known projector of the undertaking with the view of being employed to carry it out. He had brought with him his friend Wood for the purpose at the same time of relieving his diffidence and supporting his application. Mr. Pease liked the appearance of his visitor. There was, as he afterwards remarked, when speaking of Stevenson, such an honest, sensible look about him, and he seemed so modest and unpretending. He spoke in the strong Northumbrian dialect of his district, and described himself as only the engine right at Killingworth. That's what he was. Mr. Pease soon saw that our engineer was the very man for his purpose. The whole plans of the railway were still in an undetermined state, and Mr. Pease was therefore glad to have the opportunity of profiting by Stevenson's experience. In the course of their conversation, the latter strongly recommended a railway in preference to a tram-road. They also discussed the kind of attractive power to be employed. Mr. Pease stating that the company had based their whole calculations on the employment of horse power. I was so satisfied, said he afterwards, that a horse upon an iron road would draw ten tons, for one tonne on a common road, that I felt sure that before long the railway would become the king's highway. But Mr. Pease was scarcely prepared for the bold acitation made by his visitor, that the locomotive engine with which he had been working the Killingworth railway for many years past was worth fifty horses, and that engines made after a similar plan would yet entirely supersede all horse power upon railroads. Stevenson was daily becoming more positive as to the superiority of his locomotive, and hence he strongly urged Mr. Pease to adopt it. Come over to Killingworth, said he, and see what my engines can do, seeing is believing, sir. Mr. Pease accordingly promised that on some early day he would go over to Killingworth and take a look at the wonderful machine that was to supersede horses. The result of the interview was that Mr. Pease promised to bring Stevenson's application for the appointment of engineer before the directors, and to support it with his influence, whereon the two visitors prepared to take their leave, informing Mr. Pease that they intended to return to Newcastle by Nip, that is, they expected to get a smuggled lift on the stagecoach by tipping GQ, for in those days the stagecoachman regarded all casual roadside passengers as their proper perquisites. They had, however, been so much engrossed by their conversation that the lapse of time was forgotten, and when Stevenson and his friend made inquiries about the returned coach, they found the last had left, and they had to walk the eighteen miles to Durham on their way back to Newcastle. Mr. Pease, having made further inquiries respecting Stevenson's character and qualifications, and having received a very strong recommendation of him as the right man for the intended work, he brought the subject of his application before the directors of the Stockton and Darlington Company. They resolved to adopt his recommendation at a railway beformed instead of a tram-road, and they further requested Mr. Pease to write to Stevenson, desiring him to undertake a resurvey of the line at the earliest practicable period. A man was dispatched on a horse with the letter, and when he reached Gillingworth he made diligent inquiry after the person named upon the address, George Stevenson Esquire, engineer. No such person was known in the village. It is said that the man was on the point of giving up all further search when the happy thoughts struck some of the Collier's wives, who had gathered about him, that he must be Geordie the engine-right the man was in search of, and to Geordie's cottage he accordingly went, found him at home, and delivered the letter. About the end of September Stevenson went carefully over the line of the proposed railway, for the purpose of suggesting such improvements and deviations as he might consider desirable. He was accompanied by an assistant and a chain-man, his son Robert entering the figures, while his father took the sites. After being engaged in the work at intervals for about six weeks, Stevenson reported the result of his survey to the Board of Directors, and showed that by certain deviations a line shorter by about three miles might be constructed as a considerable saving in expense, while at the same time more favourable gradients and important consideration would be secured. It was, however, determined in the first place to proceed with the works at those parts of the line where no deviation was proposed, and the first rail of the Stockton and Darlington Railway was laid with considerable ceremony near Stockton on 23 May 1822. It is worthy of note that Stevenson, in making his first estimate of the cost of forming the railway, according to the instructions of the directors, set down as part of the cost £6,200 for stationery engines, not mentioning locomotives at all. The directors, as yet, confined their views to the employment only of horses for the haulage of the coals, and of fixed engines and ropes where horsepower was not applicable. The whole question of steam locomotive power was, in the estimation of the public, as well as of practical and scientific men, as yet in doubt. The confident anticipations of George Stevenson, as to the eventual success of locomotive engines, were regarded as mere speculations, and when he gave utterance to his views, as he frequently took the opportunity of doing, it even had the effect of shaking the confidence of some of his friends in the solidity of his judgment and his practical qualities as an engineer. When Mr. Pease discussed the question with Stevenson, his remark was, come over and see my engines at Killingworth, and satisfy yourself as the efficiency of the locomotive. I will show you the colliery books that you may ascertain for yourself the actual cost of working, and I must tell you that the economy of the locomotive engine is no longer a matter of theory, but a matter of fact. So confident was the tone in which Stevenson spoke of the success of his engines, and so important were the consequences involved in arriving at a correct conclusion on the subject, that Mr. Pease at length resolved upon paying a visit to Killingworth in the summer of 1822, to see with his own eyes the wonderful new power so much vaunted by the engineer. When Mr. Pease arrived at Killingworth Village, he inquired for George Stevenson, and was told that he must go over to the West Moor, and seek for a cottage by the roadside with a dial over the door. That was where George Stevenson lived. They soon found the house with the dial, and on knocking the door was opened by Mrs. Stevenson, his second wife, Elizabeth Heinemars, the daughter of a farmer at Black Colourton, whom he had married in 1820. Her husband, she said, was not in the house at present, but she would send for him to the colliery, and in a short time Stevenson appeared before them in his working dress, just as he had come out of the pit. He very soon had his locomotive brought up to the crossing, close by the end of the cottage, made the gentlemen mount it, and showed them its faces. Harnessing it to a train of loaded wagons, he ran it along the railroad, and so thoroughly satisfied his visitors of its power and capabilities, that from that day Edward Pease was a declared supporter of the locomotive engine. In preparing the amended Stockton and Darlington Act at Stevenson's urgent request, Mr. Pease had a clause inserted taking power to work the railway by means of locomotive engines, and to employ them for the haulage of passengers as well as of merchandise. The act was obtained in 1823, on which Stevenson was appointed the company's engineer at a salary of £300 per annum, and it was determined that the line should be constructed and opened for traffic as soon as practicable. He at once proceeded, accompanied by his assistance, with the working survey of the line, laying out every foot of the ground himself. Railway surveying was as yet in its infancy, and was slow and difficult work. It afterwards became a separate branch of railway business, and was entrusted to a special staff. Indeed, on no subsequent line did George Stevenson take the sights through the spirit level with his own hands and eyes, as he did on this railway. He started very early, dressed in a blue-tailed coat, britches and top boots, and surveyed until dusk. He was not at any time particular as to his living, and during the survey he took his chance of getting a little milk and bread at some cottage's house along the line, or occasionally joined in a homely dinner at some neighbouring farmhouse. The country people were accustomed to give him a hearty welcome when he appeared at their door, for he was always full of cheery and homely talk, and when there were children about the house he had plenty of humorous chat for them as well as for their seniors. After the day's work was over George would drop in at Mr. Pease's to talk over the progress of the survey, and to discuss various matters connected with the railway. Mr. Pease's daughters were usually present, and on one occasion finding the young ladies learning the art of embroidery, he volunteered to instruct them. I know all about it, said he, and you will wonder how I learned it. I'll tell you, when I was a breaksman at Killingworth, I learned the art of embroidery while working the pitman's buttonholes by the engine fire at nights. He was never ashamed, but on the contrary rather proud of reminding his friends of these humble pursuits of his early life. Mr. Pease's family were greatly pleased with his conversation, which was always amusing and instructive, full of all sorts of experience gathered in the oddest and most out-of-the-way places. Even at that early period, before he mixed in the society of educated persons, there was a dash of speculativeness in his remarks, which gave a high degree of originality to his conversation, and he would sometimes, in a casual remark, throw a flash of light upon a subject which called up a train of pregnant suggestions. One of the most important subjects of discussion at these meetings with Mr. Pease was the establishment of a manufacturer at Newcastle for the building of locomotive engines. Up to this time, all the locomotives constructed after Stevenson's designs had been made by ordinary mechanics working among the colliers in the north of England, but he had long felt that the accuracy and style of their workmanship admitted of great improvement, and that upon this the more perfect action of the locomotive engine and its general adoption in great measure depended. One great object that he had in view in establishing the proposed factory was to concentrate a number of good workmen for the purpose of carrying out the improvements in detail which he was constantly making in his engine. He felt hampered by the want of efficient help from skilled mechanics, who could work out in a practical form the ideas of which his busy mind was always so prolific. Doubtless, too, he believed that the manufacturer would prove a remunerative investment, and that on the general adoption of the railway system which he anticipated he would derive solid advantages from the fact of his establishment being the only one of the kind for the special construction of locomotive engines. Mr. Pease have proved of his design and strongly recommended him to carry it into effect, but there was the question of means, and Stevenson did not think he had capital enough for the purpose. He told Mr. Pease that he could advance a thousand pounds, the amount of the testimonial presented by the co-owners for his safety lamp invention which he had still left untouched, but he did not think this sufficient for the purpose, and he thought that he should require at least another thousand pounds. Mr. Pease had been very much struck with the successful performances of the killing with engine, and being an accurate judge of character he believed that he could not go far wrong in linking a portion of his fortune with the energy and industry of George Stevenson. He consulted his friend Thomas Richardson in the matter, and the two consented to advance five hundred pounds each for the purpose of establishing the engine factory at Newcastle. A piece of land was accordingly purchased in 4th Street in August 1823 on which a small building was erected, the nucleus of the gigantic establishment which was afterwards formed around it, and active operations were begun early in 1824. When the Stockton and Darlington Railway works were in progress, our engineer had many interesting discussions with Mr. Pease on points connected with its construction and working, the determination of which, in great measure, affected the formation and working of all future railways. The most important points were these, one, the comparative merits of cast and wrought iron rails, two, the gauge of the railway, three, the employment of horse or engine power in working it when ready for traffic. The kind of rails to be laid down to form the permanent road was a matter of considerable importance. A wooden tram road had been contemplated when the first act was applied for, but Stevenson, having advised that an iron road should be laid down, he was instructed to draw up a specification of the rails. He went before the directors to discuss with them the kind of material to be specified. He was himself interested in the patent for cast iron rails, but he had taken out in conjunction with Mr. Losh in 1816, and of course it was to his interest that his articles should be used. But when requested to give his opinion on the subject, he frankly said to the directors, well, gentlemen, to tell you the truth, although it would put five hundred pounds in my pocket to specify my own patent rails, I cannot do so after the experience I have had. If you take my advice, you will not lay down a single cast iron rail. Why? asked the directors, because it will not stand the weight, and you will be at no end of expense for repairs and relays. What kind of road, then? he was asked, would you recommend? Malleable rails certainly, said he, and I can recommend them with them all confidence from the fact that at Killingworth we have had some Swedish bars laid down, nailed to wooden sleepers for a period of fourteen years, the wagons passing over them daily, and there they are, in use yet, whereas the cast rails are constantly giving way. The price of malleable rails was, however, so high, being then worth about 12 pounds per tonne, as compared with cast iron rails at about five pounds ten shillings, and the saving of expense was so important to consideration with the subscribers, that Stevenson was directed to provide, in the specification, that only one half of the rails required, or about eight hundred tons, should be of malleable iron, and the remainder of cast iron. The malleable rails were of the kind called fish-bellied, and weighed twenty-eight pounds to the yard, being 2.25 inches broad at the top, with the upper flange, 0.75 inches thick. They were only two inches in depth at the point where they rested on the chairs, and 3.25 in the middle, or bellied, part. When forming the road, the proper gauge had also to be determined. What width was this to be? The gauge of the first tram road laid down had virtually settled the point. The gauge of wheels on the common vehicles of the country, of the carts and wagons employed on common roads, which were first used on the tram roads, was about four feet eight and a half inches, and so the first tram roads were laid down of this gauge. The tools and machinery for constructing coal wagons and locomotives were formed with this gauge in view. The Wylam Wagonway, afterwards the Wylam Plateway, the Killingworth Railroad, and the Hetton Railroad, were as nearly as possible on the same gauge. Some of the earth wagons used to form the Stockton and Darlington Road were brought from the Hetton Railway, and others which were specially constructed were formed of the same dimensions, these being intended to be afterwards employed in the working of the traffic. As the period drew near for the opening of the line, the question of the tractive power to be employed was anxiously discussed. At the Brussels and Incline fixed engines must necessarily be made use of, but with respect to the mode of working the railway generally, it was decided that horses were to be largely employed, and arrangements were made for their purchase. The influence of Mr. P's also secured that a fair trial should be given to the experiment of working the traffic by locomotive power, and three engines were ordered from the firm of Stevenson and Company Newcastle, which were put in hand forthwith in anticipation of the opening of the railway. These were constructed after Mr. Stevenson's most matured designs, and embodied all the improvements which he had contrived up to that time. Number one engine, the Locomotion, which was first delivered weighed about eight tons. It had one large flue or tube through the boiler by which the heated air passed direct from the furnace at one end, lined with fabrics, to the chimney at the other. The combustion in the furnace was quickened by the adoption of the steam blast in the chimney. The heat raised was sometimes so great, and it was so imperfectly abstracted by the surrounding water, that the chimney became almost red hot. Such engines, when put to their speed, were found capable of running at the rate of from twelve to sixteen miles an hour, but they were better adapted for the heavy work of hauling coal-trains at low speeds, for which indeed they were specially constructed, and for running at the higher speeds afterwards adopted. Nor was it contemplated by the directors, as possible, at the time when they were ordered, that locomotives could be made available for the purposes of passenger travelling. Besides, the Stockton and Darlington Railway did not run through a district in which passengers were supposed to be likely to constitute any considerable portion of the traffic. We may easily imagine the anxiety felt by Mr. Stevenson during the progress of the works towards completion, and his mingled hopes and doubts, though his doubts were but few, as to the issue of this great experiment. When the formation of the line near Stockton was well advanced, Mr. Stevenson, one day, accompanied by his son Robert and John Dixon, made a journey of inspection of the works. The party reached Stockton, and proceeded to dine at one of the inns there. After dinner, Stevenson ventured on the very unusual measure of ordering in a bottle of wine to drink success to the railway. John Dixon relates with pride the utterance of the master on the occasion. Now, lads, he said to the two young men, I venture to tell you that I think you will live to see the day when railways will supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this country, when 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 upon a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great and almost insurmountable difficulties to be encountered, but what I have said will come to pass as sure as you 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 thus far adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years successful experiment at Killingworth. The result, however, outstripped even the most sanguine anticipations of Stevenson, and his son Robert, shortly after his return from America in 1827, saw his father's locomotive generally employed as the tractive power on railways. The Stockton and Darlington line was opened for traffic on the 27th of September 1825. An immense concourse of people assembled from all parts to witness the ceremony of opening this first public railway. The powerful opposition which the project had encountered, the threats which were still uttered against the company by the road trustees and others, who declared that they would yet prevent the line being worked, and perhaps the general unbelief as to its success, which still prevailed, tended to excite the curiosity of the public as to the result. Some went to rejoice at the opening, some to see the bubble burst, and there were many prophets of evil who would not miss the blowing up of the boasted travelling engine. The opening was, however, auspicious. The proceedings commenced at Brussels and Incline, about nine miles above Darlington, where the fixed engine drew a train of loaded wagons up the incline from the west and lowered them on the east side. At the foot of the incline a locomotive was in readiness to receive them. Stevenson himself driving the engine. The train consisted of six wagons loaded with coals and flour. After these was the passenger coach filled with the directors and their friends, and then twenty-one wagons fitted up with temporary seats for passengers. And lastly came six wagon loads of coals, making in all a train of thirty-eight vehicles. The local chronicler of the day almost went beside himself in describing the extraordinary event. The signal being given, he says, the engine started off with this immense train of carriages, and such was its velocity, that in some parts the speed was frequently twelve miles an hour. By the time it reached Stockton there were about six hundred persons in the train, or hanging onto the wagons, which must have gone at a safe and steady pace of from four to six miles an hour from Darlington. The arrival at Stockton, it is added, excited a deep interest and admiration. The working of the line then commenced, and the results were such as to surprise even the most sanguine of its projectors. The traffic upon which they had formed their estimates of profit proved to be small in comparison with that which flowed in upon them, which they had never dreamt of. Thus what the company had principally relied upon for their receipts was the carriage of coals for land sale at the stations along the line, whereas the haulage of coals to the seaports for exportation to the London market was not contemplated as possible. When the bill was before Parliament, Mr. Lampton, afterwards Earl of Durham, succeeded in getting a clause inserted, limiting the charge for the haulage of all coals to Stockton on tees for the purpose of shipment to 0.5 pence per tonne per mile, whereas a rate of four pence per tonne was allowed to be taken for all coals led upon the railway for land sale. Mr. Lampton's object in enforcing the low rate of 0.5 pence was to protect his own trade in coal exported from Sunderland and the northern ports. He believed in common with everybody else that the hapeny rate would effectively secure him against competition on the part of the company, for it was not considered possible to lead coals at that price, and the proprietors of the railway themselves considered that such a rate would be utterly ruinous. The projectors never contemplated sending more than 10,000 tonnes a year to Stockton, and those only for shipment as ballast. They looked for their profits almost exclusively to the land sale. The result, however, was as surprising to them as it must have been to Mr. Lampton. The hapeny rate which was forced upon them, instead of being ruinous, proved the vital element in the success of the railway. In the course of a few years, the annual shipment of coal led by the Stockton and Darlington Railway to Stockton and Middlesbrough was more than 500,000 tonnes, and it has since far exceeded this amount. Instead of being as anticipated as subordinate branch of traffic, it proved, in fact, the main traffic, while the land sale was merely subsidiary. The anticipations of the company as to passenger traffic were in like manner more than realised. At first passengers were not thought of, and it was only while the works were in progress that the starting of a passenger coach was seriously contemplated. The number of persons travelling between the two towns was very small, and it was not known whether these would risk their persons upon the iron road. It was determined, however, to make a trial of a railway coach, and Mr. Stevenson was authorized to have one built at Newcastle at the cost of the company. This was done accordingly, and the first railway passenger carriage was built after our engineer's design. It was, however, a very modest and indeed a somewhat uncouth machine, more resembling the caravans still to be seen at country fares containing the giant and the dwarf and other wonders of the world than a passenger coach of any extant form. A row of seats ran along each side of the interior, and a long deal table was fixed in the centre, the access being by means of a door at the back end in the manner of an omnibus. This coach arrived from Newcastle the day before the opening, and formed part of the railway procession above described. Mr. Stevenson was consulted as to the name of the coach, and he had once suggested the experiment, and by this name it was called. The company's arms were afterwards painted on her side with the motto, periculum privatum utilitas publica. Such was the sole passenger carrying stock of the Stockton and Darlington Company in the year 1825. But the experiment proved the forerunner of a mighty traffic, and long time did not elapse before it was displaced, not only by improved coaches, still drawn by horses, but afterwards by long trains of passenger carriages drawn by locomotive engines. The experiment was fairly started as a passenger coach on the 10th of October 1825, the fortnight after the opening of the line. It was drawn by one horse and performed a journey daily each way between the two towns, accomplishing the distance of 12 miles in about two hours. The fare charged was a shilling without distinction of class, and each passenger was allowed 14 pounds of luggage free. The experiment was not, however, worked by the company, but was led to contractors who worked it under an arrangement whereby toll was paid for the use of the line, rent of booking cabins, etc. The speculation answered so well that several private coaching companies were shortly afterwards got out by in-keepers at Darlington and Stockton for the purpose of running other coaches upon the railroad, and an active competition for passenger traffic sprang up. The experiment, being found too heavy for one horse to draw, besides being found an uncomfortable machine, was banished to the coal district. Its place was then supplied by other and better vehicles, though they were no other than old-stage coach bodies purchased by the company, and each mounted upon an under-frame with flange wheels. These were let on hire to the coaching companies who horsed and managed them under an arrangement as to tolls, in like manner as the experiment had been worked. Now began the distinction of inside and outside passengers equivalent to first and second class paying different fares. The competition with each other upon the railway, and with the ordinary stage coaches upon the road, soon brought up the speed, which was increased to ten miles an hour, the male coach rate of travelling in those days, and considered very fast. Mr. Cleffen, a native of the district, has described some of the curious features of the competition between the rival coach companies. There were two separate coach companies in Stockton, and amusing collisions sometimes occurred between the drivers, who found on the rail a novel element for contention. Coaches cannot pass each other on the rail as on the road, and as the line was single, with four sidings in the mile, when two coaches met, two trains, or coach and train, the question arose which of the drivers must go back. This was not always settled in silence. As to trains, it came to be a sort of understanding that empty should give way to loaded wagons, and as to trains and coaches, that the passengers should have preference over coals, while coaches, when they met, must quarrel it out. At length, midway between sidings a post was erected, and a rule was laid down that he who had passed the pillar must go on, and the coming man go back. At the goose-pool and early nook it was common for these coaches to stop, and there, as Jonathan would say, passengers and coachmen, liquored. One coach introduced by an innkeeper was a compound of two morning coaches, an approximation to the real railway coach, which still adheres, with multiplying exceptions, to the stage-coach type. One Dixon, who drove the experiment between Darlington and Sheldon, is the inventor of carriage lighting on the rail. On a dark winter night, having compassion on his passengers, he would buy a penny candle, and place it lighted amongst them on the table of the experiment, the first railway coach, which, by the way, ended its days at Sheldon as a railway cabin. Being also the first coach on the rail, first, second and third class jammed all into one that indulged its customers with light in darkness. The traffic of all sorts increased so steadily and so rapidly that considerable difficulty was experienced in working it satisfactorily. It had been provided by the first Stockton and Darlington Act that the line should be free to all parties who chose to use it at certain prescribed rates, and that any person might put horses and wagons on the railway and carry for himself. But this arrangement led to increasing confusion and difficulty, and could not continue in the face of a large and rapidly increasing traffic. The goods trains got so long that the carriers found it necessary to call in the aid of the locomotive engine to help them on their way. Then mixed trains of passengers and merchandise began to run, and the result was that the railway company found it necessary to take the entire charge and working of the traffic. In course of time new coaches were specially built for the better accommodation of the public, until at length regular passenger trains were run, drawn by the locomotive engine, though this was not until after the Liverpool and Manchester Company had established this as a distinct branch of their traffic. The three Stephenson locomotives were from the first regularly employed to work the coal trains, and their proved efficiency for this purpose led to the gradual increase of the locomotive power. The speed of the engines, slow though it seems now, was in those days regarded as something marvellous. A race actually came off between number one engine, the locomotive, and one of the stage coaches travelling from Darlington to Stockton by the ordinary road, and it was regarded as a great triumph of mechanical skill that the locomotive reached Stockton first, beating the stagecoach by about a hundred yards. The same engine continued in good working order in the year 1846, when it headed the railway procession on the opening of the Middlesborough and Redcar railway, travelling at the rate of about fourteen miles an hour. This engine, the first that travelled upon the first public railway, has recently been placed upon a pedestal in front of the railway station at Darlington. For some years however, the principal haulage of the line was performed by horses. The inclination of the gradients being towards the sea, this was perhaps the cheapest mode of traction, so long as the traffic was not very large. The horse drew the train along the level road, until, on reaching a descending gradient, down which the train ran by its own gravity, the animal was unharnessed, and when loose, he wheeled round to the other ends of the wagons, to which a dandy cart was attached, its bottom being only a few inches from the rail. Bringing his step into unison with the speed of the train, the horse learned to leap nimbly into his place on this wagon, which was usually fitted with a well-filled hay-rack. The details of the working were gradually perfected by experience, the projectors of the line being scarce the conscious at first of the importance and significance of the work which they had taken in hand, and little thinking that they were laying the foundations of a system which was yet to revolutionize the internal communications of the world and convey the greatest blessings upon mankind. It is important to note that the commercial results of the enterprise were considered satisfactory from the opening of the railway, besides conferring a great public benefit upon the inhabitants of the district, and throwing open entirely new markets for coal, the profits derived from the traffic created by the railway yield an increasing dividends to those who had risked their capital in the undertaking, and thus held forth an encouragement to the projectors of railways generally, which was not without an important effect in stimulating the projection of similar enterprises in other districts. These results, as displayed in the annual dividends, must have been eminently encouraging to the astute commercial men of Liverpool and Manchester, who were then engaged in the prosecution of their railway. Indeed, the commercial success of the Stockton and Darlington Company may be justly characterized as the turning point of the railway system. Before leaving this subject, we cannot avoid alluding to one of its most remarkable and direct results, the creation of the town of Middlesborough on Tees. When the railway was opened in 1825, the site of this future metropolis of Cleveland was occupied by one solitary farmhouse and its outbuildings. All round was pasturelands or mudbanks, scarcely another house was within sight. In 1829 some of the principal proprietors of the railway joined in the purchase of about five hundred or six hundred acres of land five miles below Stockton, the site of the modern Middlesborough, for the purpose of there forming a new seaport for the shipment of coals brought to the Tees by the railway. The line was accordingly extended thither, docks were excavated, a town sprang up, churches, chapels, and schools were built with a custom house, mechanics institute, banks, shipbuilding yards, and iron factories. In ten years a busy population of some six thousand persons, since increased to about twenty three thousand, occupied the site of the original farmhouse. More recently the discovery of vast stores of Ironstone in the Cleveland Hills, closely adjoining Middlesborough, has tended still more rapidly to augment the population and increase the commercial importance of the place. It is pleasing to relate, in connection with this great work, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, projected by Edward Pease and executed by George Stevenson, that when Mr. Stevenson became a prosperous and celebrated man, he did not forget the friend who had taken him by the hand and helped him on in his early days. He continued to remember Mr. Pease with gratitude and affection, and that gentleman, to the close of his life, was proud to exhibit a handsome gold watch, received as a gift from his celebrated protégé bearing these words, esteem and gratitude, from George Stevenson to Edward Pease.