The book was written with the concurrence and assistance of Robert
Stephenson, who also supplied the necessary particulars relating to
himself. Such portions of these were accordingly embodied in the
narrative as could with propriety be published during his lifetime, and
the remaining portions have since been added, with the object of
rendering more complete the record of the son's life as well as of the
early history of the Railway system.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
NEWCASTLE AND THE GREAT NORTHERN COAL-FIELDS.
The colliery districts of the Pages 1-11
North--Newcastle-upon-Tyne in ancient times--The
Roman settlement--Social insecurity in the Middle
Ages--Northumberland roads--The coal-trade--Modern
Newcastle--Coal haulage--Early waggon-roads,
tram-roads, and railways--Machinery of
coal-mines--Newcomen's fire-engine--The colliers,
their character and habits--Coal-staiths--The
keelmen
CHAPTER II.
WYLAM AND DEWLEY BURN--GEORGE STEPHENSON'S EARLY YEARS.
Wylam Colliery and village--George Stephenson's 12-30
birth-place--His parents--The Stephenson family--Old
Robert Stephenson--George's boyhood--Dewley Burn
Colliery--Sister Nell's bonnet--Employed as a
herd-boy--Makes clay engines--Follows the
plough--Employed as corf-bitter--Drives the
gin-horse--Black Callerton Colliery--Love of
animals--Made assistant-fireman--Old Robert and
family shift their home--Jolly's Close,
Newburn--Family earnings--George as fireman--His
athletic feats--Throckley Bridge--"A made man for
life!"--Appointed engineman--Studies his
engine--Experiments in egg-hatching--Puts himself to
school, and learns to read--His
schoolmasters--Progress in arithmetic--His
dog--Learns to brake--Brakesman at Black
Callerton--Duties of brakesman--Begins
shoe-making--Fanny Henderson--Saves his first
guinea--Fight with a pitman
CHAPTER III.
ENGINEMAN AT WILLINGTON QUAY AND KILLINGWORTH.
Sobriety and studiousness--Inventiveness--Removes to 31-46
Willington Quay--Marries Fanny Henderson--Their
cottage at Willington--Attempts at perpetual
motion--William Fairbairn and George
Stephenson--Ballast-heaving--Chimney on fire, and
clock-cleaning--Birth of Robert Stephenson--George
removes to West Moor, Killingworth--Death of his
wife--Engineman at Montrose, Scotland--His
pump-boot--Saves money--His return to
Killingworth--Brakesman at West Moor--Is drawn for
the Militia--Thinks of emigrating to America--Takes
a contract for brakeing engines--Improves the
winding-engine--Cures a pumping-engine--Becomes
famous as an engine-doctor--Appointed engine-wright
of a colliery
CHAPTER IV.
THE STEPHENSONS AT KILLINGWORTH--EDUCATION AND SELF-EDUCATION OF
FATHER AND SON.
George Stephenson's self-improvement--John 47-62
Wigham--Studies in Natural
Philosophy--Sobriety--Education of Robert
Stephenson--Sent to Rutter's school, Benton--Bruce's
school, Newcastle--Literary and Philosophical
Institute--George educates his son in
Mechanics--Ride to Killingworth--Robert's boyish
tricks--Repeats the Franklin
kite-experiment--Stephenson's cottage, West
Moor--Odd mechanical expedients--Competition in
last-making--Father and son make a
sun-dial--Colliery improvements--Stephenson's
mechanical expertness
CHAPTER V.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE LOCOMOTIVE--GEORGE STEPHENSON BEGINS ITS
IMPROVEMENT.
Various expedients for 63-88
coal-haulage--Sailing-waggons--Mr. Edgworth's
experiments--Cugnot's first locomotive
steam-carriage--Murdock's model
locomotive--Trevithick's steam-carriage and
tram-engine--Blenkinsop's engine--Chapman and
Brunton's locomotives--The Wylam waggon-way--Mr.
Blackett's experiments--Jonathan Foster--William
Hedley--The Wylam engine--Stephenson determines to
build a locomotive--Lord Ravensworth--The first
Killingworth engine described--The steam-blast
invented--Stephenson's second locomotive
CHAPTER VI.
INVENTION OF THE "GEORDY" SAFETY-LAMP.
Frequency of colliery explosions--Accident in the 89-108
Killingworth Pit--Stephenson's heroic conduct--A
safety-lamp described--Dr. Clanny's
lamp--Stephenson's experiments on fire-damp--Designs
a lamp, and tests it in the pit--Cottage experiments
with coal-gas--Stephenson's second and third
lamps--The Stephenson and Davy controversy--Scene at
the Newcastle Institute--The Davy testimonial--The
Stephenson testimonial--Merits of the "Geordy" lamp
CHAPTER VII.
GEORGE STEPHENSON'S FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOCOMOTIVE--THE
HETTON RAILWAY--ROBERT STEPHENSON AS VIEWER'S APPRENTICE AND STUDENT.
The Killingworth mine machinery--Stephenson improves 109-122
his locomotive--Strengthens the road--His
patent--His steam-springs--Experiments on
friction--Steam-locomotion on common roads--Early
neglect of the locomotive--Stephenson again thinks
of emigration--Constructs the Hetton Railway--The
working power employed--Robert Stephenson viewer's
apprentice--His pursuits at Killingworth--His father
sends him to Edinburgh University--His application
to the studies of Chemistry, Natural History, and
Natural Philosophy--His MS. volumes of
Lectures--Geological tour with Professor Jameson in
the Highlands
CHAPTER VIII.
GEORGE STEPHENSON ENGINEER OF THE STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON RAILWAY.
The Bishop Auckland Coal-field--Edward Pease 123-145
projects a railway from Witton to Stockton--The Bill
rejected--The line re-surveyed, and the Act
obtained--George Stephenson's visit to Edward
Pease--Appointed engineer of the railway--Again
surveys the line--Mr. Pease visits Killingworth--The
Newcastle locomotive works projected--The railway
constructed--Locomotives ordered--Stephenson's
anticipations as to railways--Public opening of the
line--The coal traffic--The first railway
passenger-coach--The coaching traffic described--The
"Locomotion" engine--Race with
stage-coach--Commercial results of the Stockton and
Darlington Railway--The town of Middlesborough
created
CHAPTER IX.
THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY PROJECTED.
Insufficient communications between Manchester and 146-172
Liverpool--The canal monopoly--A tramroad
projected--Joseph Sanders--Sir R. Phillip's
speculations as to railways--Thomas Gray--William
James surveys a line between Liverpool and
Manchester--Opposition to the survey--Mr. James's
visits to Killingworth--Robert Stephenson assists in
the survey--George Stephenson appointed
engineer--The first prospectus--Stephenson's survey
opposed--The canal companies--Speculations as to
railway speed--Stephenson's notions thought
extravagant--Article in the 'Quarterly'--The Bill
before Parliament--The Evidence--George Stephenson
in the witness box--Examined as to speed--His
cross-examination--The survey found defective--Mr.
Harrison's speech--Evidence of opposing
engineers--Mr. Alderson's speech--The Bill
withdrawn--Stephenson's vexation--The scheme
prosecuted--The line re-surveyed--Sir Isaac Coffin's
speech--The Act passed
CHAPTER X.
CHAT MOSS--CONSTRUCTION OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY.
George Stephenson appointed engineer--Chat Moss 173-192
described--The resident engineers--Mr. Dixon's visit
of inspection--Stephenson's theory of a floating
road--Operations begun--Tar-barrel drains--The
embankment sinks in the Moss--Proposed abandonment
of the work--Stephenson perseveres--The obstacles
conquered--Road across Parr Moss--The road
formed--Stephenson's organization of labour--The
Liverpool Tunnel--Olive Mount Cutting--Sankey
Viaduct--Stephenson and Cropper--Stephenson's
labours--Pupils and assistants--His daily
life--Practical education--Evenings at home
CHAPTER XI.
ROBERT STEPHENSON'S RESIDENCE IN COLOMBIA AND RETURN--THE BATTLE OF
THE LOCOMOTIVE--THE "ROCKET."
Robert Stephenson mining engineer in Colombia--Mule 193-220
journey to Bogota--Mariquita--Silver
mining--Difficulties with the Cornishmen--His
cottage at Santa Anna--Longs to return home--Resigns
his post--Meeting with Trevithick--Voyage to New
York, and shipwreck--Returns to Newcastle, and takes
charge of the factory--The working power of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway--Fixed engines and
locomotives, and their respective advocates--Walker
and Rastrick's report--A prize offered for the best
locomotive--Conferences of the Stephensons--Boiler
arrangements and heating surface--Mr. Booth's
contrivance--Building of the "Rocket"--The
competition of engines at Rainhill--The "Novelty"
and "Sanspareil"--Triumph of the "Rocket," and its
destination
CHAPTER XII.
OPENING OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY, AND EXTENSION OF THE
RAILWAY SYSTEM.
The railway finished--The traffic arrangements 221-236
organized--Public opening of the line--Accident to
Mr. Huskisson--Arrival of the trains at
Manchester--The traffic results--Improvement of the
road and rolling stock--Improvements in the
locomotive--The railway a wonder--Extension of the
railway system--Joint-stock railway companies--New
lines projected--New engineers--The Grand
Junction--Public opposition to railways--Robert
Stephenson engineer to the Leicester and Swannington
Railway--George Stephenson removes to
Snibston--Sinks for and gets coal--Stimulates local
enterprise--His liberality
CHAPTER XIII.
ROBERT STEPHENSON CONSTRUCTS THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.
The line projected--George and Robert Stephenson 237-252
appointed engineers--Opposition--Hostile pamphlets
and public meetings--Robert Stephenson and Sir
Astley Cooper--The survey obstructed--The opposing
clergyman--The Bill in Parliament--Thrown out in the
Lords--Proprietors conciliated, and the Act
obtained--The works let in contracts--The
difficulties of the undertaking--The line
described--Blisworth Cutting--Primrose Hill
Tunnel--Kilsby Tunnel--Its construction
described--Cost of the Railway greatly
increased--Failure of contractors--Magnitude of the
works--Railway navvies
CHAPTER XIV.
MANCHESTER AND LEEDS, AND MIDLAND RAILWAYS--STEPHENSON'S LIFE AT
ALTON--VISIT TO BELGIUM--GENERAL EXTENSION OF RAILWAYS AND THEIR
RESULTS.
Projection of new lines--Dutton Viaduct, Grand 253-274
Junction--The Manchester and Leeds--Summit Tunnel,
Littleborough--Magnitude of the work--The Midland
Railway--The works compared with the Simplon
road--Slip near Ambergate--Bull Bridge--The York and
North Midland--George Stephenson on his surveys--His
quick observation--Travelling and
correspondence--Life at Alton Grange--The
Stephensons' London office--Visits to
Belgium--Interviews with the King--Public openings
of English railways--Stephenson's pupils and
assistants--Prophecies falsified concerning
railways--Their advantageous results
CHAPTER XV.
GEORGE STEPHENSON'S COAL MINES--THE ATMOSPHERIC SYSTEM--RAILWAY
MANIA--VISITS TO BELGIUM AND SPAIN.
George Stephenson on railways and 275-300
coal-traffic--Leases the Claycross estate, and sinks
for coal--His extensive lime-works--Removes to
Tapton House--British Association at
Newcastle--Appears at Mechanics' Institutes--Speech
at Leeds--His self-acting brake--His views of
railway speed--Theory of "undulating lines"--Chester
and Birkenhead Company--Stephenson's
liberality--Atmospheric railways
projected--Stephenson opposes the principle of
working--The railway mania--Stephenson resists, and
warns against it--George Hudson, "Railway
King"--Parliament and the mania--Stephenson's letter
to Sir R. Peel--Again visits Belgium--Interviews
with King Leopold--Journey into Spain
CHAPTER XVI.
ROBERT STEPHENSON'S CAREER--THE STEPHENSONS AND BRUNEL--EAST COAST
ROUTE TO SCOTLAND--ROYAL BORDER BRIDGE, BERWICK--HIGH LEVEL BRIDGE,
NEWCASTLE.
George Stephenson's retirement--Robert's employment 301-319
as Parliamentary Engineer--His rival Brunel--The
Great Western Railway--The width of gauge--Robert
Stephenson's caution as to investments--The
Newcastle and Berwick Railway--Contest in
Parliament--George Stephenson's interview with Lord
Howick--Royal Border Bridge, Berwick--Progress of
iron-bridge building--Robert Stephenson constructs
the High Level Bridge, Newcastle--Pile-driving by
steam--Characteristics of the structure--Through
railway to Scotland completed
CHAPTER XVII.
ROBERT STEPHENSON'S TUBULAR BRIDGES AT MENAI AND CONWAY.
George Stephenson surveys a line from Chester to 320-340
Holyhead--Robert Stephenson's construction of the
works at Penmaen Mawr--Crossing of the Menai
Strait--Various plans proposed--A tubular beam
determined on--Strength of wrought-iron tubes--Mr.
William Fairbairn consulted--His experiments--The
design settled--The Britannia Bridge described--The
Conway Bridge--Floating of the tubes--Lifting of the
tubes--Robert Stephenson's anxieties--Bursting of
the Hydraulic Press--The works completed--Merits of
the Britannia and Conway Bridges
CHAPTER XVIII.
GEORGE STEPHENSON'S CLOSING YEARS--ILLNESS AND DEATH.
George Stephenson's Life at Tapton--Experiments in 341-356
Horticulture, Gardening, and Farming--Affection for
animals--Bird-hatching and bee-keeping--Reading and
conversation--Rencontre with Lord
Denman--Hospitality at Tapton--Experiments with the
microscope--Frolics--"A crowdie night"--Visits to
London--Visit to Sir Robert Peel at Drayton
Manor--Encounter with Dr. Buckland--Coal formed by
the sun's light--Opening of the Trent Valley
Railway--Meeting with Emerson--Illness, death, and
funeral--Memorial Statues
CHAPTER XIX.
ROBERT STEPHENSON'S VICTORIA BRIDGE, LOWER CANADA--ILLNESS AND
DEATH--STEPHENSON CHARACTERISTICS.
Robert Stephenson's inheritances--Gradual retirement 357-380
from the profession of engineer--His last great
works--Tubular Bridges over the St. Lawrence and the
Nile--The Grand Trunk Railway, Canada--Necessity for
a great railway bridge near Montreal--Discussion as
to the plan--Robert Stephenson's report--A tubular
bridge determined on--Massiveness of the
piers--Ice-floods in the St. Lawrence--Victoria
Bridge constructed and completed--Tubular bridges in
Egypt--The Suez Canal--Robert Stephenson's
employment as arbitrator--Assists Brunel at
launching of the "Great Eastern"--Regardlessness of
health--Death and Funeral--Characteristics of the
Stephensons and resume of their history--Politics of
father and son--Services rendered to civilization by
the Stephensons
INDEX 381
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Portrait of George Stephenson _to face title page_
High Level Bridge, _to face_ 1
Map of Newcastle District 2
Flange rail 6
Coal-staith on the Tyne 10
Coal waggons 11
Wylam Colliery and village 12
High Street House, Wylam--George Stephenson's birthplace 14
Newburn on the Tyne 20
Colliery Whimsey 30
Stephenson's Cottage, Willington Quay 31
West Moor Colliery 37
Killingworth High Pit 46
Glebe Farm House, Benton 47
Rutter's School House, Long Benton 51
Bruce's School, Newcastle 53
Stephenson's Cottage, West Moor 57
Sun-dial at Killingworth 60
Colliers' Cottages at Long Benton 62
Cugnot's Engine 64
Section of Murdock's Model Locomotive 66
Trevithick's high-pressure Tram-Engine 70
Improved Wylam Engine 78
Spur-gear 83
The Pit-head, West Moor 91
Davy's and Stephenson's Safety-lamps 101
West Moor Pit, Killingworth 108
Half-lap joint 111
Old Killingworth Locomotive 113
Map of Stockton and Darlington Railway 123
Portrait of Edward Pease 124
The first Railway Coach 139
The No. 1 Engine at Darlington 142
Middlesborough-on-Tees 145
Map of Liverpool and Manchester Railway (Western Part) 150
,, (Eastern part) 151
Surveying on Chat Moss 172
Olive Mount Cutting 184
Sankey Viaduct 186
Robert Stephenson's Cottage at Santa Anna 198
The "Rocket" 212
Locomotive competition, Rainhill 215
Railway _versus_ Road 220
Map of Leicester and Swannington Railway 233
Stephenson's House at Alton Grange 236
Portrait of Robert Stephenson, _to face_ 237
Map of London and Birmingham Railway (Rugby to Watford) 242
Blisworth Cutting 243
Shafts over Kilsby Tunnel 246
Dutton Viaduct 254
Entrance to Summit Tunnel, Lancashire and Yorkshire 256
Railway
Land-slip, near Ambergate, North Midland Railway 259
Bullbridge, near Ambergate 260
Coalville and Snibston Colliery 274
Tapton House, near Chesterfield 275
Lime-works at Ambergate 278
Newcastle, from the High Level Bridge 301
Royal Border Bridge, Berwick-upon-Tweed 311
High Level Bridge--Elevation of one Arch 318
Penmaen Mawr 322
Map of Menai Straits 325
Conway Tubular Bridge 334
Britannia Bridge 339
Conway Bridge--Floating the first Tube 340
View in Tapton Gardens 341
Pathway to Tapton House 347
Trinity Church, Chesterfield 355
Tablet in Trinity Church, Chesterfield 356
The Victoria Bridge, Montreal 357
Robert Stephenson's Burial-place in Westminster Abbey 369
The Stephenson Memorial Schools, Willington Quay 380
[Picture: Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the High-level Bridge]
CHAPTER I.
NEWCASTLE AND THE GREAT NORTHERN COAL-FIELD.
In no quarter of England have greater changes been wrought by the
successive advances made in the practical science of engineering than in
the extensive colliery districts of the North, of which
Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the centre and the capital.
In ancient times the Romans planted a colony at Newcastle, throwing a
bridge across the Tyne near the site of the low-level bridge shown in the
prefixed engraving, and erecting a strong fortification above it on the
high ground now occupied by the Central Railway Station. North and
north-west lay a wild country, abounding in moors, mountains, and
morasses, but occupied to a certain extent by fierce and barbarous
tribes. To defend the young colony against their ravages, a strong wall
was built by the Romans, extending from Wallsend on the north bank of the
Tyne, a few miles below Newcastle, across the country to Burgh-upon-Sands
on the Solway Firth. The remains of the wall are still to be traced in
the less populous hill-districts of Northumberland. In the neighbourhood
of Newcastle they have been gradually effaced by the works of succeeding
generations, though the "Wallsend" coal consumed in our household fires
still serves to remind us of the great Roman work.
[Picture: Map of Newcastle District]
After the withdrawal of the Romans, Northumbria became planted by
immigrant Saxons from North Germany and Norsemen from Scandinavia, whose
Eorls or Earls made Newcastle their principal seat. Then came the
Normans, from whose _New_ Castle, built some eight hundred years since,
the town derived its present name. The keep of this venerable structure,
black with age and smoke, still stands entire at the northern end of the
noble high-level bridge--the utilitarian work of modern times thus
confronting the warlike relic of the older civilisation.
The nearness of Newcastle to the Scotch Border was a great hindrance to
its security and progress in the middle ages of English history. Indeed,
the district between it and Berwick continued to be ravaged by
moss-troopers long after the union of the Crowns. The gentry lived in
their strong Peel castles; even the larger farm-houses were fortified;
and bloodhounds were trained for the purpose of tracking the
cattle-reavers to their retreats in the hills. The Judges of Assize rode
from Carlisle to Newcastle guarded by an escort armed to the teeth. A
tribute called "dagger and protection money" was annually paid by the
Sheriff of Newcastle for the purpose of providing daggers and other
weapons for the escort; and, though the need of such protection has long
since ceased, the tribute continues to be paid in broad gold pieces of
the time of Charles the First.
Until about the middle of last century the roads across Northumberland
were little better than horse-tracks, and not many years since the
primitive agricultural cart with solid wooden wheels was almost as common
in the western parts of the county as it is in Spain now. The tract of
the old Roman road continued to be the most practicable route between
Newcastle and Carlisle, the traffic between the two towns having been
carried along it upon packhorses until a comparatively recent period.
Since that time great changes have taken place on the Tyne. When wood
for firing became scarce and dear, and the forests of the South of
England were found inadequate to supply the increasing demand for fuel,
attention was turned to the rich stores of coal lying underground in the
neighbourhood of Newcastle and Durham. It then became an article of
increasing export, and "seacoal" fires gradually supplanted those of
wood. Hence an old writer described Newcastle as "the Eye of the North,
and the Hearth that warmeth the South parts of this kingdom with Fire."
Fuel has become the staple product of the district, the quantity exported
increasing from year to year, until the coal raised from these northern
mines amounts to upwards of sixteen millions of tons a year, of which not
less than nine millions are annually conveyed away by sea.
Newcastle has in the mean time spread in all directions far beyond its
ancient boundaries. From a walled mediaeval town of monks and merchants,
it has been converted into a busy centre of commerce and manufactures
inhabited by nearly 100,000 people. It is no longer a Border fortress--a
"shield and defence against the invasions and frequent insults of the
Scots," as described in ancient charters--but a busy centre of peaceful
industry, and the outlet for a vast amount of steam-power, which is
exported in the form of coal to all parts of the world. Newcastle is in
many respects a town of singular and curious interest, especially in its
older parts, which are full of crooked lanes and narrow streets, wynds,
and chares, {4} formed by tall, antique houses, rising tier above tier
along the steep northern bank of the Tyne, as the similarly precipitous
streets of Gateshead crowd the opposite shore.
All over the coal region, which extends from the Coquet to the Tees,
about fifty miles from north to south, the surface of the soil exhibits
the signs of extensive underground workings. As you pass through the
country at night, the earth looks as if it were bursting with fire at
many points; the blaze of coke-ovens, iron-furnaces, and coal-heaps
reddening the sky to such a distance that the horizon seems to be a
glowing belt of fire.
From the necessity which existed for facilitating the transport of coals
from the pits to the shipping places, it is easy to understand how the
railway and the locomotive should have first found their home in such a
district as we have thus briefly described. At an early period the coal
was carried to the boats in panniers, or in sacks upon horses' backs.
Then carts were used, to facilitate the progress of which tramways of
flag-stone were laid down. This led to the enlargement of the vehicle,
which became known as a waggon, and it was mounted on four wheels instead
of two. A local writer about the middle of the seventeenth century says,
"Many thousand people are engaged in this trade of coals; many live by
working of them in the pits; and many live by conveying them in waggons
and wains to the river Tyne."
Still further to facilitate the haulage of the waggons, pieces of
planking were laid parallel upon wooden sleepers, or imbedded in the
ordinary track, by which friction was still further diminished. It is
said that these wooden rails were first employed by one Beaumont, about
1630; and on a road thus laid, a single horse was capable of drawing a
large loaded waggon from the coal-pit to the shipping staith. Roger
North, in 1676, found the practice had become extensively adopted, and he
speaks of the large sums then paid for way-leaves; that is, the
permission granted by the owners of lands lying between the coal-pit and
the river-side to lay down a tramway between the one and the other. A
century later, Arthur Young observed that not only had these roads become
greatly multiplied, but important works had been constructed to carry
them along upon the same level. "The coal-waggon roads from the pits to
the water," he says, "are great works, carried over all sorts of
inequalities of ground, so far as the distance of nine or ten miles. The
tracks of the wheels are marked with pieces of wood let into the road for
the wheels of the waggons to run on, by which one horse is enabled to
draw, and that with ease, fifty or sixty bushels of coals." {5}
Similar waggon-roads were laid down in the coal districts of Wales,
Cumberland, and Scotland. At the time of the Scotch rebellion in 1745, a
tramroad existed between the Tranent coal-pits and the small harbour of
Cockenzie in East Lothian; and a portion of the line was selected by
General Cope as a position for his cannon at the battle of Prestonpans.
In these rude wooden tracks we find the germ of the modern railroad.
Improvements were gradually made in them. Thus, at some collieries, thin
plates of iron were nailed upon their upper surface, for the purpose of
protecting the parts most exposed to friction. Cast-iron rails were also
tried, the wooden rails having been found liable to rot. The first rails
of this kind are supposed to have been used at Whitehaven as early as
1738. This cast-iron road was denominated a "plate-way," from the
plate-like form in which the rails were cast. In 1767, as appears from
the books of the Coalbrookdale Iron Works, in Shropshire, five or six
tons of rails were cast, as an experiment, on the suggestion of Mr.
Reynolds, one of the partners; and they were shortly after laid down to
form a road.
In 1776, a cast-iron tramway, nailed to wooden sleepers, was laid down at
the Duke of Norfolk's colliery near Sheffield. The person who designed
and constructed this coal line was Mr. John Curr, whose son has
erroneously claimed for him the invention of the cast-iron railway. He
certainly adopted it early, and thereby met the fate of men before their
age; for his plan was opposed by the labouring people of the colliery,
who got up a riot in which they tore up the road and burnt the
coal-staith, whilst Mr. Curr fled into a neighbouring wood for
concealment, and lay there _perdu_ for three days and nights, to escape
the fury of the populace. The plates of these early tramways had a ledge
cast on their edge to guide the wheel along the road, after the manner
shown in the annexed cut.
[Picture: Flange rail]
In 1789, Mr. William Jessop constructed a railway at Loughborough, in
Leicestershire, and there introduced the cast-iron edge-rail, with
flanches cast upon the tire of the waggon-wheels to keep them on the
track, instead of having the margin or flanch cast upon the rail itself;
and this plan was shortly after adopted in other places. In 1800, Mr.
Benjamin Outram, of Little Eaton, in Derbyshire (father of the
distinguished General Outram), used stone props instead of timber for
supporting the ends or joinings of the rails. Thus the use of railroads,
in various forms, gradually extended, until they were found in general
use all over the mining districts.
Such was the growth of the railway, which, it will be observed,
originated in necessity, and was modified according to experience;
progress in this, as in all departments of mechanics, having been
effected by the exertions of many men, one generation entering upon the
labours of that which preceded it, and carrying them onward to further
stages of improvement. We shall afterwards find that the invention of
the locomotive was made by like successive steps. It was not the
invention of one man, but of a succession of men, each working at the
proper hour, and according to the needs of that hour; one inventor
interpreting only the first word of the problem which his successors were
to solve after long and laborious efforts and experiments. "The
locomotive is not the invention of one man," said Robert Stephenson at
Newcastle, "but of a nation of mechanical engineers."
The same circumstances which led to the rapid extension of railways in
the coal districts of the north tended to direct the attention of the
mining engineers to the early development of the powers of the
steam-engine as a useful instrument of motive power. The necessity which
existed for a more effective method of hauling the coals from the pits to
the shipping places was constantly present to many minds; and the daily
pursuits of a large class of mechanics occupied in the management of
steam power, by which the coal was raised from the pits, and the mines
were pumped clear of water, had the effect of directing their attention
to the same agency as the best means for accomplishing that object.
Among the upper-ground workmen employed at the coal-pits, the principal
are the firemen, enginemen, and brakes-men, who fire and work the
engines, and superintend the machinery by means of which the collieries
are worked. Previous to the introduction of the steam-engine the usual
machine employed for the purpose was what is called a "gin." The gin
consists of a large drum placed horizontally, round which ropes attached
to buckets and corves are wound, which are thus drawn up or sent down the
shafts by a horse travelling in a circular track or "gin race." This
method was employed for drawing up both coals and water, and it is still
used for the same purpose in small collieries; but where the quantity of
water to be raised is great, pumps worked by steam power are called into
requisition.
Newcomen's atmospheric engine was first made use of to work the pumps;
and it continued to be so employed long after the more powerful and
economical condensing engine of Watt had been invented. In the Newcomen
or "fire engine," as it was called, the power is produced by the pressure
of the atmosphere forcing down the piston in the cylinder, on a vacuum
being produced within it by condensation of the contained steam by means
of cold water injection. The piston-rod is attached to one end of a
lever, whilst the pump-rod works in connexion with the other,--the
hydraulic action employed to raise the water being exactly similar to
that of a common sucking-pump.
The working of a Newcomen engine was a clumsy and apparently a very
painful process, accompanied by an extraordinary amount of wheezing,
sighing, creaking, and bumping. When the pump descended, there was heard
a plunge, a heavy sigh, and a loud bump: then, as it rose, and the sucker
began to act, there was heard a croak, a wheeze, another bump, and then a
strong rush of water as it was lifted and poured out. Where engines of a
more powerful and improved description are used, the quantity of water
raised is enormous--as much as a million and a half gallons in the
twenty-four hours.
The pitmen, or "the lads belaw," who work out the coal below ground, are
a peculiar class, quite distinct from the workmen on the surface. They
are a people with peculiar habits, manners, and character, as much as
fishermen and sailors, to whom, indeed, they bear, in some respects, a
considerable resemblance. Some fifty years since they were a much
rougher and worse educated class than they are now; hard workers, but
very wild and uncouth; much given to "steeks," or strikes; and
distinguished, in their hours of leisure and on pay-nights, for their
love of cock-fighting, dog-fighting, hard drinking, and cuddy races. The
pay-night was a fortnightly saturnalia, in which the pitman's character
was fully brought out, especially when the "yel" was good. Though
earning much higher wages than the ordinary labouring population of the
upper soil, the latter did not mix nor intermarry with them; so that they
were left to form their own communities, and hence their marked
peculiarities as a class. Indeed, a sort of traditional disrepute seems
long to have clung to the pitmen, arising perhaps from the nature of
their employment, and from the circumstance that the colliers were among
the last classes enfranchised in England, as they were certainly the last
in Scotland, where they continued bondmen down to the end of last
century. The last thirty years, however, have worked a great improvement
in the moral condition of the Northumbrian pitmen; the abolition of the
twelve months' bond to the mine, and the substitution of a month's notice
previous to leaving, having given them greater freedom and opportunity
for obtaining employment; and day-schools and Sunday-schools, together
with the important influences of railways, have brought them fully up to
a level with the other classes of the labouring population.
The coals, when raised from the pits, are emptied into the waggons placed
alongside, from whence they are sent along the rails to the staiths
erected by the river-side, the waggons sometimes descending by their own
gravity along inclined planes, the waggoner standing behind to check the
speed by means of a convoy or wooden brake bearing upon the rims of the
wheels. Arrived at the staiths, the waggons are emptied at once into the
ships waiting alongside for cargo. Any one who has sailed down the Tyne
from Newcastle Bridge cannot but have been struck with the appearance of
the immense staiths, constructed of timber, which are erected at short
distances from each other on both sides of the river.
[Picture: Coal-Staith on the Tyne]
But a great deal of the coal shipped from the Tyne comes from
above-bridge, where sea-going craft cannot reach, and is floated down the
river in "keels," in which the coals are sometimes piled up according to
convenience when large, or, when the coal is small or tender, it is
conveyed in tubs to prevent breakage. These keels are of a very ancient
model,--perhaps the oldest extant in England: they are even said to be of
the same build as those in which the Norsemen navigated the Tyne
centuries ago. The keel is a tubby, grimy-looking craft, rounded fore
and aft, with a single large square sail, which the keel-bullies, as the
Tyne watermen are called, manage with great dexterity; the vessel being
guided by the aid of the "swape," or great oar, which is used as a kind
of rudder at the stern of the vessel. These keelmen are an exceedingly
hardy class of workmen, not by any means so quarrelsome as their
designation of "bully" would imply--the word being merely derived from
the obsolete term "boolie," or beloved, an appellation still in familiar
use amongst brother workers in the coal districts. One of the most
curious sights upon the Tyne is the fleet of hundreds of these
black-sailed, black-hulled keels, bringing down at each tide their black
cargoes for the ships at anchor in the deep water at Shields and other
parts of the river below Newcastle.
These preliminary observations will perhaps be sufficient to explain the
meaning of many of the occupations alluded to, and the phrases employed,
in the course of the following narrative, some of which might otherwise
have been comparatively unintelligible to the general reader.
[Picture: Coal Waggons]
[Picture: Wylam Colliery and Village]
CHAPTER II.
WYLAM AND DEWLEY BURN--GEORGE STEPHENSON'S EARLY YEARS.
The colliery village of Wylam is situated on the north bank of the Tyne,
about eight miles west of Newcastle. The Newcastle and Carlisle railway
runs along the opposite bank; and the traveller by that line sees the
usual signs of a colliery in the unsightly pumping-engines surrounded by
heaps of ashes, coal-dust, and slag; whilst a neighbouring iron-furnace
in full blast throws out dense smoke and loud jets of steam by day and
lurid flames at night. These works form the nucleus of the village,
which is almost entirely occupied by coal-miners and iron-furnacemen.
The place is remarkable for its large population, but not for its
cleanness or neatness as a village; the houses, as in most colliery
villages, being the property of the owners or lessees, who employ them in
temporarily accommodating the workpeople, against whose earnings there is
a weekly set-off for house and coals. About the end of last century the
estate of which Wylam forms part, belonged to Mr. Blackett, a gentleman
of considerable celebrity in coal-mining, then more generally known as
the proprietor of the 'Globe' newspaper.
There is nothing to interest one in the village itself. But a few
hundred yards from its eastern extremity stands a humble detached
dwelling, which will be interesting to many as the birthplace of one of
the most remarkable men of our times--George Stephenson, the Railway
Engineer. It is a common two-storied, red-tiled, rubble house, portioned
off into four labourers' apartments. It is known by the name of High
Street House, and was originally so called because it stands by the side
of what used to be the old riding post road or street between Newcastle
and Hexham, along which the post was carried on horseback within the
memory of persons living.
The lower room in the west end of this house was the home of the
Stephenson family; and there George Stephenson was born, the second of a
family of six children, on the 9th of June, 1781. The apartment is now,
what it was then, an ordinary labourer's dwelling,--its walls are
unplastered, its floor is of clay, and the bare rafters are exposed
overhead.
Robert Stephenson, or "Old Bob," as the neighbours familiarly called him,
and his wife Mabel, were a respectable couple, careful and hard-working.
It is said that Robert Stephenson's father was a Scotchman, and came into
England as a gentleman's servant. Mabel, his wife, was the daughter of
Robert Carr, a dyer at Ovingham. When first married, they lived at
Walbottle, a village situated between Wylam and Newcastle, afterwards
removing to Wylam, where Robert was employed as fireman of the old
pumping engine at that colliery.
[Picture: High-street House, Wylam, the Birthplace of George Stephenson]
An old Wylam collier, who remembered George Stephenson's father, thus
described him:--"Geordie's fayther war like a peer o' deals nailed
thegither, an' a bit o' flesh i' th' inside; he war as queer as Dick's
hatband--went thrice aboot, an' wudn't tie. His wife Mabel war a
delicat' boddie, an' varry flighty. Thay war an honest family, but sair
hadden doon i' th' world." Indeed, the earnings of old Robert did not
amount to more than twelve shillings a week; and, as there were six
children to maintain, the family, during their stay at Wylam, were
necessarily in very straitened circumstances. The father's wages being
barely sufficient, even with the most rigid economy, for the sustenance
of the household, there was little to spare for clothing, and nothing for
education, so none of the children were sent to school.
Old Robert was a general favourite in the village, especially amongst the
children, whom he was accustomed to draw about him whilst tending the
engine-fire, and feast their young imaginations with tales of Sinbad the
Sailor and Robinson Crusoe, besides others of his own invention; so that
"Bob's engine-fire" came to be the most popular resort in the village.
Another feature in his character, by which he was long remembered, was
his affection for birds and animals; and he had many tame favourites of
both sorts, which were as fond of resorting to his engine-fire as the
boys and girls themselves. In the winter time he had usually a flock of
tame robins about him; and they would come hopping familiarly to his feet
to pick up the crumbs which he had saved for them out of his humble
dinner. At his cottage he was rarely without one or more tame
blackbirds, which flew about the house, or in and out at the door. In
summer-time he would go a-birdnesting with his children; and one day he
took his little son George to see a blackbird's nest for the first time.
Holding him up in his arms, he let the wondering boy peep down, through
the branches held aside for the purpose, into a nest full of young
birds--a sight which the boy never forgot, but used to speak of with
delight to his intimate friends when he himself had grown an old man.
The boy George led the ordinary life of working-people's children. He
played about the doors; went birdnesting when he could; and ran errands
to the village. He was also an eager listener, with the other children,
to his father's curious tales; and he early imbibed from him that
affection for birds and animals which continued throughout his life. In
course of time he was promoted to the office of carrying his father's
dinner to him while at work, and it was on such occasions his great
delight to see the robins fed. At home he helped to nurse, and that with
a careful hand, his younger brothers and sisters. One of his duties was
to see that the other children were kept out of the way of the chaldron
waggons, which were then dragged by horses along the wooden tramroad
immediately in front of the cottage-door. This waggon-way was the first
in the northern district on which the experiment of a locomotive engine
was tried. But at the time of which we speak, the locomotive had
scarcely been dreamt of in England as a practicable working power; horses
only were used to haul the coal; and one of the first sights with which
the boy was familiar was the coal-waggons dragged by them along the
wooden railway at Wylam.
Thus eight years passed; after which, the coal having been worked out,
the old engine, which had grown "dismal to look at," as one of the
workmen described it, was pulled down; and then Robert, having obtained
employment as a fireman at the Dewley Burn Colliery, removed with his
family to that place. Dewley Burn, at this day, consists of a few
old-fashioned low-roofed cottages standing on either side of a babbling
little stream. They are connected by a rustic wooden bridge, which spans
the rift in front of the doors. In the central one-roomed cottage of
this group, on the right bank, Robert Stephenson lived for a time with
his family; the pit at which he worked standing in the rear of the
cottages.
Young though he was, George was now of an age to be able to contribute
something towards the family maintenance; for in a poor man's house,
every child is a burden until his little hands can be turned to
profitable account. That the boy was shrewd and active, and possessed of
a ready mother wit, will be evident enough from the following incident.
One day his sister Nell went into Newcastle to buy a bonnet; and Geordie
went with her "for company." At a draper's shop in the Bigg Market, Nell
found a "chip" quite to her mind, but on pricing it, alas! it was found
to be fifteen pence beyond her means, and she left the shop very much
disappointed. But Geordie said, "Never heed, Nell; see if I canna win
siller enough to buy the bonnet; stand ye there, till I come back." Away
ran the boy and disappeared amidst the throng of the market, leaving the
girl to wait his return. Long and long she waited, until it grew dusk,
and the market people had nearly all left. She had begun to despair, and
fears crossed her mind that Geordie must have been run over and killed;
when at last up he came running, almost breathless. "I've gotten the
siller for the bonnet, Nell!" cried he. "Eh Geordie!" she said, "but hoo
hae ye gotten it?" "Haudin the gentlemen's horses!" was the exultant
reply. The bonnet was forthwith bought, and the two returned to Dewley
happy.
George's first regular employment was of a very humble sort. A widow,
named Grace Ainslie, then occupied the neighbouring farmhouse of Dewley.
She kept a number of cows, and had the privilege of grazing them along
the waggon-road. She needed a boy to herd the cows, to keep them out of
the way of the waggons, and prevent their straying or trespassing on the
neighbours' "liberties;" the boy's duty was also to bar the gates at
night after all the waggons had passed. George petitioned for this post,
and, to his great joy, he was appointed at the wage of twopence a day.
It was light employment, and he had plenty of spare time on his hands,
which he spent in birdnesting, making whistles out of reeds and scrannel
straws, and erecting Lilliputian mills in the little water-streams that
ran into the Dewley bog. But his favourite amusement at this early age
was erecting clay engines in conjunction with his chosen playmate, Bill
Thirlwall. The place is still pointed out where the future engineers
made their first essays in modelling. The boys found the clay for their
engines in the adjoining bog, and the hemlocks which grew about supplied
them with imaginary steam-pipes. They even proceeded to make a miniature
winding-machine in connexion with their engine, and the apparatus was
erected upon a bench in front of the Thirlwalls' cottage. The corves
were made out of hollowed corks; the ropes were supplied by twine; and a
few bits of wood gleaned from the refuse of the carpenter's shop
completed their materials. With this apparatus the boys made a show of
sending the corves down the pit and drawing them up again, much to the
marvel of the pitmen. But some mischievous person about the place seized
the opportunity early one morning of smashing the fragile machinery, much
to the grief of the young engineers.
As Stephenson grew older and abler to work, he was set to lead the horses
when ploughing, though scarce big enough to stride across the furrows;
and he used afterwards to say that he rode to his work in the mornings at
an hour when most other children of his age were asleep in their beds.
He was also employed to hoe turnips, and do similar farm-work, for which
he was paid the advanced wage of fourpence a day. But his highest
ambition was to be taken on at the colliery where his father worked; and
he shortly joined his elder brother James there as a "corf-bitter," or
"picker," to clear the coal of stones, bats, and dross. His wages were
then advanced to sixpence a day, and afterwards to eightpence when he was
set to drive the gin-horse.
Shortly after, George went to Black Callerton to drive the gin there; and
as that colliery lies about two miles across the fields from Dewley Burn,
he walked that distance early in the morning to his work, returning home
late in the evening. One of the old residents at Black Callerton, who
remembered him at that time, described him to the author as "a grit
growing lad, with bare legs an' feet;" adding that he was "very
quick-witted and full of fun and tricks: indeed, there was nothing under
the sun but he tried to imitate." He was usually foremost also in the
sports and pastimes of youth.
Among his first strongly-developed tastes was the love of birds and
animals, which he inherited from his father. Blackbirds were his special
favourites. The hedges between Dewley and Black Callerton were capital
bird-nesting places; and there was not a nest there that he did not know
of. When the young birds were old enough, he would bring them home with
him, feed them, and teach them to fly about the cottage unconfined by
cages. One of his blackbirds became so tame, that, after flying about
the doors all day, and in and out of the cottage, it would take up its
roost upon the bed-head at night. And most singular of all, the bird
would disappear in the spring and summer months, when it was supposed to
go into the woods to pair and rear its young, after which it would
reappear at the cottage, and resume its social habits during the winter.
This went on for several years. George had also a stock of tame rabbits,
for which he built a little house behind the cottage, and for many years
he continued to pride himself upon the superiority of his breed.
