The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-11 00:00:00

STEPHENSON• AND HIS CENTENARY,

We take the following from a most interesting article in
The Times of Wednesday, the Bth
"In The Times for the 4th of October, 1825, we read that
on the previous Tuesday the Darlington and Stockton Rail-
way was formally opened by the proprietors for the use of
the public. It was a single railway, 25 miles in length, and
intended to open the London market to the colleries in the
western part of the county of Durham, as well as facilitate
the obtaining of fuel to the country along its line and the
northern parts of Yorkshire. Te account, which was from
the pen of a local chronicler, proceeds to say :
"' A train of carriages was attached to a locomotive
engine of the most improved construction, and built by Mr.
George Stephenson, in the following order :—(1) Locomotive
engine, with the engineer and assistants ; (2) tender with
coals and water; next six waggons loaded with coals and
flour • then an elegant covered coach, with the committee
and Other proprietors of the railway; then 21 waggons fitted
up on the occasion for passengers; and, last of all, six wagons
loaded with coals, making altogether a train of 38 carriages,
exclusive of the engine and tender. Tickets were dis-
tributed to the number of nearly SOO for those whom
it was intended should occupy the coach and waggons;
but such was the pressure and crowd that both loaded and
empty carriages were instantly filled with passengers. The
signal being given, the engine started of with this immense
train of carriages. In some parts the speed was frequently
12 miles per hour, and in one place, for a short distance,
near Darlington, 15 miles per hour, and at that time the
number of passengers vfas counted to 450, which,
together with the coals, merchandise, and carriages,
would amount to nearly 90 tons. After some little delay
In arranging the procession, the engine, with her load
arrived at Darlington, a distanee of eight miles and three-
quarters, in sixty-live minutes, exclusive of stops, averaging
about eight miles an hour. The engine arrived at Stockton
in three hours and seven minutes after leaving Darlington,
Including stops, the distance being nearly twelve miles,
which is at the rate of four miles an hour, and upon the
level part of the railway the number of passengers in the
wagons was counted about 550, and several more clung to
the carriages on each side, so that the whole number could
not be less than 600.'

"Such was the origin of one of the most gigantic enter-
prises of modern times. Not one of that first band of rail-
way travellers, dipping into the future, could for a moment
conceive of the enormous, developments which the railway
system has since attained. Even Stephenson himself, the
pioneer of the movement, whose centenary will be cele-
brated with fitting honours on Thursday, could scarcely
venture to anticipate, in his most sanguine moments, the
mighty revolution which railways, with their immense aids
to trade and commerce, have effected in this country and
throughout the world. A few figures which we may cite in
relation to Great Britain and Ireland alone must seem posi-
tively startling to those who are still able to look back upon
the early days of railway enterprise. In the year 1843 there
were but 1,775 miles of railway opened in England and
Wales; in 1877 the mileage had risen to 12,113. In 1845 the
number of passengers was 23,791,258; in 1877 (not including
season ticket holders) 551,533,000. In the year 1814 the paid-
up capital in connection with the railways of Great Britain
and Ireland was £286,068,794 ; in 1877 it stood at £673,759,000.
The net receipts of the lines which in 1814 were 11,009,619,
had risen in 1877 to 29.135,000. For the years 1847-9 it was
calculated that out of 4,782,188 travellers by railway, one
person was killed from causes beyond his own control; for
1856-9, one in 8,708,411; for 1868, one in 12,491,170, so that,
with an increase in mileage, there has also been secured a
greater degree of safety in travelling.
"It may be mentioned here that there were iron railways
before Stephenson's time. The earliest account is of a tim-
ber tram line laid down near Newcastle in 1602. Lines were
made of iron at Whitehaven in 1738. In 1776 an iron railway
was laid down near Sheffield by John Curr, but it was des-
troyed by the colliers. Ten years later the first considerable
iron railway was laid down at Coalbrookdale. The first iron
railway sanctioned by Parliament—with the exception of local
lines used by canal companies—was the Surrey iron railway,
worked by horses, from the Thames at Wandsworth to Croy-
don, laid down in 1801. In the year 1802 Trevethick and Vivian
obtained a patent for a high-pressure locomotive engine.
In 1813 William Hedley, of Wylam Colliery, constructed
the first travelling locomotive engine, or substitute for
animal power, in a colliery, and in the following year the
first locomotive constructed by GeorgaStephenson travelled
at the rate of six miles per hour.
"Greatness is frequently attributed, with looseness of
expression, to many men whose claims, if strictly investi-
gated, would not warrant the title; but if, in estimating
greatness, we consider both the practical ends achieved and
the obstacles surmounted in the accomplishment of those
ends, then Stephenson was well entitled to the epithet of
a great man. Born of the most humble parentage, he
first saw the light on the 9th of June, 1781, at a
solitary cot or cottage on the Tyne, between Wylam
and Closehouse, Northumberland, about eight miles
west of Newcastle. His father was an engine-
tenter at a colliery, and George himself began life as a pit
engine-boy, at 2d. per day wages. At that time it was ex-
tremely difficult for any poor boy to obtain e yen the very
rudiments of education. Stevenson was debarred from those
advantages which many youths have since been able to
obtain through instruction of mechanics' institutes. These
admirable aids to knowledge have furnished, by their
evening classes, many opportunities for boys whose parents
were unaWe to give them the benefit of a day education,
but they were unknown in Stephenson's day. He was
eighteen years old, Mr. Smiles tells us, before he began to
read; bat he must always have had that marvellously ob-
serving eye which is an education of itself. He did get
some little instruction from night schools, paying the large
sum of 4d. per week (for large it was to him) for enlighten-
ment in certain branches of knowledge, first, from a poor
teacher named Cowens, and secondly, from a Scotch
dominie, named RoWrtson. The education was not of a high
type, but a practical, shrewd genius like Stephenson's could
utilize it far more than the average raw student. For some
time he acted as a stoker and as a brakesman in the em-
ployment of Lord Ravensworth and partners, and it was not
long before his extraordinary mechanical talent began to
manifest itself. The first occasion on which it brought him
Into notice was in the amateur repair and improvement of a
condensing pump-engine, where some engineers had failed.
This led to his being promoted to the office of engine-man,
and it was at this juncture in his history that he
declared to a confidant that, having risen from 2d. a
day to the independent sum of 12s. a week, he was now
a man for life ! On the principle, we suppose, that
what is not enough for one to live upon II ample
for two, he married. Opportunities speedily presented
themselves for exhibiting his powers, or, rather, perhaps,
we ought to say that he made, or certainly knew how to em-
brace those opportunities, as talent always will. On one
occasion, when something went wrong with the wagon-way,
or it was discovered that something had always been wrong
with it, Stephenson stepped in and improved it. Next we
find him employed in forming railway trains and engines
under ground. Be was, in fact, placed daily in the midst
of scenes where his peculiar powers found circumstances
most favourable to their development.

"But the young engineer found himself cast upon
troublous times. In the midst of much national excitement
he was drawn for the militia, paid for a substitute, and con-
templated emigration to the United States. England might
have lost him had not the fates kept him poor. It is stated
that he mended clocks and watches, repaired shoes, and
cut out pitmen's clothes. Whatever his hand found to do
that he did until he was appointed colliery engine-wright at
Killingworth. Speaking at the opening of the Newcastle
and Darlington line of railway in 1844, Sephenson said
"'Mr.
.Liddell has told you that in my younger days I
worked at an engine in a coal-pit. I had then to work early
and late, often rising to my labour at one and two o'clock in
the morning. Time rolled on, and I had the happiness to
make some improvements in engine work. The first loco-
motive that I made was at Killingworth Colliery, and with
Lord Eavensworth's money. That engine was made 32 years
ago, and we called it "My Lord." I said to my friends that
there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, provided
the works could be made to stand.'

"To his infinite credit, Stephenson pinched himself to
procure the means of educating his equally distinguished
son Robert. The latter became his assistant and com-
panion, and got a place as an underviewer."
After referring to Stephenson's principal achievements in
railway engineering, The Times article concludes by
saying :

"Severely simple in his character and habits, the most
noticeable qualities in Stephenson were his singular fore-
sight, his capacity for great enterprises, and that extraordi-
nary tenacity of purpose usually associated with the typical
Englishman. As Mr. Smiles has observed, the battle
of the locomotive which he fought, and which would
have discouraged most men, only served to bring into
prominence the energy and determination which formed the
backbone of his character. 'Patience is genius,' it has been
said, and the words are certainly synonymous in Stephen-
son's case. He grappled with the work nearest to him; but
while he did that conscientiously he was always prospecting
more. Thrifty, frugal, modest, thorough—such were his
characteristics. He took no special interest in politics, and
declined an invitation to stand for South Shields. For
honours and degrees he cared nothing at all, and on several
occasions when the dignity of knighthood was offered him
he declined it. Referring to the advantages of railways, his
biographer says :—` As tending to multiply and spread
abroad the conveniences of life, opening up new fields of
industry, bringing nations nearer each other, and thus pro-
moting the great ends of civilization, the founding of
the railway system by George Stephenson must be
regarded as one of the most important events, if not
the very greatest, in the first half of this 19th
century. This is certainly a great claim to have
upon the gratitude of mankind, but it is one we
must concede to Stephenson. The system of which he was
the great originator and founder has not only enormously
increased and developed the wealth of this country, but it
has powerfully advanced the comfort, the prosperity, and
the hanpiness of the whole nation, as well as of the civilized
world."