The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-11-03

Brunei, engineer OF the Great Westera AN,
Great Eastern steamships, Mr. Robert Ste
phenson died, on the 18th ultimo, at Lon
don. Had he survived until the 10th o
next December, he would have been 56 year
old. 5..aH
Only son of George Stephenson, to who's,
| genius and perseverance the world is in
! debted for the system of Railwayism, he wal
born at Wellington Quay, on the banks o
| the Tyne, six miles below Newcastle. in tht
county of Northumberland. "The child,
| says DR.. Smiles, "Was from his earliest
| years familiarized with the steady industry
OF his parents; for there were few, if any
| idle moments spent in that cottage. When
his father was not busy in making or mead
ing shoes, cutting out shoe-lasts, or cleaning
clocks, he was occupied with some drawing
or model, in constructing which he sought
to improve himself. The child was from
the first, as may we'll be imagined, great
favorite with his father, whose evening
hours were made happier by his presence =
At the age of five, the boy was semitic school,
his father having determined that he should
receive at least the elements of good edu-
cation. Nearly forty years later, i'm June,
1874, when the elder Stephenson was con-
fessedly one ofthe greatest men of England
the Newcastle and Darlington Railway, Tn
the earlier part of my career, when Robert
was little boy, saw how deficient was
in education, and made up my mind that
he should not labor under the same defect,
but that would put him to a good school,
and give him a liberal training. | was,
however, poor man, and how do you think
| managed? | betook myself to mending
my neighbors' clocks and watches at night,
after my daily labor was done, and thus
procured the means ofeducating my son."
His first instruction was at the village of
Long Benton, where Rutter, the parish
clerk, kept school, and taught the primer,
and spot hooks and hangers" Thence, in
1914, the lad was transferred to Bruees
academy, at Newcastle, where he commenced
a course of sound elementary edrcation.-
When he got into his teens, his father paid
three guineas year to make him MEM
Der of the Newcastle Philosophical Institu-
tion in which he studied a great deal, bring
ing home to his father house, on Saturday
volume of the Repertory of
Arts and Sciences, or OF the Edinburgh
which supplied subjects for
father and son to discuss and examine du-
ring tile evening hours. His father insisted
on his learning to read the plans and draw
ings in a book, without referring to the
written descriptions. Thus he acquired the
facility, very useful in after days, of reading
a drawing as easily as he would read the
page of book-of Immediately apprehend-
ing the details Of the most difficult and
mechanical drawing.
After remaining three years at Bruces
school, Robert Stephenson, then in his 10th |
year, was an apprentice to MIR. Nicholas |
Ward of KiIingsworth, K to learn the busi- |
ness of co!liery, and, in the three years lie |
served with him, as under-viewer in the |
West Moor Pit, became thorough hlyhcquainted |
with all departments Of underground work. |
In the evening, he and his father studied to-
gether-chiehy devoting themselves to the |
aud development of the loco |
motive engine In 1920, determined to
make him a scientific and practical engi |
neer, his father took him away from the |
and sent him to Edinburgh Uni /
rtrsity, where lie remained, most labori- |
bus siadent for six months, chiefly in chem
stry, geology, mineralogy and natural phi |
osophy. He returned home in the summer |
Of 1921, bringing with him the prize for |
which he had gained at the |
University.
Under his father, who was now partner
in foundry and loc omotive engine factory, |
Robert Stephenson commenced the practical |
work of engineering, and his exact scien-
life knowledge undoubtedly was of great |
Use here. In 1924, however, his health was |
ailing from over work of mind and body, |
md his father sent him to South America, |
.hiety for change of climate, to superintend
some mining operations in Columbia. On |
lis return, in 1927, he found the Stockton
and Darlington Railway, which he had as
sisted to construct, in full work, and his I
ather s locomotives successfully running on
t.
The success of this railway led to the
of the line between Liverpool
md Manchester, in the difficulties and tri-
imphs of which he was side by side with
lis father, aud assisted him in constructing
he engine which won the prize of e50O,
offered for the best locomotive. He had
previously constructed the line between Lei
lester and Swannington, on the completion
Of which, in 1888. he commenced the Lon
Ion and birmingham Railway, which he
Completed in 1888. Thenceforward, he had
IS much occupation as he could attend to-
and may be said to have constructed the
whole Of the London and Northwestern
to which, as well as the Midland
Eastern, and other great lines, he WAS engi-
neer-in chief TO the time of his death.
He Invented numerous improvements in
the locomotive engine, and the tubular or
beam bridge for railways--the English ex-
amples of which are at Conway and Menai.
The Victoria tubular bridge, over the ST.
Lawrence, near Montreal, was also his de-
sign. He Was consulted on railways in Bel
siuln, Norway, Italy, and Switzerland, and |
constructed the railway between Cairo and /
in Egypt From the foreign
powers who employed him he received va
rious decorations, and, in 1851, after the
completion OF the Britannia tubular bridge,
declined like his father before him) the hon
Or OF knighthood offered him by Queen Vic
toria.
Mr.. Stephenson was member of numer- :
Ous Scientific Institutions, at home and /
abroad. He wrote two books-on Locomo-
tives, which he assisted to invent, and on !
Railways, which he considered /
unsafe and over-costly, if not actually i'm
IL 10 MIRO fl,f