The Republican journal., 1873-01-16

earn more.
| just then he turned his eyes toward
| America. An English laborer's life was
not Il little heaven below. Wages were
| al their lowast-prices ut their highest
Taxation hung like a milestone on every
mans neck He was cramped sore
haulen doon"-.he wanted space and Mn
to stand upright and breathe. He MICH,
rs welt have aspired to the moon. He
could no more have raised the means OF
! emigration TO one place than to the other
And 50 he settled down again to hi.
''break'' with his shears and cobbler',
| bench, and hammer and file between time,
-Jack OF all trades, but getting ready tC
prove himself master OF one, at least
SIX or seven years of that, not lost
years. lie was taking all sorts of small
mechanical steps toward the success OF
lite - the locomotive steam engine, q
| shadowy ideal, working itself each day a
little nearer iron and steel embodiment
| winning, too a friendly admiration among
| his fellow lahorers, and respectful consid-
| Grafton among his employers Machinery
| had a trick in those days of failing in the
! face Of demand. Stcphenson's sugges-
| tons were practical, and helped matters.
| George was ready for meeting, one Sun
| day-MethodiSt preaching, but he did not
| go Near by. I stationary engine had
| " heezed, and choked, and broken its
| heart in vain for a year, over pit full of
| water. George thought he could remedy
| matters. and said so to a friend. The
| friend went to the worried owners and re-
peated the remark. They were at their
| wits end--any chance was worth taking.
This bony, grave, kindly pitman had help
ed bad cases before SO he was sent for.
slipped ont of his Sunday clothes into his
workman's gear, let preaching 90 for that
| day, and by Friday night The engine
pumps sucked dry.
After that he had, besides the clocks, all
the brok en-winded en- oines in the country
on his hands.
Then he was appointed engine wright at
hillingworth, and was Il made man, with
hundred pounds a year.
He was not the only man possessed with
the steam demon. Years ago the idea of
the locomotive power of steam had pre-
scented itself in some uneasy brain. Muir
dock in 1870, and others after him had
set the kissing little turies tearing over the
country, soaring slow going people out Of
their everyday wits. Their inventions
| ran, certainly, but it was away from. and
with their makers, often enough, dashino
themselves into ignominious wreck against
stone walls. and in sWampS. There We're
no railways except in benighted fal-off'
coal counties, and they were clumsy
tracks, only suited to the SLOW. heavy
weighted cars-WOodcn tramwavs at frs.
cast-iron afterwards. On these Treyethick
had set his engine, running with tO0thed
wheels on cogged rails. Benkinsop had
one working or the Wylam road. 1t must
have been something like the Mother
Goose hero who ran fifteen miles in six
days. This one ran five miles in six hoiils.
and had horses along to keep Il ont of
trouble It had been demonstrated be-
You'd dispute that a smooth wheel would
not revolve on a smooth spriacc Ii re-
manned for Stephenson, with heroic 0hsti-
macy, to disprove their certantes by the
nnanswerable argument of success. In
1914 the first smooth wheeled engine IAN
down the killingworth railway, ioing its
work at the rate Of three miles an hour.
He had not handled pick and bur for
nothing. HIS underground trainr.sr had
taught him the horrible lurking forces of
tire-damp. Miners wrought IN jeopardy
every hour. About this time there was
An explosion in The c0llery in his charge.
IT never occurred to him that George
Stephenson owed more to science than 10
humanity. He headed a rescuiug party.
and down at the bottom Of the mine, in
the heat and damp, and sutlocatng smells.
he Thought" something might be done
TO prevent such occurrences i'll the future.
And the conclusion of the thought was,
that in October, 1915, his safety lamp was
successfully tested in Killingworth mine.
That was month before Sir Humphrey
haYy gave his experiment to public crit
cism; bat the titled philosopher disputed
the wOrking-man's claim Stephenson
printed q pamphlet in English rs nervous
rs his hammer strokes. asserted he oripi-
naiity of his idea. and gave Dapy credit
for his own. The northern coal men
made mp q testimonial of thousand
pounds, and Stephenson LETT the quarrel |
He had something else TO do
His new engine was IN working order
"a noisy little wretch, putting its waste
steam saVageiy, with grent offence 10 the
ears Of men. And here he stumbled into
an Improvement that more than doubled
the worth of his work He turned his
waste steam up chimney, found that il in
creased the draught. and general capacity
Of the engine In 1918 his new loromo
tive had the steam III 1t. and the same
model was used in digging killimgworth
coal for forty years
In 1914 came the general peace in
Europe. Trade and commerce took a
fresh start There was Il great rushing
to and fro among the people Travcl
swung on coach wheels, picturesque
enough, hnt too slow for the demands of
the age. Those northern engines, pant
mo nj their heavy grades began to make
their breathings heard 10 the general
public. Stephenson launched himself into
prophecy the railroad world became the
great highway for the king and all bis
subjects, and all the lesser powers stood
by and reviled But in 1922 he built
eight miles of railway for the IIelton
coillelY eight miles of success even
with stationary engines to draw The load
up the steep grades. And then came the
Stockton and Darlington r. r. Stephen
son was was appointed engineer, at three
hundred pounds per year He engineered
his locomotives into the place OF the pro
posed stationary engines. The road was
opened September 25th, 1925.
ht'tnWililc no SHOI' III Eu8ldnu cOulU
turn out such work as he wanted All
these years of coping with blind material
force had their weight now. His hands
could help out his brains Six years be-
fore he set himself to work at improve
ments on railways-put down wrought,
instead of cast iron, and took oHt patent
for new rail and chair Now he wanted
better and heayier locomotives. A special
engine shop must be established He took
lis thousand pounds, his safety-lamp tes-
timonial; Friend Pease, of the Stockton
and Darlington, helped with the needed
remainder, and to this day, Newcastle
upon-Tyne turns out some OF the best
made engines and best drilled engineers
in the world.
That same year came the actual, earnest
tug of war. A new freight and passen-
ger line was wanted between Liverpool
and Manchester. The ships lay in the
Liverpool docks, and the bales in Man
chester, and the canals trailed their slow
lengths along, at great cost of time and
and money. George Thought" again
hat ha ho1, hn IL.