The Rocket: The Story of the Stephensons, Father and Son Read online

  CHAPTER III.

  WHO BEGAN RAILROADS?—"PUFFING BILLY."

  Familiar as it has become to us, who does not stop to look with interestat the puffing, snorting, screaming steam-horse? And who does notrejoice in the iron-rail, which binds together, with its slenderthreads, the north and the south, and makes neighbours of the east andthe west?

  "Who _began_ railroads?" ask the boys again and again.

  The first idea of the modern railroad had its birth at a colliery nearlytwo hundred years ago. In order to lighten the labour of the horses, thecolliers laid straight pieces of wood into the road leading from the pitto the river, where the coal was discharged; and the waggons were foundto run so much easier, that one horse could draw four or five chaldrons.As wood quickly wore out, and moreover was liable to rot, the next stepwas nailing plates of iron on the wooden rails; which gave them for atime the name of "plate-way roads." A Mr. Outram making still furtherimprovements, they were called "Outram roads," or, for shortness' sake,"tram-roads;" and tram-roads came into general use at the Englishcollieries.

  "There's mischief in those tram-roads," said a large canal owner,foreseeing they would one day drive canal stock quite out of the market.

  Improvements thus far had centred on the roads. To convoy heavy loadseasier and faster was the point aimed at. Nobody had yet thought ofself-going trains. Watt, the father of steam-engines, saidsteam-carriages might be built. He, however, never tried one, but ratherleft the idea to sprout in the brain of an old pupil of his, WilliamMurdock, who did construct a very small one, running on thin wheels, andheated by a lamp. It was a curious success in its way, and set otherminds thinking.

  One of these was a tin-miner of Cornwall, Captain Trovethick, a friendof Murdock, who joined a cousin of his in getting a patent for buildinga steam-carriage. It was built, and an odd piece of machinery it was. Itran on four wheels over a common road, looked like a stage-coach, anddelighted both the inventor and his friends.

  They determined to exhibit it at London. While on its journey, drivingit one day at the top of its speed, they saw a toll-gate in thedistance. Not being able to check it in time, bump it went against thegate, which flew open in a trice, leaving the affrighted toll-man, inanswer to their inquiry, "How much to pay?" only able to gasp out,"No—nothing to pay! Drive off as fast as you can! Nothing to pay!"

  It reached London in safety, and was some time on exhibition. Multitudesflocked to see it, and some called it a fiery dragon.

  "Ah," said Sir Humphrey Davy, very much interested in the invention, "Ihope to see the captain's dragons on all the roads of England yet."

  But the captain exhibited it only as a curiosity, the unevenness of theroads rendering it for all practical purposes a failure; and he hadneither pluck nor genius enough to lay or clear a track for it himself.This was in 1803.

  The idea, however, was in England, lodging itself here and there in busybrains; until, at last, a colliery owner in Newcastle, seeing the greatadvantage of having a locomotive on his tram-roads, determined to trywhat _he_ could do. Accordingly, he had one built after the Cornishcaptain's model. It burst up at starting. Noways baffled, he triedagain. The engine proved a clumsy affair, moved at a snail's pace, oftengot off the rails, and at length, voted by the workmen a "perfectplague," it was taken off. The unsuccessful inventor was called a foolby his neighbours, and his efforts an apt illustration that "the fooland his money are soon parted." In spite of failure, Mr. Blackett hadfaith that the thing _could_ be done. He built a third, and ran it onthe tram-road that passed by old Bob Stephenson's cottage door. AndGeorge at his colliery, seven miles off, as you may suppose, listened toevery account of it with profound interest. Over he went, as often as hecould, to see "Black Billy," as the locomotive was called—a roughspecimen of machinery at best, doing very little service beyond what agood horse could do.

  George carried "Black Billy" back in his mind to Killingworth, studyingits defects, and laying plans to improve it. I do not know how long hewas in coming to it, but he at length gave it as his opinion that hecould make a better "travelling engine" than that.

  Tidings came to Killingworth about this time that the trial of a newengine was to take place on a certain day at Leeds, and George did notlose the chance of being present. Though the engine moved no faster thanthree miles an hour, its constructer counted it a success. It proved,however, unsteady and unreliable, and at last blew up, which was the endof it.

  What did George think then? He more than ever wanted to try _his_ handat the business. Lord Ravensworth, knowing enough of Stephenson to havefaith in him, hearing of this, advanced means for the enterprise. Goodtools and good workmen were alike wanting; but after much labour,alteration, and anxiety, in ten months' time the engine was completedand put on the railway, July 25, 1814.

  Although the best yet made, it was awkward and slow. It carried eightloaded waggons of thirty tons weight at a speed not above four miles anhour. The want of springs occasioned a vast deal of jolting, whichdamaged the machinery, and at the close of a year's trial it was foundabout as costly as horse-power.

  How to increase the power of his engine? that was the puzzling questionwhich George studied to answer. He wrestled with it day and night, andat length determined to try again. In due time another was built,"Puffing Billy," which most persons looked upon as a marvel; but,shaking their heads, they prophesied it would make a terrible blow-upsome day. "Puffing Billy," however, went to work, and worked steadilyon—a vast advance on all preceding attempts. It attracted little or noattention outside the narrow circle of the collieries. The great men ofEngland did not know that, in a far-off nook of the realm, there wasslowly generating a power, under the persistent thought of an humbleworking-man, which before many years would revolutionize the trade ofthe kingdom, and create a new source of wealth.

  GEORGE STEPHENSON'S FIRST ENGINE.]

  "Puffing Billy," in fact, humble as its pretensions were, has proved tohave been the type of all locomotives since.

  "PUFFING BILLY."]

  Had George Stephenson satisfied himself? No. His evenings were chieflyspent at home with his son Robert, now under him in the colliery,studying and discussing together how to evoke the hidden power yet pentup in "Puffing Billy." The son was even more sanguine than his father,and many an amendment had "Billy" to undergo to satisfy the quickintellect and practical judgment of the youth.

  Mr. Stephenson, delighted with Robert's scientific tastes and skill, andever alive to the deficiencies of his own education, was anxious to givehim still further advantages. For this purpose he took him from apromising post at the colliery, and sent him to the University ofEdinburgh.

  Here he enjoyed a six months' course of study; and so well prepared washe for it by his well-formed habits of application and thinking, that hegained in six months as much as many a student did in three years.Certain it was his father felt amply repaid for the draft it made on hispurse, when Robert reappeared at the cottage, in the spring, with aprize for successful scholarship in mathematics. He was eighteen then.