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tion of railways, George Stephenson was doing much more— he was making railways, and building efficient locomotives with which to work them. Although he had not lost faith in the powers of the locomotive, he had now waited for so many years without observing any prospect of their extended use, that his old idea of removing his skill and small capital to the United States seems for a time to have revived. Before becoming a sleeping partner in a small foundry at Forth Banks, in Newcastle, managed by Mr. John Burrell, he had thrown out the suggestion that it would be a good speculation for them to emigrate to North America, and introduce steam-boats upon the great inland lakes. The first steamers were then plying upon the Tyne before his eyes; and he saw in them the germ of a great revolution in navigation. It occurred to him that North America presented the finest field on which to try their wonderful powers. He was an engineer, and Mr. Burrell was an ironfounder; and between them, he thought they could strike out a path to success in the mighty West. Fortunately, this remained a mere speculation, so far as Mr. Stephenson was concerned; and it was left to others to do what he had dreamt of achieving. After all his patient waiting, his skill, industry, and perseverance were at length about to bear fruit.

In 1819, the owners of the Hetton Colliery, in the county of Durham, determined to have their waggon-way altered into a locomotive railroad. The result of the working of the Killingworth Railway had been so satisfactory that they resolved to adopt the same system. One reason why an experiment so long continued and so successful as that at Killingworth should have been so slow in producing results, perhaps was, that to lay down a railway and furnish it with locomotives, or fixed engines where necessary, required a very large capital, beyond the means of ordinary coal-owners, whilst the small amount of interest felt in railways by the

general public, and the supposed impracticability of working them to a profit, as yet prevented the ordinary capitalists from venturing their money in the promotion of such undertakings. The Hetton Coal Company was, however, possessed of adequate means; and the local reputation of the Killingworth engine-wright pointed him out as the man best calculated to lay out their line and superintend their works. They accordingly invited him to act as the engineer of the proposed railway. Being in the service of the Killingworth Company, Mr. Stephenson felt it necessary to obtain their permission to enter upon this new work. This was at once granted. The best feeling existed between him and his employers; and they regarded it as a compliment that their colliery engineer should be selected for a work so important as the laying down of the Hetton Railway, which was to be the longest locomotive line that had, up to that time, been constructed in the neighbourhood. Mr. Stephenson accepted the appointment, his brother Robert acting as resident engineer, and personally superintending the execution of the works.

The Hetton Railway extended from the Hetton Colliery, situated about two miles south of Houghton-le-Spring, in the county of Durham, to the shipping-place on the banks of the Wear, near Sunderland. Its length was about eight miles; and in its course it crossed Warden Law, one of the highest hills in the district. The character of the country forbade the construction of a flat line, or one of comparatively easy gradients, except by the expenditure of a much larger capital than was placed at Mr. Stephenson's command. Heavy works could not be executed: it was, therefore, necessary to form the line with but little deviation from the natural conformation of the district which it traversed, and also to adapt the mechanical methods employed for the working of the railway to the character of the gradients, which in some places were necessarily heavy.

Although Mr. Stephenson had, with every step made towards its increased utility, become more and more identified with the success of the locomotive engine, he did not allow his enthusiasm to carry him away into costly mistakes. He carefully drew the line between the cases in which the locomotive could be usefully employed, and those in which stationary engines were calculated to be more economical. This led him, as in the instance of the Hetton Railway, to execute lines through and over rough countries, where gradients within the powers of the locomotive engine of that day could not be secured, employing in their stead stationary engines where locomotives were not practicable. In the present case, this course was adopted by him most successfully. On the original Hetton line, there were five self-acting inclines, the full waggons drawing the empty ones up, and two inclines worked by fixed reciprocating engines of sixty-horse power each. The locomotive travelling engine, or "the iron horse," as the people of the neighbourhood then styled it, did the rest. On the day of the opening of the Hetton Railway, the 18th of November, 1822, crowds of spectators assembled from all parts to witness the first operations of this ingenious and powerful machinery, which was entirely successful. On that day, five of Stephenson's locomotives were at work upon the railway, under the direction of his brother Robert; and the first shipment of coal was then made by the Hetton Company, at their new staiths on the Wear. The speed at which the locomotives travelled was about four miles an hour, and each engine dragged after it a train of seventeen waggons, weighing about sixty-four

tons.

Thus another important practical step was effected towards the more general adoption of the railway system.

CHAP. XV.

FIRST SURVEY OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER

RAILWAY.

MR JAMES's business as a land-agent led him into the neighbourhood of Liverpool in the year 1821. The formation of a tramroad between Liverpool and Manchester was at that time the subject of some speculation in both towns, but especially at Liverpool. Mr. James, who was quick to hear of all such projects, went over to Liverpool to have an interview with the promoters. Day by day the necessity was becoming more urgent for some improved mode of transporting goods inland to the manufacturing districts. The rapidity of increase in the trade, between Liverpool and Manchester especially, was something marvellous. In nine years, the quantity of raw cotton sent from the one town to the other had increased by 50,000,000 pounds' weight; and all other raw materials had increased in proportion. Around Manchester, hamlets had expanded into towns, and towns had assumed the dimensions of cities, the inhabitants of which were for the most part dependent for their means of subsistence upon the regularity of the supply of cotton from Liverpool. Up to this time the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal and the Irwell and Mersey navigation had principally supplied the means of transport; but the enormously increasing demands of the trade outstripped their tardy efforts. Possessing a monopoly of the traffic, and having no rivals to fear, the canal managers were most dictatorial in the treatment of

their customers. Perhaps, however, the canal companies did all that could be done under the circumstances, and had already fully taxed the resources of the navigation. The immense mass of goods to be conveyed had simply outgrown all their appliances of wharves, boats, and horses. Cotton lay at Liverpool for weeks together, waiting to be removed; and it occupied a longer time to transport the cargoes from Liverpool to Manchester than it had done to bring them across the Atlantic from the United States to England. Carts and waggons were tried; but these proved altogether insufficient. Sometimes manufacturing operations had to be suspended altogether; and during a frost, when the canals were frozen up, the communication was entirely stopped. The consequences were often disastrous, alike to operatives, merchants, and manufacturers. The same difficulty was experienced in the conveyance of manufactured goods from Manchester to Liverpool for export. Mr. Huskisson, in the House of Commons, referring to these ruinous delays, truly observed that "cotton was detained a fortnight at Liverpool, while the Manchester manufacturers were obliged to suspend their labours, and goods manufactured at Manchester for foreign markets could not be transmitted in time, in consequence of the tardy conveyance."

The Liverpool merchants and the Manchester manufacturers were therefore prepared to welcome any new mode of transit which would relieve them of the losses arising from these constant interruptions to their commercial operations. The scheme of a tramroad was, however, so new to them, that it is not surprising they should have hesitated before committing themselves fully to it. Mr. Sandars, an influential Liverpool merchant, was amongst the first to broach the subject of a tramroad or railway. He himself had suffered in his business, in common with many other merchants, from the insufficiency of the existing modes of communi

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