population of about 6,000 persons (since swelled into 15,000) occupied the site of the original farm-house. More recently, the discovery of vast stores of iron-stone in the Cleveland Hills, close adjoining Middlesborough, has tended still more rapidly to augment the population and increase the commercial importance of the place. Iron furnaces are now blazing along the vale of Cleveland, and new smelting works are rising up in all directions, fed by the railway, which brings to them their supplies of fuel from the Durham coal fields.

It is pleasing to relate, in connection with this great work -the Stockton and Darlington Railway -projected by Edward Pease and executed by George Stephenson, that afterwards, when Mr. Stephenson became a prosperous and a celebrated man, he did not forget the friend who had taken him by the hand, and helped him on in his early days. He always remembered Mr. Pease with gratitude and affection; and that gentleman is still proud to exhibit a handsome gold watch, received as a gift from his celebrated protégé, bearing these words : "Esteem and gratitude: from George Stephenson to Edward Pease."

205

CHAP. XVIII.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A LOCOMOTIVE MANUFACTORY IN

NEWCASTLE.

WHILE the works of the Stockton and Darlington Railway were still in progress, Mr. Stephenson suggested to his friend Mr. Pease the advisability of an establishment for the manufacture of locomotive engines at Newcastle. Up to that time all the locomotives constructed after Mr. Stephenson's designs had been made by ordinary mechanics working amongst the collieries of the north of England. But he had long felt that the accuracy and style of their workmanship admitted of great improvement, and that upon this the more perfect action of the locomotive engine, and its general adoption as the tractive power on railways, in a great measure depended. One great object that he had in view in establishing the proposed factory was, to concentrate a number of good workmen for the purpose of carrying out the improvements in detail which he was constantly making in his engine. He felt hampered by the want of efficient helpers in the shape of skilled mechanics, who could work out in a practical form the ideas of which his busy mind was always so prolific. Doubtless, too, he believed that the locomotive manufactory would prove a remunerative investment, and that, on the general adoption of the railway system, which he now confidently anticipated, he would derive solid advantages from the fact of his manufactory being the only establishment of the kind for the special construction of railway locomotives.

Having turned the subject over in his own mind, he broached it to Mr. Edward Pease. He told him that he could advance a thousand pounds the amount of the testimonial presented by the coal-owners for his safety lamp invention, and which he had still left untouched; but he did not think this sufficient for the purpose, and that he should at least require another thousand pounds. Mr. Pease had been very much struck by the successful performances of the Killingworth engine, and being an accurate judge of character, he was not slow to perceive that he could not go far wrong in linking a portion of his fortune with the energy and industry of George Stephenson. He consulted his friend John Richardson in the matter, and the two consented to advance 5001. each for the purpose of establishing the engine factory at Newcastle. A piece of land was accordingly purchased in Forth Street, in August, 1823, on which a small building was erected the nucleus of the gigantic establishment which was afterwards formed around it, and active operations commenced early in 1824. Three locomotive engines for the Stockton and Darlington Railway were put in hand, and also the fixed engines required for the working of the Brusselton incline on the same railway, the drawings of which were prepared by Mr. Robert Stephenson previous to his departure for South America.

The establishment of the locomotive manufactory by Mr. Stephenson was a most important step in the progress of the railway system. He engaged skilled workmen, by whose example others were trained and disciplined. Having their attention specially directed to the fabrication of locomotives, they acquired a skill and precision in the manufacture of the several parts, and an expertness in the fitting of them together, which gave to the Stephensons' factory a prestige which was afterwards a source of no small profit to its founders. It was a school or college in which the locomotive workmen of

the kingdom were trained; and many of the most celebrated engineers of Europe, America, and India acquired their best practical knowledge in its workshops. Robert Stephenson again joined the factory on his return from America in 1827, thenceforward devoting himself assiduously to the development of his father's ideas connected with the locomotive; and, by the great additions made by him to its working powers from time to time, he unquestionably contributed in a large measure to the ultimate success of the railway system. The Stephenson workshops continued to be the only establishment devoted to the manufacture of locomotives until after the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line in 1830; and although, after that event, other mechanics began to devote their special attention as a matter of business to the construction of engines for railway pur poses, the Newcastle factory continued to flourish and extend, giving regular and remunerative employment to an immense number of mechanics and artisans.

It was afterwards made a ground of complaint against Mr. Stephenson in an influential publication *, that he had obtained a monopoly of the locomotives supplied to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as of the appointments of the workmen employed on that line. At the same time, the writer admitted the rapidity of the improvements made in the locomotives employed on that railway, notwithstanding the alleged monopoly; for he stated that during the year and a half which followed the opening, “the engines have been constantly varied in their weight and proportions, in their magnitude and form, as the experience of each successive month has indicated: as defects became manifest they were remedied; improvements suggested were adopted; and each quarter produced engines of such in

* Edinburgh Review for October, 1832. Art. by Dr. Lardner.

creased power and efficiency, that their predecessors were abandoned, not because they were worn out, but because they had been outstripped in the rapid march of improvement." What more than this could have been done? Granting, for a moment, that the alleged "monopoly" had any existence in point of fact, if it tended in any way to stimulate that rapidity in the improvement of the locomotive, which the reviewer so distinctly admitted to have been effected, its temporary adoption in favour of the indefatigable and industrious Stephensons would have been amply justified. But the simple truth is, that the Newcastle factory was at that time the only source from which efficient engines could be obtained. The directors were fully alive to the importance of inducing competition in this new line of manufacture; and they offered every inducement to competitors, with the view of enlarging the sources from which they could draw their supplies of engines. And so soon as they could rely upon the quality of the article supplied to them by other firms, they distributed their orders indiscriminately and impartially.

Mr. Thomas Gray† also proclaimed his opposition to the Stephenson "monopoly," but on another ground. The Stephenson rails were smooth, and consequently the engines were adapted for travelling on them at high speeds; whereas Mr. Gray was still an adherent of the long-exploded cograil of Blenkinsop. He urged that the railroad should be greased, that cog-rails should be placed outside the smooth rails, the propulsive agency working in the former, while the burden of the engine travelled on the latter. "It will certainly," said he, "answer the private views of engineers, mechanics, and others employed in manufacturing rails,

* Edinburgh Review. October, 1832, p. 100.

† In the “Mechanics' Magazine,” for 1831, vol. xv. p. 167. The "Mechanics' Magazine" supported the cog rail as opposed to the smooth rail, probably because the smooth rail was adopted by Stephenson. See vol xv. p. 190.