“Then Mr. Blackett had this engine built?”
“Ay, and it be, as you say, a great improvement. But that steam blowing off there, after it have done its work, frights the horses on the Wylam Road ter’ble, and makes it a perfect nuisance.”
“Has nothing been done to alter it?”
“Mr. Blackett has given orders to stop the engine when any horses comes along, and the men don’t like that because it loses time. He thinks he is going to let the steam escape gradual like, by blowing it off into a cask first.”
“Umph! very wasteful.”
“Oh, ay; it be wasteful; and many a one about here sez of Mr. Blackett that a fool and his money are soon parted.”
“No,” said the first speaker, shaking his head thoughtfully, “Mr. Blackett is no fool. But I think I could build a better engine than that.”
GEORGE STEPHENSON.
The tone in which these words were uttered was not boastful, but quiet and thoughtful.