[George Stephenson.]
A small collection of houses in a mining district, called Wylam, about nine miles west of Newcastle-on-Tyne, we find to be the birth-place of George Stephenson, born June 9th, 1781.
His father was a very humble workman, who filled the position of fireman of the pumping-engine in use at the colliery, at three dollars a week. With a wife and six children to support, there was not much left after satisfying the cravings of hunger. The children, soon as opportunity afforded, were set at work to help support the family. We find young George beginning life pulling turnips at two pence a day. At eight years old he tended Widow Ainslie's cows at five cents a day. Later, he received fifty cents a week when caring for horses.
Of course, it is the rule to find something in the boy indicative of the man, and in Stephenson's case, legend or history furnishes the material. It seems that while acting as herder, in company with other boys, it was his favorite amusement to model engines out of clay. After a time he received a dollar a week as assistant to his father, and at the age of sixteen he was appointed to work as attendant upon the pumping-engine, at men's wages,—three dollars per week. He was delighted, and it is doubtful if he was ever happier over subsequent triumphs as a locomotive builder, than when he was elevated to this position. He was employed at various collieries, as fireman, and afterwards as plugman, and gradually acquired so complete a knowledge of the engine as to be able to take it apart and make ordinary repairs. His ingenuity in repairing an obstinate defect in a steam engine gained him the charge of the engine.
After this his fondness for his work increased until, with study, he had thoroughly mastered all its details. At the age of eighteen he could not even read, and he began to long for some education, so that he might fit himself for a higher place in his business. He accordingly commenced his studies by taking lessons in reading, of a neighboring school-master, three nights in a week, at a small tuition. At the end of a year he could read and spell some, and could write his own name. He now had a great thirst for mathematics, which he studied faithfully the second year; at the close of which, by his attentiveness, he could cipher with tolerable facility.
During odd moments he gave some attention to mending shoes, by which he was able to earn a few extra pence. Among some shoes that were sent him to repair was a pair belonging to a young lady, whom he afterward married. In 1805 he removed to Killingworth colliery, and about this time he was desirous of emigrating to the United States, but was unable to raise money for his outfit and passage. He continued to work at his home evenings and leisure hours, cutting out clothes for the miners, mending clocks and shoes, and all this time studying mechanics and engineering with a view to perpetual motion, which a great many others of his time were studying.
His first opportunity to show his superiority was when an expensive pump had been put in the colliery, and utterly failed to do the work required of it. Various experts gave it their best efforts, but it still refused to do what was required of it. Stephenson was heard to say, by some of the workmen, that he could repair it. After all others had failed, the overseer, in despair, with but little expectation that anything could be accomplished by a raw colliery hand, employed him to attempt a remedy. He took the engine to pieces and at the end of a few days repaired it ready for work, and in two days it cleared the pit of water.
For this, and other improvements made upon old machinery, he was appointed chief engineer in 1813, at Killingworth, at a salary of £100 per year. Besides erecting a winding engine for drawing up coal, and a pumping-engine, he projected and laid down a self-acting incline along the declivity of the Willington ballast quay, so arranged that full wagons descending to the vessels drew up the empty ones. But the construction of an efficient and economical locomotive steam engine mainly occupied his mind. He was among those who saw the Blenkinsop engine first put on the track, and watched its mechanism for some time, when he concluded he could make a better machine. He found a friend in his employer, Lord Ravensworth, who furnished the money, and in the work-shops at West Moor, Killingworth, with the aid of the colliery blacksmith, he constructed a locomotive which was completed in July, 1814. The affair, though clumsy, worked successfully on the Killingworth railway, drawing eight loaded carriages, of thirty tons each, at the rate of four miles an hour. It was the first locomotive made with smooth wheels, for he rejected the contrivance which Trevithick, Blenkinsop and others had thought necessary to secure sufficient adhesion between the wheels and the rails.
While engaged on plans for an improved engine his attention was attracted to the increase in the draught of the furnace obtained by turning the waste steam up the chimney, at first practiced solely in the desire to lessen the noise caused by the escape of the steam. Hence originated the steam-blast, the most important improvement in the locomotive up to that time. The steam-blast, the joint action of the wheels by connecting them with horizontal bars on the outside, and a simplifying connection between the cylinder and the wheels, were embodied in the second engine, completed in 1815. For some years Stephenson had been experimenting with the fire-damp in the mines, and in the above year completed a miner's safety lamp, which he finally perfected under the name of the "Gregory Lamp," which is still in use in the Killingworth collieries. The invention of a safety lamp by Sir Humphry Davy was nearly simultaneous, and to him the mining proprietors presented a service of plate worth £2,000, at the same time awarding £100 to Stephenson. This led to a protracted discussion as to the priority of the invention, and in 1817 Stephenson's friends presented him with a purse of $5,000 and a silver tankard.