Before a second edition appeared, Mr. Gurney's steam-jet had revolutionized the engine, and it blew this absurd passage out of the book and the disbelief out of Wood's head.
Nicholas Wood was a viewer at Killingworth Colliery, and assisted George Stephenson in his experiments, and he first saw the steam-blast in Mr. Hackworth's Sans Pareil in 1829, so that gentleman had adopted it on Mr. Gurney's recommendation and according to his plan.
Wood thus describes what he then saw: "Mr. Hackworth had, it appears, in his engine, resorted to the use of the waste steam in a more forcible manner than before used, throwing it up in a jet, and which, when the engine moved at a rapid rate, and the steam thereby almost constantly issued from the pipe, had a most powerful effect. The consequence was, that when the engine began to travel at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles an hour, the draught was so great that it actually threw the coke out of the chimney."
Here then is the first sight of the steam-blast to Nicholas Wood, fellow-worker with George Stephenson. He knew nothing of it before.
But Goldsworthy Gurney's steam-blast had been adopted before this on steamboats. It was first applied to the Alligator in 1824; then to the Duchess of Clarence, and other steamboats. It had made its way into France.
In the Lords' Committee Report of 1849 on "Accidents in Mines," a Mr. Keene, engineer of Bayonne, was examined.
"Q. Have you ever seen Mr. Gurney's plan used on the Continent?
"A. It has been used on the Continent for producing draughts in furnace-chimneys.
"Q. Furnace-chimneys—for what purpose?