taken place. They found the master lying on the heap of stones, stunned and bruised, with his hands severely burnt. They led him to the bottom of the shaft; and he took care afterwards not to venture into the dangerous parts of the mine without the protection of a Geordy lamp.
The time that Robert spent at Killingworth as viewer’s apprentice was of advantage both to his father and himself. The evenings were generally devoted to reading and study, the two from this time working together as friends and co-labourers. One who used to drop in at the cottage of an evening, well remembers the animated and eager discussions which on some occasions took place, more especially with reference to the growing powers of the locomotive engine. The son was even more enthusiastic than the father on this subject. Robert would suggest numerous alterations and improvements in details. His father, on the contrary, would offer every possible objection, defending the existing arrangements,—proud, nevertheless of his son’s suggestions, and often warmed and excited by his brilliant anticipations of the ultimate triumph of the locomotive.
These discussions probably had considerable influence in inducing Stephenson to take the next important step in the education of his son. Although Robert, who was only nineteen years of age, was doing well, and was certain at the expiration of his apprenticeship to rise to a higher position, his father was not satisfied with the amount of instruction which he had as yet given him. Remembering the disadvantages under which he had himself laboured through his ignorance of practical chemistry during his investigations connected with the safety-lamp, more especially with reference to the properties of gas, as well as in the course of his experiments with the object of improving the locomotive engine, he determined to furnish his son with as complete a scientific culture as his means would afford. He also believed that a proper training in technical science was indispensable to success in the higher walks of the engineer’s profession; and he determined to give to his son that kind
and degree of education which he so much desired for himself. He would thus, he knew, secure a hearty and generous co-worker in the elaboration of the great ideas now looming before him, and with their united practical and scientific knowledge he probably felt that they would be equal to any enterprise.
He accordingly took Robert from his labours as under-viewer in the West Moor Pit, and in October, 1822, sent him to the Edinburgh University, there being then no college in England accessible to persons of moderate means, for purposes of scientific culture. Robert was furnished with letters of introduction to several men of literary eminence in Edinburgh; his father’s reputation in connexion with the safety-lamp being of service to him in this respect. He lodged in Drummond Street, in the immediate vicinity of the college, and attended the Chemical Lectures of Dr. Hope, the Natural Philosophy Lectures of Sir John Leslie, and the Natural History Class of Professor Jameson. He also devoted several evenings in each week to the study of practical Chemistry under Dr. John Murray, himself one of the numerous designers of a safety-lamp. He took careful notes of all the lectures, which he copied out at night before he went to bed; so that, when he returned to Killingworth, he might read them over to his father. He afterwards had the notes bound up, and placed in his library. Long years after, when conversing with Thomas Harrison, C.E., at his house in Gloucester Square, he rose from his seat and took down a volume from the shelves. Mr. Harrison observed that the book was in MS., neatly written out. “What have we here?” he asked. The answer was—“When I went to college, I knew the difficulty my father had in collecting the funds to send me there. Before going I studied short-hand; while at Edinburgh, I took down verbatim every lecture; and in the evenings, before I went to bed, I transcribed those lectures word for word. You see the result in that range of books.”
One of the practical sciences in the study of which Robert Stephenson took special interest while at Edinburgh was that of geology. The situation of the city, in the midst of a district of highly interesting geological formation, easily accessible to pedestrians, is indeed most favourable to the pursuit of such a study; and it was the practice of Professor Jameson frequently to head a band of his pupils, armed with hammers, chisels, and clinometers, and take them with him on a long ramble into the country, for the purpose of teaching them habits of observation and reading to them from the open book of Nature itself. At the close of this session, the professor took with him a select body of his pupils on an excursion along the Great Glen of the Highlands, in the line of the Caledonian Canal, and Robert formed one of the party. They passed under the shadow of Ben Nevis, examined the famous old sea-margins known as the “parallel roads of Glen Roy,” and extended their journey as far as Inverness; the professor teaching the young men as they travelled how to observe in a mountain country. Not long before his death, Robert Stephenson spoke in glowing terms of the great pleasure and benefit which he had derived from that interesting excursion. “I have travelled far, and enjoyed much,” he said; “but that delightful botanical and geological journey I shall never forget; and I am just about to start in the Titania for a trip round the east coast of Scotland, returning south through the Caledonian Canal, to refresh myself with the recollection of that first and brightest tour of my life.”
Towards the end of the summer of 1822 the young student returned to Killingworth to re-enter upon the active business of life. The six months’ study had cost his father £80; but he was amply repaid by the better scientific culture which his son had acquired, and the evidence of ability and industry which he was enabled to exhibit in a prize for mathematics which he had won at the University.
CHAPTER VIII.
George Stephenson Engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
The district west of Darlington, in Durham, is one of the richest mineral fields of the North. Vast stores of coal underlie the Bishop Auckland Valley; and from an early period new and good roads to market were felt to be exceedingly desirable. As yet it remained almost a closed field, the cost of transport of the coal in carts, or on horses’ or donkeys’ backs, greatly limiting the sale. Long ago, in the days of canal formations, Brindley was consulted about a canal; afterwards, in 1812, a tramroad was surveyed by Rennie; and eventually, in 1817, a railway was projected from Darlington to Stockton-on-Tees.
