feet high, was attached immediately behind the boiler, and was also surrounded with water. The cylinders of the engine were placed on each side of the boiler, in an oblique position, one end being nearly level with the top of the boiler at its after end, and the other pointing towards the centre of the foremost or driving pair of wheels, with which the connection was directly made from the piston-rod, to a pin on the outside of the wheel. The engine, together with its load of water, weighed only 4¼ tons, and was supported on four wheels, not coupled. The tender was four-wheeled, and similar in shape to a waggon,—the foremost part holding the fuel, and the hind part a water-cask.
When the “Rocket” was finished, it was placed upon the Killingworth railway for the purpose of experiment. The new boiler arrangement was found perfectly successful. The steam was raised rapidly and continuously, and in a quantity which then appeared marvellous. The same evening Robert despatched a letter to his father at Liverpool, informing him, to his great joy, that the “Rocket” was “all right,” and would be in complete working trim by the day of trial. The engine was shortly after sent by waggon to Carlisle, and thence shipped for Liverpool.
The time so much longed for by George Stephenson had now arrived, when the merit of the passenger locomotive was to be put to a public test. He had fought the battle for it until now almost single-handed. Engrossed by his daily labours and anxieties, and harassed by difficulties and discouragements which would have crushed the spirit of a less resolute man, he had held firmly to his purpose through good and through evil report. The hostility which he experienced from some of the directors opposed to the adoption of the locomotive, was the circumstance that caused him the greatest grief of all; for where he had looked for encouragement, he found only carping and opposition. But his pluck never failed him; and now the “Rocket” was upon the
ground,—to prove, to use his own words, “whether he was a man of his word or not.”
Great interest was felt at Liverpool, as well as throughout the country, in the approaching competition. Engineers, scientific men, and mechanics, arrived from all quarters to witness the novel display of mechanical ingenuity on which such great results depended. The public generally were no indifferent spectators either. The inhabitants of Liverpool, Manchester, and the adjacent towns felt that the successful issue of the experiment would confer upon them individual benefits and local advantages almost incalculable, whilst populations at a distance waited for the result with almost equal interest.
On the day appointed for the great competition of locomotives at Rainhill, the following engines were entered for the prize:—
1. Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson’s “Novelty.” [214]
2. Mr. Timothy Hackworth’s “Sanspareil.”
3. Messrs. R. Stephenson and Co.’s “Rocket.”
4. Mr. Burstall’s “Perseverance.”