May 28, I860.] OBITUARY.— STEPHENSON. 139 



History. Stephenson remained in tlie University six months only, 

 but is said to have acquired in that brief period as much knowledge 

 as is usually done in a three years' course.. It cost his father SOL, 

 but the money was not grudged when the son returned, bringing 

 with him the pri«e for mathematics, gained at the University. 



In 1822 Robert Stephenson was apprenticed to his father; but 

 his health giving way after a couple of years' e^xertion he accepted 

 a commission to examine the gold and silver mines of South 

 America. The change of air and scene contributed to the restora- 

 tion of his health ; and after having founded the Silver Mining 

 Company of Columbia he returned to England to assist his father 

 in the arrangements of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, by 

 placing himself at the head of the factory at Newcastle. He 

 obtained the prize of 500?. offered by the directors of that company 

 for the best locomotive engine ; and, about the same period, 

 designed for the United States an engine specially adapted to the 

 curves of American railways ; and to him we are indebted for the 

 type of the locomotives used in both hemispheres. The next great 

 work upon which Stephenson was engaged was the survey and 

 construction of the I^ondon and Birmingham Railway, which he 

 undertook in 1833. He had already been employed in the execu- 

 tion of a branch from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and 

 in the constrtffction of the Leicester and Swannington line, so that 

 he brought to his new undertaking considerable experience. His 

 evidence before Parliamentary committees .was grasped at, and it 

 may be said that, in conjunction with his father, he has directed 

 the execution of more than a third of the lines in the country. 

 They were both consulted as to the Belgian system of railways, 

 and obtained the Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1844. For 

 similar services performed in Norway, which he visited in 1846, 

 Robert Stephenson received the Grand Cross of St. Olaf. So also 

 he assisted either in actually making or in laying out the systems 

 of lines in Switzerland, in Geimany, in Denmark, in Tuscany, in 

 Canada, in Egypt, and in India. As the champion of locomotive 

 in opposition to stationary engines, he resisted to the uttermost the 

 atmospheric railway system, which had at one time considerable 

 repute. The bridges he erected include that at Newcastle, con- 

 structed of wood and iron ; the Victoria Bridge at Berwick, built 

 of stone and brick ; the bridge in wrought and cast iron across the 

 Nile; the Conway and the Britannia Bridges over the Menai 



