707 



STEPHENS, JAMES FRANCIS. 



STEPHENSON, GEORGE. 



703 



STEPHENS, JAMES FRANCIS, a distinguished British ento- 

 mologist, was born at Shoreham, Sussex, on the 16th of September 

 1792. He was for many years a clerk in the Admiralty Office in 

 Somerset House. Whilst holding this position he devoted his leisure 

 hours to the study of natural history, and was a remarkable example 

 of the knowledge that may be gained by the cultivation of the small 

 portion of time allotted for rest in a government office. In the course 

 of a long life he made one of the most complete collections of British 

 insects extant. This collection was the admiration of foreigners and 

 the constant report of the British entomologist. Mr. Stephens's taste 

 for entomology led early to his employment in the British Museum, 

 where he assisted Dr. Leach in commencing the present collection of 

 insects in that institution. The literature of entomology is largely 

 indebted for his contributions. In 1829 he commenced the publication 

 of his 'Illustrations of British Entomology,' which was produced in 

 parts and completed in 10 vols. This is one of the largest and most 

 comprehensive works on British entomology, and must secure for its 

 author a lasting name amongst the cultivators of the natural history 

 of his own country. In addition to this splendid work, he published 

 several papers on entomological subjects, which appeared in the 

 ' Transactions of the Entomological Society.' He also was engaged at 

 the time of his death in writing a catalogue of the British Lepidoptera 

 in the collections of the British Museum. He also published sepa- 

 rately * The Systematic Catalogue of British Insects,' and ' A Manual 

 of the British Coleoptera.' Although distinguished as an entomolo- 

 gist, he took an interest in all branches of natural history, and was 

 the author of a continuation of Shaw's 'Zoology' comprising an 

 account of the Birds, published in 1827. He was a fellow of the 

 Linnsean Society, and president of the Entomological Society. He 

 died on the 22nd of December 1852, at his house in Kennington, 

 after a few days' illness of inflammation of the lungs. 



STEPHENSON, GEORGE, the inventor of the locomotive steam- 

 engine, was the son of Robert Stephenson and Mabel Carr, and was 

 born June 9th, 1731, at Wylam, a village in Northumberland, where 

 his father was employed as fireman at a colliery; he afterwards 

 removed to Dewley Burn in the same, county, where George's first 

 employment was to herd cows, occupying his leisure in modelling 

 clay engines, and even constructing a miniature windmill. He soon 

 began to be employed about the colliery, during which time he dis- 

 played a great affection for birds and animals, particularly rabbits, 

 of which he acquired the reputation of having a fine breed. At 

 fourteen years of age he was appointed assistant-fireman to his father, 

 who soon after removed to another colliery at Jolly's Close, where 

 George, then only fifteen, was engaged as fireman to an engine in the 

 neighbourhood. Ambitious of becoming an efficient workman, he 

 strove to attain a thorough knowledge of the engine, and he succeeded 

 so well that, at seventeen he was promoted to be a ' plugman,' whose 

 duty it was to see that the engine was in proper working condition, 

 and that the pumps drew off the water effectually, repairing such 

 accidental defects as might occur. To do this he felt required an inti- 

 mate knowledge of its construction, and at his leisure hours he would 

 take the machinery to pieces, that he might the better understand it. 

 His father, who had six children, of whom George was the second, had 

 been unable to give them any education, though by example a sound 

 foundation of good principles and morals had been laid, and at 

 eighteen, whilst employed for twelve hours a day in his labours, and 

 earning only twelve shillings a week, George Stephenson commenced a 

 course of self-culture. He attended a small night-school at Walbottle, 

 where in a year he learnt to read, and to write his own name, for 

 which instruction he paid threepence a week. He next, in 1799, 

 placed himself under a Scotchman named Robertson, at Newburn, 

 who, for fourpence a week, taught him arithmetic, which he acquired 

 with remarkable facility. At twenty he had been advanced to the 

 superior office of brakesman, with increased wages, to which he added, 

 in his leisure hours, by learning to make and mend shoes. At that 

 time he was a big, raw-boned fellow, fond of displaying his strength 

 and activity at the village feasts, but remarkable for his temperance, 

 sobriety, industry, and good-temper, yet on one occasion he fought a 

 bully who would have oppressed him, and his victory on that occasion 

 s cured him ever after from a repetition of the offence. 



When by the most rigid economy Stephenson had saved sufficient 

 money to furnish a small home, he determined to settle, and on the 

 28th of November 1800 he married Fanny Henderson, with whom he 

 removed to Willington, where ho had been appointed brakesman to 

 the engine employed for lifting the ballast brought by the return 

 collier ships to Newcastle. In his new abode, at the Ballast Hills, 

 he continued to occupy himself with mechanical experiments, expend- 

 ing much time and great ingenuity in a fruitless effort to obtain 

 perpetual motion ; until an accident having obliged him to repair his 

 own clock, he became the general clock-cleaner and mender for the 

 neighbourhood, thus improving his own mechanical skill whilst adding 

 to his income. On the 16th of December 1803 his only child Robert 

 was born, and soon after he removed to Killingworth, where his wife 

 died. In 1804 he was engaged to superintend the working of one of 

 Boulton and Watt's engines at Montrose ; but after continuing there a 

 year during which time he saved about 2SI., a considerable sum in 

 his circumstances, and during a period of war-prices of provisions- 

 he returned to Killingworth to find his father in extreme distress, 



having been accidentally scalded and blinded by a discharge of steam 

 let in upon him while repairing an engine. Stephenson paid his 

 father's debts at the expense of more than half his savings, and settled 

 his parents in a cottage, where they lived during many years entirely 

 supported by him. He was immediately re-engaged in his old position 

 at Killingworth, but being drawn for the militia, the obtaining a sub- 

 stitute absorbed the remainder of the produce of his economy, and 

 he seriously contemplated emigrating to America, whither his wife's 

 sister and her husband went ; but he could not raise money enough 

 to accompany them. He therefore continued his various labours, 

 attending the engine, mending clocks, making and mending shoes, 

 and studying mechanics. His acquired knowledge and mechanical 

 skill enabled him to suggest improvements to his employers, and in 

 1810 a new engine in the neighbourhood having failed in its work, 

 Stephenson was called in to mend it, which he did most effectually. 

 He received for this job a present of 101., and was promoted to the 

 post of engineman at good wages. Whilst thus engaged he formed 

 an intimacy with a farmer named Wigham, at Long Benton, whose 

 son John proved of great assistance to him by increasing his acquaint- 

 ance with arithmetic, and with some of the principles of mechanism 

 and chemistry; and in 1812 his merit was so far recognised that he 

 was appointed engineer of the colliery, at a salary of lOGL a year. He 

 was now elevated above the rank of a mere labourer, but he was not 

 less busy. He projected and carried out many improvements, and 

 among others constructed at the coal-loading place at Willington, the 

 first self-acting incline used in that district, by which the descending 

 laden waggons on the tram-road were made to draw up the empty 

 waggons. 



The most important epoch of Stephenson's life was now approaching. 

 Many attempts had been made to construct a locomotive steam-engine, 

 and some had attained a certain degree of success, but none had suc- 

 ceeded in uniting economy with efficiency. Mr. Stephenson carefully 

 examined all within his reach, and at length declared his conviction 

 that he could make a better than any yet produced. He com- 

 municated his proposal to his employers: one of them was Lord 

 Ravensworth, who, after giving him a patient hearing, commissioned 

 him to make a trial of his skill. His object at first was only to 

 make an engine for the colliery tramways, but even thus early he told 

 his friends " that there was no limit to the speed of such au engine, if 

 the works could be made to stand it." The difficulties he encountered 

 were great; the engine was built in the workshops at West Moor, 

 Killingworth ; the chief workman was the colliery blacksmith, tools 

 had to be made, and everything rested upon the designer of the 

 machine. In ten months it was completed, and on July 25, 1814, it 

 was placed on the railway, and was decidedly successful, drawing eight 

 loaded carriages, weighing thirty tons, at the rate of four miles an 

 hour. It was however a cumbrous affair, and he speedily saw in how 

 many parts it could be improved. Accordingly, in February 1815, he 

 took out a patent for a locomotive, and in the same year constructed 

 an engine, which (with certain mechanical improvements, that though 

 conceived by him to be necessary, could not be supplied by the manu- 

 factories at that time,) may be considered as the model of all that 

 have been since produced. 



From Mr. Stephenson's connection with collieries he could scarcely 

 avoid having his attention painfully excited, by the frequent explo- 

 sions arising from fire-damp, and in 1814 one of the collieries under 

 his care having taken fire, he, at great risk of his life, and with the 

 assistance of the workmen, who trusted to his knowledge and skill, 

 succeeded in extinguishing it by bricking up the passage where the foul 

 air was accumulated. The constant danger from the use of exposed 

 candles in coal-mines was so well known, that many inventors had 

 attempted to produce lamps to meet the difficulty ; and as early as 

 1813 a safety lamp was invented by Dr. Clanny, but it was found to be 

 unmanageable. Sir Humphry Davy was invited to attempt something ; 

 for which purpose, among others, he visited Newcastle iu August 

 1815, and on November 9 he read a paper on the construction of his 

 lamp before the Royal Society of London. Mr. Stephenson was at 

 the same time occupied on the same subject. In August he made a 

 drawing for a lamp, which on October 21 had been made and tested ; a 

 second and a third were made, for the purpose of increasing the 

 amount of light; and on November 30, before he could by any possi- 

 bility have heard of Davy's invention, his third lamp was finished 

 and tried in Killingworth pit, where it was found thoroughly effective, 

 and has ever since been in use. A controversy has arisen, into which 

 we shall not enter, as to priority of invention. There is however 

 every reason to believe that Stephenson invented his lamp and tried it 

 a few days previous to Davy having announced his discovery; and the 

 natural conclusion is, that, urged by the want of a safety-lamp, and 

 reasoning from the same facts, the inventors arrived at the results 

 independently of each other ; for the two lamps, although different in 

 construction, are founded upon identical principles, but arrived at by 

 different trains of thought. 



We cannot attempt to trace all the improvements in details which 

 Mr. Stephenson introduced in the locomotive, but he very early 

 perceived that, for its proper working, the railway required equal 

 attention, and that a firm bed and a regular level were essential 

 requisites. Very little attention had hitherto been paid to this, and 

 the tramroads were carelessly laid out and not kept iu good repair. 





