THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



of Wylam, who with his engineer, William Hedley, had 

 built several steam locomotives which only managed 

 to crawl along the tracks under the most favorable con- 

 ditions, wishing to determine if it were the fault of 

 locomotives or the system on which they worked that 

 accounted for his failures, constructed a car which was 

 propelled by six men working levers geared to the 

 wheels, like the modem hand-car. 



In this way he determined that there was sufficient 

 adhesion between smooth rails and smooth wheels for 

 locomotives to haul heavy loads behind them, even on 

 grades of considerable incline. The experiments of 

 Blackett settled this question beyond the possibility of 

 controversy, and removed a very important obstacle 

 from the path of future inventors. Among these in- 

 ventors was young George Stephenson, who was rapidly 

 making a reputation for himself as a practical engineer. 



STEPHENSON SOLVES THE PROBLEM 



Stephenson was bom on June 9, 1781, in the small 

 colliery village of Wylam, on the river Tyne. His 

 parents were extremely poor, and as the boy was sent 

 to work as soon as he was large enough to find em- 

 ployment of any kind, he was given no education, even 

 to the extent of leaming the alphabet. It was only 

 after he had spent many years in the colliery, and had 

 finally worked himself up from the position of ''picker" 

 at three pence a day to that of fireman, that he was 

 able to spend the necessary time and pennies to acquire 

 something of an education. Then he attended a night 



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