GEORGE STEPHENSON. 75 



these dislocations was met with. The coal was thrown down 

 about forty yards. Considerable time was spent in sinking 

 another pit to this depth. And on my going down to examine 

 the work, I proposed making the engine (which had been 

 erected some time previously) to draw the coals up an inclined 

 plane, which descended immediately from the place where it 

 was fixed. A considerable change was accordingly made in 

 the mode of working the colliery, not only in applying the 

 machinery, but employing putters instead of horses in bringing 

 the coals from the hewers ; and by those changes, the number 

 of horses in the pit was reduced from about 100 to 15 or 16. 

 During the time I was engaged in making these important 

 alterations, I went round the workings in the pit with the 

 viewer almost every time that he went into the mine, not only 

 at Killingworth, but at Mountmoor, Derwentcrook, Southmoor, 

 all of which collieries belonged to Lord Ravensworth and his 

 partners ; and the whole of the machinery in these collieries 

 was put under my charge." The fact of his son Robert being 

 a member of the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Insti- 

 tution was of some assistance to his father. He brought home 

 books, or failing that, drawings from scientific articles, which 

 were talked over between the father and son at home, and 

 made to conduce to the improvement of both. 



Before we come to the details of George Stephenson's im- 

 provements on the locomotive, it might be well to glance at 



THE KARLY HISTORY OF THE RAILWAY. 



Two centuries ago, in the life of Lord Keeper Guildford, we 

 read the following : " When men have pieces of ground 

 between the colliery and the river, they sell leave to lead coals 



