86 HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VERY. 



Blackett, of Wylam, a coal proprietor, established the fact that 

 locomotives, running with smooth wheels on smooth rails, could 

 draw heavy loads up a moderate incline. His engine, called 

 the " Puffing Billy," was otherwise clumsily constructed. It had 

 only a single cylinder, and was full of pumps, plugs, and other 

 gear, which were always getting out of order. 



Lord Ravensworth, the principal partner in the Killingworth 

 Collieries, when the sul^ject of constructing a travelling engine 

 was brought before him and his partners by Stephenson in 1813, 

 empowered him to proceed. "The first locomotive that I 

 made," said Stephenson in a speech made many years after- 

 wards, " was at Killingworth Colliery, and \vith Lord Ravens- 

 worth's money. Yes, Lord Ravensworth and partners were 

 the first to entrust me with money to make a locomotive 

 engine. That engine was made thirty-two years ago, and we 

 called it ' My Lord.' I said to my friends, there was no limit 

 to the speed of such an engine if the works could be made to 

 stand it." It was tried on the Killingworth railway on the 25th 

 of July, 1814. " Blucher," as this locomotive was popularly 

 called, was not eminently successful until the introduction of 

 the steam-blast. At first it drew a load of thirty tons at the 

 rate of four miles an-hour. His second engine, patented in 

 1815, doubled this speed. "Thus," as Dr. Smiles remarks, 

 " Mr. Stephenson, by dint of patient and persevering labour- 

 by careful observation of the works of others, and never 

 neglecting to avail himself of their suggestions — had succeeded 

 in manufacturing an engine which included the following 

 important improvements on all previous attempts in the same 

 direction, viz. : simple and direct communication between the 

 cylinder and the wheels rolling upon the rails ; joint adhesion 



