98 HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VEk Y. 



soon saw that his visitor was the mnn for his purpose. The 

 whole plans of the railway being still in an undetermined state, 

 Mr. Pease was glad to have the opportunity of gathering from 

 Mr. Stephenson the results of his experience. The latter 

 strongly recommended a railway in preference to a tram-road, 

 in which Mr. Pease was disposed to concur with him. The 

 conversation next turned to the tractive power which the 

 company intended to employ, and Mr. Pease said that they 

 had based their whole calculations on the employment of 

 horse-power. ' I was so satisfied,' said he afterwards, ' that a 

 horse upon an iron road would draw ten tons, for one ton on a 

 common road, that I felt sure that before long the railway would 

 become the king's highway.' 



"Mr. Pease was scarcely prepared for the bold assertion made 

 by his visitor, that the locomotive engine with which he had 

 been working tlie Killingworth railway for many years past was 

 worth fifty horses, and that engines made after a similar plan 

 would yet entirely supersede all horse-power upon railroads. 

 Mr. Stephenson was daily becoming more positive as to tlie 

 superiority of his locomotive ; and on this, as on all subsequent 

 occasions, he strongly urged Mr. Pease fc adopt it. ' Come 

 over to Killingworth,' said he, 'and see what my"Blucher" 

 can do. Seeing is believing, sir.' And Mr. Pease promised 

 that on some early day he would go over to Killingworth with 

 his friend John Richardson, and take a look at this wonderful 

 machine that was to supersede horses. On Mr. Pease referring 

 to the difhculties and the opposition which the projectors of the 

 railway had had to encounter, and the obstacles which still lay 

 in their way, Stephenson said to him, 'I think, sir, I have some 

 knowledge of craniology, and from what I see of your head I 

 feel sure that if you will fairly buckle to this railway you arc 



