[ o6 HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VERY. 



Railway was a sufficiently remarkable undertaking to attract 

 public curiosity ; still the event of its opening was disposed of 

 briefly in the newspapers, as a thing of no more importance than 

 the making of a few miles of ordinary road. It was, in fact, 

 left to the Liverpool and Manchester line, which was opened 

 four months later (15th September) to arouse the press and the 

 public to the fact that there was in existence a process for con- 

 veying passengers and goods along the surface of the earth 

 immensely superior to anything known in the world's history. 

 The use of locomotive engines both for passengers and goods 

 was a process fully established. Two lines of railway in 

 England and two in Scotland were daily proving its enormous 

 value, yet the reports of the inauguration of the railway 

 connecting the great port of Liverpool with the manufacturing" 

 centres of Lancashire — perhaps not less by the success of the 

 proceedings than by the tragic death of a popular statesman by 

 which they were saddened — were the first to open the eyes of 

 the nation and the world to the fact that the ....^^ent of the iron 

 horse was about to revolutionise not only travelling but trade, 

 and to bring to light a new power which, whether for peace 

 or war, was to distance and displace all existing methods of 

 conveyance, and bring about a new social era. 



Application was made to Parliament for leave to lay down a 

 railway from Liverpool to Manchester— a work then become 

 indispensable to those two increasing and important towns. At 

 that period, and for some time afterwards, canal boats, and slow, 

 heavy road waggons were the only available means for the 

 transport of heavy goods or bulky merchandise. The charge 

 for conveyance from London to Yorkshire amounted frequently 

 to ^13 per ton, and even at this high cost the service was very 

 imijerfcct. Beneficial as canals had proved, they were becoming 



