1 1 o HER OES OF IN VENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



gested by Mr. Booth, secretary to the company — by means of 

 which so great an additional surface was exposed to the heat ot" 

 the fire, that steam was generated much more rapidly, and a 

 higher temperature maintained at a smaller expenditure of fuel 

 than usual. The tubular boiler was indeed the gi-and fact of 

 the experiment. Witliout tubes steam could never have been 

 produced with the rapidity and heat essential to quick loco- 

 motion ; and by burning coke instead of coal, the stipulated 

 suppression of smoke was effected. The quantity of fuel 

 consumed by the "Rocket" during the experiment was half-a- 

 ton, the coke and water being carried in a tender attached to 

 the engine. 



One of George Stephenson's crowning achievements was the 

 formation of the Manchester and Liverpool line; a project 

 which, despite the sarcasms and incredulity with which it was 

 assailed, succeeded beyond the engineer's most sanguine hopes. 

 " Mr. George Stephenson," says Dr. Smiles in his most 

 interesting biography, "was no sooner appointed engineer than 

 he removed his residence to Liverpool, and made arrangemenlb 

 to commence the works. He began with tlie impossible — 

 to do that which the most distinguished engineers of the day 

 had declared tliat 'no man in his senses would undertake to 

 do ' — namely, to make the road over Chat Moss ! The drainage 

 of the moss was commenced in June, 1826. It was indeed a 

 most formidable undertaking ; and it has been well observed 

 that to carry a railway along, under, or over such material as the 

 moss presented, could never have been contemplated by an 

 'ordinary mind. Michael Drayton supposed Chat Moss to have 

 had its origin at the Deluge. Nothing more impassable could 

 have been imagined than that dreary waste; and Mr. Giles only 

 spoke the popular feeling of the day when lie declared that no 



