68 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[March, 



GEORGE STEPHENSON. 



fContinued from page 364, Vol, XI.^ 



[This sketch of the life of Georp-e Stc]ilienson has heen so long 

 put off from a want of the needful hooks in tlie British Museum, 

 ;in(l therefore we have had to apply elsewhere. We owe much to the 

 kindness of several ffentlemen, aniontr wliom we nre hound to name 

 Joseph Sandars, Esq., Father of the Liverpool and Manchester 

 Kaihvay; Henry IJootli, Esq., Treasurer of tlie railway; Charles 

 iManhy, Esq., Secretary of the Institution of Civil Eng-ineers ; 

 W. W. Collins, Esq., of Buckinftham-strcet; and J. '\V^. Brooke, 

 Esq. Among the hooks we have are the following: — 



1821. Observations on a gpnernl Iron Rnihvny ; shmoinfj its great mippri- 

 ority over all the Present methods of Conveyauee, and claiming the particu- 

 lar attention of Merchantft, Mann/ncturers, Farmers, and indeed every class 

 of Society. Second Edition. London: ISaldwin, 1821. — [Anonymous — 

 written by Thomas Cray.] 



1822. Copy of Specification of Patent grarUed to Benjamin Thompson. 

 Newcnstle. 



1822. Extracts from the 'Newcastle Magazine:' Controversy Ictween 

 Benjamin Thompson and Nicholas Wood. 



1822 & 1824. Specification of John Birkenshaw's Patent. Newcastle. 



1823. Notes, by Mr. Stevenson, in reference to the Essays on Hallways 

 presented to the Highland Society. 



1824. A Letter on the subject of the projected Railroad bettreen Liverpool 

 and Manchester. By Joseph Sandars. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Editions. 

 Liverpool, 1824-25. 



1824. Observations, &(c., on the Communication betweeti Nevcastle and 

 Carlisle. By Wm. Chapman. Newcastle, 1824. 



1824. j4 Report on the same. Second Edition. By Wm. Chapman, C.E. 

 Newr.istle, 1824. 



1825. Report on Railroads and Locomotive Engines. By Charles Syl- 

 vester, C.E. Liverpool, 1825. 



1826. The Finger- Post ; or Direct Road from John O^Groat's to the 

 Land's End : being a Discussion of the Railway Question. By ? } } Lon- 

 don : Cole. — [Anonymous — no date ] 



1825. A Statement of the Claim of the Stibscriiers to the Birmingham 

 and Liverpool Railroad to an Act of Parliament ; in Reply to the Opposition 

 of the Canal Proprietors. London : Baldwin, 1825. — [Anonyninns.J 



1825. The National Wagon-post, to Travel at the rate of Tirenty Miles 

 per Hour, carryir.g One Thousand Tons weight, all over the Kingdom of 

 England, with Passengers, Goods, and Stock ; also a Letter from the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer. Paris : Didot, 1825. — [Written liy C. M. George.] 



1825. Considerations on the Expedience of sinking Capital in Railways, 

 Uy John Vallance. London: Wightman, 1825. 



Tacked to this is a reprint of another pamphlet hy ilr. Vallance, called, 

 ' On Facility of Intercourse.' 



1825. Observations on the General Comparative Merits of Inland Com- 

 mwiication by Navigations or Railroads, with particular rejereuce to those 

 prcjected or existing between Bath, Bristol, and London. London: Hatch- 

 ard, 1825. — [Anonymous.] 



1825. A Letter resjiectmg the Projected Railways. By********. Sold 

 liy J. Nicholson, Rochdale. — [An attack on the Liverpoc i and Manchester 

 Railway.] 



1825. Railways compared with Canals and common Roads, and their Uses 

 and Advantages explained. Edinburgh: Constable, 1823. — [\^ ritten by 

 Charles Maclaren, and reprinted from the Scotsman.'] 



1826. Sketches of our Information as to Railroads, By the Rev. James 

 Adamson, Cupar Fife. Newcastle, 1826. 



1824, &c. Prospectuses and Half- Yearly Reports of the Liverpool and 

 Manchester Railway. 



1830. yln Accouitt of the Liverpool and Manchester Railvny. By Henry 

 Booth, Treasurer to the Cnnipany. Liverpool : M'ales and liaines. 



Of these, the "Finger-post" only is to be found in the Library of 

 the British Museum. 



Besides these, we have made use of the following: — 



1822, The Steam-Evgine. By Charles F. Partington. London. 



1823. Description of a Railway upon a New Princij'le. By Henry' R. 

 Palmer, M. Inst. C.E. London : Taylor, High Holborn, 1823 and 1824. 



1825, &c. Nicholas Wood on Railroads. 

 1825. Thomas Tredgold on Railroads. 



1822, &c. The Newcastle Magazine. 



1823, &c. The Mechanics' Magazine, 

 1817, &c. Tlie Repertory of Arts. 



1829. Stuart's Anecdotes if the Steam Engine. 



1831. Historical Account of Rivers, Canals, and Railways. By Joseph 

 Priestley. London, 1831. 



We have likewise referred to the later works of Mr. Whishaw, 

 Mr. Ritchie, the Monthly liailway Record, &c. 



We shall therefore take advantage of these several works, to give 

 a fuller account than we sh«uild otherwise have done of the Growth 

 of the Railway System, of the Mania of 1825, of the History of 



the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and of the Locomotive 

 Contest, H hich are now little known.] 



X. BKGINNING OF RAILWAYS. 



The beginning of railw.-iys has been laid down as owing to seve- 

 ral causes, and it may be that the use of slays or sledges in Staf- 

 fordshire' led to it, for the two sides of the slay would readily run 

 on two lines of wooden planks or logs. If, however, railways had 

 their beginning in the north, what so likely as that the thought 

 took its rise from the shipwright's yard. Indeed, the ways on 

 which a ship is built, and from which she is launched, are the oldest 

 and earliest railways : from these she slips down into the sea, and 

 very little strength is wanted to set her going. As, too, the coal- 

 pits lie in the higher grounds, and the coals are brought down to 

 the water to the ship's side, it would strike any workman that the 

 way in which it could be done, and in which the least power would 

 he called for, would he that hy which the great weight of a ship 

 was moved by a few men. First, such a way would be made for a 

 short length, and then for greater lengths. It seems the more 

 likely that this is the truth, for the first wagonways were, like 

 shipyard-ways, of timber ; otherwise we might have looked to their 

 being made of stone at an earlier time. In shape, too, the ship- 

 ways are something like wagonways, for they are raised above the 

 road, whereas stone tracks are on a level with it. The stone track 

 has been u.sed from the time of the Romans downwards, and there 

 is no ground for thinking that it led to the wooden wagonway. 



A High Dutch writer has said that a railway was made in the 

 mining country of the Hartz, and that the plan was taken to Eng- 

 land, in the year 1676, by some miners." Now, it is very unlikely 

 that such miners would go to the Northumbrian coal-pits, where 

 the railway at that time was in use;-' while the suggestion we have 

 here made is much more in keeping with what we know. Abroad, 

 tlie railway was first known as the English roadway. 



One of the earliest drawings of a railway known is that spoken 

 of in the Mecliunics' Magassine,'' and is a representation of a train 

 on a wooden railway at Prior Park, near Bath, a mile long, and 

 which in 1741 was used for carrying stone. AV'ooden railways were 

 in use until 1811. 



When wooden railways came to be better known and more 

 worked, it was to be looked for that they should be strengthened 

 with iron plates on the top.'' This would be and was the first 

 step.*" In 1738, rails wholly of iron were tried at Whitehaven, but 

 not being found to work w ell, were given up, the wagons being too 

 heavy for the cast-iron, and breaking it. 



In 1 768, cast-iron rails were used at Coalbrookdale, for the books 

 of the company show that on the 13th November, 1767, between 

 fi^•e and six tons of rails were cast as an experiment.' 



Mr. John Curr, author of the "Coal Viewer's Practical Compa- 

 nion" (London, 1797), says in his preface that he had laid down 

 cast-iron rails underground, in the coal-pits of the Duke of Nor- 

 folk, near Sheffield, about 1776." What was the form of the early 

 irim rails is not known, but it is thought to have been the plate or 

 broad rails. 



In 1799, William Jessop laid down the first railway for a public 

 company, at Loughborough. Here he used the edge-rail, flanges 

 being put on the wagon-wheels. 



About ten years afterwards, Mr. William Outram laid down the 

 railway at Little Eaton, in Derbyshire, with plate-rails, having a 

 flange cast on the rail and not on the wheel. Hence such rails 

 were named Outram- rails, or, for shortness, tram-rails." This was 

 the favourite plan for some time. 



^Ve may here stop to say a few more words on the Railw;!y Dic- 

 tionary. First, as to the name "Railway" and "Railroad." Both 

 were used for some time, and railrond was the favourite; but of 

 late years the other has been taken up in its stead, so that it is now 

 the acknowledged word. What had the most weight in bringing 

 this about was the wish of the writers upon railways to have the 

 word which is smoother, and to get rid of the other, which is al- 

 literative. — Another grammatical note is as to the word "Waggon." 

 The old way of spelling it is with two ^s, but the new railway plan 

 is with one, as uagon. The French and High Dutch, who have 

 taken up the word, have brought this about. — "Tender" is a new 

 word. Tills is said to be the shortening of "Attender," the car- 

 riage attending on an engine;'" but it must be remembered that 

 at sea, a small ship waiting on another is named a tender. — The 



2 Ritchie on Riiilvvays, p. ti. 

 * Vol. IV., p. Ul. 



■ Dr. Plot's • Staffordshire.' 



3 martin's Circle of the Mechanical Arts. 



6 Martin's Circle of the Alechiiiilcal Arts. 



6 Stvvenson, Notes on Esaitys on RHilways, p 2. ' Stevenson, Notes, p. 2 



fi Ritchie on R.lilways, p. l.s. Stevenson, Notes, p. 2. 



Obfiervattonson the General Comp-iriitive Merits of Novi ations and Railroads, p. il. 



1 tj Railways compared with Canals and Common Roads, Maclaren, p. 60, 



