172 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOUR^JAL. 



[June, 



this risk is iimlertaken liy tlie contractors, and it is much more 

 ronimiiii for the cost to be lielow tlie estimates than formerly it 

 Has for the estimates to be behiw the cost. 



Dock and harbour works, however jj^reat, are very unlike railway 

 contracts, reachinfr over fifty or a liuuilred miles; neither are 

 canal works on a like scale, for the latter by means of locks can be 

 made without heavy embankments; nor are the cuttings so deep, 

 nor the tunnels so many or so long. On a railway, the need of a 

 smooth way leads to high mounds, deep cuttings through rock or 

 sliifting sands, and long tunnels coming near to the ground-line 

 or reached by heavy slopes. To master these works, railway con- 

 tractors were brought forward, — an operation which Stephenson 

 helped to bring about, though without the knowledge or the inten- 

 tion of the great results which flowed from it. 



The great contracts have brought up a host of navigators, one 

 of the not least striking among the social wonders of this daj'. 

 Here we have brought together men picked from the best of our 

 workmen in the two islands, of the strongest thews, of the small- 

 est teaching, of brutal passions, and skilled in the display of their 

 strength and in the disregard of danger. These men are hundreds 

 of thousands in number, liable to be tlirown out of work whenever 

 quacks in parliament choose to stay public undertakings, and who 

 will in a time of strait form an army ready for any mischief which 

 mob-leaders can prompt and madness can carry out. 



The great want of workmen and plant threw on Stephenson 

 great labour, and he had to organise his staiF under difficulties 

 now little understood. As he brought some men from North- 

 umberland, he was set upon by the papeis for favoritism, and for 

 letting loose these wild men of the east to corrupt the manners of 

 the Lancashire men, and an explanation was published in his de- 

 fence. 



Tn 182G, the directors tried to get a loan of 100,000/. from the 

 Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners, which was after some corre- 

 spondence granted, 2 and it lightened the call upon the share- 

 holders in the lowering times of the great panic. The loan was 

 given mostly on the ground that it was desirable to afford em- 

 ployment to working-men in those times of distress. 



The great work of 1827 was the tunnel under Liverpool, and 

 here Stephenson's mining knowledge was of very great worth to 

 him, and was of no less weight with the directors and the working 

 men. Night and day were the mining and digging carried on, and 

 many difficulties had to be overcome. The ground was in some 

 places a soft blue shale, with much water; in others was a wet 

 sand, to go through which much care and skill was needed, as it 

 had to be pinned and propped with timber. ''i Work like this, 

 though now common, was then so new, the engineer was more 

 tasked and had a greater burthen on him. In passing under 

 Crown-street, near the Botanic Garden, for want of enough props 

 the ground fell in, being a depth of 30 feet of loose moss earth and 

 sand. At this time Stephenson was away from Liverpool. 



Sometimes the miners would not work at all, and the presence, 

 superintendence, and encouragement of Stephenson were often 

 needed to keep them at their posts,^" jq gjyg confidence to them 

 by sharing their dangers — a call to which, as already seen, he was 

 never deaf. Practice now gives hardihood: there are thousands of 

 tunnel miners who cheer each other on to the rashest attempts; 

 but at the time we are naming they were little used to the work, 

 and they had to bore their way almost in the dark, with the water 

 streaming around them, and uncertain whether the props and 

 stays would bear the pressure from above till the archwork was 

 made good. Happily a great part of the tunnel was hewn through 

 a fine red sandstone, clean and dry, and needing no masonry. ^^ 



The tunnel was under the care of Mr. Locke, as assistant- 

 engineer ; being one of his first great works, and was carried 

 through to the satisfaction of the shareholders. 2* 



By iSIarch Ib'JT, there was a working railway on Chat Moss, and 

 the directors in their report speak strongly in favour of Stephen- 

 son's operations. They say:" -'The roadway over the Moss will 

 bo cfl'ected with much less diflficulty than was apprehended by 

 those whose ignorance on the subject of mosses, or whose profes- 

 sional bias, altogether prevented any rational judgment of the 

 matter." 



In an amended bill that year brought before parliament, the 

 directors got power to pay interest on calls during the progress of 

 the works,— a measure of great importance, and although strongly 

 o))posed at all times, umpiestionably conducing to the ready raising 

 of money for railway ])urposes. 



In 1828, it was found that notwithstanding 212,000;. had been 

 spent, the work was not going on as fast as could be wished, and 



20 Booth's Account, p. 38. 2i Booth's Account, p. 39. 22 Booth's Account, p. 3D. 

 UB roolh's Account, p. 39. 24 Tooth's Account, p. 40. 25 Vol. of Prospectuses. 



the directors were therefore earnest for greater speed, so as to get 

 an earlier opening. The wm-kmeu had been partly kept back by a 

 wet winter, and partly by want of money, but l)y no want of zeal 

 on the |)art of George Steplienson. In this year a bill was got for a 

 new line laid down by Stephenson between Rainhill and Bury-lane, 

 whereby the railway was shortened and the cost lessened. In 

 tlie report to the yearly meeting on the 27th March 1828, all these 

 points were noticed, and likewise the state of the estimates, which 

 were shown to be likely to be e.\ceeded on some heads of engineer- 

 ing outlay, besides land; but although 39,57i/. had been left by 

 the engineer for contingencies, this was swallowed up by one head 

 of outlay — parliamentary expenses. 



At this time the directors say they had, after due consideration, 

 authorised the engineer "to prepare a locomotive engine, which, 

 from the nature of its construction and from the experiments 

 already made, he is of opinion will be effective for the purposes of 

 the company, without proving an annoyance to tlie public. In the 

 course of the ensuing summer it is intended to make trials on a 

 large scale, so as to ascertain the sufficiency in all respects of this 

 important machine." They likewise express their confidence in 

 Mr. Stephenson, their principal engineer, whose ability and un- 

 wearied activity they are glad of this opportunity to acknow- 

 ledge.-'' 



In 1829, a fourth act of parliament was got, which provided for 

 a Manchester station, and also to raise 127,500/. for providing sta- 

 tions, engines, wagons, and carriages,^' which had not been asked 

 for in the first act of parliament. Indeed, it was for some time 

 not uncommon to make no provision in estimates for stations or 

 carrying stock, such being considered of small importance. 



About this time, the board were embarrassed with the Exchequer 

 Bill Loan Commissioners. In making the loan of 100,000/., the 

 latter had kept a hold on the last 30 per cent, of the calls, as a fur- 

 ther security for repayment in case the works should not be of 

 sufficient value. The board being wishful to use these calls for 

 the works, asked the commissioners for the leave to raise them, 

 when the commissioners sent down Telford to report on the value 

 of the works. This he did in the end of November, spending one 

 day on the line, and leaving his assistant to take detailed measure- 

 ments of the work. 2 s 



Telford's report was carefully worded to throw the greatest 

 doubt on the undertaking, whether as to the amount of work to be 

 done, the cost of it, the time needed, or the certainty of it. This 

 report was given in on the -Ith February 1829, and the commission- 

 ers resolved not to release any part of the calls. Some of the 

 Liverpool directors then went to London, and having shown the 

 unfairness of Telford's report, succeeded in obtaining the powers 

 required. 



Telford, speaking of the power to be employed, said that the use 

 of horses had been done away with by introducing two sets of in- 

 clined planes, and he considered this an evil, while the planes must 

 be worked either by locomotive or fixed engines; "but which of 

 the two latter modes shall be adopted, I understand has not yet 

 been finally determined; and both being recent projects, in which 

 I have had no experience, I cannot take upon me to say whether 

 either will fully answer in practice."-" 



This is far from satisfactory in Telford, after the locomotive 

 engine had been before the world five-aud-twenty years, and he 

 had himself laid out raihvays,^'' in which it vFas liis business to 

 inquire as to the most advantageous mode of propulsion. He 

 ought to have known about the locomotive, and indeed must have 

 known, — but tliere was a great deal of jealousy in the very highest 

 quarters, which had it been given way to would have utterly stop- 

 ped the growth of railways. In aftertime, Stephenson himself 

 was inoculated with tlic same feeling, and showed it with no less 

 warmth. It behoves the public, however, always to be on their 

 guard against swallowing any statements on authority, and par- 

 ticularly when they bear on any new undertaking. Tlie locomo- 

 tive, gas, high-pressure steam, steamboats, and electric telegraphs, 

 would all have been swamped if authority had had full sway. 



In the spring of 1829, the directors, earnest for greater speed, 

 ordered the contractors to employ two gangs of men on all the 

 cuttings, one by night and one by day. After this time, night- 

 work anil Sunday-work became too common to be thought wonder- 

 ful. Notwithstanding the wishes of the directors, a wet summer 

 and autumn threw the works back; indeed, the heavy and lasting 

 rains lodged much water in the cuttings, which had to be pumped 

 dry." More rain fell in this year than for fourteen years before.''- 



26 Volume of Prospectuses. 27 Booth's Account, p. 43. Vol. of Prospectuses. 



28 Volume of Prospectuses. 20 Telford's Report, Liverpool IS29, p. 16. 



3 See Rejjort of Telford on the Knaresborough Railway, in the Library of the Insti- 

 tution of Civil Engineers. 



31 Booth'i Account, p. 44. 32 Volume of Prospectuses. 



