200 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Jri.v, 



everv new enfrino Stephenson ni:iile, flifl'ered in some respects frtini 

 the iMie precediuf; it, anil bears witness to the great improvements 

 made.'- The cast-iron tyres were worn out on tlie Darlington 

 Railway in ten weeks, wliile a set of wrought-iron tyres on the 

 Killingworth was twelve months in use.''' It was thus, and in 

 such small things, the locomotive was yearly brought into better 

 working. 



On the Kith of January, at Leeds, Messrs. 'Walker and Rastrick 

 saw Rlenkinsop's engine; on tlie 17th, 18th, U(th, and 20th, they 

 were at Darlingtcui, and on the Stockton and Darlington Railway; 

 on the 21st at Sunderland, and on tlie Iletton railway. Part of 

 tliis had formerly been worked by loc(un()ti\es, but latterly they 

 had been given up, and fi.xed engines were used instead. From tlie 

 'i'iiid to tlie 29th, the weather being snowy, Messrs. AValker and 

 Rastrick were at Newcastle, and met Nicholas U^ood and Mr. H. 

 Thompson of Ayton. the great uphidder of fixed engines, which 

 they saw on the ISrunton and Shields Railway.' ' 



(_)n the 20th February, Messrs. AVallier and Rastrick met at 

 O.xford, and stayed until tlie 2tt]i, going over their several re- 

 ports. 



Mr. AV'alker's aim was to overrate the cost of the locomotive, 

 and underrate the cost of the fi.xed engine; and he did not allow' = 

 the locomotive gave any greater accommodation to the public. It 

 is woi'th saying, that the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was 

 laid out for the locomotive, as it was then understood, for Mr. 

 Locke told Mr. Walker there were thirty roads crossing the rail- 

 way on the level.'" These the latter thought were inconvenient 

 for the stationary system, and ought to have been altered. 



Mr. AValker says decidedly on the (piestion of comparative 

 safety, "As a general answer, I should say that the stationary is 

 the safer, chiefly from the locomotives being necessarily high- 

 pressure engines, and accompanying the goods or passengers upon 

 tlic way."" 



i\Ir. Rastrick says: "I am decidedly of opinion that lo miles 

 per hour on a railroad may be travelled in perfect safety both to 

 goods and passengers:""* but then he speaks of stationary engines. 

 He thought, too, that locomotives weighing more than 8 tons could 

 not be conveniently used to get a speed of more than 10 miles per 

 hour. He ends this part by saying : "It was tlie decided opinion 

 of Mr. Nicholas \\'ood, when we saw him at Killingwi'rtli, that no 

 locomotive engine should travel more than eight miles per hour; 

 and his opiniim, from the great experience he has had in the use of 

 them, is entitled to the greatest respect : and I am perfectly of his 

 opinion, so long as the engines are made of such great weight; 

 thei'efore, the gi-eat desideratum must be to make powerful engines 

 of the least weight possible. Indeed, if we are to come down to 

 eight miles per hour, and from that perhaps to six, I should say 

 tliat the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was a comiilete failure 

 — all the golden hopes held out of expedition and dispatch would 

 completely vanish, and the jmblic would be most grievously and 

 bitterly disappointed. Therefore, we are of opinion that ten miles 

 per hour is tlie speed you ought to travel at."' " 



Nicholas Wood, it has been already seen, was always behindhand 

 with Ste]ihenson, and it suiteil tlie opponents of the latter to set 

 AVood up against him, though it seems strange the maker and 

 worker of the locomotive should be held as of less weight than he 

 who only saw the working. Mr. Rastrick again sets Wood against 

 Stejihenson at page 53, decries the work of tho Lanenshh-e Witi-h 

 engine on the Bolton and Leigh Railway, and says of it, "That it 

 is, however, an experiment of any value for determining what the 

 regular work of a locomotive engine might be, that is to travel ten 

 or twenty miles right a-head, will, I should hope, not be asserted. 

 Experiments of this nature are more likely to do harm than good, 

 as they lead the public to expect much greater performances from 

 the locomotive than can ever be realised." — At page 72, Mr. Ras- 

 trick hints that althougli Chat Moss then seemed firm, it must sink 

 and give way under the locomotives. 



Of these reports it is enough to say that each cleverly carried 

 out the work assigned to it : Mr. Walker's has a specious assump- 

 tion of candour which might deceive many, — Mr. Rastrick's shows 

 a wish to set aside Steidienson, and to iiut up himself and Nichidas 

 A\'ood against him. Mr. Rastrick was ready for whatever might 

 happen; and although he and Mr. \\'alker preferred the stationary 

 engine, yet if the locomotive were used, then he and Mr. Walker 

 had schemed an engine which was to set aside Stephenson's.-" 

 Mr. Rastrick was one of the engineers thought of for laying out 

 the railway when tlie Messrs. Reiinie vvere displaced. Stephenson, 

 however, liad the preference. 



lii Wallitr, p.lS 13 Wnlker, p. l:l. i ■» Walker, p. 4. i 5 WalkLT, p. 2S. 



18 Waller, p. 27.— Kaatriclt, p. 44. i? Walker, p. 28. is Ilabtiick, p. 28. 



10 r.iislikk, p.4ll. lio Basil ilk. p. 54. 



The rejiort of Mr. Walker was answered by Mr. Robert Ste- 

 phenson and Mr. Locke, in a panijihlet named, "Observations on 

 the Comparative Merits of Locomotive and Fixed Engines, as ap- 

 ]ilied to Railways, compiled from the Reports of Mr. George Ste- 

 phenson." This answer showed so fully the em]>tiness of Mr. 

 AV'alker's assertions, as materially to damage the party who had 

 set him on. It is now useless to go into all the beai-ings of a dis- 

 pute, on which time has given a judgment which cannot be dis- 

 puted, against all the assumptions and forebodings of Messrs. 

 A\''alker and Rastrick, and in favour of the course adopted by 

 George Stephenson. 



XVIII. UAINUILL. 



In the third yearly report, of ISth March 1S2<), the directors 

 only say tliat they have received the reports of Jlessrs. AValker 

 and Rastrick, to which their consideration shall be given. 



Messrs. AValker and Rastrick's reports, however decisive in their 

 terms, would not bear investigation ; and their promjiters seem to 

 have been so far discomfited, that the board at length settled on 

 the use of the locomotive. Mr. Richard Harrison had long thought 

 that a reward, to be offered by the company, would be the best way 

 to get at the knowledge of the best locomotive; and his brother 

 directors took up his plan, and, on the 20th of April, agreed to 

 give 500/.-' The opposition directiu-shad still sufficient influence to 

 trammel the competition, and, acting on Mr. Rastrick's suggestion, 

 they particularly limited the weight of tlie engine. Some were not 

 without hopes Stephenson would not be able to make an engine to 

 fulfil the conditions, or to carry the day. 



The conditions, given forth on the 25th April 1829, were — 1st, 

 the engine should consume its own smoke; 2nd, an engine of six 

 tons should draw twenty tons at ten miles an hour with a pressure 

 of not more than 50 lb. ; 3rd, for two safety-valves, one beyond the 

 reach of the engine-man; 4th, the engine to have springs and six 

 wheels, and to be not more than fifteen feet high to tlie top of the 

 chimney; 5th, the engine with water not to weigh more than six 

 tons, and if less would be preferred on its drawing a proportionate 

 weight — and an engine weighing only four and a half tons might 

 be put on four wheels; Cth, for a mercurial gage, showing the steam 

 pressure above 45 lb. to the inch, and to blow out at a pressure of 

 CO lb.; 7th, the engine to be sent to Liverpool not later than 1st 

 October; 8th, the price of the engine not to be more than 550/.-' 



The time was afterwards made the eth of October ; the ground 

 was chosen at Rainhill, a flat on the railway, two miles in length, 

 and nine miles from Liverpool. The judges were Mr. Nicholas 

 AVood, Mr. Rastrick, and Mr. Jidm Kennedy of JManchester — none 

 of them likely to be too favourable to Stephenson. On the morn- 

 ing of the 6th, the ground at Rainhill was crowded with many 

 thousand people, and among them several of the first engineers of 

 the day.-' 



Five engines had been named, but only three came up; and each 

 of these was tried on a day by itself, Stephenson having the first 

 day for the Rocket. This was a four-wheel engine, weighing, with 

 water, four tons and a quarter ; the load to be given to it was 12f 

 tons, making a whole load of 17 tons. Shortly after the first loco- 

 motive was tried on the Killingworth Colliery Railway, it is said, 

 the means was found out of raising the heat of the fire, by carry- 

 ing the steam into the chimney, where it escaped in a perpendicu- 

 lar direction up the middle, after it had done its work in the 

 cylinders.-^ This was likewise followed in l^e lim-ket. (iurney says 

 he was the first to start this way of getting a draught. In 1828, 

 an engine was maile at Darlington, with a double fire-tube ;'^^ but 

 the ifoc/rc? was alile to pi esent a still greater surface to the fire, 

 Henry Hooth, the treasurer of the railway company, having sug- 

 gested to pass tubes through the boiler.''" The originality of this 

 suggestion has been contested, but never disproved. Frequently 

 before this it had been proposed to pass the water through thin 

 tubes in contact with tlie fire, and which did not succeed; but 

 Booth's plan was to pass the fire or heated air through the tubes 

 ]ilaced in the water. Booth proposed this to Stephenson, who ap- 

 jiroved it; and they agreed to Iniild an engine and compete for the 

 jirize. It was fixed that Robert Stephenson and Co., of Newcastle, 

 should build the engine. Afterwards, Stephenson wished his son 

 Robert should have a share in the adventure, and accordingly he 

 had a third, the two other shares being held, as said, by Booth and 

 George Stephenson. To Henry Booth the world is therefore 



i2 1 Iloijth, p. 71. 



2ii Booth'8 History, p. 64 J Stophenson and Locke's Report, p. 72 ; Ritchie on Rail- 

 ways, p. 24; Whislintv's Railways ot' Great Britain; Lardner oa the Steam-Engine, 

 p. 244. 



2 a Boolirs History, p. "4. Stephenson and Locke, p. (i4. 



24 Stephenson and Locke, p. (>. 25 Steplienson and LocVe, p. 17. 



2(1 S'ephcofnn and Lotke.p. Cj; Ritchie, p. 283 ; I.ardnet, p. ;iiil ; Futh Yearly 

 Report o! the Directors. 



