26 LEARNS TO BE AN ENGINEMAN. CHAP. III. 



received the advance, he announced the fact to his 

 fellow-workmen, adding triumphantly, " I am now a 

 made man for life ! " 



The pit opened at Newburn, at which old Robert 

 Stephenson worked, proving a failure, it was closed ; 

 and a new pit was sunk at Water-row, on a strip of 

 land lying between the Wylam waggon-way and the 

 river Tyne, about half-a-mile west of Newburn Church. 

 A pumping-engine was erected there by Robert Haw- 

 thorn, the Duke's engineer at Walbottle ; and old 

 Stephenson went to work it as fireman, his son George 

 acting as the engineman or plugman. At that time he 

 was about seventeen years old a very youthful age at 

 which to fill so responsible a post. He had thus already 

 got ahead of his father in his station as a workman ; for 

 the plugman holds a higher grade than the fireman, 

 requiring more practical knowledge and skill, and 

 usually receiving higher wages. 



George's duty as plugman was to watch the engine, 

 to see that it kept well in work, and that the pumps 

 were efficient in drawing the water. When the water- 

 level in the pit was lowered, and the suction became 

 incomplete through the exposure of the suction-holes, 

 it was then his duty to proceed to the bottom of the 

 shaft and plug the tube so that the pump should draw : 

 hence the designation of " plugman." If a stoppage in 

 the engine took place through any defect in it which 

 he was incapable of remedying, then it was for him to 

 call in the aid of the chief engineer of the colliery to 

 set the engine to rights. 



But from the time when George Stephenson was 

 appointed fireman, and more particularly afterwards as 

 engineman, he applied himself so assiduously and so 

 successfully to the study of the engine and its gearing 



taking the machine to pieces in his leisure hours for the 

 purpose of cleaning and understanding its various parts 



that he soon acquired a thorough practical knowledge 



