32 LEARNS TO BRAKE. CHAP. III. 



and amongst the best paid, George was very anxious to 

 learn it. A small winding-engine having been put up 

 for the purpose of drawing the coals from the pit, Bill 

 Coe, his friend and fellow-workman, was appointed the 

 brakesman. He frequently allowed George to try his 

 hand at the brake, and instructed him how to proceed. 

 Coe was, however, opposed in this by several of the 

 other workmen one of whom, a brakesman named 

 William Locke, 1 went so far as to stop the working of 

 the pit because Stephenson had been called in to the 

 brake. But one day as Mr. Charles Nixon, the manager 

 of the pit, was observed approaching, Coe adopted an 

 expedient which had the effect of putting a stop to 

 the opposition. He called upon George Stephenson 

 to " come into the brake-house, and take hold of the 

 machine." No sooner had he done this, than Locke, as 

 usual, sat down, and the working of the pit was stopped. 

 Locke, when requested by the manager to give an 

 explanation, said that " young Stephenson couldn't 

 brake, and, what was more, never would learn to brake, 

 he was so clumsy." Mr. Nixon, however, ordered 

 Locke to go on with the work, which he did ; and 

 Stephenson, after some further practice, acquired the 

 art of brakeing. 



After working at the Water-row Pit and at other 

 engines in the neighbourhood of Newburn, for about 

 three years, George, with his companion Coe, went to 

 work at Black Callerton early in 1801. Though only 

 twenty years of age, his employers thought so well of 

 him that they appointed him to the responsible office of 

 brakesman at the Dolly Pit. For convenience' sake, 

 he took lodgings at a small farmer's in the village, 

 finding his own victuals, and paying so much a week 

 for lodging and attendance. In the locality this was 

 called " picklin in his awn poke neuk." It not unfre- 



1 Father of Mr. Locke, M.P., the engineer. He afterwards removed to 

 Bamsley, in Yorkshire. 



