68 ODD MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES. CHAP. V. 



cottage, and on holding out his finger, the bird would 

 come and perch upon it directly. A cage was built for 

 " blackie " in the partition between the passage and the 

 room, a square of glass forming its outer wall ; and 

 Robert used afterwards to take pleasure in describing 

 the oddity of the bird, imitating the manner in w T hich it 

 would cock its head on his father's entering the house, 

 and follow him with its eye into the inner apartment. 



Neighbours were accustomed to call at the cottage 

 and have their clocks and watches set to rights when 

 they went wrong. One day, after looking at the works 

 of a watch left by a pitman's wife, George handed it to 

 his son ; " Put her in the oven, Robert," said he, " for a 

 quarter of an hour or so." It seemed an odd way of 

 repairing a watch ; nevertheless, the watch was put into 

 the oven, and at the end of the appointed time it was 

 taken out, going all right. The wheels had merely 

 got clogged by the oil congealed by the cold ; which at 

 once explains the rationale of the remedy adopted. 



There was a little garden attached to the cottage, in 

 which, while a workman, Stephenson took a pride in 

 growing gigantic leeks and astounding cabbages. 

 There was great competition amongst the villagers in 

 the growth of vegetables, all of whom he excelled, 

 excepting one of his neighbours, whose cabbages some- 

 times outshone his. In the protection of his garden- 

 crops from the ravages of the birds, he invented a 

 strange sort of " fley-craw," which moved its arms with 

 the wind ; and he fastened his garden-door by means of 

 a piece of ingenious mechanism, so that no one but him- 

 self could enter it. His cottage was quite a curiosity- 

 shop of models of engines, self-acting planes, and 

 perpetual-motion machines, which last contrivance, 

 however, as effectually baffled him as it had done 

 hundreds of preceding inventors. His odd and eccentric 

 contrivances often excited great wonder amongst the 

 Killingworth villagers. He won the women's admira- 



