CHAP. V. ATTEMPTS TO ENLIGHTEN THE PITMEN. 69 



tion by connecting their cradles with the smoke-jack, 

 and making them self-acting. Then he astonished the 

 pitmen by attaching an alarum to the clock of the 

 watchman whose duty it was to call them betimes in 

 the morning. He also contrived a wonderful lamp 

 which burned under water, with which he was after- 

 wards wont to amuse the Brandling family at Gosforth, 

 going into the fish-pond at night, lamp in hand, 

 attracting and catching the fish, which rushed wildly 

 towards the flame. 



Dr. Bruce tells of a competition which Stephenson 

 had with the joiner at Killingworth, as to which of 

 them could make the best shoe-last ; and when the 

 former had done his work, either for the humour of the 

 thing, or to secure fair play from the appointed judge, 

 he took it to the Morrisons in Newcastle, and got them 

 to put their stamp upon it. So that it is possible the 

 Killingworth brakesman, afterwards the inventor of the 

 safety-lamp and the originator of the railway system, 

 and John Morrison, the last -maker, afterwards the 

 translator of the Scriptures into the Chinese language, 

 may have confronted each other in solemn contem- 

 plation over the successful last, which won the verdict 

 coveted by its maker. 



Sometimes he would endeavour to impart to his I 

 fellow-workmen the results of his scientific reading./ 

 Everything that he learnt from books was so new and 

 so wonderful to him, that he regarded the facts he drew 

 from them in the light of discoveries, as if they had 

 been made but yesterday. Once he tried to explain to 

 some of the pitmen how the earth was round, and kept 

 turning round. But his auditors flatly declared the 

 thing to be impossible, as it was clear that " at the 

 bottom side they must fall off ! " " Ah ! " said George, 

 " you don't quite understand it yet." His son Robert 

 also early endeavoured to communicate to others the 

 information which he had gathered at school ; and Dr. 



