72 



STUDY OP THE STEAM-ENGINE. 



CHAP. V. 



engine proved of great value to him. His shrewd 

 insight, together with his intimate practical acquaint- 

 ance with its mechanism, enabled him to apprehend, as 

 if by intuition, its most abstruse and difficult combina- 

 tions. The practical study which he had given to it 

 when a workman, and the patient manner in which he 

 had groped his way through all the details of the 

 machine, gave him the power of a master in dealing 

 with it as applied to colliery purposes. 



Sir Thomas Liddell was frequently about the works, 

 and took pleasure in giving every encouragement to 

 the engine-wright in his efforts after improvement. 

 The subject of the locomotive engine was already 

 closely occupying Stephenson's attention ; although it 

 was still regarded in the light of a curious and costly 

 toy, of comparatively little real use. But he had at an 

 early period detected the practical value of the machine, 

 and formed an adequate conception of the might which 

 as yet slumbered within it ; and he was not slow in 

 bending the whole faculties of his mind to the develop- 

 ment of its extraordinary powers. 



COLLIERS' COTTAGES AT LONG BENTON. 



