CHAP. VI. MR. BLACKETT, OF WYLAM. 87 



killed a number of the bystanders, wounding many 

 more. These, and other contrivances with the same 

 object, projected about the same time, show that inven- 

 tion was actively at work, and that many minds were 

 now anxiously labouring to solve the important problem 

 of locomotive traction upon railways. 



But the difficulties contended with by these early 

 inventors, and the step-by-step progress which they 

 made, will probably be best illustrated by the experi- 

 ments conducted by Mr. Blackett, of Wylam, which 

 all the more worthy of notice, as the persevering efforts 

 of this gentleman in a great measure paved the way for 

 the labours of George Stephenson, who, shortly after, 

 took up the question of steam locomotion, and brought 

 it to a successful issue. 



The Wylam waggon-way is one of the oldest in the 

 north of England. Down to the year 1807 it was 

 formed of wooden spars or rails, laid down between the 

 colliery at Wylam where old Eobert Stephenson had 

 worked and the village of Lemington, some four miles 

 down the Tyne, where the coals were loaded into keels 

 or barges, and floated down the river past Newcastle, to 

 be shipped for the London market. Each chaldron- 

 waggon was originally drawn by one horse, with a 

 man to each horse and waggon. The rate at which 

 the waggons were hauled was so slow that .only two 

 journeys were performed by each man and horse in one 

 day, and three on the day following, the driver being 

 allowed sevenpence for each journey. This primitive 

 waggon-way passed, as before stated, close in front of 

 the cottage in which George Stephenson was born ; and 

 one of the earliest sights which met his infant eyes was 

 this wooden tramroad worked by horses. 



Mr. Blackett was the first colliery owner in the North 

 who took an active interest in the locomotive. Havi 

 formed the acquaintance of Trevithick in London, an 

 inspected the performances of his engine, he determine 



