1)0 ANOTHER WYLAM ENGINE TRIED. CHAP. Yl. 



/ engine was declared to be a failure ; it was shortly after 

 dismounted and sold; and Mr. Blackett's praiseworthy 

 efforts thus far proved in vain. 



He was still, however, desirous of testing the practi- 

 cability of employing locomotive power in working the 

 coal down to Lemington, and he determined on making 

 yet another trial. He accordingly directed his engine- 

 wright, Jonathan Foster, to proceed with the building 

 of a third engine in the Wylam workshops. This new 

 locomotive had a single eight-inch cylinder, was pro- 

 vided with a flywheel like its predecessor, and the 

 driving wheel was cogged on one side to enable it to 

 travel in the rack-rail laid along the road. This engine 

 proved more successful than the former one ; and it was 

 found capable of dragging eight or nine loaded waggons, 

 though at the rate of little more than a mile an hour, 

 from the colliery to the shipping-place. It sometimes 

 took six hours, as Jonathan Foster informed us, to 

 perform the journey of five miles. Its weight was 

 found too great for the road, and the cast-iron plates 

 were constantly breaking. It was also very apt to get 

 off the rack-rail, and then it stood still. The driver was 

 one day asked how he got on ? " Get on ? " said he, 

 " we don't get on ; we only get off !" On such occa- 

 sions, horses had to be sent out to drag along the 

 waggons as before, and others to haul the engine back 

 to the workshops. It was constantly getting out of 

 order ; its plugs, pumps, or cranks, got wrong ; it was 

 under repair as often as at work ; at length it became so 

 cranky that the horses were usually sent out after it to 

 drag it along when it gave up ; and the workmen 

 generally declared it to be a " perfect plague." Mr. 

 Blackett did not obtain credit amongst his neighbours 

 for these experiments. Many laughed at his machines, 

 regarding them only in the light of crotchets, fre- 

 quently quoting the proverb of " a fool and his money." 

 Others regarded them as absurd innovations on the 



