CHAP. VI. THE COXLODGE ENGINE. 95 



Foster informed us that, after one of these visits, 

 Stephenson declared to him his conviction that a much 

 more effective engine might be made, that should work 

 more steadily and draw the load more effectively. 



He had also the advantage, about the same time, of 

 seeing one of Blenkinsop's Leeds engines, which was 

 placed on the tramway leading from the collieries of 

 Kenton and Coxlodge, on the 2nd of September, 1813. 

 This locomotive drew sixteen chaldron waggons con- 

 taining an aggregate weight of seventy tons, at the rate 

 of about three miles an hour. George Stephenson and 

 several of the Killingworth men were amongst the 

 crowd of spectators that day ; and after examining the 

 engine and observing its performances, he observed to 

 his companions, that " he thought he could make a 

 better engine than that, to go upon legs." Probably he 

 had heard of the invention of Brunton, whose patent 

 had by this time been published, and proved the subject 

 of much curious speculation in the colliery districts. 

 Certain it is, that, shortly after the inspection of the 

 Coxlodge engine, he contemplated the construction of a 

 new locomotive, which was to surpass all that had pre- 

 ceded it. He observed that those engines which had 

 been constructed up to this time, however ingenious in 

 their arrangements, had proved practical failures. Mr. 

 Blackett's was as yet both clumsy and expensive. 

 Chapman's had been removed from the Heaton tramway 

 in 1812, and was regarded as a total failure. And the 

 Blenkinsop engine at Coxlodge was found very unsteady 

 and costly in its working ; besides, it pulled the rails to 

 pieces, the entire strain being upon the rack-rail on one 

 side of the road. The boiler, however, having shortly 

 blown up, there was an end of that engine ; and the 

 colliery owners did not feel encouraged to try any 

 further experiment. 



An efficient and economical working locomotive | 

 engine, therefore, still remained to be invented ; and to I 



