CHAP. VI. STEPHENSON'S FIRST LOCOMOTIVE. 97 



to make a locomotive engine. I said to my friends, 

 there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, if 

 the works could be made to stand." 



Our engine-wright had, however, many obstacles to 

 encounter before he could get fairly to work with the 

 erection of his locomotive. His chief difficulty was inl 

 finding workmen sufficiently skilled in mechanics, and I 

 in the use of tools, to follow his instructions and embody ) 

 his designs in a practical shape. The tools then in usei 

 about the collieries were rude and clumsy ; and there 

 were no such facilities as now exist for turning out 

 machinery of an entirely new character. Stephenson 

 was under the necessity of working with such men and 

 tools as were at his command ; and he had in a great 

 measure to train and instruct the workmen himself. 

 The engine was built in the workshops at the West 

 Moor, the leading mechanic being John Thirlwall, the 

 colliery blacksmith, an excellent workman in his way, 

 though quite new to the work now entrusted to him. 



In this first locomotive constructed at Killing worth, i 

 Stephenson to some extent followed the plan of Blenkin-' 

 sop's engine. The wr ought-iron boiler was cylindrical, 

 eight feet in length and thirty-four inches in diameter, 

 with an internal flue tube twenty inches wide passing 

 through it. The engine had two vertical cylinders of 

 eight inches diameter, and two feet stroke, let into the 

 boiler, working the propelling gear with cross heads 

 and connecting rods. The power of the two cylinders 

 was combined by means of 

 spurwheels, which commu- 

 nicated the motive power to 

 the wheels supporting the 

 engine on the rail, instead of, 



T*7 1 , . THE SPUR-GEAR. 



as in Blenkmsop s engine, 



to cogwheels which acted on the cogged rail independent* 

 of the four supporting wheels. The engine thus worked ; 

 upon what is termed the second motion. The chimney f 



VOL. Ill, H 



