CHAP. Vlir. KILLINGWORTH COAL-MINE. 129 



CHAPTEK VIII 



GEORGE STEPHENSON'S FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOCO- 

 MOTIVE THE HETTON KAILWAY EGBERT STEPHENSON 

 AS VIEWER'S APPRENTICE AND STUDENT. 



MR. STEPHENSON'S experiments on fire-damp, and his 

 labours in connexion with the invention of the safety- 

 lamp, occupied but a small portion of his time, which was 

 necessarily devoted for the most part to the ordinary 

 business of the colliery. From the day of his appoint- 

 ment as engine-wright, one of the subjects which parti- 

 cularly occupied his attention was the best practical 

 method of winning and raising the coal. His friend, 

 Nicholas Wood, has said of him that he was one of the 

 first to introduce steam machinery underground with 

 the latter object. Indeed, the Killingworth mines came 

 to be regarded as the models of the district ; and when 

 Mr. Eobert Bald, the celebrated Scotch mining engineer, 

 was requested by Dr. (afterwards Sir David) Brewster, 

 to prepare the article ' Mine ' for the ' Edinburgh Ency- 

 clopaedia,' he proceeded to Killingworth principally for 

 the purpose of examining Stephenson's underground 

 machinery. Mr. Bald has favoured us with an account 

 of his visit made with this object in 1818, and he states 

 that he was much struck with the novelty, as well as the 

 remarkable efficiency of Stephenson's arrangements, espe- 

 cially in regard to what is called the underdip working. 



" I found," he says, " that a mine had been commenced 



/ 



near the main pit bottom, and carried forward down 

 the dip or slope of the coal, the rate of dip being about 

 one in twelve ; and the coals were drawn from the dip 

 to the pit-bottom by the steam machinery in a veiy 

 rapid manner. The water which oozed from the upper 



VOL. III. K 



