138 EARLY NEGLECT OF THE LOCOMOTIVE. CHAP. VIII. 



Although Stephenson' s locomotive engines were in 



daily use for many years on the Killingworth Railway, 



they excited comparatively little interest. They were 



no longer experimental, but had become an established 



tractive power. The experience of years had proved 



that they worked more steadily, drew heavier loads, 



and were, on the whole, considerably more economical 



,thaii horses. Nevertheless eight years passed before 



i another locomotive railway was constructed and opened 



for the purposes of coal or other traffic. 



It is difficult to account for this early indifference on 

 the part of the public to the merits of the greatest 

 mechanical invention of the age. Steam carriages were 

 ^exciting much interest, and numerous and repeated ex- 

 periments were made with them. The improvements 

 effected by M'Adam in the mode of constructing turn- 

 / pike-roads were the subject of frequent discussions in 

 I/the legislature, on the grants of public money being 

 V proposed, which were from time to time made to him. 

 Yet here at Killingworth, without the aid of a farthing 

 of government money, a system of road locomotion had 

 been in existence since 1814, which was destined, 

 before many years, to revolutionise the internal commu- 

 nications of England and of the world, but of which the 

 English public and the English government as yet 

 knew nothing. 



Mr. Stephenson had no means of bringing his im- 

 portant invention prominently under the notice of the 

 public. He himself knew well its importance, and he 

 already anticipated its eventual general adoption ; but 

 being an unlettered man, he could not give utterance to 

 the thoughts which brooded within him on the subject. 

 Killingworth Colliery lay far from London, the centre 

 of scientific life in England. It was visited by no savans 

 nor literary men, who might have succeeded in intro- 

 ducing to notice the wonderful machine of Stephenson. 

 Even the local chroniclers seem to have taken no notice 



