142 ROBERT STEPHENSON VIEWER'S APPRENTICE. CHAP. VIII. 



present case, this course was adopted by him most suc- 

 cessfully. On the original Hetton line, there were five 

 self-acting inclines, the full waggons drawing the empty 

 ones up, and two inclines worked by fixed reciprocating 

 engines of sixty-horse power each. The locomotive 

 travelling engine, or " the iron horse " as the people of 

 the neighbourhood then styled it, did the rest. On the 

 day of the opening of the Hetton Railway, the 18th of 

 November, 1822, crowds of spectators assembled from 

 all parts to witness the first operations of this ingenious 

 and powerful machinery, which was entirely successful. 

 On that day five of Stephenson's locomotives were at 

 work upon the railway, under the direction of his brother 

 Robert ; and the first shipment of coal was then made 

 by the Hetton Company, at their new staiths on the 

 Wear. The speed at which the locomotives travelled 

 was about four miles an hour, and each engine dragged 

 after it a train of seventeen waggons, weighing about 

 sixty-four tons. 



While thus advancing step by step, attending to the 

 business of the Killing worth Colliery, and laying out 

 railways in the neighbourhood, he was carefully watch- 

 ing over the education of his son. We have already 

 seen that Robert was sent to school at Newcastle, and 

 that he left it in the summer of 1819. He was then 

 put apprentice to Mr. Nicholas Wood, the head viewer at 

 Killingworth, to learn the business of the colliery ; and 

 he served in that capacity for about three years, during 

 which time he became familiar with most departments 

 of underground work. The occupation was not unat- 

 tended with peril, as the following incident will show. 

 Though the use of the Geordy lamp had become ge- 

 neral in the Killingworth pits, and the workmen were 

 bound, under a penalty of half-a-crown, not to use a 

 naked candle, yet it was difficult to enforce the rule, 

 and even the masters themselves occasionally broke it. 

 One day, Nicholas Wood the head viewer, Moodie the 



