258 STEPHENSON'S FAITH IN THE LOCOMOTIVE. CHAP. X11I. 



carry the system recommended by them into effect, they 

 proposed to divide the railroad between Liverpool and 

 Manchester into nineteen stages of about a mile and a 

 half each, with twenty-one engines fixed at the different 

 points to work the trains forward. 



Such was the result, so far, of George Stephenson's 

 labours. Two of the best practical engineers of the day 

 concurred in reporting substantially in favour of the 

 employment of fixed engines. Not a single professional 

 man of eminence could be found to coincide with the 

 engineer of the railway in his preference for locomotive 

 over fixed engine power. He had scarcely a supporter, 

 and the locomotive system seemed on the eve of being- 

 abandoned. Still he did not despair. With the pro- 

 fession against him, and public opinion against him 

 for the most frightful stories were abroad respecting the 

 dangers, the unsightliness, and the nuisance which the 

 locomotive would create Stephenson held to his pur- 

 pose. Even in this, apparently the darkest hour of the 

 locomotive, he did not hesitate to declare that locomotive 

 railroads would, before many years had passed, be " the 

 great highways of the world." 



He urged his views upon the directors in all ways, 

 and, as some of them thought, at all seasons. He pointed 

 out the greater convenience of locomotive power for the 

 purposes of a public highway, likening it to a series of 

 short unconnected chains, any one of which could be 



modate the traffic expected by them, 

 or a quantity approaching to it (*'. e., 

 3750 tons of goods and passengers 

 from Liverpool towards Manchester, 

 and 3950 tons from Manchester to- 

 wards Liverpool), Mr. Walker added, 

 " but if any circumstances should 

 induce the directors to proceed by de- 

 grees, and to proportion the power of 

 conveyance to the demand, then we 

 recommend locomotive-engines upon 

 the line generally ; and two fixed en- 

 gines upon Rainhill and Sutton planes, 



"if on any occasion the trade should 

 get beyond the supply of locomotives, 

 the horse might form a temporary sub- 

 stitute." As, however, it was the 

 directors' determination, with a view 

 to the success of their experiment, to 

 open the line complete lor working, 

 they felt that it would be unadvisable 

 to adopt this partial experiment ; and 

 it was still left for them to decide 

 whether they would adopt or not the 

 substantial recommendation of the re- 

 porting engineers in favour of the sta- 



to draw up the locomotive-engines as j tionary engine system for the complete 

 well as the goods and carriages." And j accommodation of the expected traffic. 



