CHAP. XITT. THE " ROCKET " FINISHED. 207 



the centre of the foremost or driving pair of wheels, 

 with which the connection was directly made from the 

 piston-rod, to a pin on the outside of the wheel. The 

 engine, together with its load of water, weighed only 

 four tons and a quarter ; and it was supported on four 

 wlieels, not coupled. The tender was four-wheeled, 

 and similar in shape to a waggon, the foremost part 

 holding the fuel, and the hind part a water-cask. 



When the "Rocket" was finished, it was placed upon 

 the Killingworth railway for the purpose of experiment. 

 The new boiler arrangement was found perfectly success- 

 ful. The steam was raised rapidly and continuously, 

 and in a quantity which then appeared marvellous. The 

 same evening Robert dispatched a letter to his father 

 at Liverpool, informing him, to his great joy, that the 

 " Rocket " was " all right," and would be in complete 

 working trim by the day of trial. The engine was 

 shortly after sent by waggon to Carlisle, and thence 

 shipped for Liverpool. 



The time so much longed for by George Stephenson 

 had now arrived, when the merits of the passenger loco- 

 motive were to be put to a public test. He had fought 

 the battle for it until now almost single-handed. En- 

 grossed by his daily labours and anxieties, and harassed 

 by difficulties and discouragements which would have 

 crushed the spirit of a less resolute man, he had held 

 firmly to his purpose through good and through evil 

 report. The hostility which he experienced from some 

 of the directors opposed to the adoption of the locomo- 

 tive, was the circumstance that caused him the greatest 

 grief of all ; for where he had looked for encouragement, 

 he found only carping and opposition. But his pluck 

 never failed him ; and now the " Rocket " was upon the 

 ground, to prove, to use his own words, " whether he 

 was a man of his word or not." 



Great interest was felt at Liverpool, as well as 

 throughout the country, in the approaching compe- 



