274 



END OF THE " ROCKET.' 



CHAP. XIII. 



| system. 1 As has been well observed, this wonderful 



ability to increase and multiply its powers of performance 



with the emergency that demands them, has made this 



giant engine the noblest creation of human wit, the very 



I lion among machines. The success of the Kainhill experi- 



! ment as judged by the public, may be inferred from the 



I fact that the shares of the Company immediately rose 



| ten per cent., and nothing further was heard of the 



t proposed twenty-one fixed engines, engine-houses, ropes, 



&c. All this cumbersome apparatus was thenceforward 



effectually disposed of. 



Very different now was the tone of those directors 

 who had distinguished themselves by the persistency 

 of their opposition to Mr. Stephenson's plans. Cool- 

 ness gave w T ay to eulogy, and hostility to unbounded 

 offers of friendship ; after the manner of many men 

 who run to the help of the strong. Deeply though 

 the engineer had felt aggrieved by the conduct pur- 



1 The immense consequences in- 

 volved in the success of the " Rocket," 

 and the important influence the above 

 contest, in which it came off the victor, 

 exercised upon the future development 

 of the railway system, might have led 

 one to suppose that the directors of 

 the Liverpool and Manchester Rail- 

 way would have regarded the engine 

 with pride, and cherished it with 

 care, as warriors prize a trusty weapon 

 which has borne them victoriously 

 through some grand historical battle. 

 The French preserve with the greatest 

 care the locomotive constructed by 

 Cugnot, which is to this day to be 

 seen in the Conservatoire des Arts et 

 Metiers at Paris. But the " Rocket " 

 was an engine of much greater histori- 

 cal interest. And what became of the 

 " Rocket " ? When heavier and more 

 powerful engines were brought upon 

 the road, the old " Rocket," becoming 

 regarded as a thing of no value, was 

 sold in 1837. It was purchased by 

 Mr. Thompson, of Kirkhouse, the 

 lessee of the Earl of Carlisle's coal 

 and lime works near Carlisle. He 



worked the engine on the Midge- 

 holme Railway for five or six years, 

 during which it hauled coals from the 

 pits to the town. There was wonder- 

 ful vitality in the old engine, as the 

 following circumstance proves. W hen 

 the great contest for the representation 

 of East Cumberland took place, and 

 Sir James Graham was superseded by 

 Major Aglionby, the " Rocket " was 

 employed to convey the Alston express 

 with the state of the poll from Midge- 

 holme to Kirkhouse. On that occa- 

 sion the engine was driven by Mr. 

 Mark Thompson, and it ran the dis- 

 tance of upwards of four miles in four 

 and a-half minutes, thus reaching a 

 speed of nearly sixty miles an hour 

 proving its still admirable qualities as 

 an engine. But again it was super- 

 seded by heavier engines ; for it only 

 weighed about four tons, whereas the 

 new engines were at least three times 

 that weight. The " Rocket " was con- 

 sequently laid up in ordinary in the 

 yard at Kirkhouse, where, we believe, 

 it still remains. 



