ROBERT STEPHENSON'S NARRATIVE OF 

 HIS FATHER'S INVENTIONS, &c. 



" WHEN my father commenced his improvements upon the loco- 

 motive engine, two comparatively successful attempts had already 

 been made one by Mr. Blenkinsop, of Leeds, and the other by 

 3Ir. Blackett, of Wylam. 



" Mr. Blenkinsop's engine consisted of two cylinders working 

 upon cranks at right angles to each other, and communicating 

 their joint action to a cog-wheel which worked into a cog-rail. 

 The wheels which supported the engine were entirely inde- 

 pendent of the working parts of the engine, and therefore 

 merely supported its weight upon the rails, the progress being 

 made by means of the cog-wheel working into the cog-rail. 

 Mr. Blenkinsop was induced to resort to this contrivance from 

 the conviction (then prevalent in the minds of all engineers) 

 that the adhesion between a smooth wheel and a smooth rail 

 was not sufficient to resist the action of the engines that is, 

 the wheel would slip round upon the rail, and consequently no 

 progress would be made. These engines of Mr. Blenkinsop's 

 worked for some time with apparent success. 



" The other attempt by Mr. Blackett also consisted of two 

 engines combined ; but their action was communicated to the 

 wheels by which the entire engine was supported, and therefore 

 depended entirely upon the adhesion between the wheels and 

 the rails for making progress. This experiment of Mr. Blackett's 

 was made upon what is called a tramroad, the flange being 

 upon the rail, instead of (as it is at present in the ordinary 

 rails) upou the wheel. 



" When my father began his first engine he was convinced that 

 the adhesion between a smooth wheel and an edge-rail would be 

 as efficient as Mr. Blackett had found it to be between the 

 wheel and the tramroad. Although every one at that time 

 argued that the adhesion upon a tram-rail was by no means a. 



