APPENDIX. INVENTION OF THE STEAM-BLAST. 497 



INVENTION OF THE STEAM-BLAST. 



SINCE the publication of ' The Life of George Stephenson,' in 

 1857, several claims have been set up to the merit of having 

 invented the steam-blast. Trevithick's friends have claimed it 

 for him. Mr. O. D. Hedley, in, his book entitled ' Who Invented 

 the Locomotive?' claims it for Mr. William Hedley, viewer, 

 Wylam, as well as the invention of the locomotive itself. 1 Then 

 Mr. John Haekworth, in a series of letters published in the 

 ' Engineer,' claimed it for his relation, Mr. Timothy Hackworth ; 

 and following all these came, lastly, Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney, 

 who, in his pamphlet entitled ( An Account of the Invention 

 of the Steam Jet or Blast/ claimed the invention for himself, 

 ignoring the claims of all the others. 



In the pamphlet last mentioned Mr. Gurney says, " Mr. 

 Stephenson himself never claimed this invention ;" and he 

 further alleges, that in the ' Life of George Stephenson ' it was 

 " advanced for the first time." Mr. William Fairbairn, however, 

 in his ' Useful Information for Engineers,' second series (p. 241), 

 says : "I have every reason to believe that it belongs to 

 Stephenson, as I have heard him claim its introduction, and 

 have no reason to doubt his veracity, or that he was quite 

 equal to the task." And instead of the claim having been 

 made " for the first time " in the ' Life of George Stephenson,' 

 it will be found distinctly made in the seventh edition of the 

 i Encyclopedia Britannica,' published in 1836, while all the 

 parties interested were alive ; and, so far as the present writer 

 is aware, it was never contradicted. The author of the article 

 ' Railways ' in that publication was Mr. Lecount, one of the 

 engineers employed on the London and Birmingham Eailway ; 

 and his words were these : " Some writers have assigned to 



1 In his preface Mr. Hedley says : j in a position to prove that the credit 

 " The author disputes the truth of j of this great achievement is due, and 

 Mr. Smiles's statements, which as- due only, to the late Mr. William 



to Mr. Stephenson the invention 



Hedley''! 



of the locomotive engine ; and he is 



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