Victory of the " Rocket " Locomotive 



this, apparently the darkest hour of the locomo- 

 tive, he did not hesitate to declare that locomo- 

 tive railroads would, before many years had 

 passed, be "the great highways of the world. " 



He urged his views upon the directors in all 

 ways, in season, and, as some of them thought, 

 out of season. He pointed out the greater con- 

 venience 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 

 removed and another substituted without inter- 

 ruption to the traffic; whereas the fixed-engine 

 system might be regarded in the light of a con- 

 tinuous chain extending between the- two termini, 

 the failure of any link of which would derange 

 the whole. But the fixed engine party was very 

 strong at the board, and, led by Mr. Cropper, 

 they urged the propriety of forthwith adopting 

 the report of Messrs. Walker and Rastrick. Mr. 

 Sandars and Mr. William Rathbone, on the other 

 hand, desired that a fair trial should be given to 

 the locomotive; and they with reason objected 

 to the expenditure of the large capital necessary 

 to construct the proposed engine-houses, with 

 their fixed engines, ropes, and machinery, until 

 they had tested the powers of the Ipcomotive 

 as recommended by their own engineer. George 

 Stephenson continued to urge upon them that 

 the locomotive was yet capable of great im- 

 provements, if proper inducements were held out 

 to inventors and machinists to make them; 

 and he pledged himself that, if time were given 

 165 



