Victory of the " Rocket " Locomotive 



fire-box at one end, and to the chimney at the 

 other. The fire-box, or furnace, two feet wide 

 and three feet high, was attached immediately 

 behind the boiler, and was also surrounded with 

 water. The cylinders of the engine were placed 

 on each side of the boiler, in an oblique position, 

 one end being nearly level with the top of the 

 boiler at its after end, and the other pointing 

 toward 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 wheels, 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 successful. The steam was 

 raised rapidly and continuously, and in a quan- 

 tity which then appeared marvellous. The same 

 evening Robert despatched 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 Steph- 

 enson had now arrived, when the merits of the 

 177 



