Victory of the " Rocket" Locomotive 



" Rocket " was again ready for the contest. The 

 engine was taken to the extremity of the stage, 

 the fire-box was filled with coke, the fire lighted, 

 and the steam raised until it lifted the safety-valve 

 loaded to a pressure of fifty pounds to the square 

 inch. This proceeding occupied fifty-seven 

 minutes. The engine then started on its journey, 

 dragging after it about thirteen tons' weight in 

 waggons, and made the first ten trips backward 

 and forward along two miles of road, running the 

 thirty-five miles, including stoppages, in an hour, 

 and forty-eight minutes. The second ten trips 

 were in like manner performed in two hours and 

 three minutes. The maximum velocity attained 

 during the trial trip was twenty-nine miles an 

 hour, or about three times the speed that one of 

 the judges of the competition had declared to be 

 the limit of possibility. The average speed at 

 which the whole of the journeys was performed 

 was fifteen miles an hour, or five miles beyond the 

 rate specified in the conditions published by the 

 company. The entire performance excited the 

 greatest astonishment among the assembled 

 spectators; the directors felt confident that their 

 enterprise was now on the eve of success; and 

 George Stephenson rejoiced to think that, in 

 spite of all false prophets and fickle counsellors, 

 the locomotive system was now safe. When the 

 "Rocket," having performed all the conditions 

 of the contest, arrived at the "grand stand" at 

 the close of its day's successful run, Mr. Cropper 

 one of the directors favourable to the fixed 

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