li REPORT— 1863. 
way, consisting of cast-iron bars of an angular section : in this arrange- 
ment the upright flange of the bar acted as a guide to keep the wheel on the 
track. The next advance was an important one, and consisted in transferring 
the guiding flange from the rail to the wheel: this improvement enabled 
cast-iron edge rails to be used. Finally, in 1820, after the lapse of about 
200 years from the first employment of wooden bars, wrought-iron rails, rolled 
in long lengths, and of suitable section, were made in this neighbourhood, 
and eventually superseded all other forms of railway. Thus, the railway 
system, like all large inventions, has risen to its present importance by a 
series of steps; and so gradual has been its progress, that Europe finds itself 
committed to a gauge fortuitously determined by the distance between the 
wheels of the carts for which wooden rails were originally laid down. 
Last of all came the locomotive engine, that crowning achievement of me- 
chanical science, which enables us to convey a load of 200 tons at a cost of fuel 
scarcely exceeding that of the corn and hay which the original pack-horse 
consumed in conveying its load of 3 ewt. an equal distance. 
It was chiefly in this locality that the railway system was thus reared 
from earliest infancy to full maturity, and amongst the many names associated 
with its growth, that of George Stephenson stands preeminent. 
In thus glancing at the history of railways, we may observe how promptly 
the inventive faculty of man supplies the device which the circumstances of 
the moment require. No sooner is a road formed fit for wheeled carriages to 
pass along, than the cart takes the place of the pack-saddle: no sooner is 
the wooden railway provided than the wagon is substituted for the cart: and 
no sooner is an iron railway formed, capable of carrying heavy loads, than 
the locomotive engine is found ready to commence its career. As in the 
vegetable kingdom fit conditions of soil and climate quickly cause the appear- 
ance of suitable plants, so in the intellectual world fitness of time and circum- 
stance promptly calls forth appropriate devices. The seeds of invention exist, 
as it were, in the air, ready to germinate whenever suitable conditions arise, 
and no legislative interference is needed to ensure their growth in proper 
season. 
The coal-fields of this district, so intimately connected with the railway 
system, both in its origin and maintenance, will doubtless receive much at- 
tention from the Association at their present meeting. 
To persons who contend that all geological phenomena may be attributed 
to causes identical in nature and degree with those now in operation, the 
formation of coal must present peculiar difficulty. The rankness of vegeta- 
tion which must have existed in the carboniferous era, and the uniformity of 
climate which appears to have prevailed almost from the Poles to the Equator, 
would seem to imply a higher temperature of the earth’s crust, and an atmo~ 
sphere more laden with humidity and carbonic acid than exist in our 
day. But whatever may haye been the geological conditions affecting the 
origin of coal, we may regard the deposits of that mineral as vast magazines 
of power stored up at periods immeasurably distant for our use. 
The principle of conservation of force and the relationship now established 
between heat and motion, enable us to trace back the effects which we now 
derive from coal to equivalent agencies exercised at the periods of its forma- 
tion. The philosophical mind of George Stephenson, unaided by theoretical 
knowledge, rightly saw that coal was the embodiment of power originally 
derived from the sun. That small pencil of solar radiation which is arrested 
by our planet, and which constitutes less than the 2000-millionth part of the 
total energy sent forth from the sun, must be regarded as the power which 
