40 

 Aug. 



ROBERT STEPHENSON, M.P. 



[185;} 



14, at 10.51 P.M. — A bright red meteor about times as 

 large as Jupiter, falling nearly perpendicularly in tho 

 West, and bursting when near the horizon, throwing out 

 numerous sparks of bright yellow ; it left a train which,, 

 just before bursting, assumed a wedge shape. 



Aug. 28, at V.21 P.M. — One falling diagonally towards horizon 

 in North from star Cor Caroli ; length of course 30 ° , and 

 time of flight 3 seconds ; it threw out sparks during its 

 course of a dull red, and on bursting, of a bright blue 

 colour; its apparent size was twice that of Jupiter, and 

 just as it burst, there was a smoke-like appearance of 

 light round it to a diameter of 7 degrees. J. B. C. 



Robert Stephenson, M. P. 



The subject of this notice was born at Wilmington, near New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne, and is the son of the late George Stephenson, 

 of Tapton House, near Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, who from 

 the humblest origin rose to an eminence to which the vast bene- 

 fits he has conferred on the world justly entitled him. • The early 

 life of the elder Stephenson affords a singular contrast to his subse- 

 quent history. Born in the village of Wy lam, on the banks of the 

 Tyne, near Newcastle ; the son of a colliery workman, he had early 

 to labour for a share of the household bread. From picking bats 

 and dross from coal heaps, at two-pence per day, when so young 

 that he used to hide when the overseer was passing, lest he should 



be thought too small to earn his wages, lie became a breaks- 

 man on a tram road, and then a stoker to an engine on the estate 

 of Lord Ravensworth, thankful for the advancement of his wages 

 from one to two shillings per day. Here some repairs required 

 by the engine, afforded him an opportunity of displaying that 

 native ingenuity of which he possessed so vast a fuud. At this 

 time the dearness of food and the lowness of wages pressed heavily 

 upon him, but his energy triumphed, and as his prospects im- 

 proved, he gave up the thoughts of emigration to the New World, 

 which he had seriously entertained, and married at the age of 

 twenty-two. On the 16th of* November, 1803, his only son 

 Robert was born. Meanwhile, his natural powers of invention 

 and the resources of his mind continued to develope themselves in 

 various ways, so much so, that he early attained a local 

 celebrity, and Lord Ravensworth and other of the Killing- 

 worth owners, had sufficient confidence in his ability to ad- 

 vance him sufficient means to build a locomotive, which was first 

 tried on a tramway in 1814. His subsequent success is well por- 

 trayed in the following extract from a speech delivered by him 

 on the occasion of opening the Newcastle and Darlington Railway 

 in June, 1844. 



" Lord Ravensworth & Co.," said he, " were the first parties who 

 would entrust me with money to make a locomotive engine. 

 That engine was made thirty-two years ago ; I said to my friends 

 that there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, provided 

 the works could be made to stand. In this respect, great per- 

 fection has been reached, and in consequence, a very high velocity 

 has been attained. In what has been done under my manage- 

 ment, the merit is only in part my own. I have been most ably 

 assisted and seconded by my son. In the early part of my career, 

 ami when he was a little boy, I saw how deficient I was in edu- 

 cation, and made up my mind that he should not labour under 

 the same defect, but that I would put him to a good school, and 

 give him a liberal training. I was, however, but a poor man, and 

 how do you think I managed ? I betook myself to mending my 

 neighbours' clocks and watches, at night, after my daily work 

 was done ; and thus I procured the means of educating my son. 

 He became my assistant and my companion. He got an appoint- 

 ment as Under- Viewer, and at night we worked together at our 

 engineering. I got leave to go to Killing-worth, to lay down a 

 railway at Hetton, and next to Darlington, and after that I went 

 to Liverpool to plan a line to Manchester. I there pledged myself 

 to attain a speed of ten miles per hour. I said I had no doubt 

 the locomotive might be made to go much faster, but we had bet- 

 ter be moderate at the beginning : the Directors said I was quite 

 right, for if when I went to Parliament, I talked of going at a 

 greater rate than ten miles an hour, I would put a cross on the 

 road. It was not an easy task for me to keep the engine down 

 to ten miles an hour — but it must be done, and I did my best. I 

 had to place myself in that most unpleasant of all positions — the 

 witness-box of a Parliamentary Committee. I could not find 

 words to satisfy either the Committee or myself: some one 

 enquired if I were a foreigner, and another hinted that I was 

 mad. I put up with every rebuff, and went on with my plans, 

 determined not to be put down. Assistance gradually increased, 

 improvements were made — and to-day, a train which started from 

 London in the morning, has brought me in the afternoon to my 

 native soil, and enabled me to take my place in this room and see 

 around me many faces which I have great pleasure in looking 

 upon." 



