166 



ROBERT STEPHENSON, M.P. 



[1854. 



poles are only occasionally connected as in electric telegraphs. 

 Certain peculiarites respecting the ratio of intensity to quantity 

 when a series of cells is used, have been observed, which differ 

 from those remarked in other batteries. — Mr. Kukla, on direct- 

 ing his attention to the best means of making a small port- 

 able battery for physiological purposes lias found very small and 

 flat Cruikshank batteries, excited by weak phosphoric acid (one 

 of glacial phosphoric acid to twenty of water,) to be the best, 

 phosphoric acid being very deliquescent, and forming with the 

 zinc during the galvanic action, an acid phosphate of zinc. A 

 battery of this description does not decrease in power very 

 materially until it has been three hours in action. 



Robert Stepliensoiij 31. P. 



{Continued from page 100.) 



In company with Mr. G. P. Bidder, (now General Superin- 

 tendent of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada,) Mr. Robert 

 Stephenson visited Norway in 1846, for the purpose of examining 

 that country, with a view to the Construction of a Railway 

 between Christiana and the Myosin Lake, a distance of about 

 forty miles. To mark his appreciation of Mr. Stephenson's 

 services on this work, the King of Norway and Sweden con- 

 fered upon him the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Oliff. We 

 are not in a position to describe the nature of the works on the 

 forty miles of Railway, but either the Order of St Oliff must be 

 of cheap acquirement : — or if honorary rewards are there dis- 

 tributed in the same ratio to merit as they are in England and 

 America, the works on this Norwegian line must have been of 

 tremendous difficulty. 



Iu England, Mr. Stephenson took an active part in 

 the " War of the Guages," which in 1845-6 created so much 

 excitement in the Railway world, and determined the future 

 connections and distances of the Railways of Great Britain. In 

 this contest as to the relative merits of wide and narrow ways, 

 Mr. Stephenson took the lead in supporting the interests of the 

 narrow Guage. The Railway Guage of Canada has been set- 

 tled, apparently to the satisfaction of every one, unless, the pro- 

 prietors of the Great Western are an exception ; and this once 

 momentous question, has therefore, little interest here; it may 

 not be amiss however, considering the prominent position occupied 

 in the contest by the subject of this Notice, to examine briefly 

 the arguments by which he supported his views of that question, 

 and those of his principal opponent. 



As will readily be surmised, the Gauge of 4 feet 8^ inches, 

 the narrow Gauge of Europe and North America, was not 

 originally adopted from any inherent advantages offered by 

 that fractional measure, hut like many other empirical pro- 

 portions, owes its origin to some Cart-wheelwright in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Newcastle upon Tyne, where Tram Roads had 

 their birth, and at a time when half an inch more or less, pos- 

 sessed less value in the eyes of a Mechanic, than at the present 

 moment ; gradually Railways developed themselves in the same 

 section of country, and their width was ruled not by the con- 

 venience of this age, but by the rolling stock of the old Tram 

 Roads; hence, as Robert Stephenson says in his evidence, 

 speaking of the 4 feet 8j inches Gauge of the Manchester and 

 Liverpool Railway ; — " It was not proposed by my Father, it was 

 the original Guage of the Railways about Newcastle, on Tyne, 

 and therefore he adopted that Gunge." And so of the Grand 

 Junction Railway, and the Manchester and Leeds Railway, he 



says, " After the Liverpool and Manchester line had been es- 

 tablished, it was quite apparent that all the lines in that neigh- 

 bourhood must work into it, in order to get to the port of Liver- 

 pool, and it was considered imperative in fact, that the Guages 

 should be all the same." Then of the North Midland, of which 

 he himself was the Engineer and proposed the Guage, he says, 

 " There was a part of the line common to boih the Manchester 

 and Leeds, and North Midland: and the Manchester and Leeds, 

 having been fixed with a view of eventually working into the 

 Manchester and Liverpool, of course, it became equally a matter 

 of consequence, that the North Midland should be of the same 

 Guage." Again, the Derby Junction line, being " in point of 

 fact a continuation of the North Midland to Birmingham; it was 

 made of necessity of the same Guage as the North Midland :" 

 the London and Birmingham, with a view to connect with the 

 Grand Junction, was next fixed with the same Guage, and 

 " Uniformity was the principal reason for its adoption." For 

 similar reasons, the narrow Guage was adopted as the Railway 

 system was extended, and it daily became of more importance 

 to proprietors that it should not be changed. 



Thus, reasons originally of no value, gradually acquired force ; 

 until in 1846, they were almost irresistable, and though a period 

 did arrive, when it became evident to Mr. Stephenson as an Engine 

 Builder, that a few more inches of space between the wheels would 

 have been of great value ; yet he considers that " since that time, 

 the improved arrangements in the Mechanism of the Locomotive 

 Engine, have rendered that increase altogether unnecessary; at 

 present with the inside cylinders ; which is the class of engine re- 

 quiring the most room between the rails ; and the cranked axles 

 with four eccentrics, we have ample space and even space to 

 spare." These improvements he describes: — "in the arrange- 

 ment of the Machinery, which is the main question, having 

 reference to the width ; the working gear has been much sim- 

 plified, and the communications in the most recent engines, 

 between the eccentric and the slide valve, have been made direct 

 communications : whereas it was made formerly through the in- 

 tervention of a series of Level's which occupied the width." * * 

 '■ Then with reference to the increase of power, the size of the 

 Boiler is in point of fact, the only limit to the power, and we 

 have increased them in length on the narrow Guage, because 

 we have always made the boiler as wide as the narrow Guage 

 would admit of; but we have increased the power by increasing 

 the length, both in the fire-box and in the tubes ; we have ob- 

 tained economy I conceive by lengthening the tubes, and we 

 have obtained an increased power, by increasing the size of the 

 fire-box; in fact the power of the engine, supposing the power 

 to be absorbed, may be taken to be directly as the area of the 

 fire-grate, or the quantity of fuel contained in the fire-box." * * 

 I conceive the steadiness of the Engine to be very much in- 

 creased by increasing the length, for the unevenness of the road 

 is met by that, by increasing the length of the base, you increase 

 thereby the steadiness," * * " as you increase the length, that 

 is, the distance between the fore and hind axle, they are less 

 liable to get off the rails in consequence of moving more steadily 

 than the short engines on four wheels, where the base is the 

 same width, by about 7, 8, and 9 feet, originally they were about 

 1, and 1 feet 6 inches, and 8 feet. The large weight hanging 

 over the axle behind was exceedingly liable to make the engine 

 oscillate with great violence, whenever it came to an inequality. 

 I have known engines of that class actually lift the front wheels off 

 the rail, one accident might be referred to that, though there 

 may be a difference of opinion as to the actual cause of the ac- 

 cident, but in several cases I have attributed accidents to the 

 engine, in the case of a slight imperfection of the road, being 



