OF THE TYNE AND NEIGHBOURING DISTRICTS. 149 



appear on the page of history. In a paper written expressly to 

 record contributions to the engineering talent of the country, 

 it would be simply unjust to forget in the now almost world- 

 wide extension of locomotive manufacture, the Stephenson " Rocket" 

 of 1829, or the Hawthorn " Comet " of 1835. The latter engine which 

 was used at the opening of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway can still 

 be seen in daily work, at the Saw Mills of the Forth Bank Engine 

 Works. During the past thirty-four years, upwards of 2,400 locomotives 

 have been constructed by R. Stephenson and Co., R. and W. Hawthorn, 

 Gilkes, Wilson and Co., and Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co. In the 

 above number are included all the known varieties of the locomotive, 

 from the comparatively small tank engine, to those magnificent speci- 

 mens constructed by Messrs. R. Stephenson and Co., for the late Viceroy 

 of Egypt. 



Marine Engineering. — It would display an unwarrantable in- 

 difference to the birth and progress of great improvements, if reference 

 was not made to the first practical application of steam power on the 

 Tyne, for towing purposes, more especially as the date of such applica- 

 tion was almost coeval with Henry Bell's "Comet" on the Clyde in 

 1812. It is also of interest in an engineering point of view, to place on 

 record the names of those local firms who were the earliest in the field 

 in making and fitting the first steam engines for Tyne tugs. 



In 1814, the first steam tug, the " Perseverance," was fitted and 

 started on the Tyne, there being at that time only seventeen steam boats 

 in existence. The Table on the following page gives the particulars 

 of the introduction of steam for towing purposes on the Tyne 

 from 1814 to June 1822. From this it will be seen that the now 

 existing firms of R. and W. Hawthorn firstly, and Hawks and Co., 

 secondly, made and fitted steam engines for tugs as early as the years 

 1820 and 1821. This reference to the beginning of steam navigation 

 and manufacture of Marine Engines on the Tyne, is the more important 

 from the well-known fact, that almost all the ports of the United 

 Kingdom, as well as those of foreign countries, have, to the present day, 

 come to the Tyne for their steam tugs. From this fact it may be fairly 

 assumed that the Tyne Engineers have from the first supplied a most 

 important want, in a manner that has defied competition — and even now 

 it is difficult to suggest any important improvement in the class of 

 engine that has been working in these Tugs during the past forty 

 years. 



Some additional force is given to the last statement, by the fact that 

 at the present time there are upwards of 250 of what may be aptly 

 termed " native steam tugs," employed on the Tyne, besides nearly 100 

 more in the ports of Sunderland, Stockton, Middlesbro', and Hartlepool, 

 and the engines in all these are almost identical in type with those fitted 

 in 1820. 



Among the evident causes for the rapid extension of marine engine 



