Ixi 



published anonymously), can hardly be regarded as expressing his de- 

 liberate opinion, and should rather be considered in the light of a jeu 

 d'esprit, or, possibly, as has been suggested, as a lighter composition, 

 on the principle oi audi alteram partem, undertaken to divert his 

 thoughts in a time of deep distress. Though it may have had the 

 effect I have heard attributed to it, of " preventing a doctrine from 

 crystallizing into a dogma," the argument it advances will hardly be 

 allowed decisive preponderance against the general impression which 

 the great facts of astronomy tend so naturally to produce. — J. F. W. H. 



Nicholas "Wood was born at Sourmh'es, a village near Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne, April 24th, 1795. While at school, in the same neighbourhood, he 

 attracted the notice of Sir Thomas Liddell, and through his influence was 

 placed at Killingworth Colliery, to learn the practice of a coal-viewer. 

 Here he made acquaintance with George Stephenson, who was beginning 

 to develope that skill and ingenuity which afterwards made him famous. 

 The two young men became intimate, and both worked energetically in 

 carrying out the plans of the inventor of the future locomotive. Wood 

 made the drawing of the first safety-lamp, and was fearless enough to 

 accompany Stephenson in a trial of the lamp first constructed therefrom, 

 at a "blower" in the mine. Taking the time and circumstances into 

 account, this experiment must be recognized as a manifestation of a high 

 degree of moral as well as physical courage on the part of the two opera- 

 tors. Some of Wood's earliest scientific paperSj pubhshed in local journals 

 about the year 1815, were on the use of the lamp in mines and on points 

 in the controversy which its use had originated. In the fact that Stephen- 

 son afterwards placed his son Robert under Wood as a pupil, we have a 

 further proof of the confidence existing between them. 



In 1825, the year of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway, 

 Mr. Wood pubhshed a ' Treatise on Railroads,' which, embodying what 

 was then known of the principles and practice of railway construction, has 

 passed through three editions, and is still regarded as a standard work, 

 notwithstanding that in the first edition the author treats as " ridiculous 

 expectations" the views of those who were sanguine enough to believe that 

 locomotives could be made to run twenty miles an hour. 



In 1827 Mr. Wood gave evidence before the Parliamentary Committee 

 on the proposed railway from Liverpool to Manchester. His opinion was 

 highly valued, especially on subjects connected with coal-mining, so that in 

 parliamentary inquiries relating to such subjects he was usually summoned 

 as a witness. With a growing reputation as geologist and mining-engineer, 

 he communicated, in 1830 and 1831, to the Natural History Society of 

 Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, two papers, which were 

 published in their ' Transactions ' as valuable contributions to the then 

 existing knowledge of the geology and palasontology of the district. The 

 subject was extended and further elucidated in two papers read at the 



