The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

J 22 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xi.
knowing that he had risked his life in testing the efficiency of his
invention,—it was due to himself, firmly but modestly, to vindicate
his claims, and to repudiate the charge brought against him
of having stolen the idea of another. His friend, Mr. Brandling,
of Gosforth, then suggested to him that, the subject being now
fairly before the public, he should publish a statement of the facts
on which his claim was founded.
This was not at all in George Stephenson's line. He had
never appeared in print before ; and it seemed to him to be a
more formidable thing to write a letter for publication in " the
papers," than even to invent a safety lamp or to design a locomotive.
However, he called to his -aid his son Robert, set him
down before a sheet of foolscap, and when all was ready, told him
to " put down there just what I tell you." The writing of this
letter occupied more evenings than one; and when it was at
length finished after many corrections, and fairly copied out, the
father and son set out—the latter dressed in his Sunday's round
jacket—to lay the joint production before Mr. Brandling, at Gos-
forth House. Glancing over the letter, Mr. Brandling said,
" George, this will not do." " It is all true, sir,'' was the reply.
" That may be ; but it is badly written." Eobert blushed, for he
thought it was the penmanship that was called in question, and
he had written his very best. Mr. Brandling, requested his vis-
itors to sit down while he put the letter in a more polished form,
which he did, and it was shortly after published in the local
papers.
In that and subsequent communications, Mr. Stephenson
treated as an ungenerous insult the insinuation made against
him, that he was pretending to run a race of science with Sir
Humphry Davy. " With means," said he, " too limited to allow
me to indulge myself by purchasing many of those beautiful in-
struments that facilitate the labours of the experimental philos-
opher,—with not always one day's respite in the week from a
laborious employment—it is impossible that Mr. Hodgson (his
controversial opponent) could have imagined I had the folly and
presumption to enter the lists with a gentleman of talents and
fortune, whose time has long been and still is devoted to the pur-
suit, who has an opportunity of having his ideas brought imme-