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

126 LIFE OF GEOEGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xi.
P. E. S., William Thomas Brande, Charles Hatchett, W. H.
Wollaston, and Thomas Young.
Mr. Stephenson's friends then, to make assurance doubly sure,
and with a view to set the question at rest, determined to take
evidence in detail as to the date of discovery by George Ste-
phenson of the fact in question, and its practical application by
him in the formation and actual trial of his safety lamp. The
witnesses examined were, George Stephenson himself, Mr. Nich-
olas Wood, and John Moodie, who had been present at the first
trial of the lamp ; the several tinmen who made the lamps ; the
secretary and other members of the Literary and Philosophical
Society of Newcastle, who were present at the exhibition of the
third lamp ; and some of the workmen at Killingworth Colliery,
who had been witnesses of Mr. Stephenson's experiments on
fire-damp, made with the lamps at various periods, considerably
before Sir Humphry Davy's investigations were heard of. This
evidence was quite conclusive to the gentlemen who investigated
the subject, and they published it in 1817, together with their Re-
port, in which they solemnly declared that, " after a careful in-
quiry into the merits of the case, conducted, as they trust, in a
spirit of fairness and moderation, they can perceive no satisfactory
reason for changing their opinion." *
After setting forth a comparative table of facts and dates, in
proof of their assertion "that Mr. Stephenson was the first to
construct a lamp upon the principle in question,'' the Eeport pro-
ceeds :
—
" When the friends of Mr. Stephenson remember the humble
and laborious station of life which he has occupied ; when they
consider the scanty means and opportunities which he has had
for pursuing the researches of science ; and look to the improve-
ments and discoveries which, notwithstanding so many disad-
vantages, he has been enabled to make by the judicious and
unremitting exercise of the energy and acuteness of his natural
understanding, they cannot persuade themselves that they have
* Keport upon the Claims of Mr. George Stephenson relative to the Inven-
tion of. his Safety Lamp, by the Committee appointed at a meeting holden in
Newcastle on the 1st of November, 1817; with an Appendix, containing tiie
Evidence. Newcastle : Hodgson, 1817
.