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

146 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xm.
home the results of his weekly readings, and often a scientific
book, which father and son studied together. Many were the
discussions in which the two engaged on subjects more imme-
diately bearing upon the business of the colliery, such as the
steam-engine, pumping-engines, and, above all, the faivourite sub-
ject of the locomotive.
On one occasion, they determined to construct a sun-dial for
the front of the cottage at West Moor. Robert brought home
Ferguson's " Astronomy," and, under his father's directions, he
carefully drew out on paper a dial suited to the latitude of Killingworth
; then a suitable stone was procured, and, after much
hewing and polishing, the stone dial was at length completed,
and fixed immediately over the cottage door, greatly to the
wonderment of the villagers. It stands there yet ; and we trust
it will be long before it is removed. The date carved upon it is
" August 11th, MDCCCXVi "—a year or two before Robert left
school. George Stephenson was very proud of that sun-dial,
for it had cost him much thought and labour ; and, .in its way,
it was a success. Many years after, in 1838, when the British
Association met at Newcastle, he took over some of his scientific
friends to Killingworth, and pointed out his sun-dial with honest
exultation, as also the other parts of the cottage which had been
hisown handiwork. And afterwards, in 1843, when engaged
with Mr. John Bourne, engineer, in making the preliminary
survey of the Newcastle and Berwick Railway, he drove him
round by the cottage in order to point out the sun-dial, and
relate to him how and when he had made it.
On leaving school, in 1818, Robert Stephenson was put ap-
prentice to Mr. Nicholas "Wood, at Killingworth, to learn the
business of the colliery; and he served under him for three
years in the capacity of an under viewer in the West Moor Pit.
He thus became familiar with all departments of underground
work. The occupation was not unattended with peril, as the
following incident will show. Though the Geordy lamp was
now in general use in the Killingworth pits, and the workmen
were bound, under a penalty of half-a-crown, not to use a naked
candle, yet it was difficult to enforce the rule, and even the
milters themselves occasionally broke it. One day Mr. Nicholas