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

150 LIFE OF GEOEGE STEPHENSON. [chaf. xiv.
CHAPTER XIV.
KAIL-WAT PIOSTEEES. -WILLIAM JAMES, ED-WAKD PEASE,
AND THOMAS GRAY.
It is somewhat remarkable that, although George Stephen-
son's locomotive engines were in daily use for many years on
the Killingworth railway, they excited comparatively little in-
terest. Yet by them he had already solved the great problem
of the employment of steam power for the purposes of railway
traction. In his hands the locomotive was no longer an experiment
; for he had ascertained and proved, by the experience of
years, that it worked more steadily, drew heavier loads, and
was, on the whole, a more economical power to employ on rail-
ways than horses. Nevertheless, eight years passed before an-
other locomotive railway was constructed and opened for the
purposes of coal traffic.
It is difficult to account for this early indifference on the part
of the public to the merits of the greatest mechanical invention
of the age. Steam carriages were exciting great interest ; and
numerous and repeated experiments were made with them.
The improvements effected by M'Adam in the mode of con-
structing turnpike roads were the subject of frequent discussions
in the legislature ; and large sums of money were voted to him
by the government for his so-called " discovery." It appears
from a discussion which took place in the House of Commons
on the 13th of May, 1825, that votes of money had been granted
to Mr. M'Adam and his sons, at various times, amounting to not
less than 41,000^. ; and yet at Killingworth, without the aid of
a farthing of government money, had a system of road locomo-
tion been in existence since 1814, which was destined, before
many years, to revolutionize the internal communications of