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

CHAP. XVI.] ME. PEASE VISITS KILLINGWORTH. ^79
When Mr. Pease arrived at Killingworth village, he inquired
for George Stephenson, and was told that he must go over to
the West Moor, and seek for a cottage by the roadside, with a
dial over the door—that was where George Stephenson lived.
They soon found the house with the dial ; and on knocking, the
door was opened by Mrs. Stephenson—his second wife, (Eliza-
beth Hindmarsh,) the daughter of a farmer at Black Callerton,
whom he had married in 1819. Her husband, she said, was not
in the house at present, but she would send for him to the col-
liery. And in a short time Stephenson appeared before them in
his working dress, just out of the pit.
He very soon had his locomotive brought up to the crossing
close by the end of the cottage,—made the gentlemen mount it,
and showed them its paces. Harnessing it to a train of loaded
wagons, he ran it along the railroad, and so thoroughly satisfied
his visitors of its powers and capabiUties, that from that day
Edward Pease was a declared supporter of the locomotive en-
gine. In preparing, in 1823, the Amended Stockton and Darlington
Act, at Mr. Stephenson's urgent request, Mr. Pease had
a clause inserted, taking power to work the railway by means
of locomotive engines, and to employ them for the haulage of
passengers as well as of merchandise ; * and Mr. Pease gave a
further and still stronger proof of his conviction as to the prac-
tical value of the locomotive, by entering into a partnership with
Mr. Stephenson, in the following year, for the establishment of
a locomotive foundry and manufactory in the town of Newcastle
—the northern centre of the English railroad system.
The second Stockton and Darlington Act was obtained in the
session of 1823, not, however, without opposition, the Duke of
Cleveland and the road trustees still appearing as the determined
opponents of the bill. Nevertheless, the measure passed into
law, and the works were now vigourously proceeded with, Mr.
Stephenson having been appointed the company's engineer at a
salary of 300?. per annum.
* The first clause in any railway act, empowering the employment of loco-
motive engines for the working of passenger traffic.