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

254 LIFE OF GEOEGE STEPHENSON. Lchap. xxi.
5. The engine, with water, must not weigh more than six
tons ; but an engine of less weight would be preferred on its
drawing a proportionate load behind it ; if of only four and a
half tons, then it might be put on only four wheels. The Company
to be at liberty to test the boiler, &e., by a pressure of one
hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch.
6. A mercurial gauge must be affixed to the machine, show-
ing the steam pressure above forty-five pounds per square inch.
7. The engine must be delivered, complete and ready for trial,
at the Liverpool end of the railway, not later than the 1st of
October, 1829.
8. The price of the engine must not exceed 5501.
It will be observed that the requirements of the directors as
to speed were not excessive. All that they asked for was, that
a speed of ten miles an hour should be maintained. Perhaps
they had in mind the severe animadversions of the Quarterly
Reviewer on the absurdity of travelling at a greater velocity,
and also the remarks published by Mr. Nicholas Wood, whom
they selected to be one of the judges of the competition, in con-
junction with Mr. Eastrick of Stourbridge, and Mr. Kennedy of
Manchester.*
It was now generally felt that the fate of railways in a great
measure depended upon the issue of this appeal to the mechan-
ical genius of England. When the advertisement of the prize
for the best locomotive was published, scientific men began more
particularly to direct their attention to the new power which was
thus struggling into existence. In the meant ime public opinion
on the subject of railway working remained suspended, and the
progress of the undertaking was watched with the most intense
interest.
* Many persons of influence declared the conditions publislied by the directors
of the railway chimerical in the extreme. . One gentleman of some eminence
in Liverpool, Mr. P.Ewart, who afterwards filled the office of government
inspector of Post-Office steam-packets, declared that only a parcel of charla-
tans would ever have issued such a set of conditions ; that it had been proved
to be impossible to mal^e a locomotive engine go at ten miles an hour ; but if it
ever was done, he would eat a stewed engine-wheel to his breal(fast!