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

82 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. vm.
But the difficulties contended with by these early inventors,
and the step-by-step progress which they made, will probably
be best illustrated by the experiments conducted by Mr.
Blackett, of Wylam, whose persevering eflforts in some measure
paved the way for the labours of George Stephenson, who,
shortly after him, took up the question of steam locomotion, and
brought it to a successful issue.
The "Wylam wagon-way is one of the oldest in the north of
England. Down to the year 1807, it was formed of wooden
spars or rails, laid down between the coUiery at Wylam—where
old Eobert Stephenson had worked—and the village of Lemington,
some four miles down the Tyne, where the coals were
loaded in keels or barges, and floated down the river past Newcastle,
thence to be shipped for the London market. Each
chaldron wagon was originally drawn by one horse, with a man
to each horse and wagon. The rate at which the journey was
performed was so slow that only two journeys were performed
by each man and horse in one day, and three on the day follow-
ing, the driver being allowed Id. for each journey. This primi-
tive wagon-way passed, as before stated, close in front of the
cottage in which George Stephenson was born ;
and one of the
earliest sights which met his infant eyes was this wooden tram-
road worked by horses.
Mr. Blackett was the first colliery owner in the North who
took an interest in the locomotive engine. He went so far as to
order one direct from Trevethick to work his wagon-way, about
the year 1811. The engine came down to Newcastle; but for
some reason or other, perhaps because of the imperfect con-
struction of the wagon-way as compared with the weight of the
engine, it was never put upon the road. Mr. Blackett even-
tually sold it to a Mr. Winfleld, of Gateshead, by whom it was
employed for
foundry.
many years in blowing the cupola of his iron-
Mr. Blackett had taken up the wooden road in 1808, and
laid down a- " plate-way " of cast-iron—a single line, with
sidings. The wagons continued to be drawn by horses ; but the
new iron road proved so much smoother than the former wooden
one, that one horse, instead of drawing one chaldron wagon was