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

CHAP. IX.] THE COXLODGE ENGINE. 89
that, to go upon legs." Probably he had heard of the invention
of Brunton, whose patent had by this time been published, and
proved the subject of much curious speculation in the colliery
districts. Certain it is that, shortly after the inspection of the
Coxlodge engine, Stephenson contemplated the construction of a
new locomotive, which was to surpass all which had preceded
it. He observed that those engines which had been constructed
up to this time, however ingenious in their arrangements, had
proved practical failures. Mr. Blackett's were both clumsy and
expensive. Chapman's had been removed from the Heaton
tramway in 1812, and was regarded as a total failure. And the
Blenkinsop engine at Coxlodge was found very unsteady and
costly in its working ; besides, it pulled the rails to pieces, the
entire strain being upon the rack rail on one side of the road.
The boiler, however, having shortly blown up, there was an end
of the engine ; and the colliery owners did not feel encouraged
to try any further experiment.
An efficient and economical working locomotive engine, there-
fore, still remained to be invented ;
and to accomplish this object
Mr. Stephenson now applied himself. Profiting by what his
predecessors had done, warned by their failures, and encouraged
by their partial successes, he commenced his important labours.
There was still wanting the man who should accomplish for the
locomotive what James Watt had done for the steam-engine, and
combine in a complete form the separate plans of others, em-
bodying with them such original inventions and adaptations of his
own as to entitle him to the merit of inventing the working loco-
motive, in the same manner as James Watt is regarded as the
inventor of the working condensing engine. This was the great
work upon which George Stephenson now entered, probably
without any adequate idea of the immense consequences of his
labours to society and civilization.
He proceeded to bring the subject of constructing a " Travelling
Engine," as he then denominated the locomotive, under the notice
of the lessees of the KiUingworth colliery, in the year 1813.
Lord Ravensworth, the principal partner, had already formed a
very favourable opinion of Stephenson, from the important im-
provements which he had effected in the colliery engines, both