'Puffing Billy' And The Prize 'Rocket' Part 3

The first thing to be done was to make an accurate survey of the proposed route. Taking Robert with him, who had just come from college, and entered as heartily into the enterprise as his father, with two other tried men, they began work in good earnest. From daylight till night the surveyors were on duty. One of the men going to Darlington to sleep one night, four miles off.

"Now, you must not _start_ from Darlington at daybreak," said Stephenson, "but be here, ready to begin work, at daybreak." He and Robert used to make their home at the farm-houses along the way, where his good-humour and friendliness made him a great favourite. The children loved him dearly; the dogs wagged their approving tails at his approach; the birds had a delighted listener to their morning songs; and every dumb creature had a kind glance from his friendly eye.

But George was not satisfied until Mr. Pease came to Killingworth to see "Puffing Billy," and become convinced of its economical habits by an examination of the colliery accounts. He promised, therefore, to follow George thither, bringing with him a large capitalist; and over they went in the summer of 1822.

Inquiring for George Stephenson, they were directed to the cottage with a stone dial over the door. George drove his locomotive up, hoisted in the gentlemen, harnessed on a heavy load, and away they went. George no doubt showed "Billy" off to the best advantage.

"Billy" performed admirably, and the two wondering pa.s.sengers went home enthusiastic believers in locomotive power.

A good many things had to be settled by the Darlington project. One was the width of the gauge, that is, the distance between the rails.

How wide apart should they be? Stephenson said the s.p.a.ce between the cart and waggon wheels of a common road was a good criterion. The tramroads had been laid down by this gauge--four feet and eight inches--and he thought it about right for the railway; so this gauge was adopted.

One thing which hampered Stephenson not a little was a want of the right sort of workmen--quick-minded, skilful mechanics, who could put his ideas into the right shape. The labour of originating so much we can never know. He had nothing to copy from, and n.o.body's experience to go by. Happily he proved equal to his task. We can readily imagine his anxiety as the work progressed. Hope and fear must have in turn raised and depressed him. Not that he had any doubts in regard to the final issue of the grand experiment of railroads--they _must_ go.

Dining one day at a small roadside house with Robert and John Dixon, after walking over the route, then nearly completed, "Lads," he said, "I think you will live to see the day when railroads will be the great highway for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a working-man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot. There are big difficulties in the way, I know; but it will surely come to pa.s.s. I can hardly hope to live to see that day, much as I should like to; for I know how slow all human progress is, and how hard it is to make men believe in the locomotive, even after our ten years' success in Killingworth."

While the father roughed it through, Robert's health failed. His close application to business made sad inroads upon a frame naturally more delicate than his father's, and an offer to go out and superintend some mining operations in South America was thankfully accepted, in the hope that a sea voyage and less exciting labours might restore him.

Robert shortly sailed; and his father pushed on alone, with that brave spirit which carried him through many a darker hour.

On the 27th of September the Stockton and Darlington railway was finished and opened. A great many came to see the new mode of travelling, which had proved a fruitful subject of talk, far and near, for many months: some to rejoice; some to see the bubble burst; some with wonder, not knowing what to think; some with determined hostility. The opposition was strong--old England against young England--the counter currents of old and new ideas.

The road ran from Stockton to Darlington, a distance of twelve miles, and thence to the Etherly collieries; in all thirty-two miles.

Four steam-engines were employed, and two stationary engines, to hoist the trains over two hills on the route. The locomotives were of six-horse power, and went at the rate of five or six miles an hour.

Slow as this was, it was regarded with wonder. A "travelling engine"

seemed almost a miracle. One day a race came off between a locomotive and a coach running on the common highway, and it was regarded as a great triumph that the former reached Stockton first, leaving the coach one hundred yards behind.

The road was built for a freight road, to convey lime, coal, and bricks from the mines and kilns in the interior to the seaboard for s.h.i.+pment abroad. Carrying pa.s.sengers was not thought of. Enterprise, however, in this direction took a new start. A company was soon formed to run two coaches on the rails between Darlington and Stockton by horse-power. Each coach accommodated six inside pa.s.sengers, and from fifteen to twenty outside; was drawn by one horse, and went at the rate of nine miles an hour.

"We seated ourselves," said a traveller of those days, "on the top of the Defence coach, and started from Stockton, highly interested with the novelty of the scene, and of this new and extraordinary conveyance. Nothing could be more surprising than the rapidity and smoothness of the motion." Yet the coach was without springs, and jerked and jolted over the joints of the rails with a noise like the clinking of a millhopper.

"Such is the first great attempt to establish the use of railways,"

writes a delighted editor, "for the general purposes of travelling; and such is its success that the traffic is already great; and, considering that there was formerly no coach at all on either of the roads along which the railroad runs, quite wonderful. A trade and intercourse have arisen out of nothing, and n.o.body knows how."

Such was their small and imperfect beginning, we should say, now that railroads, improved and perfected, have fulfilled Stephenson's prediction, and have become the great highways of the civilized world.

These wonders stirred the enterprise of old Ma.s.sachusetts. Bunker-hill monument was then being built, and built of Quincy granite. To make an easier and cheaper transit to the water, the company built a railway from the quarries to the wharf, a distance of three miles, whence the blocks were carried in boats across the harbour to Charlestown. The rails were made of oak and pine, and the cars ran by horses. This was the first railroad in the United States.

The example of the monument building committee, and the success of the Stockton road, put the Boston people on a new track to get into the country. By the old modes of travel, the Connecticut river valley was very far off. Intercourse with the interior towns cost time and money.

Going to Boston was a long and expensive journey. Of course there were not many journeys made, and no more trading than was absolutely necessary. Cheap and easy travelling was the need: Boston wanted what the country produced, and the country wanted what Boston merchants had to sell.

A ca.n.a.l was talked of, and routes surveyed. But n.o.body was sure it was the best thing, when English newspapers broached railroads. Ah, there it was; the best thing! Two advantages it had over a ca.n.a.l. A ca.n.a.l must only be a skating-ground for boys some months in the year, while a railway could be run winter and summer. It was also quicker and pleasanter for pa.s.sengers. So, as early as 1827, the subject was stirring the minds of business men, and brought before the notice of the legislature. It was a horse-railway they were thinking of, and nothing more. It, however, came to nothing.

The first pa.s.senger railway in America, the Baltimore and Ohio, was opened for fifteen miles, in 1830, with horse-power; and the Mohawk and Hudson, from Albany to Schenectady, sixteen miles, was run with horses in 1831. A few months later the steam-horse, with its iron sinews, drove them off, never to yield the right of way again.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TWO CITIES TRYING AGAIN--BUGBEARS.

One, two, three years pa.s.sed by, and the Liverpool and Manchester project started up again. It was not dead, it had only slept; and the three years had almost worn out the patience of both merchants and manufacturers. Trade between the two cities must have speedier and easier transit. Trade is one of the great progressive elements in the world. It goes ahead. It will have the right of way. It will have the right way--the best, safest, cheapest way--of doing its business. Yet it is not selfish: its object is the comfort and well-being of men. To do this it breaks down many a wall which selfishness has built up. It cuts through prejudices. It rides over a thousand "can't bes" of timid and learned men. For learned men are not always practical. They sometimes say things cannot be done when it only needs a little stout trying to overcome difficulties and do them.

A learned man once said crossing the Atlantic by steam was impossible.

"For the good of the race we must have something truer than wind and tougher than sails," said trade. And it was not many years before s.h.i.+ps steamed into every port.

"Carriages travelling at twelve, sixteen, eighteen, twenty miles an hour! Such gross exaggerations of the power of a locomotive we scout--it can never be!" cries a sober Quarterly.

"You may scout it as much as you please," rejoins trade; "but just as soon as people need cheaper, pleasanter, swifter modes of travel, it will be _done_;" and now the railroad threads the land in its arrowy flight.

"The Magnetic Telegraph!--a miserable chimera," cries a knowing member of parliament. "n.o.body who does not read outlandish jargon can understand what a telegraph means."

"You will soon find out," answers trade; and now it buys flour by the hundred barrels, and sells grain by the thousand bushels, while fleets sail at its bidding, treaties are signed at its word, and the telegraph girdles the world.

You see trade is a civilizer, and Christian civilization makes all the difference in the world between Arabs and Englishmen.

Liverpool merchants were now fairly awake. "What is to be done?" was the question. Something. Could there be a _third_ water-line between the two cities? No; there was not water enough for that.

Would the Bridgewater Ca.n.a.l increase its power, and reduce its charges? No.

A tramroad or railroad, then; there was no other alternative.

Mr. James, who was so much interested before, had failed and left the country. When he left he said to his friends, "When you build a road, build a railroad, and get George Stephenson to do it."

The Darlington and Stockton enterprise could not fail to be known at Liverpool, and a drift of opinion gradually began to set strongly in favour of the railway. People talked about it in good earnest.

"A railway!" cried the ca.n.a.l owners, "it is absurd--it is only got up to frighten us; it will fall through as it did before." They were easy.

"Let us go to Darlington and Killingworth, and see for ourselves,"

said the merchants; and four gentlemen were sent on a visit of inquiry. They went first to Darlington, where the works were in vigorous progress, though not done. It was in 1824, the year before they were finished. Here they met Stephenson. He took them to Killingworth to see "Puffing Billy."

Seeing was believing. "Billy's" astonis.h.i.+ng feats won them completely over, and they went back to Liverpool warm for a railroad. Their clear and candid report convinced merchants, bankers, and manufacturers, who gave a verdict in its favour. Public opinion was now coming over.

Books were opened for funds. There was no lack of subscribers. Money was ready. To be sure of the _safety_ of locomotive power, a second deputation was sent to Killingworth, taking with them a practical mechanic, better able to judge about it than themselves. The man had sense enough to see and to own that while he could not ensure safety over nine or ten miles an hour, there was nothing to be afraid of slower than that. Then a third body went. The enterprise required caution, they thought.

Yes, it did.

Having decided upon steam power, the next thing was to secure the right sort of man to carry on the work. Stephenson was that man. His energy and ability were indispensable. Before trying to get an act of parliament, the route needed to be surveyed again, and a careful estimate of expenses made.

The Stockton road done, Stephenson was free to engage in this new enterprise, his success in that proving his principles true on a larger scale.

The ca.n.a.l owners now took alarm. They saw there was a dangerous rival, and they came forward in the most civil and conciliatory manner, professing a wish to oblige, and offering to put steam power on their ca.n.a.ls. It was too late. Their day had gone by.

You know the violent opposition made to a former survey. How would it be again? Did three years scatter the ignorance out of which it grew?

Ah, no. There was little if any improvement. The surveyors were watched and dogged by night and by day. Boys hooted at them, and gangs of roughs threatened them with violence. Mr. Stephenson barely escaped duckings, and his unfortunate instruments capture and destruction.