A history of the growth of the steam-engine . e to intensify the blast, and was subjected to someannoyance by proprietors of lands along his railway, whowere irritated by the burning of their grass and hedges,which were set on fire by the sparks thrown out of thechimney of the locomotive. The cost of Hedleys experi-ment was defrayed by Mr. Blackett. Subsequently, Hedley mounted his engine on eightwheels, the four-wheeled engines having been frequentlystopped by breaking the light rails then in use. Hedleys STEAM-LOCOMOTION ON RAILROADS. 183 engines continued in use at the Wylam collieries many
A history of the growth of the steam-engine . e to intensify the blast, and was subjected to someannoyance by proprietors of lands along his railway, whowere irritated by the burning of their grass and hedges,which were set on fire by the sparks thrown out of thechimney of the locomotive. The cost of Hedleys experi-ment was defrayed by Mr. Blackett. Subsequently, Hedley mounted his engine on eightwheels, the four-wheeled engines having been frequentlystopped by breaking the light rails then in use. Hedleys STEAM-LOCOMOTION ON RAILROADS. 183 engines continued in use at the Wylam collieries manyyears. The second engine was removed in 1862, and is nowpreserved at the South Kensington Museum, London. George Stephenson, to whom is generally accordedthe honor of having first made the locomotive-engine a suc-cess, built his first engine at Killingworth, England, in 1814. At this time Stephenson was by no means alone in thefield, for the idea of applying the steam-engine to drivingcarriages on common roads and on railroads was beginning,. George Stephenson. as has been seen, to attract considerable attention. Ste-phenson, however, combined, in a very fortunate degree,the advantages of gi-eat natural inventive talent and anexcellent mechanical training, reminding one strongly ofJames Watt. Indeed, Stephensons portrait bears someresemblance to that of the earlier great inventor. George Stephenson was bom June 9, 1781, at Wylam, 184 THE MODERN STEAM-ENGINE. near Neweastle-upon-Tyne, and was the son of a north-country minei*. When still a child, he exhibited great me-chanical talent and unusual love of study. When set atwork ahout the mines, his attention to duty and his intelli-gence obtained for him rapid promotion, until, when butseventeen years of age, he was made engineer, and tookcharge of the pumping-engine at which his father was fire-man. When a mere child, and employed as a herd-boy, heamused himself making model engines in clay, and, as hegrew older, never lost an op
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidc, booksubjectsteamengines
