/ '^«S.' // / / /// ' ! / /// // '/ // ,/ /! //, /av/ ,; ;/;,,/ /'! ./, //,/ /,/,. NEW YORK, HARBER & BROTHERS, THE LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON AND OF HIS SON ROBERT STEPHENSON; COMPRISING ALSO A HISTORY OF THE INVENTION AND INTRODUCTION OF THE RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE. By SAMUEL SMILES, AUTHOR OF "SELF-HELP," "THE HUGUENOTS," ETC. Wit]) SPottraftB an! Wumetous fillustratinns. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, PKANKLIN SQUARE. 1868. ; PREFACE. The present is a revised edition of the Life of George Stephen- son 'and of his son Eobert Stephenson, to which is prefixed a his- tory of the Eailway and the Locomotive in its earlier stages, uni- form with the early histoiy of the Steam-engine given in vol. iv. of " Lives of the Engineers" containing the memoirs of Boulton and Watt. A memoir of Bichard Trevithick has also been in- cluded in this introductory portion of the book, which will proba- bly be found more complete than any notice which has yet ap- peared of that distinguished mechanical engineer. Since the appearance of this Life in its original form ten years ago, the construction of Railways has continued to make extraor- dinary progress. The length of lines then open in Europe was estimated at about 18,000 miles; it is now more than 50,000 miles. Although Great Britain, first in the field, had then, after about twenty-five years' work, expended nearly 300 millions ster- ling in the construction of 8300 miles of double railway, it has during the last ten years expended about 200 millions more in constructing 5600 additional miles. But the construction of railways has proceeded with equal ra- pidity on the Continent. France has now 9624 miles at work; Germany (including Austria), 13,392 miles ; Spain, 3161 miles Sweden, 1100 miles; Belgium, 1073 miles; Switzerland, T95 miles; Holland, 617 miles; besides railways in other states. These have, for the most part, been constructed and opened dur- ing the last ten years, while a considerable length is still under constniction. Austria is actively engaged in carrying new lines PREFACE. across the plains of Hungary to the frontier of Turkey, which Turkey is preparing to meet by Hnes carried up the valley of the Lower Danube ; and Russia, with 2800 miles already at work, is occupied with exteuBive schemes for connecting Petersburg and Moscow with her ports in the Black Sea on the one hand, and with the frontier towns of her Asiatic empire on the other. Italy also is employing her new-bom liberty in vigorously ex- tending railways throughout her dominions. The length of Ital- ian lines in operation in 1866 was 3752 miles, of which not less than 680 were opened in that year. Already has a direct hne of communication been opened between Germany and Italy through the Brenner Pass, by which it is now possible to make the entire journey by railway (excepting only the short sea-passage across the English Channel) from London to Brindisi on the southeast- em extremity of the Itahan peninsula ; and, in the course of a few more years, a still shorter route will be opened through France, when that most formidable of all railway borings, the seven-mile tunnel under Mont Cenis, has been completed. During the last ten years, nearly the whole of the existing In- dian railways have been made. When Edmund Bm-ke in 1783 arraigned the British government for their neglect of India in his speech on Mr. Fox's Bill, he said, " England has built no bridges, made no high roads, cut no navigations, dug out no res- ervoirs Were we to be driven 'Out of India this day, nothing would remain to tell that it had been possessed, during the inglo- rious period of our dominion, by any thing better than the orang- outang or the tiger." But that reproach no longer appHes. Some of the greatest bridges erected in modem times—such as those o-^er the Sone near Patna, and over the Jamna at Allahabad have been erected in connection with the Indian railways, of which there are already 3637 miles at work, and above 2000 more under construction. When these lines have been completed, at an expenditure of about £88,000,000 of British capital guaran- teed by the British govemment, India will be provided with a PREFACE. magnificent system of internal communication, connecting the capitals of the three Presidencies—muting Bombay with Madras on the south, and with Calcutta on the northeast—while a great main line, 2200 miles in extent, passing through the northwestern provinces, and connecting Calcutta with Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore, Moultan, and KmTachee, will unite the mouths of the Hooghly ia the Bay of Bengal with those of the Indus in the Arabian Sea. When the first edition of this work appeared in the beginning of 1857, the Canadian system of railways was but in its infancy. The Grand Trunlc was only begun, and the Victoria Bridge—^the greatest of all railway structiu-es—was not half erected. Now, that fine colony has more than 2200 miles in active operation along the great valley of the St. Lawrence, connecting Eivi^re du Loup at the mouth of that river, and the harbor of Portland in the State of Maine, via Montreal and Toronto, with Samia on Lake Huron, and vrith Wiadsor, opposite Detroit, in the State of Michigan. The Australian Colonies also have during the same time been actively engaged in providing themselves with rail- ways, many of which are at work, and others are in course of for- mation. Even the Cape of Good Hope has several lines open, and others making. France also has constructed about 400 miles in Algeria, while the Pasha of Egypt is the proprietor of 360 miles in operation across the Egyptian desert. But in no country has railway construction been prosecuted with greater vigor than in the United States. There the railway furnishes not only the means of intercommunication between al- ready established settlements, as in the Old World, but it is re- garded as the pioneer of colonization, and as instrumental in opening up new and fertile territories of vast extent in the west —the food-grounds of future nations. Hence railway construc- tion in that cotintry was scarcely interrupted even by the great Civil War ; at the commencement of which Mr. Seward pubhcly " expressed the ' opinion that physical bonds, such as highways, railroads, rivers, and canals, are vastly more powerful for hold- n PREFACE. ing civil conuniinitiee together than any mere covenants, though written on parchment or engraved on iron." The people of the United States were the first to follow the example of England, after the practicability of steam locomotion had been proved on the Stockton and Darlington and Liverpool and Manchester Eailways. The first sod of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway was cut on the 4th of July, 1828, and the hue was completed and opened for traffic in the following year, when it was worked partly by horse-power, and partly by a loconiotive built at Baltimore, which is still preserved in the Company's workshops. In 1830 the Hudson and Mohawk Railway was be- gun, while other lines were under construction in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Jersey ; and in the course of ten years, 1843 miles were finished and in operation. In ten more years, 8827 miles were at work ; at the end of 1864, not less than 35,000 miles, mostly single' tracks ; while about 15,000 miles more were under construction. One of the most extensive trunk-lines still unfinished is the Great Pacific Eailroad, connecting the lines in the valleys of the Mississippi and the Missouri with the city of San Francisco on the shores of the Pacific, by which, when com- pleted, it wlU be possible to make the journey from England to Hong Kong, via New York, ia little more than a month. The results of the working of railways have been in many re- spects different from those anticipated by their projectors. One of the most unexpected has been the growth of an immense pas- senger-traffic. The Stockton and DarHngton line was projected as a coal line only, and the Liverpool and Manchester as a mer- chandise hne. Passengers were not taken into account as a source of revenue ; for, at the time of their projection, it was not beUeved that people would trust themselves to be drawn upon a railway by an " explosive machine," as the locomotive was de- scribed to be. Indeed, a writer of eminence declared that he would as soon think of being fired off on a ricochet rocket as PREFACE. vii travel on a railway at twice the speed of the old stage-coaches. So great was the alarm which existed as to the locomotiye, that the Liverpool and Manchester Conunittee pledged themselves in their second prospectus, issued in 1825, " not to require any clause empowering its use ;" and as late as 1829, the Newcastle and Carlisle Act was conceded on the express condition that it should not be worked by locomotives, but by horses only. ISTevertheless, the Liverpool and Manchester Company obtained powers to make and work their railway without any such restric- tion; and when the line was made and opened, a locomotive passenger-train was ordered to be run upon it by way of experi- ment. Greatly to the surprise of the directors, more passengers presented themselves as travelers by the train than could conve- niently be carried. The first arrangements as to passenger-traffic were of a very primitive character, being mainly copied from the old stage-coach system. The passengers were "booked" at the railway office, and their names were entered in a way-bill which was given to the guard when the train started.