The Life of George Stephenson, Railway Engineer

Front Cover
J. Murray, 1857 - Collection locomotives - 517 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 537 - We should as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, as trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate.
Page 360 - They also came to be regarded as inviting objects of investment to the thrifty, and a safe outlet for the accumulations of inert men of capital. Thus new avenues of iron road were soon in course of...
Page 157 - A reward of a single thousand would have supplied coaches and other vehicles, of various degrees of speed, with the best tackle for readily turning out ; and we might, ere this, have witnessed our mail coaches running at the rate of ten miles an hour drawn by a single horse, or impelled fifteen miles an hour by Blenkinsop's steam-engine. Such would have been a legitimate motive for overstepping the income of a nation ; and the completion of so great and .useful a work would have afforded rational...
Page 197 - I only wish I may live to see the day, though that I can scarcely hope for, as I know how slow all human progress is, and with what difficulty I have been able to get the locomotive introduced thus far, notwithstanding my more than ten years' successful experiment at Killingworth.
Page 232 - Suppose, now, one of these engines to be going along a railroad at the rate of nine or ten miles .in hour, CHAP. XI. THE CROSS-EXAMINATION. 207 and that a cow were to stray upon the line and get in the way of the engine ; would not that, think you, be a very awkward circumstance ? "
Page 292 - ... miles beyond the rate specified in the conditions published by the Company. The entire performance excited the greatest astonishment amongst the assembled spectators ; the directors felt confident that their enterprise was now on the eve of success ; and George Stephenson rejoiced to think that in spite of all false prophets and fickle counsellors, his locomotive system was now safe. When the
Page 165 - It was set forth in the preamble that these different lines " will be of great public utility, by facilitating the conveyance of coal, iron, lime, corn, and other commodities, from the interior of the county of Durham...
Page 157 - Malta, four or five of which might have been the means of extending double lines of iron railway from London to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Holyhead, Milford, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Dover, and Portsmouth ! A reward of a single thousand would have supplied coaches and other vehicles, of various degrees of speed, with the best tackle for readily turning out ; and we might, ere this, have witnessed our...
Page 473 - Robert Peel was made acquainted with the plot, and adroitly introduced the subject of the controversy after dinner. The result was, that, in the argument which followed, the man of science was overcome by the man of law, and Sir William Follett had at all points the mastery over Dr. Buckland. ' What do you say, Mr. Stephenson ? ' asked Sir Robert, laughing. —
Page 222 - The gross exaggerations of the powers of the locomotive steam-engine (or, to speak in plain English, the steam-carriage), may delude for a time, but must end in the mortification of those concerned.

Bibliographic information