securing their final triumph.

Not only that, but Mr. Pease also aided Stephenson in carrying out
a design which George had long had upon his mind--the establishment
of a regular locomotive factory, where the work of engine-making
for this particular purpose might be carried on with all the
necessary finish and accuracy. George himself put into the concern
his precious 1000 pounds, not one penny of which he had yet
touched; while Pease and a friend advanced as much between them. A
factory was forthwith started at Newcastle on a small scale, and
the hardworking engine-wright found himself now fully advanced to
the commercial dignity of Stephenson and Co. With the gradual
growth of railways, that humble Newcastle factory grew gradually
into one of the largest and wealthiest manufacturing establishments
in all England.

Meanwhile, Stephenson was eagerly pushing on the survey of the
Stockton and Darlington railway, all the more gladly now that he
knew it was to be worked by means of his own adopted child, the
beloved locomotive. He worked at his line early and late; he took
the sights with the spirit-level with his own eye; he was
determined to make it a model railway. It was a long and heavy
work, for railway surveying was then a new art, and the appliances
were all fresh and experimental; but in the end, Stephenson brought
it to a happy conclusion, and struck at once the death-blow of the
old road-travelling system. The line was opened successfully in
1825, and the engine started off on the inaugural ceremony with a
magnificent train of thirty-eight vehicles. "Such was its
velocity," says a newspaper of the day, "that in some parts the
speed was frequently twelve miles an hour."