attention. Among the entries was the "Novelty," the production of
that talented Swede, John Ericsson, who afterwards, in America,
built the iron-clad "Monitor." The "Novelty" showed fine bursts
of speed, but failed in point of endurance. The "Perseverance"
and "Sanspareil" developed radical defects, but the "Rocket,"
driven by George Stephenson's own hand was prepared for every
turn of the competition, and surpassed all in power, speed, and
general serviceability. To its makers the prize was
unhesitatingly awarded, whereupon the hardy engineer amazed every
beholder by letting out the last link and dashing past the
grandstand at the rate of more than thirty miles an hour. The
forced draft, which had made the Killingworth freight engines so
successful, coupled with the tubular boiler, formed a combination
which won the battle for the locomotive once for all, and made
the name of George Stephenson a household word.

A year later, on the 15th of September, 1830, the Manchester and
Liverpool Railway was formally opened. The Duke of Wellington--
the first citizen of the realm--was present with Sir Robert Peel
and other distinguished personages, together with a vast throng
of sightseers, enthusiastic spectators of the consummation of
George Stephenson's dreams. Though marred by a fatal accident,
the occasion proved the entire practicability of the railway as a
means of transportation. The multitudes who rode in its cars on
that memorable day were but a foretaste of the patronage which
the line was to receive. Although the intention of its projectors
was to limit its traffic chiefly to freight, the road from the
first found its offices besieged by persons eager to ride. Thus
passenger traffic became established as its leading source of
revenue, and thus were the capitalists encouraged to prosecute