of Stephenson--a person not even possessing a knowledge of the elements
of chemistry." This sounds very odd reading at the present day, when the
engine-wright of the name of Stephenson has altered the whole face of
the world, while Davy is chiefly remembered as a meritorious and able
chemist; but at the time, Stephenson's claim to the invention met with
little courtesy from the great public of London, where a meeting was
held on purpose to denounce his right to the credit of the invention.
What the coal-owners and colliers of the North Country thought about the
matter was sufficiently shown by their subscription of L1000, as a
Stephenson testimonial fund. With part of the money, a silver tankard
was presented to the deserving engine-wright, while the remainder of the
sum was handed over to him in ready cash. A very acceptable present it
was, and one which George Stephenson remembered with pride down to his
dying day. The Geordie lamp continues in use to the present moment in
the Tyneside collieries with excellent effect.

For some years more, Mr. Stephenson (he is now fairly entitled to that
respectable prefix) went on still further experimenting on the question
of locomotives and railways. He was now beginning to learn that much
unnecessary wear and tear arose on the short lines of rail down from the
pit's mouths to the loading-places on the river by the inequalities and
roughnesses of the joints; and he invented a method of overlapping the
rails which quite got over this source of loss--loss of speed, loss of
power, and loss of material at once. It was in 1819 that he laid down
his first considerable piece of road, the Hetton railway. The owners of
a colliery at the village of Hetton, in Durham, determined to replace
their waggon road by a locomotive line; and they invited the now locally
famous Killingworth engine-wright to act as their engineer. Stephenson
gladly undertook the post; and he laid down a railway of eight miles in
length, on the larger part of which the trucks were to be drawn by "the