Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/280

266 and that of his sons, was imperishably enrolled among those which a grateful country will cherish."

A patent issued to Colonel Stevens by the British Government in 1805, and a section of a "safety-tubular" boiler subsequently built oil the same plan, and used on a locomotive, are preserved in the Stevens Institute of Technology, at Hoboken, New Jersey.



58. In 1814 George Stephenson, to whom is generally accorded the honor of having first made the locomotive-engine a success, built his first engine at Killingworth, England.

It had been found during the previous year, by Blackett & Headly, whose engine is still preserved at the South Kensington Patent Museum, that the slipping of the wheels could be avoided without recourse to extraordinary contrivances, and Stephenson made his engine a success, using smooth wheels.

At this time, Stephenson was by no means alone in the field, for the idea of applying the steam-engine to driving carriages on common roads and on railroads was beginning to attract considerable attention.

Stephenson, however, combined in a very fortunate degree the advantages of great natural inventive talent and an excellent mechanical training, his characteristics as an engineer reminding one strongly of those of James Watt. Indeed, Stephenson's portrait bears some resemblance to that of the great inventor.

59. George Stephenson was born in Wylam, in the north of England, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and was the son of a "north-country