STEPHENSON, Robert, son of the preceding, was almost equally eminent as a mechanical engineer, and perhaps in some respects his father's superior. His father was married to his mother in 1802, and the Stephenson family then resided at Willington, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. Their son Robert was born there in 1803, in an humble cottage, where his father was often busy in making or mending shoes, cleaning clocks, or drawing rough sketches. Robert was christened in the school-house at Wallsend, and his earliest days were spent like those of the children of mechanics. His father's earnest wish was to give his son that education the want of which he himself so severely felt. When a widower, all his savings were accumulated with this object in view. He sent his child to school, and the boy picked up the elements of mechanics by frequenting, during long evenings, the library of the Literary and Philosophical Institute at Newcastle. Adding these acquirements to the lessons of the common workshop, he became expert in his department of knowledge. At Killingworth he made a sun-dial when he was thirteen years of age, and affixed it to his father's cottage-door, to the life-long gratification of the latter. This, however, was named to the writer as the father's work.
The son was apprenticed to the viewer of a colliery in the neighbourhood about 1819, and after spending two years in that occupation, he was in 1822 despatched to the University of Edinburgh for a session, during which he so far profited as to return with a prize for mathematics. He now spent a year or two in his father's locomotive manufactory at Newcastle, of which he was hereafter to become the principal. Having been sent out to report upon the gold
and silver mines of Columbia and Venezuela, he passed two or three years in South America, and returned to England in 1827 or 1828, to find his father deeply engaged in preparing, and strenuously contending for, railways and locomotives. He devoted the ensuing four or five years to the improvement of locomotive-engines, which underwent great changes under his watchful superintendence. He made experiments upon the application of heat, the strength of cylindrical and other boilers, the best mode of riveting flat portions of the same, and established all his improvements upon the issue of such experiments. The Rocket and Planet engines were in a great measure the result of his researches, combined with those of his father, the Planet being the type of the present locomotive.
About this period (1830) he executed the Leicester and Swannington, Whitby and Pickering, and two other railways, and planned a large locomotive manufactory at Newton in Lancashire; but whilst these works were in progress, his father and others were engaged in the first survey of the great railway from London to Birmingham, and subsequently he himself was engaged upon it, and walked over the whole distance—it is said twenty times—in order to determine the best line. By the close of 1831 the requisite plans were deposited, preparatory to application for an act in the ensuing session of Parliament. The contest before committees was protracted and severe, and no less than L.72,868 were expended in carrying the bill from first to last through Parliament. The difficulties which the Messrs Stephenson encountered in the actual construction of this important railway are generally known. Extensive tunnelling and excavations, besides long embankments, had to be executed by the best contractors of that day, who, however, were mostly new to works of this nature, while specifications for various peculiar kinds of work had to be prepared by the engineers. Opposition from Northampton necessitated the Kilsby tunnel, which penetrated 160 feet below the surface for a length of 2400 yards. This tunnelling was let to a contractor for L.90,000, and appeared feasible, and free from great impediments; but it was found that at 200 yards from the south end a hidden water-bearing quicksand, overlaid by a thick bed of clay, extended 400 yards into the proposed tunnel. Eminent engineers despaired of success; but Mr R. Stephenson devised means by which the tunnel was ultimately completed in thirty months from the time of laying the first brick (of which 36,000,000 in all were used). During eight months no less than 1800 gallons of water per minute were raised and carried away by steam-engines from the quicksand; in all, 13 steam-engines, 1250 men, and 200 horses, were engaged in this task, and the total cost of the tunnel amounted to about L.350,000.
In the course of this line enormous sums were paid for land and compensation; in one instance, L.3000 was given for a piece of land, and L.10,000 for consequential damages, though in the end the land was greatly enhanced in value by the railway. From this and similar causes, the original estimates which Mr R. Stephenson had laid before Parliament, amounting to L.2,750,000, were so largely increased that the expenditure had equalled nearly L.5,000,000 before the railway was opened for traffic. During nearly five years had Mr Stephenson, as engineer-in-chief, borne the heavy responsibilities and anxieties of this great undertaking; and it was indeed a day on which he might well feel honourable pride, when, with a small party (of whom the writer was one), he travelled by the first locomotive that had traversed at one and the same time the entire line of 112 miles.
His fame as a railway engineer was now at its culminating point, and he was henceforward fully occupied for several years in devising and superintending the construction of other lines. Of these the principal were the Midland,
Blackwall, Northern and Eastern, Norfolk and Chester, and Holyhead, not to name numerous branch lines. Abroad, too, his services were sought either as consulting or constructing engineer; and thus he took part in the system of Belgian and Italian railways, and was employed on some of the principal lines in France, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Canada, New Zealand, Egypt, and India. In connection with the English lines he gave much parliamentary evidence, and was concerned in several hotly-contested questions, such as the "battle of the gauges," as well as in numerous reports, arbitrations, and consultations.
As a railway engineer, his attention had been necessarily much directed to bridges, and several of those now standing on various lines attest the skill and taste of the engineer-in-chief and of his able assistants. He was thus led to consider the possibility of adapting malleable iron to a larger extent in bridges, and for far wider spans than had heretofore been attempted. His own article, IRON BRIDGES, contributed to this Encyclopædia, contains his mature views on this subject, as well as the details of the principal erections of this character, with illustrations. We shall, therefore, content ourselves here with saying, that his own skill in this department is exhibited in some of the greatest constructions in iron-bridge building now existing. Not to dwell upon the High-level Bridge at Newcastle and some others, we particularly refer to the Conway and Britannia Tubular-Bridges in North Wales. The latter is, indeed, celebrated through all countries, and is an object of wonder to foreigners. Its principle was a subject of profound study and frequent experiments by Mr Stephenson and his very able assistants. It must be mentioned that Mr Fairbairn claims the merit of being the originator of the tubular principle; but into the controversy on this question we are not called upon to enter, nor is this the place to pronounce upon the respective claims of either of these two eminent engineers. The bridge itself is a marvel of massiveness, design, and perseverance. Unsightly in some aspects, it is nevertheless grand as a whole. The weight of malleable iron in it is no less than 9480 tons, and that of cast-iron 1958 tons. The length of the long tubes (in place) is 488 feet, 8 inches; their height above low-water (the Menai Straits) is 121 feet, 6 inches; above high-water, 100 feet; and the weight of each tube is 1803 tons. By this erection the value of the tubular principle is demonstrated, and the ability of all concerned established.
A bridge was commenced and built, under the direction of Mr Stephenson, across the St Lawrence, extending nearly two miles, and is now opened in connection with the Grand Trunk Canadian Railway. Unprecedented difficulties had to be overcome in founding the piers of this bridge in the rapid waters of the river, and it was necessary to sink the foundations below its bed, thereby reaching to a great depth, while operations could only be carried on during a period of the year. Grandeur of conception and successful execution are here combined in the most remarkable degree. In these respects, and in magnitude, it may be regarded as the engineer's greatest work in iron-bridge building.
It will be unnecessary to refer to minor labours and triumphs, but it should be recorded that in all his public works Mr Stephenson had the good fortune to be ably seconded by his subordinates, in selecting whom he displayed considerable judgment. Some of these may remain unknown, but others are in the front rank of the profession of their former chief.
In public life Mr Stephenson became further known (in 1814) as M.P. for Whitby, and as a respected speaker in the House of Commons upon his own subjects. In private life no man could be more honoured, loved, and happy. Great wealth, and numerous and attached friends, were his fortunate lot. He died 12th October 1859, aged 56 years. His remains were honoured with a public funeral and in-
terment in Westminster Abbey, which was crowded on that occasion with a multitude of mourners distinguished by professional eminence and rank. Thus was he favoured in life and lamented in death. It is said that he once declined the honour of knighthood. No title would have added materially to his celebrity, and his fame will probably last as long as his great public works, which, after all, form his most appropriate and enduring memorials. To every railway traveller it may be said, with reference to the Stephensons, as once in relation to Wren and St Paul's Cathedral, Si monumentum queris circumspice. (J. N. L.)