mentary contest was not so severe as before, and the act was

obtained at last, in the session of 1826. The promoters immediately afterwards appointed Stephenson their chief engineer; and he at once removed his residence to Liverpool, and commenced his operations by forming the line across Chat Moss, an obstacle which the opponents of the undertaking had pronounced impassable. He accomplished this by draining the moss along the course of the line as thoroughly as possible, and floating the railway upon it by means of a sort of raft of dry peat and hurdles. The construction of the railway, involving heavier and more numerous works than had ever before been carried out on any line communication, was nearly completed in 1829. The directors, after much hesitation as to the best kind of motive power for their traffic, were induced, by the success of the locomotive engine on the Stockton and Darlington railway, to resolve on the employment of that mode of propulsion; and they accordingly offered a prize for the best locomotive which should fulfil certain conditions; one of which was, a minimum speed of ten miles an hour. The astonishing result has already been stated. On the 1st of January, 1830, the first trip was made along nearly the whole length of the railway; and on the 15th of September it was formally opened, by the running from Liverpool to Manchester of a procession of trains, drawn by eight of Stephenson's engines; which were driven respectively by George Stephenson himself, his son Robert, his brother Robert, and his assistants Locke, Gooch, Allcard, Swanwick, and Harding. Thus was the modern railway system first established. Its extension followed rapidly; and a leading part in it was taken by George Stephenson. He was the first engineer of the Grand Junction railway, connecting the Liverpool and Manchester railway with Birmingham: that line was completed by his pupil Locke (q.v.). He was, in conjunction with his son, chief engineer of the London and Birmingham railway, one hundred and twelve miles long, which was commenced in 1833, and opened in 1838. He was also chief engineer of the Manchester and Leeds, the Birmingham and Derby, the Sheffield and Rotherham railways; the Midland, the York and North Midland, the Chester and Crewe, the Chester and Birkenhead, the Manchester and Birmingham, and the Maryport and Carlisle railways, which were opened in 1839 and 1840; making a length of three hundred and twenty-one miles of railway, exclusive of the London and Birmingham. He retired from the active practice of civil engineering in 1840; but for many years afterwards he was still consulted as to various British and foreign lines of railway. He was the original projector of the line from York by Darlington and Newcastle to Berwick, afterwards carried out by Robert Stephenson. During the latter years of his life his chief business occupations consisted in the management, with great skill and success, of extensive coal mines and lime works, the former of which he had discovered and acquired during the construction of lines of railway. He resided with his second wife, Elizabeth Hindmarsh, whom he had married in 1819, at Tapton house, a large and finely situated mansion near Chesterfield, in the neighbourhood of his principal coal mines. He occupied his leisure in gardening and farming, in which he had much skill, and in various scientific pursuits. He condemned strongly the wild schemes brought forward during the "railway mania" of 1844-45; and though beset with entreaties at that time to give at least the sanction of his name to innumerable proposed lines, he was deaf to them all, except in the case of a few projects of unquestionable soundness. He took a strong interest in his son's works, and frequently visited the Conway and Britannia bridges; but he did not live to see them completed, having been cut off by an attack of intermittent fever, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, on the 12th of August, 1848, as already stated. The designs of George Stephenson's engineering works are marked at once by caution and boldness, enterprise and sound judgment; their execution, by solidity and durability, conscientious care, and a thorough mastery of practical details. He possessed in an eminent degree the power of gaining the confidence of his employers, the respect and obedience of those employed under him, and the esteem and friendship of all who knew him. His generosity to those who stood in need of it was bounded only by his means. During his early employment in connection with coal mines, he often faced deliberately the most frightful dangers, in order to insure the safety of his fellow-workmen. In person he was well-made, active, and strong; his head was finely formed, and his features expressive and pleasing; in mind, he united courage, firmness, kindness, and sagacity, with unflagging cheerfulness and good humour. In short, he was gifted with one of the rarest combinations of physical and mental excellence that has ever fallen to the lot of man.—(Smiles' Lives of the Engineers, vol. iii.; Wood's Practical Treatise on Railroads.)—W. J. M. R. STEPHENSON, Robert, an engineer second only to his father, was born at Willington Quay on the 16th of October, 1803, and died on the 12th of October, 1859. He was the only child of George Stephenson, who at that time was working as an engine-brakesman. His father, sensible how much he had himself suffered in his youth from the want of education, procured him the best instruction that he could afford out of his then small income. In 1818 he was bound apprentice to Mr. Nicholas Wood, the eminent mining engineer, with whom he remained for three years. In 1820 his father sent him for a single session to the university of Edinburgh, where he studied natural philosophy under Leslie, natural history (including mineralogy and geology) under Jameson, chemistry under Hope, and practical chemistry under Murray. In 1821, 1822, and 1823 he assisted his father in the survey and execution of the Hetton railway, and of the Stockton and Darlington railway; and in 1822 he assisted James in the second survey of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. He also took part in establishing the locomotive engine factory at Newcastle in 1823. In 1824 he was engaged to superintend some mining operations in the republic of Columbia in South America, where he remained for three years. In 1827, at the urgent desire of his father and the other partners in the locomotive engine works—the affairs of which had fallen into some confusion owing to the constant occupation of George Stephenson on the works of the Liverpool and Manchester railway—he returned home, and by his energy and talent for business soon restored the factory to a flourishing condition. It was under his immediate superintendence that the "Rocket" and its successors were built, whose performance has been stated in the preceding article. His first independent work as a civil engineer was the Leicester and Swannington railway, commenced about 1830; and in the same year he was appointed joint-engineer, along with his father, of the London and Birmingham railway. It was under Robert Stephenson's direction that the works of that line were for the most part carried out; his father's time being to a great extent engrossed by other undertakings. From that time forth he became the most extensively employed and successful railway engineer in the world, and designed and executed the greatest engineering works yet known. Amongst them may be specified the Royal Border bridge over the Tweed; the High-level bridge at Newcastle, which is the finest example of the use of the "bowstring girder" in existence; and above all, the Conway, Britannia, Victoria, and Egyptian tubular bridges. The design of the tubular bridges was called forth by the condition imposed on the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company in 1844 by the admiralty, that a clear headway of one hundred feet at high water should be left across the whole breadth of the Menai Straits. After much deliberation, Stephenson devised the principle of a plate-iron tubular girder, through the interior of which the trains should run. His first idea was to make the tube oval in section, and give it some auxiliary support by means of chains. In order to determine the best method of carrying out Stephenson's plan, Mr. Fairbairn and Mr. Hodgkinson were conjoined with him, by his own request. It was through Mr. Fairbairn's experimental researches that the form and construction finally adopted for the tubular girders were discovered, viz., a rectangular tube, with a cellular top and bottom, the chains being dispensed with.—(See Fairbairn.) The erection of the Conway bridge in 1848 formed a preliminary trial, by which the experience was gained that was afterwards made available for the greater work, the Britannia bridge. The Britannia bridge was erected in 1849 and 1850, and opened for traffic on the 18th of March of that year. The Conway bridge has a single span of four hundred feet, crossed by a pair of parallel tubular girders; the Britannia bridge has four spans, two of four hundred and sixty feet each, and two of two hundred and thirty feet, crossed by a pair of parallel continuous tubular girders. The Victoria bridge over the River St. Lawrence at Montreal, erected from Robert Stephenson's designs under the superintendence of Mr. Malcolm Ross, and completed in 1860, has more numerous, but smaller spans; they are twenty-five in number; the central span is three hundred and thirty feet, each of the others two hundred and forty-two feet. In 1847 Robert