288 WORKMEN AND HEROES odd moments while watching his pump or engine, for he was soon advanced to the care of the steam end of the machine. While young Stephenson, now grown a man, is thus busy with his primer, his copy-book, and " four rules," let us reflect upon the uncanny circumstances of his early life. He had no luxuries, few real comforts. The people around him lived half the time underground in mines that were dark, damp, and dangerous in constant war with water and a poisonous, explosive, natural gas, known as " fire-damp." Above ground there was little that was attractive or educative. The young men had their games, at which George was fairly successful, for he was strong and active. The ale-house stood near by, and it absorbed most of the spare time and scant earnings of the miners ; but it is said that young Stephenson avoided the saloon, and was never known to leave his work for a drink of liquor. On off-days he took his engine to pieces, examined its parts and the functions of each, and remedied small defects and devised improvements. Naturally clear headed and ingenious, every circumstance tended to develop his executive pow- ers. He soon was known in the Tyne valley as a good engine-doctor. An incident, when he was about twenty years of age, did much to shape his career. He heard that a neighboring mine had been flooded "on account of the inability of the engine to pump fast enough. No engineer could make the en- gine efficient. One Sunday he went down and looked at it. After a thorough examination he said he could make it work in a week's time if he could have authority to make changes as he saw fit. Authority was given him. In four days the engine was repaired and set to work. In spite of jeers from old en- gine-men, who were jealous of a mere boy, the pump worked well and the mine was soon dry. George's reputation was made, and he soon received appoint- ment as engineer at a large mine at Killingworth, an important place near by. Meanwhile Stephenson added exact instrumental drawing to his three R's. He found, as every artisan finds, that exact drawing is necessary not only to the study of existing mechanical devices, but particularly to the successful design of new parts. The successful inventor generally invents at his drawing-board. When twenty-one years of age Stephenson married Fanny Henderson, a re- spectable country girl living at Ballast Hill. He brought the bride home behind him on a pillion, a wedding journey of fifteen miles. Robert Stephenson, who became his father's partner, and one of the first of England's civil engineers, was born in 1803. In 18 12, when Stephenson was thirty-one years old, he was made engine-wright of a large colliery at Killingworth, at a salary of $500. The posi- tion was one of profit and fine opportunity. All the engines and machinery were in his hands, and all the repair- and construction-shops were available for such new designs as he saw fit to make. He at once set about making his first loco- motive. Locomotives and railroads of certain sorts and fashions were already in exist- ence, but they were rough and clumsy affairs. The rails were at first angle-irons, then flat bars of wrought iron, then cast- iron bars. In 1800 Benjamin Outram used stones for sleepers, and improved
