The
engine had no springs, and was mounted on a wooden frame
supported on four wheels." The engine made its trial trip July
25, 1814, on which occasion it showed a speed of four miles an
hour in drawing a load of thirty tons. This engine was named
"Blucher," after the distinguished Prussian field-marshal.
Blucher was almost immediately improved by its inventor. First he
doubled the steam-making power of its boiler by turning the
exhaust from the cylinders into the smoke-stack, thus creating a
forced draught. Second he built another engine, in which the
tooth-wheel driving gear gave way to a simple and direct
connection between the piston and the driving wheels which rolled
upon the rails. This type of locomotive, developing some six
miles an hour, did its work so well in the colliery that it was
retained, with very slight alterations, for more than half a
century. The report of its success got abroad slowly, and Mr.
Stephenson was commissioned to build a railway and a number of
locomotives for a colliery in another shire. The success of this
piece of engineering encouraged him in sending his son Robert, a
youth of fine promise, to Edinburgh to study physical sciences in
the university, where in his brief residence he took a
mathematical prize.
The year 1823 marked another forward step for George Stephenson
and railroads.
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