reated a very powerful draft. Without these two important
improvements the locomotive would probably never have made an average
speed of more than six or seven miles an hour.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was formally opened in the autumn
of 1830, and the Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister, was one of
the few passengers who ventured on the trial trip. The growth of this
new mode of transportation was so rapid that in five years from that
time London and the principal seaports were connected with the great
manufacturing towns, while local steam navigation had also nearly
doubled its vessels and its tonnage.

Later on (1844-1847), Stephenson might easily have made himself "rich
beyond the dreams of avarice,"--or at least of the avarice of that
day. All he had to do was to lend the use of his name to new and
doubtful railway projects; but he refused on the ground that he did
not care "to make money without labor or honor." Meanwhile the whole
country became involved in a speculative craze for building railways.
Scores of millions of pounds were invested; for a time Hudson, the
so-called "Railway King," ruled supreme, and Dukes and Duchesses, and
members of Parliament generally, did homage to the man whose schemes
promised to cover the whole island with a network of iron roads, every
one of which was expected to be as profitable as a gold mine. These
projects ended in a panic, second only to that of the South Sea Bubble
(S536), and thousands found that steam could destroy fortunes even
faster than it made them.

Toward the close of William's reign (1834-1835) a humble invention was
perfected of which little was said at the time, but which contributed
in no small degree to the comfort and convenience of every one. Up to
this date two of the most important of all civilizing agents--fire and
light--could be produced only with much difficulty and at considerable
expense.

Various deviced had been contrived to obtain them, but the common
method continued to be the primitive one of striking a bit of flint
and steel sharply together until a falling spark ignited a piece of
tinder or half-burned rag, which, when it caught, had, with no little
expense of breath, to be blown into a flame. The progress of
chemistry suggested the use of phosphorus, and after years of
experiments the friction match was invented by an English apothecary,
who thus gave to the world what is now the commonest, and perhaps at
the same