eries. But he WAS the first person to
bring the two to such a pitch of perfection, that what had been at
first a mere clumsy mining contrivance, became developed into a smooth
and easy iron highway for the rapid and convenient conveyance of goods
and passengers over immense distances. Of course, this great
invention, like all other great inventions, was not the work of one day
or one man. Many previous heads had helped to prepare the way for
George Stephenson; and George Stephenson himself had been working at
the subject for many years before he even reached the first stage of
realized endeavour. As early as 1814 he constructed his first
locomotive at Killingworth colliery; it was not until 1822 that he laid
the first rail of his first large line, the Stockton and Darlington
Railway.

Stephenson's earliest important improvement in the locomotive consisted
in his invention of what is called the steam-blast, by which the steam
is made to increase the draught of the fire, and so largely add to the
effectiveness of the engine. It was this invention that enabled him at
last to make the railway into the great carrier of the world, and to
begin the greatest social and commercial upheaval that has ever
occurred in the whole history of the human race.

Meanwhile, however, George was not entirely occupied with the
consideration of his growing engine. He had the clocks and watches to
mend; he had Robert's schooling to look after; and he had another
practical matter even nearer home than the locomotive on which to
exercise his inventive genius. One day, in 1814, the main gallery of
the colliery caught fire. Stephenson at once descended into the
burning pit, with a chosen band of volunteers, who displayed the usual
heroic courage of colliers in going to the rescue of their comrades;
and, at the risk of their lives, these brave men bricked up the burning
portion, and so, by excluding the air, put out the dangerous fire.
Still, even so, several of the workmen had been suffocated, and one of
the pitmen asked Geordie in dismay whether nothing could be done to
prevent such terrible disasters in future. "The price of coal-mining
now," he said, "is pitmen's lives." Stephenson promised to think the
matter over; and he did think it over with good effect. The result of
his thought was the apparatus still affectionately known to the pitmen
as "the Geordie lamp." It is a lamp so constructed that the flame
cannot pass out into the