any satisfactory melody, and
at length gave up the attempt, convinced that nature had not intended
him for a musician.[1]

In due course of time our young engineer was removed from the workshop,
and appointed to take charge of the pumps of the mine and the
steam-engine by which they were kept in work. This employment was more
to his taste, gave him better "insight," and afforded him greater
opportunities for improvement. The work was, however, very trying, and
at times severe, especially in winter, the engineer being liable to be
drenched with water every time that he descended the shaft to regulate
the working of the pumps; but, thanks to a stout constitution, he bore
through these exposures without injury, though others sank under them.
At this period he had the advantage of occasional days of leisure, to
which he was entitled by reason of his nightwork; and during such
leisure he usually applied himself to reading and study.

It was about this time that William Fairbairn made the acquaintance of
George Stephenson, while the latter was employed in working the
ballast-engine at Willington Quay. He greatly admired George as a
workman, and was accustomed in the summer evenings to go over to the
Quay occasionally and take charge of George's engine, to enable him to
earn a few shillings extra by heaving ballast out of the collier
vessels. Stephenson's zeal in the pursuit of mechanical knowledge
probably was not without its influence in stimulating William Fairbairn
himself to carry on so diligently the work of self-culture. But little
could the latter have dreamt, while serving his apprenticeship at Percy
Main, that his friend George Stephenson, the brakesman, should yet be
recognised as among the greatest engineers of his age, and that he
himself should have the opportunity, in his capacity of President of
the Institute of Mechanical Engineers at Newcastle, of making public
acknowledgment of the opportunities for education which he had enjoyed
in that neighbourhood in his early years.[2]

Having finished his five years' apprenticeship at Percy Main, by which
time he had reached his twenty-first year, William Fairbairn shortly
after determined to go forth into the world in search of experience.
At Newcastle he found employment as a millwright for a few weeks,
during which he worked at the erection of a sawmill in the Close. From
thence he went to Bedlington at an advanced wage. He remained there
for six months,