ith the
view of economising labour, Stephenson laid down inclined planes where
the nature of the ground would admit of this expedient. Thus, a train of
full waggons let down the incline by means of a rope running over wheels
laid along the tramroad, the other end of which was attached to a train
of empty waggons placed at the bottom of the parallel road on the same
incline, dragged them up by the simple power of gravity. But this
applied only to a comparatively small part of the road. An economical
method of working the coal trains, instead of by horses,--the keep of
which was at that time very costly, from the high price of corn,--was
still a great desideratum; and the best practical minds in the collieries
were actively engaged in the attempt to solve the problem.

In the first place Stephenson resolved to make himself thoroughly
acquainted with what had already been done. Mr. Blackett's engines were
working daily at Wylam, past the cottage where he had been born; and
thither he frequently went to inspect the improvements made by Mr.
Blackett from time to time both in the locomotive and in the plateway
along which it worked. Jonathan Foster informed us that, after one of
these visits, Stephenson declared to him his conviction that a much more
effective engine might be made, that should work more steadily and draw
the load more effectively.

He had also the advantage, about the same time, of seeing one of
Blenkinsop's Leeds engines, which was placed on the tramway leading from
the collieries of Kenton and Coxlodge, on the 2nd September, 1813. This
locomotive drew sixteen chaldron waggons containing an aggregate weight
of seventy tons, at the rate of about three miles an hour. George
Stephenson and several of the Killingworth men were amongst the crowd of
spectators that day; and after examining the engine and observing its
performances, he observed to his companions, that "he thought he could
make a better engine than that, to go upon legs." Probably he had heard
of the invention of Brunton, whose patent had by this time been
published, and proved the subject of much curious speculation in the
colliery districts. Certain it is, that, shortly after the inspection of
the Coxlodge engine, he contemplated the construction of a new
locomotive, which was to surpass all that had preceded it. He observed
that those engines which had been constructed up to this time, however
ingenious in their arrangements, had prove