he subject. As engine-wright of a colliery so
extensive as that of Killingworth, where there were nearly 160 miles of
gallery excavation, in which he personally superintended the working of
the inclined planes along which the coals were sent to the pit entrance,
he was necessarily very often underground, and brought face to face with
the dangers of fire-damp. From fissures in the roofs of the galleries,
carburetted hydrogen gas was constantly flowing; in some of the more
dangerous places it might be heard escaping from the crevices of the coal
with a hissing noise. Ventilation, firing, and all conceivable modes of
drawing out the foul air had been adopted, and the more dangerous parts
of the galleries were built up. Still the danger could not be wholly
prevented. The miners must necessarily guide their steps through the
extensive underground ways with lighted lamps or candles, the naked flame
of which, coming in contact with the inflammable air, daily exposed them
and their fellow-workers in the pit to the risk of death in one of its
most dreadful forms.

One day, in 1814, a workman hurried into Stephenson's cottage with the
startling information that the deepest main of the colliery was on fire!
He immediately hastened to the pit-head, about a hundred yards off,
whither the women and children of the colliery were running, with
wildness and terror depicted in every face. In a commanding voice
Stephenson ordered the engineman to lower him down the shaft in the
corve. There was peril, it might be death, before him, but he must go.

He was soon at the bottom, and in the midst of the men, who were
paralysed by the danger which threatened the lives of all in the pit.
Leaping from the corve on its touching the ground, he called out; "Are
there six men among you who have courage to follow me? If so, come, and
we will put the fire out." The Killingworth pitmen had the most perfect
confidence in their engine-wright, and they readily volunteered to follow
him.

[Picture: The Pit Head, West Moor]

Silence succeeded the frantic tumult of the previous minute, and the men
set to work with a will. In every mine, bricks, mortar, and tools enough
are at hand, and by Stephenson's direction the materials were forthwith
carried to the required spot, where, in a very short time a wall was
raised at the entrance to the main, he himself taking the most active
part in the work. The atmospheric air was by this