, or "the iron
horse," as the people of the neighbourhood then styled it, did the rest.
On the day of the opening of the Hetton Railway, the 18th November, 1822,
crowds of spectators assembled from all parts to witness the first
operations of this ingenious and powerful machinery, which was entirely
successful. On that day five of Stephenson's locomotives were at work
upon the railway, under the direction of his brother Robert; and the
first shipment of coal was then made by the Hetton Company, at their new
staiths on the Wear. The speed at which the locomotives travelled was
about 4 miles an hour, and each engine dragged after it a train of 17
waggons, weighing about 64 tons.

While thus advancing step by step,--attending to the business of the
Killingworth Colliery, and laying out railways in the neighbourhood,--he
was carefully watching over the education of his son. We have already
seen that Robert was sent to Bruce's school at Newcastle, where he
remained about four years. He left it in the summer of 1819, and was
then put apprentice to Mr. Nicholas Wood, the head viewer at
Killingworth, to learn the business of the colliery. He served in that
capacity for about three years, during which time he became familiar with
most departments of underground work. The occupation was not unattended
with peril, as the following incident will show. Though the use of the
Geordy lamp had become general in the Killingworth pits, and the workmen
were bound, under a penalty of half-a-crown, not to use a naked candle,
it was difficult to enforce the rule, and even the masters themselves
occasionally broke it. One day Nicholas Wood, the head viewer, Moodie
the under viewer, and Robert Stephenson, were proceeding along one of the
galleries, Wood with a naked candle in his hand, and Robert following him
with a lamp. They came to a place where a fall of stones from the roof
had taken place, on which Wood, who was first, proceeded to clamber over
the stones, holding high the naked candle. He had nearly reached the
summit of the heap, when the fire-damp, which had accumulated in the
hollow of the roof, exploded, and instantly the whole party were blown
down, and the lights extinguished. They were a mile from the shaft, and
quite in the dark. There was a rush of the workpeople from all quarters
towards the shaft, for it was feared that the fire might extend to more
dangerous parts of the pit, where, if the gas had exploded, every