n that
it should _not_ be worked by locomotives, but by horses only.

Grave doubts existed as to the practicability of working a large traffic
by means of travelling engines. The most celebrated engineers offered no
opinion on the subject. They did not believe in the locomotive, and
would scarcely take the trouble to examine it. The ridicule with which
George Stephenson had been assailed by the barristers before the
Parliamentary Committee had not been altogether distasteful to them.
Perhaps they did not relish the idea of a man who had picked up his
experience in Newcastle coal-pits appearing in the capacity of a leading
engineer before Parliament, and attempting to establish a new system of
internal communication in the country. The directors could not disregard
the adverse and conflicting views of the professional men whom they
consulted. But Mr. Stephenson had so repeatedly and earnestly urged upon
them the propriety of making a trial of the locomotive before coming to
any decision against it, that they at length authorised him to proceed
with the construction of one of his engines by way of experiment. In
their report to the proprietors at their annual meeting on, the 27th
March, 1828, they state that they had, after due consideration,
authorised the engineer "to prepare a locomotive engine, which, from the
nature of its construction and from the experiments already made, he is
of opinion will be effective for the purposes of the Company, without
proving an annoyance to the public." The locomotive thus ordered was
placed upon the line in 1829, and was found of great service in drawing
the waggons full of marl from the two great cuttings.

In the mean time the discussion proceeded as to the kind of power to be
permanently employed for the working of the railway. The directors were
inundated with schemes of all sorts for facilitating locomotion. The
projectors of England, France, and America, seemed to be let loose upon
them. There were plans for working the waggons along the line by water
power. Some proposed hydrogen, and others carbonic acid gas.
Atmospheric pressure had its eager advocates. And various kinds of fixed
and locomotive steam-power were suggested. Thomas Gray urged his plan of
a greased road with cog rails; and Messrs. Vignolles and Ericsson
recommended the adoption of a central friction rail, against which two
horizontal rollers under the locomotive, pressing upon the sides of this
rail