An efficient and economical working locomotive, therefore, still remained to be invented; and to accomplish this object Mr. Stephenson now applied himself. Profiting by what his predecessors had done, warned by their failures and encouraged by their partial successes, he commenced his labours. There was still wanting the man who should accomplish for the locomotive what James Watt had done for the steam-engine, and combine in a complete form the best points in the separate plans of others, embodying with them such original inventions and adaptations of his own as to entitle him to the merit of inventing the working locomotive, in the same manner as James Watt is to be regarded as the inventor of the working condensing-engine. This was the great work upon which George Stephenson now entered, though probably without any adequate idea of the ultimate importance of his labours to society and civilization. He proceeded to bring the subject of constructing a “Travelling Engine,” as he then denominated the locomotive, under the notice of the lessees of the Killingworth Colliery, in the year 1813. Lord Ravensworth, the principal partner, had already formed a very favourable opinion of the new engine-wright, from the improvements which he had effected in the colliery engines, both above and below ground; and, after considering the matter, and hearing Stephenson’s explanations, he authorised him to proceed with the construction of a locomotive,—though his lordship was, by some, called a fool for advancing money for such a purpose. “The first locomotive that I made,” said Stephenson, many years after, {82} when speaking of his early career at a public meeting in Newcastle, “was at Killingworth Colliery, and with Lord Ravensworth’s money. Yes; Lord Ravensworth and partners were the first to entrust me, thirty-two years since, with money to make a locomotive engine. I said to my friends, there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, if the works could be made to stand.” Our engine-wright had, however, many obstacles to encounter before he could get fairly to work with the erection of his locomotive. His chief difficulty was in finding workmen sufficiently skilled in mechanics, and in the use of tools, to follow his instructions and embody his designs in a practical shape. The tools then in use about the collieries were rude and clumsy; and there were no such facilities as now exist for turning out machinery of an entirely new character. Stephenson was under the necessity of working with such men and tools as were at his command; and he had in a great measure to train and instruct the workmen himself. The engine was built in the workshops at the West Moor, the leading mechanic employed being the colliery blacksmith, an excellent workman in his way, though quite new to the work now entrusted to him.