TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Bold text is denoted by =equals signs=. The oe ligature has been replaced by 'oe' or 'OE'. Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. More detail can be found at the end of the book. [Illustration: (George Stephenson.) _Engraved by W. Hall after the portrait by John Lucas._ NEW YORK, HARRER & BROTHERS.] THE LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON AND OF HIS SON ROBERT STEPHENSON; COMPRISING ALSO A HISTORY OF THE INVENTION AND INTRODUCTION OF THE RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE. BY SAMUEL SMILES, AUTHOR OF "SELF-HELP," "THE HUGUENOTS," ETC. With Portraits and Numerous Illustrations. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1868. PREFACE. The present is a revised edition of the Life of George Stephenson and of his son Robert Stephenson, to which is prefixed a history of the Railway and the Locomotive in its earlier stages, uniform with the early history of the Steam-engine given in vol. iv. of "Lives of the Engineers" containing the memoirs of Boulton and Watt. A memoir of Richard Trevithick has also been included in this introductory portion of the book, which will probably be found more complete than any notice which has yet appeared of that distinguished mechanical engineer. * * * * * Since the appearance of this Life in its original form ten years ago, the construction of Railways has continued to make extraordinary progress. The length of lines then open in Europe was estimated at about 18,000 miles: it is now more than 50,000 miles. Although Great Britain, first in the field, had then, after about twenty-five years' work, expended nearly 300 millions sterling in the construction of 8300 miles of double railway, it has during the last ten years expended about 200 millions more in constructing 5600 additional miles. But the construction of railways has proceeded with equal rapidity on the Continent. France has now 9624 miles at work; Germany (including Austria), 13,392 miles; Spain, 3161 miles; Sweden, 1100 miles; Belgium, 1073 miles; Switzerland, 795 miles; Holland, 617 miles; besides railways in other states. These have, for the most part, been constructed and opened during the last ten years, while a considerable length is still under construction. Austria is actively engaged in carrying new lines across the plains of Hungary to the frontier of Turkey, which Turkey is preparing to meet by lines carried up the valley of the Lower Danube; and Russia, with 2800 miles already at work, is occupied with extensive schemes for connecting Petersburg and Moscow with her ports in the Black Sea on the one hand, and with the frontier towns of her Asiatic empire on the other.