But this was not at all in George Stephenson's line. He had never appeared in print before, and it seemed to him a far more formidable thing to write a letter for publication in "the papers" than even to invent a safety-lamp or design a locomotive. Having called his son Robert to his assistance, he set him down before a sheet of foolscap, and when all was ready, he said, "Now, put down there just what I tell you." The composition of this letter, as we were informed by the writer of it, occupied more evenings than one; and when it was at length finished after many corrections, and fairly copied out, the father and son set out--the latter dressed in his Sunday's round jacket--to lay the joint production before Mr. Brandling, at Gosforth House. Glancing over the letter, Mr. Brandling said, "George, this will never do." "It is all true, sir," was the reply. "That may be; but it is badly written." Robert blushed, for he thought it was the penmanship that was called in question, and he had written his very best. Mr. Brandling then requested his visitors to sit down while he put the letter in a more polished form, which he did, and it was shortly after published in the local papers. As the controversy continued for some time longer to be carried on in the Newcastle papers, Mr. Stephenson, in the year 1817, consented to publish the detailed plans, with descriptions, of the several safety-lamps which he had contrived for use in the Killingworth Colliery. The whole forms a pamphlet of only sixteen pages of letter-press.[46] His friends, being fully satisfied of his claims to priority as the inventor of the safety-lamp used in the Killingworth and other collieries, proceeded to hold a public meeting for the purpose of presenting him with a reward "for the valuable service he had thus rendered to mankind." Charles J. Brandling, Esq., occupied the chair; and several resolutions were passed, of which the first and most important was as follows: "That it is the opinion of this meeting that Mr. George Stephenson, having _discovered the fact_ that explosion of hydrogen gas will not pass through tubes and apertures of small dimensions, and having been _the first to apply that principle in the construction of a safety-lamp_, is entitled to a public reward."