Nicholas
Wood was born in 1795. He became
the colliery manager at Killingworth Colliery where he met George
Stephenson. In 1814 the two men worked together on the building
of
the Blutcher. Wood gradually became
more knowledgeable about locomotives and in 1820 he proposed the use
of steam as a compressible medium for locomotive springing.
In 1825 Wood's influential book, A
Practical Treatise on Railroads
was published. In the book, Wood argued strongly that it was better
to use steam locomotives than stationary engines on
railways. Nicholas Wood gave parliamentary
evidence in favour of the Liverpool &
Manchester Railway and in 1829 was one of the three judges at
the Rainhill Trials.
In 1844 Wood became a partner in the company that owned Hetton Colliery.
He played an active role in improving mining safety and was an instigator
of the 1851 Mines Inspections Act. Nicholas
Wood died in 1865.
(1)
Nicholas Wood, Treatise on Railroads (1825)
It
is far from my wish to promulgate to the world that the ridiculous
expectations of the enthusiastic specialists, that we shall see locomotives
travelling at the rate of 12, 16, 18 or 20 miles an hour; nothing
could do more harm towards their adoption, or general improvement,
than the promulgation of sich nonsense.
(2)
John Sykes was one of those who witnessed the opening of the Stockton
to Darlington Railroad.
The
novelty of the scene, and the fineness of the day, had attracted an
immense concourse of spectators, the fields on each side of the railway
being literally covered with ladies and gentlemen on horseback, and
pedestrians of all kinds. The train of carriages was then attached
to a locomotive engine, built by George Stephenson, in the following
order: (1) Locomotive engine, with the engineer (Mr. George Stephenson)
and assistants. (2) Tender, with coals and water; next, six wagons,
laden with coals and flour; then an elegant covered coach, with the
committee and other proprietors of the railway; then 21 wagons, fitted
up for passengers; and last of all, six wagons laden with coal, making
altogether, a train of 38 carriages. By the time the cavalcade arrived
at Stockton, where it was received with great joy, there were not
less than 600 persons within, and hanging by the carriages.
(3)
George Stephenson, letter published in The Philosophical Magazine
(13th March, 1817)
I observe you have thought proper to insert the last number of the
Philosophical Magazine your opinion that my attempts at the safety
tubes and apertures were borrowed from what I have heard of Sir Humprey
Davy's researches. The principles upon which a safety lamp might be
constructed I stated to several persons long before Sir Humphrey Davy
came into this part of the country. The plan of such a lamp was seen
by several and the lamp itself was in the hands of the manufacturers
during the time he was here.
(4)
George Stephenson, letter to the directors of the Stockton & Darlington
Railway in 1821 after he has seen the rails being made by John Birkinshaw.
To
tell you the truth although it would put £500 in my pockets to
specify my own patent rails, I cannot do so after the experience I
have had.
(5)
George Stephenson, letter to Joseph Sandars
(December, 1824)
The rage for railroads is so great that many will be laid in parts
where they will not pay.
(6)
On 25th April, 1825, George Stephenson gave evidence to the House
of Commons committee looking into the proposed Liverpool
& Manchester Railway. Edward Alderson, the counsel employed
by those opposing the railway, severely criticised the evidence given
by Stephenson.
This
railway is the most absurd scheme that ever entered into the head
of a man to conceive. Mr. Stephenson never had a plan - I do not believe
he is capable of making one. He is either ignorant or something else
which I will not mention. His is a mind perpetually fluctuating between
opposite difficulties; he neither knows whether he is to make bridges
over roads or rivers, or of one size or another; or to make embankments,
or cuttings, or inclined planes, or in what way the thing is to be
carried into effect. When you put a question to him upon a difficult
point, he resorts to two or three hypothesis, and never comes to a
decided conclusion. Is Mr. Stephenson to be the person upon whose
faith this Committee is to pass this Bill involving property to the
extent of £400,000/£500,000 when he is so ignorant of his
profession as to propose to build a bridge not sufficient to carry
off the flood water of the river or to permit any of the vessels to
pass which of necessity must pass under it.
(7)
Robert Stephenson told Samuel
Smiles how his father liked to wrestle with his old friend, George
Bidder.
When my father came about the office he sometimes did not well know
what to do with himself. So he used to invite Bidder to have a wrestle
with him, for old acquaintance sake. And the two wrestled together
so often, and had so many falls (sometimes I thought they would bring
the house down between them), that they broke half the chairs in my
outer office.
(8)
Edward Pease, diary entry (16th August,
1846)
Left home in company with John Dixon to attend the internment of George
Stephenson at Chesterfield. I fear he died an unbeliever. When I reflect
on my first acquaintance with him and the resulting consequences my
mind seems lost in doubt as to the beneficial results - that humanity
has been benefited in the diminished use of horses and by the lessened
cruelty to them, that much ease, safety, speed, and lessened expense
in travelling is obtained, but as to the results and effects of all
that railways had led my dear family into, being in any sense beneficial
is uncertain.
