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May 18, 2025 16 mins
Story of an English coal miner and his creation of the steam locomotive.

Original Air Date: 1952
Host: Andrew Rhynes
Show: Western Stories
Phone: (707) 98 OTRDW (6-8739)

Narrator:
 • Paul Shannon

Exit music from: Roundup on the Prairie by Aaron Kenny https://bit.ly/3kTj0kK

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome to the Old time Radio Westerns. I'm your host,
Angel Ryans, and I'm excited to bring you another episode
absolutely free. This is one of over eighty episodes released
monthly for your enjoyment. Now let's get into this.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Episode, Adventures in Research. He couldn't read or write until

(00:49):
he was eighteen. Yet this English coal miner had steam
on his mind and nothing was going to stop him
until he had spun a web of iron across England.
This is the story of George and the Iron Monster.
Miss Paul Shannon bringing you another transcribed story of science,

(01:11):
produced as a public service in cooperation with the Westinghouse
Research Laboratories, and today telling you the story of George
Stephenson and the Steam Locomotive. Stevenson was a miner at
Newcastle on time, but his mind was on steam, the
force that could drive machines, And in eighteen twenty five

(01:32):
came his opportunity.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yes, mister Stephenson, thou hast heard corrected, the Society of
Friends have fictitioned Parliament for permission to build a carriage
route from Stockton to Darlington.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
But what concern is it of zine, mister Cameron, I
have in operation a railroad that I would like to
proceive in.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
My friend, although we have not yet received permission from Parliament,
our railroad if.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
Thy horses are of sufficient speed and had horses a
steam railroad, Mister Cameron, I have built a locomotives that
runs on steam.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
You won't need horses. So far everybody is laughed at me.
But before you laugh, won't you won't you have a
look at it?

Speaker 3 (02:20):
My friend? You have started me a steam railroad.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
What next?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Iactical imagine a steam railroad. But surely, mister Stevens and
we shall study your steam railroad.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Fine, fine, I just want you to see puff and Billy,
because once you see my locomotives puffing, who sir, puffing Billy?
So that's what I call the locomotive. I suppose it's
strange to call an iron boiler by a name, but
but truth, I have an affection for it.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Indeed, mister Stephenson, if thou tell us when we may
view this, this iron railroad, the line we shall be
most happy to study. Like puffing, puffing William.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Mister Stephenson's locomotive seemed to pass the test, and Parliament
soon convened to consider the new railroad. At that time
in England, the bulk of commercial traffic was carried by
ships through canals, so when a land railroad was suggested
between Stockton and Darlington, everyone associated with the canals was
ready to fight it to the nail.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Why we'd be ruined if things like the started. That's
why we have to bend together. I'm confident that we
can get Parliament to see the light on this, of course.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Of course, Now Lord Governis will hand of the examination,
and surely you know Lord Governly is the best in it.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Why when we get to this stephens in on the witness.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Then Goverley will cut into ribs.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Now, don't worry, we'll get Govert to work. And didn't
find out about this project. We have to stop this
up start of it takes every penny in our fun Now,
don't worry.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
I tell you Stevenson will regret the day he ever
thought up this foolish notion.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
The obscure mining engineer continued tinkering with his iron locomotives,
unaware of the storm that was gathering over his head.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
When the bill for.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
The railroad came up before Parliament, the opposition was ready.
The Great Lord goverly stood before the body, his long
white wig topping the surly sneer on his lips.

Speaker 6 (04:32):
Below, we are asked to consider a most extravagant request,
a nightmare of a dull witted mechanic.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
What can be.

Speaker 6 (04:41):
More ridiculous than the prospect of locomotives traveling twice as
fast as stagecoaches. We would as soon expect people to
permit themselves to be fired off upon a rocket as
trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine going
at such a race. What person would ever think of

(05:04):
paying anything to be conveyed from Stockton to Darlington, or
Manchester to Liverpool by a roaring steam engine? Do I
hear anyone say he would volunteer for such a venture
of costner? But there are yet other factors to be considered.
Let us consider the plight of the people who will

(05:26):
be affected. You are a farmer, mister Trenton, what would
you say to an iron locomotive? Will live if by
such means horses would become extinct in England? And of
course no horses, no market for oats.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
And hay abomination would ruin us. An invention of the devil.

Speaker 6 (05:53):
That will be all stepped up. You would not like
to have your furt and green fields dismersed with iron tracks,
would you say, I put it to you, would not
this boisterous, rattling, puffing machine stuff your cows from grazing,
your hands from laying traison millon to allow such a thing, Raisin,

(06:19):
Consider such a machine running near your home, with fire
belching from its stacks, to be cut by a wayward
wind onto your roof. Suddenly your cottage is a blaze.
You have a family, sir, ye, two daughters, son and
your baby son trapped by the raging flames spread by
this juggernaut. Would you ask that Parliament.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Vote for such Hangin's too good for the man that
thought of it.

Speaker 6 (06:51):
And now, if it please my Lord, I have summoned
to the witness stand a George Stephenson, a mining engineer
from Newcastle On, who seems to be laghboring under the
idea that this locomotive appears is seasonable and practical. And now,
mister Stephenson, that is my name.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
You are aware that you.

Speaker 6 (07:10):
Are the only engineer in England who has come forward
to argue the cause of this steam railroad. I gather, sir,
that you think you are right, and all the other
great intellects of England are wrong.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Oh I do not.

Speaker 6 (07:23):
Ah, then you admit you might be wrong.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
I do. My engine will run thing.

Speaker 6 (07:29):
Yes, Now, if such a railroad could be built, you
would supervise the construction very well. Then perhaps you could
explain a few things to be last, isn't it a
matter of common knowledge, something known by every schoolboy with
any understanding of mechanics, that such a locomotive could not
get up sufficient power to move in the teeth of

(07:49):
a fair sized wind.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
Not so, sir. I have a principle of applying the
waste steam of the engine to increase the intensity of
combustion in the boiler. That will develop more power in
the engine.

Speaker 6 (08:02):
Other men have devised steam locomotives before, have I not,
And none of them have ever a thought of this before,
not that I know of. Some high fee. Did not
a man named the Traumatic build a steam engine that
ran on cast iron rails? And if I recall, they
held a test and the engine crushed the rails into fragments.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
Maybe so, But it won't happen to this one of mine,
providing the rails are sufficiently strong. Where there's no limit
to the speeder. Properly built engine might get your seemer lords.
All the other inventors who worked on a steam railroad,
they said that the locomotive wouldn't be able to bite
upon the rails unless the wheels had teeth. But I've experimented,

(08:46):
and the wheels will stick to a smooth rail.

Speaker 6 (08:48):
There's enough that you need not trouble us with such
technical job. In the we are not interested in such states.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Is it not true?

Speaker 6 (08:57):
I put it to at these locomotives in the past,
I've barely gone along at the rate of six miles
an hour.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
But I've taken care of that. I invented a steam blast.
I have a patent on it that will get more.

Speaker 6 (09:09):
You have done all this by yourself. It is your opinion, then,
and only your uncooperated opinion, that.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
My railroad will run. I tell you, mister.

Speaker 6 (09:19):
Stephenson, I call your attention to this map pro pose
line of this steam railroad. Is that right now? I
ask you look at the place I have marked with
red where your steam railroad will travel. Do you know
that this is a bog, a peat bog twelve square
miles in size, A bog that will not hold up

(09:40):
the weight of a single man, you propose to put
your eye on the hem of across a bog that
will engulf one man.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
I beseech you, mister Stephenson, in.

Speaker 6 (09:49):
The name of sanity and humanity, forget this wicked idea,
forget this iron monster.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
My railroad will run.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Lord Goverly had indeed confused and abused the mining engineer.
George Stevenson left the witness box with a defeated, beaten
look on his face. Even his friends turned from him.
It did sound silly, an iron railroad puffing steam across England,
but the promoters were adamant. They had invested too much
money to stop now, and finally Parliament gave in, granted

(10:28):
the right to build a steam railroad, and George Stephenson
went to work.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
I venture to tell you people will live to see
the time when railroads will become great highways for the
King and all his subjects. It will be cheaper for
a workingman to travel on a train than to walk.
What I have declared today will come to pass, just
as Shuley, as you have heard me. Well, what of us,

(10:56):
as peete park, mister Stephenson.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
What about that pete bog insufficient to support a man.
How could Stephenson's iron.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Locomotive cross it. Yeah, maybe the ocean cannot support a
man either, but it can support a boat. Why can
I not just float a road over the ball? You
said something, mister Stephenson, I said, float a road over it. Float.
We'll dig drains on all types. Build a foundation is

(11:32):
like a basket of moss and cover it with clay.
We'll fill it in with moss and clay until our
road is higher than the bug.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Stevenson compressed seven hundred thousand cubic yards of moss into
a ridge of two hundred and seventy thousand cubic yards.
He overcame other obstacles along the road connel under Liverpool
for a mile and a half, scooped two miles through
Mountain Rock, built sixty three bridges and oh yes, he
also built the locomotive.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
Wor hear the news. Stevenson's locomotive for rocket went twenty
nine miles an hour.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yes, the iron horse was here at last, thanks to
George Stephenson, who invented a steam blast to increase combustion
of the fuel, built an improved, more efficient boiler, and
devised many other features that made the locomotive possible. Yet
George Stevenson did not rest on his laurels. He supervised
railroad construction all over the continent. Stevenson called to Austria

(12:45):
to construct new railroad. He continued to improve his locomotives.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
Stevenson's new locomotive reached his speed of eighty miles an hour.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yet this humble engineer was never too busy to attend
to the minor things of life, which he considered important.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
But mister Stevenson, the scoff joint problem demands your immediate attention.
Oh not now, can't you see I'm busy writing a
letter to my son Robert. You'd be happy to hear
that a pair of robins have built their nest in
one of the upper rooms.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
At sixty, honored and eulogized, the man who perfected the
English railroad, retired to a country estate to live in
peace and to grow pineapples as big as pumpkins. In
eighteen forty eight he quietly passed away, and the miners
he knew so well followed his coffin to its final
resting place. And perhaps the greatest tributes given him were

(13:53):
by these men he had grown up and worked with.

Speaker 6 (13:57):
Ay, George was a working men.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Be imagine, even refused to be knighted by the Queen.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
George Stevenson didn't need it out, No, sir, a man
knighted by John didn't need it.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
And that's today's Adventures in Research, produced in cooperation with
the Westinghouse Research Laboratories. These programs are broadcast to Armed
Forces personnel overseas through the facilities of the Armed Forces
Radio Service. Join us again next week for another transcribed

(14:50):
story of science on Adventures in Research.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
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