Autograph letter signed (‘Geo. Stephenson’) to [his son Robert Stephenson] (‘My Dear’), Liverpool, 31 January 1828

George Stephenson (1781-1848)
Autograph letter signed (‘Geo. Stephenson’) to [his son Robert Stephenson] (‘My Dear’), Liverpool, 31 January 1828
Four pages, 203 x 257mm, bifolium, postmark, wax seal. Provenance: Sotheby's, 27 September 1988, lot 97.

A letter to his son, Robert Stephenson, containing detailed and technical suggestions for the design and manufacture of his locomotive, the Liverpool Travelling Engine. Stephenson discusses the length of the boiler and the number of chimneys (‘with respect to the Engine for Liverpool I think the Boiler ought not to be longer than 8 feet if the Engine ought to be made light as it is intended to run fast. Mr Booth & myself think 2 chimneys would be better than one say 8 in diameter’), focusing on the use of steam pipes round the boiler as a support for a cistern as well as the diameter of pipes and the material of which they should be made. These are considered in conjunction with aspects such as the adjustments made for decreasing the level of noise and the ordering of the coach wheels. With regards to the employment of a man for his colleague James Moss, he describes a principal difficulty, ‘honestly speaking …he is not a man to be trusted with a charge’, complaining also of the high cost of employing engineers and other skilled workmen. Concluding the letter he comments on his handwriting, ‘I wish you may be able to read this scrible’.

The present letter is predominantly unpublished, with only six lines appearing in Jeaffreson’s biography of Stephenson. The 'Liverpool Travelling Engine' incorporated many features used a year later in the construction of the 'Rocket', which had only one chimney and not the two suggested here. It was later modified and known as the 'Lancashire Witch'.