nd mathematics to
enable me to make the necessary calculations. But he would have no
denial. 'The thing is to be done,' said he; 'so just set about it at
once.' Well; we got a 'Ferguson's Astronomy,' and studied the subject
together. Many a sore head I had while making the necessary calculations
to adapt the dial to the latitude of Killingworth. But at length it was
fairly drawn out on paper, and then my father got a stone, and we hewed,
and carved, and polished it, until we made a very respectable dial of it;
and there it is, you see," pointing to it over the cottage-door, "still
quietly numbering the hours when the sun is shining. I assure you, not a
little was thought of that piece of work by the pitmen when it was put
up, and began to tell its tale of time." The date carved upon the dial
is "August 11th, MDCCCXVI." Both father and son were in after-life very
proud of the joint production. Many years after, George took a party of
savans, when attending the meeting of the British Association at
Newcastle, over to Killingworth to see the pits, and he did not fail to
direct their attention to the sun-dial; and Robert, on the last visit
which he made to the place, a short time before his death, took a friend
into the cottage, and pointed out to him the very desk, still there, at
which he had sat while making his calculations of the latitude of
Killingworth.

From the time of his appointment as engineer at the Killingworth Pit,
George Stephenson was in a measure relieved from the daily routine of
manual labour, having, as we have seen, advanced himself to the grade of
a higher class workman. But he had not ceased to be a worker, though he
employed his industry in a different way. It might, indeed, be inferred
that he had now the command of greater leisure; but his spare hours were
as much as ever given to work, either necessary or self-imposed. So far
as regarded his social position, he had already reached the summit of his
ambition; and when he had got his hundred a year, and his dun galloway to
ride on, he said he never wanted to be any higher. When Robert Whetherly
offered to give him an old gig, his travelling having so much increased
of late, he accepted it with great reluctance, observing, that he should
be ashamed to get into it, "people would think him so proud."

When the High Pit had been sunk, and the coal was ready for working,
Stephenson erected his first winding-engine to draw the coals out of t