sh a statement of the facts on
which his claim was founded.

This was not at all in George's line. He had never appeared in print;
and it seemed to him a more formidable thing to write a letter for "the
papers" than to invent a safety-lamp or design a locomotive. However, he
called to his aid his son Robert, set him down before a sheet of
foolscap, and told him to "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 the penmanship was called in question, and
he had written his best. Mr. Brandling, however, revised the letter,
which was shortly after published in the local journals.

Stephenson's friends, fully satisfied of his claims to priority as the
inventor of the safety-lamp used in the Killingworth and other
collieries, held a public meeting for the purpose of presenting him with
a reward "for the valuable service he had thus rendered to mankind." A
subscription was immediately commenced with this object, and a committee
was formed, consisting of the Earl of Strathmore, C. J. Brandling, and
others. The subscriptions, when collected, amounted to 1000 pounds.
Part of the money was devoted to the purchase of a silver tankard, which
was presented to the inventor, together with the balance of the
subscription, at a public dinner given in the Assembly Rooms at
Newcastle. {105} But what gave Stephenson even greater pleasure than the
silver tankard and purse of sovereigns was the gift of a silver watch,
purchased by small subscriptions amongst the colliers themselves, and
presented by them as a token of their personal esteem and regard for him,
as well as of their gratitude for the perseverance and skill with which
he had prosecuted his valuable and lifesaving invention to a successful
issue.

However great the merits of Stephenson in connexion with the invention of
the tube safety-lamp, they cannot be regarded as detracting from the
reputation of Sir Humphry Davy. His inquiries into the explosive
properties of