eved by the "Rocket." He
regarded it but in the light of a successful experiment; and every
succeeding engine placed upon the railway exhibited some improvement on
its predecessors. The arrangement of the parts, and the weight and
proportions of the engines, were altered, as the experience of each
successive day, or week, or month, suggested; and it was soon found that
the performances of the "Rocket" on the day of trial had been greatly
within the powers of the locomotive.

The first entire trip between Liverpool and Manchester was performed on
the 14th of June, 1830, on the occasion of a Board meeting being held at
the latter town. The train was on this occasion drawn by the "Arrow,"
one of the new locomotives, in which the most recent improvements had
been adopted. Mr. Stephenson himself drove the engine, and Captain
Scoresby, the circumpolar navigator, stood beside him on the foot-plate,
and minuted the speed of the train. A great concourse of people
assembled at both termini, as well as along the line, to witness the
novel spectacle of a train of carriages dragged by an engine at a speed
of 17 miles an hour. On the return journey to Liverpool in the evening,
the "Arrow" crossed Chat Moss at a speed of nearly 27 miles an hour,
reaching its destination in about an hour and a half.

In the mean time Mr. Stephenson and his assistants were diligently
occupied in making the necessary preliminary arrangements for the conduct
of the traffic against the time when the line should be ready for
opening. The experiments made with the object of carrying on the
passenger traffic at quick velocities were of an especially harassing and
anxious character. Every week, for nearly three months before the
opening, trial trips were made to Newton and back, generally with two or
three trains following each other, and carrying altogether from 200 to
300 persons. These trips were usually made on Saturday afternoons, when
the works could be more conveniently stopped and the line cleared. In
these experiments Mr. Stephenson had the able assistance of Mr. Henry
Booth, the secretary of the Company, who contrived many of the
arrangements in the rolling stock, not the least valuable of which was
his invention of the coupling screw, still in use on all passenger
railways.

At length the line was finished, and ready for the public ceremony of the
opening, which took place on the 15th September, 1830, and attracted a
vast number of spec