The “Rocket” Wins.

The field was thus left to Stephenson's “Rocket,” which passed all the tests satisfactorily, reaching a maximum speed of 24 miles and an average speed of 13½ miles an hour. Whatever doubts remained as to the superiority of steam over horse haulage, they were finally dispelled by the performance of the “Rocket” on that occasion.

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Thus in spite of every conceivable difficulty and obstruction, we find Britain's first two railways-Stockton and Darlington, and Liverpool and Manchester-successfully established, the pioneers, small as they were, of the vast system which to-day spreads its tentacles of steel over the whole of Great Britain, with a total mileage more than equal to two circuits of the equator, and a capital exceeding a thousand million pounds.

Quick on the heels of these modest pioneers came a third railway linking Birmingham with London, opened in 1834, with curiously, a thirty mile gap which had to be covered by coaches until, four years later, Kilsby tunnel made the way clear for an unbroken line. Then followed a fourth line connecting Birmingham with Liverpool and Manchester; and the great and revolutionary era of the railway was now well started on its triumphant way.