Note 206 — Chapter XI · Robert Stephenson’s Residence in Colombia, and Return—The Battle of the Locomotive—“The Rocket.”

The arguments used by Mr. Stephenson with the directors, in favour of the locomotive engine, were afterwards collected and published in 1830 by Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke, as “compiled from the Reports of Mr. George Stephenson.” The pamphlet was entitled, ‘Observations on the Comparative Merits of Locomotive and Fixed Engines.’ Robert Stephenson, speaking of the authorship many years after, said, “I believe I furnished the facts and the arguments, and Locke put them into shape. Locke was a very flowery writer, whereas my style was rather bald and unattractive; so he was the editor of the pamphlet, which excited a good deal of attention amongst engineers at the time.”