Note 288 — Chapter XV · George Stephenson’s Coal Mines—Appears at Mechanics’ Institutes—His Opinion on Railway Speeds—Atmospheric System—Railway Mania—Visits to Belgium and Spain.

The question of the specific merits of the atmospheric as compared with the fixed engine and locomotive systems, will be found fully discussed in Robert Stephenson’s able ‘Report on the Atmospheric Railway System,’ 1844, in which he gives the result of numerous observations and experiments made by him on the Kingstown Atmospheric Railway, with the object of ascertaining whether the new power would be applicable for the working of the Chester and Holyhead Railway, then under construction. His opinion was decidedly against the atmospheric system.