STEP:1.1E1MM, Bonner, only son of George Stephenson. was b. on Oct. 16. 1803. 'hen a boy he attended a school in Newcastle. In 1820 his father's improving cir cumstances enabled him to send Robert to the university of Edinburgh, where lie seems to have made excellent use of his time. In 1923 we him assisting his father in the survey for the Stockton and Darlington railway. Subsequently, he took an active par; in the locomotive engine-works started by his father at Newcastle. In June, 1824, he went to Mariquita, m South America, on an engineering appointment; but this not suiting him, at the end of threbyears he returned home by the United States and Canada. He then assumed the management of the Newcastle business. During the discussion as to the power to be employed on the Liverpool and Manchester line, he was in constant commuuication with his father, to whom his quick perception and rapid judgment were of great assistance. Shortly after the completion of this line, he Was appointed engineer of the Leicester and Swannington railway. Subsequently be was appointed joint man aging engineer, along with his father, of the London and Birmingham line, the execu tion of which immense work was ultimately almost wholly intrusted to him. In4829 he warded Frances, daughter of John Sanderson, merchant in London. She died in 1842 without issue; and be did not marry again. The London and Birmingham line was, completed in such a manner as to raise Stephenson to the very highest rank in his profession. Bllsilless now flowed in upon him. In one parliamentary session we find him engaged in 33 new schemes. Projectors thought themselves fortunate if they could procure his services on any terms. The work which he got through was enor mous, and his gains large beyond what had then been known in his profession.
The Britannia tubular bridge, of which undertaking Robert Stephenson was the mas ter spirit, is one of the most remarkable monuments of the enterprise and engineering skill of the present century. lkwas completed on Mar. 5, 1850, at a cost of Stephenson lived to repeat his splendid achievement in the bridge across the St. Law rence at Montreal, and in the two bridges across the Nile at Damietta. In 1847 he was returned to the house of commons as member for Whitby. On Aug. 15,.1849, he completed the high-level bridge at Newcastle, and in the following year the great via duct across the Tweed at Berwick. In 1855 the emperor of the French decorated him with the legion of honor. At home the university of Oxford made him D.C.L. In the, same year he was elected president of the institute of civil engineers. The immense amount of work which he went through both at home and abroad proved too much for his constitution, originally delicate; while in Norway, in 1859, he was seized by the ness which soon afterward ended his illustrious career. He died on Oct. 12, 1859. He was buried in Westminster abbey.. It was as a workman that Robert Stephenson was great, his political views being at times rather narrow. Contrasting him with his great rival, Brunel, it'has been said that the ambition of the latter was to make a great work; that of the former to snake a work which would pay. Robert Stephenson inherited the kindly spirit and benevolent disposition of his father. He almost worshiped his father's memory, and was ever ready to attribute to him the chief merit of his own achievements.—See Lives of the Engineers, by S. Smiles, vol. iii., (Loud. 1862).