Lot 256: STEPHENSON (GEORGE)

Letter signed ("Geo: Stephenson"), to "Dear Sir", agreeing to address members of the Mechanics Institution and suggestiing they use models as a teaching aid ("...I think however it will be more clear to the young Mechanics if I get models made of all the Mechanical powers to lecture on, the Models will continue to be useful to all new Members, I think by and bye you ought to have skeleton Models of the condensing Engine, High Pressure Engine, Locomotive Engine & Steam boat Engine – These models ought to be made in sections to shew parts of the different Engines..."), and promising to prepare a set at his own expense,4 pages, some foxing and dust-staining, traces of mounting, 8vo, Tapton House, 25 June 1841

nineteenth century

GEORGE STEPHENSON ON MODEL ENGINES: the many mechanical institutes that sprang up in the early nineteenth century were not so much professional associations as centres for adult education and libraries for the working classes. Stephenson, who had himself only learned to read and write as an adult, was one of their most generous supporters, as this letter attests. The professional body, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, was to be established by him in 1847 (where a fine collection of model engines is to be found).