Nov 26, 2013 - Sale 2333

Sale 2333 - Lot 85

Price Realized: $ 6,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
EARLY PETITION FOR STEAM ENGINE PATENT STEPHENSON, GEORGE. Document Signed, twice, a petition requesting a patent for his steam engine invention with attached affidavit, to the King of England. The petition, showing "[t]hat your petitioner hath invented certain improvements in Steam Engines which Invention he believes will be of general Benefit and advantage. . . .", and requesting that "your Majesty will . . . grant unto your petitioner . . . your Majestys Royal Letters Patent . . . for the sole use . . . of his said invention within England Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed for the Germ of fourteen years . . . ." Signed at lower right. With a Note Signed by John Peel from Whitehall on February 15, 1822, conveying that the petition is being considered, written on the verso of first leaf. The affidavit, affirming the petition. Signed at lower right. 3 pages, tall 4to, two separate sheets attached with glue at upper left corner; folds, minor scattered soiling, docketing on terminal page. Newcastle, 31 January 1822
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In the same year this petition was signed, 1822, the Hetton Colliery railway--the first built by Stephenson--began operating; it was the first railway designed to run without animal power. Also in that year, the directors of the Stockton & Darlington railway agreed to use steam power for what became the first public passenger railway, which opened in 1825.
Among the earliest autographs by Stephenson to appear at auction.