7 George Stephenson 7

George Stephenson

(b. June 9, 1781, Wylam, Northumberland, Eng.—d. Aug. 12, 1848,

Chesterfield, Derbyshire)

G

eorge Stephenson was an English engineer and

principal inventor of the railroad locomotive.

Stephenson was the son of a mechanic who operated a

Newcomen atmospheric-steam engine that was used to

pump out a coal mine at Newcastle upon Tyne. The boy

went to work at an early age and without formal schooling;

by age 19 he was operating a Newcomen engine. His

curiosity aroused by the Napoleonic war news, he enrolled

in night school and learned to read and write. He soon

married and, in order to earn extra income, learned to

repair shoes, fix clocks, and cut clothes for miners’ wives,

getting a mechanic friend, the future Sir William Fairbairn,

to take over his engine part-time. His genius with steam

engines, however, presently won him the post of engine

wright (chief mechanic) at Killingworth colliery.

Stephenson’s first wife died, leaving him with a young

son, Robert, whom he sent to a Newcastle school to learn

mathematics; every night when the boy came home, father

and son went over the homework together, both learning.

In 1813 George Stephenson visited a neighbouring colliery

to examine a “steam boiler on wheels” constructed by

John Blenkinsop to haul coal out of the mines. In the belief

that the heavy contraption could not gain traction on

smooth wooden rails, Blenkinsop had given it a ratchet

wheel running on a cogged third rail, an arrangement that

created frequent breakdowns. Stephenson thought he

could do better, and, after conferring with Lord

Ravensworth, the principal owner of Killingworth, he

built the Blucher, an engine that drew eight loaded wagons

carrying 30 tons of coal at 4 miles (6 km) per hour. Not