George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer. He built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives. He is known as the "Father of Railways". George was born in Wylam, which is in Northumberland.
George Stephenson | |
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| Born | 9 June 1781 |
| Died | 12 August 1848 (age 67) |
| Cause of death | Pleurisy |
Stephenson's rail gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches (1,435 mm),[1] sometimes called the "Stephenson gauge", is the standard gauge for most of the world's railways. He also invented a miner's safety lamp, which was widely used in the north of England.
George Stephenson Media
Dial Cottage, West Moor, Killingworth
Stephenson's safety lamp shown with Davy's lamp on the left
Early Stephenson locomotive in Samuel Smiles' Lives of the Engineers (1862). Called an 1816 Killingworth Colliery locomotive (often claimed to be Blücher), it looks more like the slightly later Hetton colliery railway locomotives whose 1852 replica Lyons was still operating in Smiles' time.
Fishbelly rail with half-lap joint, patented by Stephenson 1816
The No. 1 engine, called Locomotion, for the Stockton & Darlington Railway
Experiment, the first railway carriage
Statue of George Stephenson at the National Railway Museum, York
First passenger railway, L&MR
This is a photo of listed building number 1253244.
A close-up of the technique
Notes
- ↑ Rail guage is the standard distance between the two rails.