George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer. He was well-known as the "Father of Railways" and was admired by the Victorians for his hard work and determination to improve technology. The rail gauge he chose, sometimes called the "Stephenson gauge," became the standard used by most railways around the world. This gauge is 4 feet 8 and a half inches, or 1.435 meters.
Rail transport, which was pioneered by Stephenson, became one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century and played a major role in the Industrial Revolution. The first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line was Locomotion No. 1. It was built by George Stephenson and his son Robert’s company, Robert Stephenson and Company, for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. George also designed the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use locomotives, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Stephenson continued to lead the development of railways, solving challenges in road construction, bridge building, and the production of locomotives and train cars. He built many other railways in the Midlands and worked as a consultant on railroad projects in many countries.
Childhood
George Stephenson was born on June 9, 1781, in Wylam, Northumberland, which is 9 miles (15 km) west of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was the second child of Robert and Mabel Stephenson, who could not read or write. Robert worked as a fireman for the pumping engine at Wylam Colliery, earning very little money. Because of this, there was no money for schooling. At age 17, Stephenson became an engineman at Water Row Pit in Newburn. He recognized the importance of education and paid to attend night school to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. He was unable to read or write until he was 18 years old.
In 1801, he began working as a "brakesman" at Black Callerton Colliery, south of Ponteland. A brakesman controlled the winding gear at the mine. In 1802, he married Frances Henderson and moved to Willington Quay, east of Newcastle. There, he worked as a brakesman while living in one room of a small cottage. To help support his family, George made shoes and repaired clocks.
Their first child, Robert, was born in 1803. In 1804, they moved to Dial Cottage at West Moor, near Killingworth, where George worked as a brakesman at Killingworth Pit. Their second child, a daughter, was born in July 1805. She was named Frances after her mother. The child lived for only three weeks before passing away and was buried in St Bartholomew's Church, Long Benton, located north of Newcastle.
In 1806, George’s wife, Frances, died from consumption, a disease now known as tuberculosis. She was buried in the same churchyard as their daughter on May 16, 1806, though the exact location of her grave is unknown.
George decided to seek work in Scotland and left Robert with a local woman while he traveled to Montrose, Scotland. After a few months, he returned, likely because his father had been blinded in a mining accident. He moved back to a cottage at West Moor, and his unmarried sister, Eleanor, moved in to care for Robert. In 1811, the pumping engine at High Pit, Killingworth, was not working properly. Stephenson offered to fix it. His work was so successful that he was promoted to enginewright for the collieries at Killingworth. In this role, he was responsible for maintaining and repairing all the colliery engines. He became an expert in steam-driven machinery.
Early projects
In 1815, knowing that naked flames in mines often caused explosions, Stephenson started testing a lamp that could burn safely in a gaseous environment without causing an explosion. At the same time, the famous scientist and Cornishman Humphry Davy also studied the same problem. Without formal scientific training, Stephenson used trial and error to create a lamp where air entered through small holes, preventing flames from escaping.
A month before Davy shared his design with the Royal Society, Stephenson showed his lamp to two witnesses by taking it to Killingworth Colliery and holding it near a fissure where firedamp was coming out. The two designs were different: Davy’s lamp had a gauze screen, while Stephenson’s lamp had a plate with holes and a glass cylinder. Davy received £2000 for his invention, but Stephenson was accused of copying Davy’s idea because he was not seen as a qualified scientist who could have created the lamp using proper scientific methods.
Stephenson, who came from the North-East, spoke with a strong Northumberland accent and not the formal language used in Parliament, which made him seem less important. To help his son Robert, Stephenson sent him to a private school to learn Standard English with a Received Pronunciation accent. This helped Robert in future meetings with Parliament, where officials preferred Robert over his father.
A local committee investigated and cleared Stephenson of wrongdoing, proving he had worked independently to create the "Geordie Lamp" and awarded him £1,000. However, Davy and his supporters refused to accept these findings, believing that someone like Stephenson, who was not formally educated, could not have solved the problem. In 1833, a House of Commons committee confirmed Stephenson had equal claim to inventing the safety lamp. Davy died believing Stephenson had stolen his idea. The Stephenson lamp was mainly used in North East England, while the Davy lamp was used elsewhere. This experience made Stephenson distrust London-based scientists who worked in theory rather than practice.
In his book George and Robert Stephenson, author L.T.C. Rolt wrote that opinions differed about the two lamps’ safety and brightness. The Davy Lamp produced more light, but the Geordie Lamp was considered safer in areas with high gas levels. He described an event at Oaks Colliery in Barnsley where both lamps were used. When a large amount of gas entered the area, the Davy Lamps became red hot (a risk for explosions), while the Geordie Lamps simply went out.
Some believe Stephenson indirectly gave the name "Geordies" to people from the North East of England. The name of the Geordie Lamp became associated with the miners in the region. By 1866, people from Newcastle upon Tyne could be called Geordies.
Cornishman Richard Trevithick is credited with developing steam engines, leading to what is called "the first steam-powered passenger vehicle" or "his first high-pressure steam locomotive." This refers to his testing of the "Puffing Devil" (or "Puffer") on 24 December 1801. This was an improvement of James Watt’s steam engine, which Watt had considered too dangerous for development. Both accounts show that this early steam engine did not run on tracks, as Trevithick later created a steam engine that worked on rails three years later. He later built an engine for a mine-owner in Tyneside, inspiring local men to design their own engines.
Stephenson built his first locomotive in 1814, a coal-hauling engine named Blücher after the Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. The name may have come from Blücher’s quick march to support Wellington at Waterloo. Blücher was based on Matthew Murray’s locomotive Willington, which George Stephenson studied at Kenton and Coxlodge colliery on Tyneside. The locomotive was built in the workshop behind Stephenson’s home, Dial Cottage, on Great Lime Road. It could pull 30 tons of coal up a hill at 4 mph (6.4 km/h) and was the first successful flanged-wheel locomotive, relying on the contact between its wheels and the rail for traction.
Stephenson is said to have built 16 locomotives at Killingworth, though no complete list of all 16 has been confirmed. Most were used at Killingworth or for the Hetton colliery railway. A six-wheeled locomotive was made for the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway in 1817 but was taken out of service due to damage to the cast-iron rails. Another locomotive was sent to Scott’s Pit railroad near Swansea in 1819 but was also removed, likely because it was under-powered and damaged the track.
The new engines were too heavy for wooden rails or plate-ways, and iron edge rails were not yet strong enough, as cast iron was too brittle. Stephenson and William Losh improved the design of cast-iron edge rails to reduce breakage. For a short time, rails were made at Losh, Wilson and Bell’s Walker ironworks.
According to Rolt, Stephenson solved the problem of the engine’s weight on early rails. He tested a steam spring to cushion the weight using steam pressure on pistons but later used multiple wheels or bogies to spread the weight. For the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Stephenson used wrought-iron rails that worked well, even though he lost money by not using his own patented design.
Stephenson was hired to build the eight-mile (13-km) Hetton colliery railway in 1820. He used gravity on downward slopes and locomotives for flat or uphill sections. This was the first railway without animal power, opening in 1822. The line used a 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) gauge, which Stephenson had used before at Killingworth.
Other locomotives include:
- 1817–1824 The Duke for the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway
The First Railways
In 1821, a law was passed to allow the building of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR). The 25-mile (40 km) railway connected coal mines near Bishop Auckland to the River Tees at Stockton, passing through Darlington. The original plan was to use horses to pull coal carts on metal tracks, but after company director Edward Pease met Stephenson, he agreed to change the plan. Stephenson surveyed the line in 1821, and with help from his 18-year-old son Robert, construction began the same year.
A manufacturer was needed to build the locomotives for the line. Pease and Stephenson started a company together in Newcastle to make locomotives. It was called Robert Stephenson and Company, and George Stephenson’s son Robert was the manager. A fourth partner was Michael Longridge of Bedlington Ironworks. On an early trade card, Robert Stephenson & Co was described as “Engineers, Millwrights & Machinists, Brass & Iron Founders.” In September 1825, the works at Forth Street, Newcastle, completed the first locomotive for the railway. It was originally named Active but later renamed Locomotion, followed by Hope, Diligence, and Black Diamond. The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825. Driven by Stephenson, Locomotion pulled an 80-ton load of coal and flour nine miles (14 km) in two hours, reaching a speed of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) on one stretch. The first purpose-built passenger car, Experiment, was attached and carried important guests on the opening journey. This was the first time passenger travel occurred on a steam locomotive railway.
The rails used for the line were made of wrought-iron, produced by John Birkinshaw at the Bedlington Ironworks. Wrought-iron rails could be made longer than cast-iron rails and were less likely to crack under heavy locomotives. William Losh of Walker Ironworks believed he had an agreement with Stephenson to supply cast-iron rails, but Stephenson’s choice caused a lasting disagreement between them. The gauge Stephenson chose for the line was 4 feet 8 + 1⁄2 inches (1,435 mm), which later became the standard width for railways worldwide.
Stephenson learned through experiments at Killingworth that half the power of a locomotive was used to move trains up a slope as gentle as 1 in 260. He concluded that railways should be as level as possible. He used this knowledge while working on the Bolton and Leigh Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), creating cuttings, embankments, and stone viaducts to flatten their routes. Poor surveying of the original L&MR route, caused by opposition from some landowners, made it difficult for Stephenson during a parliamentary review of the bill, especially during questioning by Edward Hall Alderson. The bill was rejected, and a revised bill for a new route was submitted and passed later. The revised route required crossing Chat Moss, a deep peat bog, which Stephenson solved by floating the line across it. His method was similar to one used by John Metcalf, who built roads across marshes in the Pennines by laying heather and branches, which bonded together under the weight of passing coaches, with stones on top.
As the L&MR neared completion in 1829, its directors organized a competition to choose a locomotive builder. The Rainhill Trials were held in October 1829. Entries had to weigh no more than six tons and travel 60 miles (97 km) along the track. Stephenson’s entry was Rocket, and its success in the contest made it famous. George Stephenson’s son Robert had been working in South America from 1824 to 1827 and returned to manage the Forth Street Works while George oversaw construction in Liverpool. Robert designed Rocket in detail, though he communicated regularly with his father, who provided many suggestions. One key innovation, proposed by Henry Booth, treasurer of the L&MR, was the use of a fire-tube boiler, invented by French engineer Marc Seguin, which improved heat exchange.
The opening ceremony of the L&MR on 15 September 1830 included important government and industry figures, such as the Prime Minister and the Duke of Wellington. The day began with a procession of eight trains departing from Liverpool. The parade was led by Northumbrian, driven by George Stephenson, and included Phoenix (driven by his son Robert), North Star (driven by his brother Robert), and Rocket (driven by assistant engineer Joseph Locke). The day was disrupted by the death of William Huskisson, a Member of Parliament for Liverpool, who was struck by Rocket. Stephenson helped move the injured Huskisson to Eccles by train, but Huskisson died from his injuries. Despite this tragedy, the railway was a major success. Stephenson gained fame and was offered the position of chief engineer for many other railways.
In 1830, the grand opening of the skew bridge over the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in Rainhill took place. The bridge was the first to cross a railway at an angle. It required the structure to be built as two flat planes overlapping by 6 feet (1.8 m), forming a parallelogram shape when viewed from above. This design flattened the arch, and the solution was to lay bricks at an angle to the abutments (the piers supporting the arches). The technique created a spiral effect in the arch masonry, adding strength to compensate for the angled abutments.
The bridge is still in use at Rainhill station and carries traffic on the A57 (Warrington Road
Later life
George Stephenson moved to the parish of Alton Grange (now part of Ravenstone) in Leicestershire in 1830. He went there to help with the Leicester and Swannington Railway, a line planned to transport coal from western coal fields in the county to Leicester. The people who started the project, Mr. William Stenson and Mr. John Ellis, had trouble raising enough money because most local wealth was invested in canals. Stephenson saw the need for the rail link and invested £2,500 of his own money. He used his connections in Liverpool to get the rest of the money needed. His son, Robert, became the chief engineer, and the first part of the line opened in 1832.
At the same time, the Snibston estate in Leicestershire was being sold at auction. It was near the planned Swannington to Leicester route and was thought to have valuable coal. Stephenson bought the estate because he saw its potential. He used a mining method called "tubbing" to reach deep coal seams. His success was great—coal from his mine was delivered to Leicester by rail, lowering coal prices and saving the city £40,000 each year.
Stephenson stayed at Alton Grange until 1838, then moved to Tapton House in Derbyshire. The next ten years were very busy for him as he received many requests from railway promoters. Many early American railroad builders came to Newcastle to learn from Stephenson. The first dozen locomotives used in America were bought from Stephenson’s workshops. Stephenson believed locomotives had limits, so he preferred longer, more expensive routes with civil engineering work. For example, he supported a longer sea-level route from Ulverston and Whitehaven instead of the direct route favored by Joseph Locke between Lancaster and Carlisle. Locke’s route was built.
Stephenson was less careful with cost estimates and paperwork. He worked with Joseph Locke on the Grand Junction Railway, splitting the line between them. Stephenson’s planning and estimates were not as good as Locke’s, which led to dissatisfaction and Stephenson’s resignation, creating a lasting disagreement.
Despite some competition taking over projects due to his cautious approach, Stephenson had more work than he could handle. He worked on many railways, including the North Midland line from Derby to Leeds, the York and North Midland line from Normanton to York, the Manchester and Leeds, the Birmingham and Derby, and the Sheffield and Rotherham lines.
By the 1840s, Stephenson was seen as a reliable figure rather than a technical innovator. He became the first president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1847. At this time, he was semi-retired, managing mining interests in Derbyshire. Tunnels built for the North Midland Railway revealed coal seams, and Stephenson invested in their use.
George first met Elizabeth (Betty) Hindmarsh, a farmer’s daughter from Black Callerton, in her orchard. Her father refused their marriage because of Stephenson’s low status as a miner. Later, he met Anne Henderson, but she rejected him. He then proposed to her older sister, Frances (Fanny), who was nine years older. They married in 1802. They had two children, Robert (1803) and Fanny (1805), but the daughter died shortly after birth. George’s wife died of tuberculosis the next year. While working in Scotland, Robert was raised by neighbors and later by George’s unmarried sister, Eleanor (Nelly), who lived with them in Killingworth when George returned.
In 1820, George married Betty Hindmarsh at Newburn. They had no children, and Betty died in 1845. On January 11, 1848, George married Ellen Gregory, a farmer’s daughter from Bakewell in Derbyshire, who had been his housekeeper. Seven months later, George became seriously ill with pleurisy and died on August 12, 1848, at Tapton House in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. He was buried at Holy Trinity Church, Chesterfield, next to his second wife.
George Stephenson had two children. His son, Robert, was born in 1803. Robert married Frances Sanderson in 1829 and died in 1859 without children. Robert Stephenson continued his father’s work and became a major railway engineer. He worked on the Alexandria–Cairo railway, which later connected to the Suez Canal. George’s daughter was born in 1805 but died within weeks of her birth. Descendants of the Stephenson family still live in Wylam (his birthplace) and Derbyshire. Some later moved to Perth, Australia, and Minnesota, where they remain today.
The Stephenson engineering family should not be confused with the Stevenson family, known for building lighthouses during the same period. Note the spelling difference.
Legacy
Britain led the world in building railways. These railways helped start the Industrial Revolution by making it easier to move raw materials and finished products. George Stephenson worked on important railways, including the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. His work helped later engineers, such as his son Robert, his assistant Joseph Locke, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Stephenson understood that separate railway lines would eventually connect and needed the same track width. The standard track width used worldwide is because of him. In 2002, Stephenson was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons after a public vote, ranking at number 65.
Samuel Smiles, a Victorian writer who promoted self-help, wrote the first biography of George Stephenson in 1857. Though some criticized the book for favoring George over others, it was popular, and 250,000 copies were sold by 1904. The Band of Hope sold biographies of George in 1859 for one penny each. At one time, people suggested moving George's body to Westminster Abbey. In 1881, 15,000 people celebrated the 100th anniversary of George's birth at Crystal Palace. His image appeared on the reverse of the Series E five-pound note from 1990 to 2003. The Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields is named after George and Robert Stephenson.
George Stephenson's Birthplace is an 18th-century museum in Wylam, Northumberland, England, managed by the National Trust. Dial Cottage in West Moor was his home from 1804, but the museum there has closed. In 1862, a statue of Stephenson was built near Newcastle Central Station in his hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne. The statue, made of bronze, stands on a grit-stone base with four bronze figures representing an engineer, blacksmith, miner, and plate-layer. This statue is listed as Grade II.
Chesterfield Museum in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, has a gallery with items related to Stephenson, including glass tubes he invented for growing straight cucumbers. The museum is in the Stephenson Memorial Hall, near his final home at Tapton House and Holy Trinity Church, where his remains are kept. In Liverpool, a heritage plaque near his former home at 34 Upper Parliament Street honors him. A bronze statue of Stephenson was unveiled at Chesterfield railway station in 2005, along with a working replica of the Rocket steam engine.
Stephenson College at Durham University, founded in 2001 and moved to Durham in 2018, is named after him. Other places named after him include George Stephenson High School in Killingworth, Stephenson Memorial Primary School in Howdon, the Stephenson Railway Museum, the Stephenson Locomotive Society, the Stephenson Centre, and the Stephenson Building at Newcastle University. His final home in Tapton, Chesterfield, is now part of Chesterfield College, called Tapton House Campus. A statue of Stephenson is also at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
From 1990 to 2003, Stephenson's portrait appeared on the reverse of Series E £5 notes from the Bank of England. His image is shown with an engraving of the Rocket steam engine and the Skerne Bridge on the Stockton to Darlington Railway. Stephenson's face is carved on the facade of Lisbon's Victorian railway station. A street in Milan, Italy, is named after him. A large statue of Stephenson, along with one of James Watt, is on the main entrance of Budapest Keleti Station.
In 1985, actor Gawn Grainger played George Stephenson in the television series Doctor Who. In Harry Turtledove's alternate history story The Iron Elephant, a character named George Stephenson appears alongside Richard Trevithick, likely representing real people in a fictional setting.