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 seen by the Victorians as a model for hard work and a desire to improve. The rail gauge he chose, sometimes called the "Stephenson gauge," became the standard for most railways worldwide. This gauge measures 4 feet 8 and a half inches (1.435 meters).
Rail transport, pioneered by Stephenson, was one of the most important inventions of the 19th century and played a major role in the Industrial Revolution. The Locomotion No. 1, built by George and his son Robert’s company, Robert Stephenson and Company, was the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in 1825. George also designed the first public inter-city railway line to use locomotives, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Stephenson continued to lead the development of this new transportation system, solving challenges in road construction, bridge design, and the creation of locomotives and train cars. He built many other railways in the Midlands and provided guidance 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 a 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 understood the importance of learning and paid to attend night school to study reading, writing, and arithmetic. He could not 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 a 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 also 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 named Frances after her mother, was born in July 1805. She died three weeks later and was buried in St Bartholomew’s Church, Long Benton, north of Newcastle.
In 1806, George’s wife, Frances, died of consumption, a disease now called 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 find 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 lost his sight 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 improvements were 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 mine engines. He became an expert in steam-powered machinery.
Early projects
In 1815, knowing that open flames in mines often caused dangerous explosions, Stephenson started testing a lamp that could burn safely in areas with gas without causing fires. Around the same time, the well-known scientist Humphry Davy, who was from Cornwall, was also working on solving this problem. Without formal scientific training, Stephenson used trial and error to create a lamp where air entered through small holes, preventing the flame 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 gas leak. The two designs were different: Davy’s lamp had a gauze screen, while Stephenson’s used 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 scientist who could invent the lamp through 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, he sent him to a private school where he learned to speak Standard English with a Received Pronunciation accent. This helped Robert in future meetings with Parliament, where officials preferred him over his father.
A local committee investigated and cleared Stephenson of wrongdoing, proving he had created the “Geordie Lamp” independently and gave him £1,000. However, Davy and his supporters refused to accept this, believing it was impossible for an uneducated man like Stephenson to solve the problem. In 1833, a House of Commons committee confirmed Stephenson had equal claim to inventing the safety lamp. Davy died still believing Stephenson had stolen his idea. The Geordie Lamp was mainly used in North East England, while the Davy Lamp was used elsewhere. This experience made Stephenson distrust scientists from London who focused on theory rather than practical work.
In his book George and Robert Stephenson, author L.T.C. Rolt wrote that opinions about the two lamps’ safety and brightness varied. 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 gas suddenly increased, the Davy Lamps became dangerously hot (a risk for explosions), while the Geordie Lamps simply went out.
There is a theory that Stephenson indirectly gave the name “Geordies” to people from the North East of England. The name of the Geordie Lamp became linked to the miners of the region. By 1866, anyone from Newcastle upon Tyne could be called a Geordie.
Cornishman Richard Trevithick is credited with researching and developing steam engines, leading to what is called “the first steam-powered passenger vehicle” or “his first high-pressure steam locomotive.” This was the “Puffing Devil” (or “Puffer”), tested on 24 December 1801. Trevithick improved James Watt’s steam engine to use high-pressure steam, which Watt had considered too dangerous. Both accounts show that the early high-pressure locomotive operated without tracks, as Trevithick later built a steam engine that worked on rails in 1804. He later visited Tyneside and built an engine for a mine owner, inspiring others to create their own engines.
Stephenson designed 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 movement during the Battle of Waterloo. Blücher was based on Matthew Murray’s locomotive Willington, which Stephenson studied at Kenton and Coxlodge colliery on Tyneside. It was built in the colliery workshop behind Stephenson’s home, Dial Cottage, on Great Lime Road. The locomotive could pull 30 tons of coal uphill at 4 mph (6.4 km/h), and was the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive, relying on the contact between its wheels and the rail for traction.
It is said Stephenson built 16 locomotives at Killingworth, though a complete list of all 16 has not been confirmed. Most were used at Killingworth or the Hetton colliery railway. A six-wheeled locomotive was built 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.
At the time, the new engines were too heavy for wooden rails or plate-way tracks, and iron edge rails were still being developed. Cast iron was too brittle and broke easily. Stephenson, along with William Losh, improved the design of cast-iron edge rails to reduce breakage. For a short time, Losh, Wilson and Bell produced rails at their Walker ironworks.
According to Rolt, Stephenson solved the problem of the locomotive’s weight on early rails. He tested a steam spring to cushion the weight using steam pressure on pistons to support the locomotive frame but later used multiple wheels or bogies to spread the weight. For the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Stephenson used wrought-iron malleable 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 for downhill sections and locomotives for flat or uphill parts. This was the first railway that did not rely on animals for power, opening in 1822. The line used a gauge of 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm), which Stephenson had used earlier at Killingworth wagonway.
Other locomotives include:
- 1817–1824 The Duke for the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway.
The First Railways
In 1821, a law was passed by Parliament to allow the construction 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 rails, 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 railway. Pease and Stephenson had started a company in Newcastle to make locomotives, called Robert Stephenson and Company. George Stephenson’s son Robert was the managing director. 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. Other locomotives built for the line included Hope, Diligence, and Black Diamond. The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825. Driven by Stephenson, Locomotion carried 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 passenger car, Experiment, was attached to the train and carried important guests on the opening journey. This was the first time a steam locomotive railway carried passengers.
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 gauge for railways worldwide.
Stephenson discovered through experiments at Killingworth that half the power of a locomotive was used to climb a slope as gentle as 1 in 260. He concluded that railways should be built as flat as possible. He used this knowledge when working on the Bolton and Leigh Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), designing difficult 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 hard for Stephenson to get the railway approved by Parliament, especially during questioning by Edward Hall Alderson. The original bill was rejected, and a revised bill for a new route was later passed. The new route required crossing Chat Moss, a peat bog that seemed bottomless. Stephenson solved this by floating the railway across the bog using a method similar to one used by John Metcalf. Metcalf had built roads across marshes in the Pennines by laying a foundation of heather and branches, which bonded together under the weight of passing vehicles, with stones on top.
As the L&MR neared completion in 1829, its directors held 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, which won the contest and became famous. George Stephenson’s son Robert had been 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 gave many suggestions. One important 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 L&MR opened on 15 September 1830, with important figures from government and industry, including the Prime Minister and the Duke of Wellington, attending. The day began with a procession of eight trains leaving 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 event was marred 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 the tragedy, the railway was a great success. Stephenson became famous and was offered the position of chief engineer for many other railways.
In 1830, the grand opening of the skew bridge in Rainhill over the L&MR took place. The bridge was the first to cross a railway at an angle. It was 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 required bricks in the arch to be laid 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). It is a listed structure.
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 railway, 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 raised the rest through his connections in Liverpool. 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 proposed Swannington to Leicester railway route and was thought to have valuable coal. Stephenson bought the estate because of its location and the fact that Leicester was getting coal from Derbyshire by canal. He used a mining method called "tubbing," which was already used in the Midlands, to reach deep coal seams. His mine successfully delivered the first rail cars of coal to Leicester, cutting coal prices and saving the city about £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, and the first locomotives used in the United States were bought from his workshops. Stephenson believed locomotives had limits, so he preferred longer, more expensive routes with less steep grades. For example, he supported a longer sea-level route from Ulverston to Whitehaven instead of the direct route Joseph Locke proposed between Lancaster and Carlisle. Locke’s route was built.
Stephenson was not always careful with costs or paperwork. He worked with Joseph Locke on the Grand Junction Railway, splitting the project in half. Locke’s planning and estimates were better, and the board was unhappy with Stephenson’s work. This led to Stephenson resigning and a lasting disagreement with Locke.
Although Stephenson lost some projects because of his cautious approach, he still had more work than he could handle. He worked on several 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 an innovator. He became the first president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers when it was formed in 1847. He was semi-retired by then, managing his mining interests in Derbyshire. Tunnels for the North Midland Railway uncovered 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 social status as a miner. He later met Anne Henderson, but she rejected him. He then focused on her older sister, Frances (Fanny), who was nine years older. They married in 1802 at Newburn Church. They had two children: Robert (1803) and Fanny (1805). The younger daughter died shortly after birth. George’s wife died the next year, likely from tuberculosis. While working in Scotland, Robert was raised by neighbors and later by George’s unmarried sister, Eleanor (Nelly), who lived with them in Killingworth after George returned.
In 1820, George married Betty Hindmarsh at Newburn Church. Their marriage was happy, but they had no children. Betty died in 1845. In 1848, George married Ellen Gregory, a farmer’s daughter from Bakewell, Derbyshire, who had been his housekeeper. Seven months after their wedding, 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 financially supported the families of workers who died in his employ due to accidents or other hardships, both inside and outside his family. He also enjoyed gardening, building hothouses at Tapton House to grow exotic fruits and vegetables. He had a friendly rivalry with Joseph Paxton, the head gardener at nearby Chatsworth House, and won twice.
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 became a major railway engineer and worked on the Alexandria–Cairo railway, which later connected to the Suez Canal. George’s daughter was born in 1805 but died shortly after birth. Descendants of the Stephenson family live in Wylam (his birthplace) and Derbyshire today. Some later moved to Perth, Australia, and Minnesota.
The Stephenson family of engineers should not be confused with the Stevenson family, who built lighthouses during the same time. Note the spelling difference.
Legacy
Britain led the world in developing railways, which helped the Industrial Revolution by making it easier to move raw materials and finished goods. George Stephenson worked on important railways, such as the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. His work helped future engineers, including his son Robert, his assistant Joseph Locke, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Stephenson understood that railways would eventually be connected and needed a standard width. The standard gauge used worldwide was established because of him. In 2002, Stephenson was named on the BBC's television show and list of the 100 Greatest Britons after a UK-wide 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 it for favoring Stephenson over others, it was widely read, and 250,000 copies were sold by 1904. The Band of Hope sold biographies of Stephenson at a low cost in 1859. At one time, there was a plan to move Stephenson’s body to Westminster Abbey. In 1881, 15,000 people celebrated the 100th anniversary of his 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 historic house museum in Wylam, Northumberland, managed by the National Trust. Dial Cottage in West Moor, where he lived from 1804, still exists, but the museum there has closed. In 1862, a memorial statue of Stephenson was built near Newcastle Central Station in his hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne. The statue, made of bronze and grit-stone, includes four figures representing an engineer, blacksmith, miner, and plate-layer. It is listed as Grade II.
Chesterfield Museum in Derbyshire has a gallery with memorabilia related to Stephenson, including glass tubes he designed 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 marks his former home at 34 Upper Parliament Street. A bronze statue of Stephenson was unveiled at Chesterfield railway station in 2005, where a working replica of the Rocket was displayed.
Stephenson College at Durham University, established in 2001 and later moved to Durham, is named after him. Other places and institutions 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, the Stephenson Building at Newcastle University, and Tapton House Campus at Chesterfield College. A statue of Stephenson is also displayed at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
From 1990 to 2003, Stephenson’s portrait appeared on the reverse of Series E £5 notes issued by the Bank of England. His image was shown with an engraving of the Rocket steam engine and the Skerne Bridge on the Stockton to Darlington Railway. A statue of Stephenson is carved into the facade of Lisbon’s Victorian railway station. In Milan, a street named Via Giorgio Stephenson honors him. A large statue of Stephenson, alongside one of James Watt, is displayed at Budapest Keleti station.
In 1985, actor Gawn Grainger portrayed Stephenson in the Doctor Who serial The Mark of the Rani. In Harry Turtledove’s alternate history story “The Iron Elephant,” a character named George Stephenson appears alongside Richard Trevithick, likely as fictional representations rather than historical figures.