born Oct. 18, 1787, Hoboken, N.J., U.S.
died April 20, 1856, Hoboken
U.S. engineer and ship designer.
The son of John Stevens , he tested the first steamboat to use screw propellers. He designed the railway T-rail in 1830, and later the railroad spike. He found that rails laid on wooden ties, with crushed stone or gravel beneath, provided a roadbed superior to any known before; his construction remains in universal use.