born June 9, 1781, Wylam, Northumberland, Eng.
died Aug. 12, 1848, Chesterfield, Derbyshire
English engineer, principal inventor of the locomotive .
Son of a coal-mine mechanic, he himself became chief mechanic at a coal mine, where his interest in steam engines led to experiments on a machine to pull coal-filled cars out of the mines. In 1815 he devised a powerful "steam blast" system that made the locomotive practical. In 1825 he built a steam locomotive for the first passenger railway, from Stockton to Darlington, which could carry 450 people at 15 mph (24 km/hr). In 1829, assisted by his son Robert Stephenson , he built his improved locomotive, the Rocket , which won a speed competition at 36 mph (58 km/hr) and became the model for later locomotives. His company built all eight locomotives for the new Liverpool-Manchester railway (1830).
George Stephenson, mezzotint by C. Turner after Henry Perronet Briggs.
Courtesy of the Science Museum, London