How to videos Why join? George Stephenson and the development of the railway. Why is George Stephenson famous? Stephenson was one of six children born into a poor mining family in Wylam, Northumberland on 9 June His father, Robert, worked on the engines that were used to pump water from the mines and the young George Stephenson longed to be in charge of these steam-driven engines. As a young boy he had a number of jobs before going down the pit to mine coal at the age of ten.
At 14 he became an assistant fireman and later worked on the winding machine which pulled the cages of miners up from the pit face. George did to know how to read or write until he was He went to night school and taught himself over a three-year period.
He wanted to learn as much as possible about engines. Later Robert helped his father on many projects and became a famous engineer and bridge builder in his own right. In George fixed the broken pump engine at a local flooded mine and impressed the owners. This led to him being promoted and acknowledged as a local expert on engines.
He persuaded local backers to support his plan for a locomotive engine. In the Railway Board announced a competition to determine which was the best engine. The Stockton to Darlington line was the world's first passenger railway. The railway age had begun and George Stephenson was its guiding spirit. George Stephenson's First Steam Locomotive. A milestone in transportation was reached on July 25th, Stephenson later went on to develop much more powerful engines such as the 'Blutcher' in and the famous 'Rocket' which reached speeds of 22 m.
The power of steam was later used to run steam turbines. These turbines work in a similar way to a windmill. The steam which is under high pressure is directed towards the blades of the turbines which make them turn.
The steam is then passed on to stationary blades which then direct the steam onto rotating blades. Novelty was actually faster than Rocket, but broke down and had to withdraw. Cycloped was clearly not in real contention, but amazingly the horse-powered locomotive design was used in America by the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company.
It seems likely Robert Stephenson also considered it a rival, having written to Henry Booth in August describing Hackworth's "ingenious" plan for a boiler. Although not as well-remembered as the Stephensons, Hackworth was a vital figure in the development of steam locomotives and still has his supporters, particularly in County Durham. At a time when the vast majority of people travelled almost exclusively on foot, the spectacle promised by the trials was irresistibly exciting, and crowds of over 10, reportedly turned out to watch.
There was a band playing, and the lively atmosphere recalled that at a horse race. The ingenuity and futuristic thinking on display at Rainhill also captured the imagination of experts in the field, who came in great numbers to watch the trials.
Although locomotives had been around for 25 years, they had never achieved such feats of speed and power. The newspapers followed progress at the trials, describing in colourful detail the astonishing achievements of the engines, as well as the personal rivalries and tribulations of the engineers.
The Derby Mercury, for instance, described the way Rocket "darted past the spectators", comparing it with the "rapidity with which the swallow darts through the air". This public fascination with—and sometimes fear of—locomotives continued after the trials and companies were quick to capitalise, producing all manner of commemorative items for sale. Drawings and paintings from around this time give a real insight into just how unfamiliar the idea of railway travel still was to the public—while the people and landscapes are well-depicted, the locomotives themselves often seem oddly squashed and misproportioned.
Artists simply didn't have a frame of reference for how to depict these incredible new machines. Before Rocket powered to victory, steam locomotives were crude and inefficient, only used for slow goods trains. None of these were exactly the same—the original Rocket was a prototype built to win the trials, rather than a suitable engine for daily traffic.
The pace of change in railway technology was so fast by this point that Rocket was substantially rebuilt within 18 months and laid aside within 10 years, and by the original was out of use completely. Rocket wasn't a perfect design, but its success lit the spark which catalysed decades of continued ingenuity in rail engineering. Professional people could travel to another town, transact a full day's business and return home the same day—an impossibility in the days of coaching.
Freight was carried too, of course, but for the first time it was the passenger who was more important—and, crucially, more profitable. Investors saw the potential, and in a few short years Britain would be in the grip of 'Railway Mania'. Rocket and the other Rainhill competitors were locomotives—engines which provide motive power to haul a train of carriages, wagons or other rail vehicles. When pulling carriages, the whole thing becomes a train.
Rocket achieved an average speed of 12mph at Rainhill, with a top speed of 30mph on a locomotive-only run. Yellow and black, reflecting contemporary stagecoaches—which would have been familiar to spectators at Rainhill. Perhaps surprisingly, it isn't known for certain who drove Rocket at Rainhill. Some suggest it was manned by George and Robert Stephenson themselves, while others make a claim for an assistant called Mark Wakefield. One of the cylinder castings cracked during the trial, leading to a loss of motive power—this naturally caused some suspicion and ill will from Hackworth's supporters after Rocket's victory.
You'll find these books and many more in the Search Engine library. You can also browse our library catalogue online. At the dawn of the industrial age, brilliant engineers were designing the first railways. But who took on the hard graft of building them?
How did a sleepy County Durham town become so vital to the story of the railways? What did local people make of the radical new technology changing the face of their landscape?
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