George Stephenson
By Illa Vij

LONG ago, the fastest means of transport known to man was a galloping horse! On September 9, 1781, a son was born to a humble colliery fireman named Robert Stephenson, who lived in Wylam, near New Castle. Robert was an uneducated man but with a great imagination. This gift was passed on to his son George, and it helped him become world famous. It’s strange that George Stephenson did not invent the steam engine, nor was he the first person to put a steam locomotive on rails, yet the railway age began with him.

George, as a child, did not go to school. He was barely nine years old, when he began earning the great sum of two pence a day, minding cattle. He had enough time on his hands and his imaginative mind worked at creating things. He made whistles out of reeds, tiny models of mining engines out of clay! By the time he was 12, he lead horses to pull the plough.

He had become a strong lad with a lot of determination to work. He possessed a happy, generous nature and kept his mind open, ever ready to learn. He was only 14 years old when he was appointed assistant foreman in a colliery. He worked under his own father. His immense interest in machines took him up the ladder very fast.

Robert was 18, when he joined a night school with an urge to read and write. Along side, he worked as a mechanic. His main interest lay in steam engines. At the age of 19, he felt happy and proud that he could write his own name. During this time Richard Trevithick, a Cornishman, invented the first steam locomotive to run on rails. George heard of it and saw it. He was determined to build a better one.

At Killingworth Colliery, a new pumping engine had been installed, but it did not work. Engineers tried to set it right but it remained out of order. Stephenson studied the engine and felt that he knew what was wrong with it. After gaining permission to work on it, he set it right in four days. The owners were so delighted that he was awarded £ 10 and a holiday, the first in his life. With his first success, everyone at the colliery began respecting him. The owners respectfully co-operated with him, when he declared that he could construct a new kind of locomotive.

He was provided with the material and the manpower required. It took him 10 months to complete his first locomotive. George Stephenson’s locomotive was a wheezing contraption which moved in a series of jerks and jolts. It moved at about 40 miles an hour and it was the first locomotive in the world to run with smooth wheels on edge rails. The self-taught inventor was only 33 years old then. He built better and bigger locomotives also designed to haul coal from the pits. He dreamt of long railway lines with locomotives carrying men and material.

In 1821, at the age of 40, George Stephenson left the collieries to build a railway line between Stockton and Darlington. Four years later, he drove a locomotive along the 10-mile stretch, drawing a train of 38 engines loaded with 600 passengers, coal and flour. The railway age had been initiated.

The merchants of other cities like Liverpool and Manchester wanted their cities to be linked by railway. Stephenson began his work, but there was a lot of opposition from the canal companies because their business seemed to be threatened. They tried their best to stop him.

He was attacked by mobs and bulls, equipment was destroyed and sermons were preached against railways in some of the churches. Battles took place in Parliament too. The argument was that locomotive would frighten their animals, smoke would poison the air, buildings along the railway line would catch fire, horse breeding would suffer, hay and oats would not be sold and the nation’s iron reserves would be exhausted. Harness makers and coachmen also raised their voice against the railway.

Hence, Parliament refused to give permission to set up railway. But Stephenson did not give up. With the support of Prof William Huskisson, M.P. for Liverpool, he won the battle. The line was opened on October 6, 1829. Stephenson was at the footplate and the Prime Minister in the carriage behind him. Unfortunately, Huskisson was accidentally knocked down by one of the locomotives. Since no doctor was around, Stephenson rushed him to Manchester at an extraordinary speed of 36 m.p.h. The speed was extraordinary because in those days this speed was unheard of. Huskisson died, but the railway that he had supported had proved itself.

After this success, Stephenson’s services were in great demand and thereafter he never looked back. He became rich but success, fame and money never made him a snob. He always remained cheerful, helpful and kind. On August 12, 1848, he died in his home on the hill above Chesterfield.