乔治斯蒂芬森（1781-1848）

民用和机械工程师

乔治斯蒂芬森在民用和机械工程方面的成就的结合直接影响了我们的大量铁路基础设施。他预见了一个国家的线路网络，在“标准仪表”上以最小的渐变运行。他调查的路线和他设计和建造的结构仍在今天。对于这种开创性的工作，他被称为铁路的父亲。

George Stephenson was born at Wylam, near Newcastle upon Tyne. Without a formal education, at the age of 18 Stephenson paid for his own lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic and quickly displayed considerable mechanical aptitude. His early career was spent working on different types of industrial machinery particularly at collieries in the North East at a time when the industry was expanding rapidly to satisfy the demand of the mills and factories at the start of the industrial revolution. New technologies such as steam engines and fixed rails for easy transportation were being developed for its exploitation.

During the early 19th century, George Stephenson held a number of different jobs around the north east and in Scotland, working on and looking after these early industrial machines. These were hard times, particularly after his first wife (and mother of Robert) died in 1806. However, things began to change when in 1811 Stephenson successfully identified and then fixed a problem with a Newcomen engine which had been installed at a mine belonging to a group of wealthy and influential north east businessmen. They were so impressed with Stephenson’s ability and approach, they put him in charge of all machinery at all of their pits, and paid him an annual salary of £100 per year. For the next ten years while at Killingworth colliery George Stephenson undertook many different experiments and projects relating to steam engines, locomotives and rails, including building his first steam locomotive, Blucher, the first to use flanged wheels rolling on a smooth iron rail. During this time he formulated the ideas that would inform his work on the early railways for which he was to become famous.

Father of the railways

1821年，Stockton＆Darl​​ington铁路被授权。Edward Pease是其首席推广人员，希望加强驻达勒姆郡煤矿之间的运输环节，贸易路线到伦敦。该系列最初是由马匹牵引的。然而，Stephenson与Killingworth的Rails和Steam发动机的实验相信，Stockton＆Darl​​ington铁路招募了他作为新铁路的工程师。他的儿子罗伯特协助的乔治调查了这条线并制定了一个铁路的计划，该计划是最初的专门用于使用机车的世界。议会通过了Stockton＆Darl​​ington Railway Act，第一条铁路轨道于1823年5月23日被铺设。斯托克顿和达林顿铁路26英里线于1825年9月27日开放了交通，跑车No1，在纽卡斯尔罗伯特斯蒂芬森＆公司建造。铁路原始计划对马车和购物车使用的影响影响了乔治的利用被称为“标准仪”的东西。- 轨道之间的4英尺8 1/2。

斯蒂芬森的成功与斯托克顿和享受Darlington railway meant that he was much in demand with other fledgling railway projects. He was quickly enlisted by the Liverpool & Manchester Railway and was appointed their chief engineer bringing with him his assistant Joseph Locke. Stephenson understood that for maximum efficiency of the engines, gradients had to be kept to a minimum. To keep the line as level as possible, building the Liverpool & Manchester Railway included major civil engineering undertakings on a scale not seen before, for example at the Sankey Viaduct, the skew bridge at Rainhill, the Wapping Tunnel and the cutting at Olive Mount. The Rainhill Trials in October 1829 settled once and for all the advantages of locomotive power on the new railway as Rocket, built by Robert Stephenson & Co proved that engines could be fast and reliable. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway – the first intercity railway in the world – opened for traffic on 15 September 1830 with great ceremony, during which George drove Rocket in the procession.

The success of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway secured George Stephenson’s position, and he became associated with many railway projects mainly in the north midlands and south Pennines during the 1830s, including linking the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with lines to Birmingham (the Grand Junction Railway) and Leeds (the Manchester & Leeds Railway). By the 1840s George Stephenson stepped back from railway engineering, concentrating instead on his interests in mining. Younger engineers such as his son Robert Stephenson, Joseph Locke and Isambard Kingdom Brunel were driving the construction and development of the railway forward. During this time he was a founder of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and was appointed its first President in 1847, shortly before his death in Chesterfield on 12 August 1848.

相关链接

• George Stephenson's Birthplace
• BBC history: George Stephenson
• 乔治斯蒂芬森的生活（1860年）