Born June 9, 1781

Wylam, England

Died August 12, 1848

Chesterfield, England

British engineer, inventor

"I put up with every rebuff, and went on with my plans, determined not to be put down."

George Stephenson was a largely self-taught engineer who developed the steam blast locomotive, or railroad engine. Stephenson became the leading manufacturer of railroads and locomotives in England at the height of the Industrial Revolution, a period of fast-paced economic change that began in Great Britain in the middle of the eighteenth century. The Industrial Revolution resulted in many changes in societies where it took place, especially England. One of those changes was to open new prospects for success and wealth to people born into modest circumstances.

Such was the case with Stephenson, whose father worked in a coal mine and who himself spent his...