INVENTOR

George Stephenson

1781 - 1848

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George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians as a great example of diligent application and thirst for improvement. His chosen rail gauge, sometimes called "Stephenson gauge", was the basis for the 4-foot-8+1⁄2-inch (1.435 m) standard gauge used by most of the world's railways. Pioneered by Stephenson, rail transport was one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century and a key component of the Industrial Revolution. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. George Stephenson is the 21st most popular inventor (down from 17th in 2019), the 221st most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 123rd in 2019) and the 4th most popular British Inventor.

George Stephenson is most famous for inventing the first practical steam locomotive.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, George Stephenson ranks 21 out of 426. Before him are Louis Daguerre, Nicolas Appert, Rudolf Diesel, Cai Lun, Nicéphore Niépce, and Karl Ferdinand Braun. After him are Hans Lippershey, Eli Whitney, Lee de Forest, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Werner von Siemens, and John Logie Baird.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1781, George Stephenson ranks 1. After him are Eugène de Beauharnais, Bernard Bolzano, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Siméon Denis Poisson, Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, René Laennec, Adelbert von Chamisso, David Brewster, Stamford Raffles, William I of Württemberg, and Achim von Arnim. Among people deceased in 1848, George Stephenson ranks 6. Before him are Gaetano Donizetti, Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Emily Brontë, Christian VIII of Denmark, and François-René de Chateaubriand. After him are John Quincy Adams, Caroline Herschel, Bernard Bolzano, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, Vissarion Belinsky, and María Isabella of Spain.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, George Stephenson ranks 221 out of 8,785. Before him are William Blake (1757), David Livingstone (1813), Saint Boniface (680), Catherine Howard (1523), Guy Fawkes (1570), and Æthelbald, King of Wessex (831). After him are John Harvard (1607), W. H. Auden (1907), William John Macquorn Rankine (1820), Humphry Davy (1778), T. E. Lawrence (1888), and Marie of Romania (1875).

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Among INVENTORS In United Kingdom

Among inventors born in United Kingdom, George Stephenson ranks 4. Before him are James Watt (1736), Alexander Graham Bell (1847), and Charles Babbage (1791). After him are John Logie Baird (1888), Thomas Newcomen (1663), John Herschel (1792), Frank Whittle (1907), Richard Trevithick (1771), John Boyd Dunlop (1840), Henry Fox Talbot (1800), and Rowland Hill (1795).

British born Inventors

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