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Robert Stephenson

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1750-1900

   Robert Stephenson.
   Robert Stephenson.

   Robert Stephenson FRS ( October 16, 1803– October 12, 1859) was an
   English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the
   famed railway and locomotive engineer; many of the achievements
   popularly credited to his father were actually joint efforts of father
   and son.

Overview

   Robert Stephenson was well-educated prior to officially starting his
   career. His mother and sister died early in his life so young Robert
   spent much of his time as a child in the shadows of his father George
   Stephenson. Although lacking any formal education of his own, George
   had considerable engineering skills having improved mining operations
   for the Killingworth pits near their home. Robert thus developed a
   growing familiarity with mining equipment and machinery as he grew up
   in the Tyneside mining community. Early on, George saw great potential
   in Robert and was very dedicated to seeing that Robert was as
   well-educated and schooled as possible.

   After a private education at the Bruce Academy in Newcastle upon Tyne,
   an apprenticeship to Nicolas Wood, the manager of Killingworth
   Colliery, and a period at the University of Edinburgh, Robert went to
   work with his father on his railway projects, the first being the
   Stockton and Darlington. In 1823 Robert set up a company in partnership
   with his father and Edward Pease to build railway locomotives; the
   firm, Robert Stephenson and Company, built a large proportion of the
   world's early locomotives and survived into the mid-20th century. The
   original factory building still exists, at Forth Street in Newcastle,
   as the Robert Stephenson Centre.

   Robert did a good deal of the work for the Rainhill Trials-winning
   Rocket; following its success, the company built further locomotives
   for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and other newly-established
   railways, including the Leicester and Swannington Railway.

   In 1833 Robert was given the post of Chief Engineer for the London and
   Birmingham Railway, the first main-line railway to enter London, and
   the initial section of the West Coast Main Line. The line posed a
   number of difficult civil engineering challenges, most notably Kilsby
   Tunnel, and was completed in 1838. Stephenson was directly responsible
   for the tunnel under Primrose Hill, which required excavation by
   shafts. Early locomotives could not manage the climb from Euston
   Station to Chalk Farm, requiring Stephenson to devise a system that
   would be draw them up the hill by chains using a steam engine near The
   Roundhouse. This impressive structure remains in use today as an Arts
   Centre.

   He constructed a number of well-known bridges, including the High Level
   Bridge at Newcastle upon Tyne, the wrought-iron box-section Britannia
   Bridge across the Menai Strait, the Conwy railway bridge between
   Llandudno Junction and Conwy, Arnside Viaduct in Cumbria, the Royal
   Border Bridge at Berwick-upon-Tweed and a joint road and rail bridge in
   1850 over the River Nene at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire.

   One of Stephenson's few failures was his design of the Dee bridge,
   which collapsed under a train. He was heavily criticized for the
   design, even before the collapse, particularly for the poor choice of
   materials, which included cast iron.

   He served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Whitby from 1847
   until his death. He was a commissioner of the short-lived London
   Metropolitan Commission of Sewers from 1848. He was President of the
   Institution of Civil Engineers for two years from 1855. His remains are
   interred at Westminster Abbey.

   Stephenson was well respected by his engineering peers and had a
   lifetime friendship with Joseph Locke, a rival engineer during his
   career. One other such friendship included a friendship with Isambard
   Kingdom Brunel who often help Stevenson on other various projects.

   The Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields is named after George
   and Robert Stephenson.

In fiction

   Stephenson appears as a character in the anime film Steamboy, in that
   world having apparently lived until 1866. In the English dub of the
   film his character also speaks with a rather posh stereotypical English
   accent and not the northern tones Stephenson used.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stephenson"
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