George Stephenson was exposed to steam power at a very early age. He was born near Newcastle, England, on June 9, 1781. By the age of fourteen, George was assisting his father, who was a fireman for a steam-powered pump at a coal mine. Within three years, George too was performing as a fireman and learning more about steam technology.

Stephenson attended night school so he could learn to read and study the writings of James Watt and Richard Trevithick. Later he assisted his own son, Robert Stephenson, with homework in order to broaden his own education. Studying and reading evidently helped him, for soon after 1812 George had built thirty-nine stationary steam engines and had begun replacing horse-drawn coal sleds with cars on wooden rails pulled by stationary engines.

Stephenson was also trying to design a traveling steam engine that could carry itself, and cargo, over land. Stephenson's employers commissioned...