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Person

George Stephenson

A portrait of George Stephenson, an English engineer from 1781 to 1848, dressed in formal attire with a serious expression, set against a dark background.

English engineer (1781–1848) who built the world's first inter-city steam railway, the Liverpool and Manchester, in 1830. The son of a colliery fireman, Stephenson learned his trade on the wagonways of north-east England, and the gauge he carried out of them — four feet eight and a half inches — became the global default by accident of being first to scale.

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