George Stephenson

Six months after his wedding George contracted pleurisy and died aged 67 on 12 August 1848 at Tapton House in Chesterfield Derbyshire. He became an expert in steam-driven machinery. The Stephenson lamp was used exclusively in the North East England whereas the Davy lamp was used everywhere else.

His rail gauge of 4 feet 8+1⁄2 inches (1435 mm) sometimes called "Stephenson gauge" is the world's standard gauge. George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use steam locomotives the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which opened in 1830.