George stephenson Biography

George Stephenson

English mechanical engineer who invented the steam locomotive (Wylam, Northumberland, 1781-Chesterfield, Derbyshire, 1848).The son of a mechanic who operated a steam pump to drain water in a mine (of the Newcomen type), he became familiar with these machines from a very young age.His curiosity led him to study at night school, and while he made a living doing all kinds of trades, he continued to educate himself by helping his son review the lessons.

George Stephenson

Finally established as chief mechanic at the Killingworth mine, from 1813 he became interested in the application of James' steam engine Watt to the hauling of wagons on rails.He created the Blucher locomotive, which he progressively perfected, until in 1821 he convinced the promoters of the Stockton to Darlington railway project to have it drawn by a steam locomotive and not by horses; This is how the first modern railway line emerged, built by Stephenson in 1825.

Success led to a call to build the much longer Liverpool-Manchester line; on that occasion, his Rocket locomotive won a race with other locomotives who aspired to be employed on the line (1829).Stephenson installed a factory in Newcastle from which the eight locomotives that operated on this first regular railway service came out, and was called upon to build or advise on many other railways that were spreading throughout the world.

The locomotive Rocket

With his practical talent for mechanics, George Stephenson solved on the fly the many problems that They were emerging in the layout of new lines, construction of bridges, machines, rails and wagons, in addition to confronting those who distrusted this new means of communication due to its supposed effects on health and the environment.The construction of railway networks gave a definitive boost to the Industrial Revolution by notably increasing the demand for coal, iron and machinery and facilitating the transport of heavy goods and people; The need for heavy investment, on the other hand, preluded the formation of large industrial and financial corporations, a characteristic phenomenon of the Second Industrial Revolution.

Comments

Hernando Tellez Biography

Hernando Téllez (Santafé de Bogotá, 1908-1966) Colombian writer and journalist.From a very young age, he showed his journalistic skills, as a contributor to the magazine Universidad directed by Germán Arciniegas, and as an assistant to Enrique Santos in El Tiempo . He was also deputy director of El Liberal and director of the magazine Semana .During the period between 1943 and 1944 he served as Colombian consul in Marseille and senator of the Republic, but he stood out above all for being one of the most complete writers of his time (he was a translator, commentator, short story writer, essayist and literary critic ). In his extensive essay work he dealt with issues of literature, society, politics and everyday life.Téllez was a poet of the essay, as well as profound; He was a great craftsman of the language, a teacher in a sober and effective handling of the language.He was a sensitive observer of daily life, an acute critic of the social and political life of the country...

Phoenician numbers

In History Today Online we explained in a previous post which were the Arabic numerals, but the truth is that they are not the only ones, and although somewhat complicated to understand, the truth is that the Phoenician numbers are perhaps much more difficult.In History Today Online we talk to you now of which are the Phoenician numbers. The Phoenicians also known as Canaanites, although they were a civilization that occupied a region called Canaan and was a territory that currently encompasses Israel, Syria and Lebanon.They always stood out for their art, closely linked to the different Mediterranean influences and as not for an alphabet that they created and that is in fact the origin of the alphabet that we know today, they also had a numerical system and that we tried to decipher below. The Phoenician Numbers: The main basis of the Phoenician numbers, are the angles and the stripes since these are the base they used to create the different numbers.Depending on how e...

Humberto Fernández Morán Biography

Humberto Fernández Morán (Maracaibo, Venezuela, 1924-Stockholm, Sweden, 1999) Venezuelan scientist.Inventor of the diamond blade, he was a pioneer in electron microscopy techniques and decisive in the process of scientific modernization of his country, in which he founded the Venezuelan Institute of Neurology and Brain Research (IVNIC). Humberto Fernández carried out his first studies between the capital of Zulia, Curaçao and New York.In 1936 he entered the German School of Maracaibo and the following year he left for Germany, where he finished high school at the Schulgemeinde Wichersdorf high school in Sallfeld.At the age of fifteen, he began his medical studies at the University of Munich.During the Second World War, six days before the Normandy landing (1944), in a basement and under low aerial bombardment, he graduated in medicine with Summa cum laude . Humberto Fernández Morán The following year he revalidated his degree at the Central University of Venezuela and worked ...

Iris Murdoch Biography

Iris Murdoch (Jean O.Bayley, Dublin, 1919-Oxford, 1999) English narrator and essayist.His childhood was spent in London.From 1938 to 1942 he studied philosophy and literature at Somerville College, Oxford where he learned Latin and Greek and modern languages.From 1948 to 1963 he taught philosophy at Oxford and between 1942 and 1944 he worked at the British Treasury and then in Brussels, at the United Nations. During the last part of his life he suffered from Alzheimer's disease.He wrote more than thirty novels, plays, and volumes of poetry.His first published book was Sartre, the romantic rationalist (1953), a study on the French philosopher and his system of ideas. Bajo la red (1954) was his first novel. Some novels of his first period, such as La campana ( The Bell , 1958) or The Red and the Green (1965), which takes place in the framework of the 1916 insurrection in Dublin, follow the historical and psychological tradition of the 19th century novel.Other works, o...

Josep Llimona Biography

Josep Llimona (Barcelona, 1864-id., 1934) Spanish sculptor.He frequented the workshop of Frederic Trías and completed his studies at the Escuela de la Llotja.In 1880 he went to Rome on a scholarship from the Barcelona City Council.With the works he carried out in Rome, among others a sketch for the equestrian statue of Ramón Berenguer el Grande, he has already achieved awards and a great reputation.Since his return to Barcelona, the orders and the realizations were constant.After a period dominated by religious themes ( First Communion , 1897), he turned to the female nude, a field in which some of his masterpieces are inscribed ( Desconsolation , Youth ).In other works, such as The Forger , the tenderness of the nudes gives way to a contained aggressiveness.He is also owed, among many other creations, the monument to Dr.Robert and the Risen Christ of Montserrat. Josep Llimona Hermano del painter Joan Llimona, also his sons María and Rafael would be artists, dedicated ...

Edward Kennedy Biography

Edward Kennedy (Edward Moore Kennedy, also known as Ted Kennedy; Boston, 1932-Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, 2009) American politician member of the Kennedy clan, one of the most influential families in the history of the Democratic Party.Brother of Robert Francis Kennedy and President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, he began his political career as a Democratic senator from Massachusetts in 1964, a position to which he would be reelected in 1970, 1982, 1992 and 1996. Edward Kennedy From 1969 to 1971 he was deputy leader of the Senate Democratic majority.His presidential aspirations were frustrated when he was convicted of reckless manslaughter in a 1969 car accident.While he was driving while intoxicated, his vehicle fell into a lake and his companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, was killed.Despite this, he would later present his candidacy for the nomination for the presidential elections of 1980 and 1988, but was defeated. Edward Kennedy had married in 1958 with Virginia Joan Bennet, with who...

Heinrich maier Biography

Heinrich Maier (Heidenheim, 1867-Berlin, 1933) German philosopher.He produced a "critical realism", along the lines of H.Driesch.He is the author, among other works, of Aristotle's syllogistics (1896-1900) and of The philosophy of reality (1926-1935).

Hendrik Van de Hulst Biography

Hendrik Van de Hulst (Utrecht, 1918) Dutch astronomer.He predicted the existence of radio radiation, wavelength 21 cm, from atoms in space.This radiation was experimentally detected in the early 1950s by F.Bloch and E.M.Purcell and has made it possible to determine with great precision the position and shape of the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

Antonio Salieri Biography

Antonio Salieri (Legnano, present-day Italy, 1750-Vienna, 1825) Italian composer and pedagogue.Although in his time he was one of the most appreciated composers, today he is better known for his rivalry with Mozart than for his own creative work, to the point of being the protagonist of a legend, which emerged during Romanticism, which accused him of having poisoned the genius of Salzburg. Antonio Salieri Salieri was educated in Venice, from which he moved to Vienna in 1766 in the company of Leopold Gassmann, his teacher from that time on moment.It was this Bohemian composer who introduced him to the Austrian court, in the service of which the musician's entire career was to develop.In Vienna he became acquainted with Gluck, Scarlatti, Metastasio, and Calzabigi and became known as the author of comic operas at the court theater.In 1771, with Armida , he began serious opera.In 1774 he succeeded Gassmann as court composer.Between 1778 and 1780 he traveled through Italy, where...

Josef Hoffmann Biography

Josef Hoffmann (Pirnitz, 1870-Vienna, 1956) Austrian architect, decorator and urban planner.He was a disciple of O.Wagner and participated, along with J.M.Olbrich and other architects, in the creation of the avant-garde movement of the Secession (1897).His work is characterized by the careful treatment of the surfaces achieved through geometric decorations; The Stoclet Palace in Brussels stands out for its calculated elegance of style (1905-1911).

History Today Online

Search This Blog