INVENTOR

George Stephenson

1781 - 1848

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Icon of person George Stephenson

George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians as a great example of diligent application and thirst for improvement. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of George Stephenson has received more than 1,701,360 page views. His biography is available in 69 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 67 in 2019). George Stephenson is the 17th most popular inventor (down from 16th in 2019), the 123rd most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 100th in 2019) and the 4th most popular British Inventor.

George Stephenson is most famous for inventing the first practical steam locomotive.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.7M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 73.33

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 69

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 12.48

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.57

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, George Stephenson ranks 17 out of 426. Before him are Charles Babbage, Louis Braille, Samuel Morse, Cai Lun, Nikolaus Otto, and Louis Daguerre. After him are Rudolf Diesel, Nicéphore Niépce, Abbas ibn Firnas, Werner von Siemens, Bartolomeo Cristofori, and Samuel Colt.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1781, George Stephenson ranks 2. Before him is Eugène de Beauharnais. After him are Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, Bernard Bolzano, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, René Laennec, Siméon Denis Poisson, Stamford Raffles, Adelbert von Chamisso, William I of Württemberg, Anton Diabelli, and Achim von Arnim. Among people deceased in 1848, George Stephenson ranks 5. Before him are Emily Brontë, Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Gaetano Donizetti, and François-René de Chateaubriand. After him are John Quincy Adams, Christian VIII of Denmark, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, Bernard Bolzano, Caroline Herschel, Vissarion Belinsky, and Nicolas Oudinot.

Others Born in 1781

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Others Deceased in 1848

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, George Stephenson ranks 123 out of 8,785. Before him are Ringo Starr (1940), Edward II of England (1284), J. J. Thomson (1856), Bon Scott (1946), Charles I of England (1600), and Rosalind Franklin (1920). After him are Anne, Queen of Great Britain (1665), Brian Johnson (1947), Mark Knopfler (1949), Robert Owen (1771), William Gilbert (1544), and Roger Moore (1927).

Others born in United Kingdom

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Among INVENTORS In United Kingdom

Among inventors born in United Kingdom, George Stephenson ranks 4. Before him are James Watt (1736), Alexander Graham Bell (1847), and Charles Babbage (1791). After him are Thomas Newcomen (1663), Richard Trevithick (1771), Frank Whittle (1907), John Logie Baird (1888), John Herschel (1792), John Boyd Dunlop (1840), Henry Fox Talbot (1800), and Thomas Savery (1650).

British born Inventors

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