The first locomotive engine in the world was built just one hundred
years ago by George Stephenson and used at Newcastle, England, at the
Killingworth Colliery.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica _railways_ had their origin in
_tramways_ which were used more than two hundred years ago in the mining
districts of England to carry their output of coal to the sea.
The Stockton and Darlington Railway, about thirty-eight miles in length,
was operating a locomotive driven by Stephenson, with a signalman on
horseback, in advance, in 1825. The passenger coach in this instance was
named the "Experiment," and carried six persons inside and from fifteen
to twenty persons outside. But it was the year 1829, which became famous
in the annals of railways, not only for the opening of the Liverpool and
Manchester line, but for the invention and construction of the first
high speed locomotive of the standard modern type. Robert Stephenson's
engine, "The Rocket," was made under competition for the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway and it gained the prize of five hundred pounds for
lightness, power and speed, awarded by the directors.