(Reprinted for you): It is generally believed that the real inventor is the British engineer Stephenson
In 1783, Watt's student Murdoch built a steam engine It is a powered car, but the effect is not good and no one uses it. In 1807, the British Trevithick and Vivian successfully built a car driven by a steam engine. However, the car was too heavy and heavy to travel on ordinary roads, and they did not think of putting the car on railroad tracks. , so it was soon abandoned. It was not until 1814 that Stephenson, a British engineer with a background as a cowherd boy, built a steam locomotive that ran on rails and officially invented the train.
Today, when trains of trains flash past us like lightning, quickly disappearing from sight and heading into the distance, we can’t help but express our sincere admiration. The man who invented the train is so great, and he has created a great future for future generations. Leave behind this fast, convenient and comfortable means of transportation.
The European Industrial Revolution replaced handicraft industry with large-scale machine industry. The large-scale machine industry requires a large amount of fuel and raw materials, and the products must be sent to various places. Before the 19th century, transportation relied on water ships. On land, we can only rely on horse-drawn carriages, which is a big contradiction with the needs of large industry. The large-scale machine industry calls for the birth of modern transportation tools.
In the second half of the 16th century, rails made of wood were laid in mines and quarries in England and Germany. Cars running on tracks are propelled by human or animal power. In 1767, metal prices in the UK plummeted. The owner of an iron factory saw the piles of pig iron that could not be sold to make any money and took up a lot of space. He ordered people to cast long iron bars and lay them on the factory floor. On the road, prepare to sell when the iron price rises. However, people found that it was effortless and smooth for vehicles to drive on roads paved with iron bars. In this way, rails were born before trains.
After all, it was not very convenient to drive on the iron bars, so the iron bars were improved and made into grooved rails. This kind of track can prevent the wheels from slipping out, but it is easy for stones and coal dust to accumulate in the grooves, and the rails are easily damaged. Therefore, people made the rails as wide as the top and bottom, and slightly narrower in the middle, so that garbage would not easily accumulate and the rails would not be easily damaged. However, this kind of track is not very stable, and the rails can easily tip over when impacted, causing vehicles to derail and roll over. People then widened the bottom of the rails to form a shape that resembles the Chinese character "work". This shape of track is both stable and reliable and is still in use today.
At that time, the railway had been born, but most of the cars traveling on the railway were horse-drawn. In 1783, Watt's student Murdoch built a car powered by a steam engine, but the effect was not good and no one used it. In 1807, the British Trevithick and Vivian successfully built a car driven by a steam engine. However, the car was too heavy and heavy to travel on ordinary roads, and they did not think of putting the car on railroad tracks. , so it was soon abandoned. It was not until 1814 that Stephenson, a British engineer with a background as a cowherd boy, built a steam locomotive that ran on rails and officially invented the train.
Stephenson was born in 1781. His father was a steam engine stoker in a coal mine. Mother has no job. The family of eight relies entirely on the father's salary and life is very difficult. At the age of 14, Stephenson also came to the coal mine and became a trainee stoker. He likes this job very much. When others get off work, he carefully scrubs the machines and cleans the parts. After disassembling and assembling it many times, he mastered the structure of the machine. Eager to master more knowledge, he went to night school after a hard day's work. He had never been to school and had many difficulties at the beginning of his studies. He was smart, studious and diligent in studying, and quickly mastered knowledge in mechanics, drawing and other aspects. Once, he used the knowledge he learned in books and combined with the actual work to design a machine. The chief engineer at the coal mine saw the sketch of the machine he designed and praised it greatly, which gave Stephenson great encouragement. He studied and worked harder. With diligence, he soon became a skilled mechanical repairman.
In 1907, Trevithick and Vivian built a steam locomotive that could travel on ordinary roads. However, they gave up the invention because the car was too bulky and difficult to drive on ordinary roads. Stephenson summed up the lessons of their failure and began to develop steam locomotives. He improved the boiler that produced steam and changed the vertical boiler to a horizontal boiler. He also made a very far-sighted decision and decided to put the steam locomotive on the track. to travel; rims were added to the sides of the wheels to prevent the train from derailing; and a toothed track was installed between the two load-bearing rails. Because at that time it was considered that steam locomotives could run on tracks, which would avoid the disadvantage of being too heavy to walk on ordinary roads, but would also cause wheel slippage on the tracks. Therefore, a ratchet was installed on the locomotive to allow it to move on the track. It rolls on the toothed third rail and drives the locomotive forward.
In 1814, Stephenson's steam locomotive locomotive came out. The iron guy he invented weighs 5 tons and has a huge flywheel on the front. This flywheel can use inertia to help the locomotive move. Stephenson named his invention "Brooke". This Brook can drive 8 carriages with a total weight of about 30 tons. In the next 10 years, he built 11 more locomotives similar to Brooke.
Stephenson’s new invention also has many shortcomings. The first is that it vibrates too much. Once, it even overturned the car; secondly, the speed was not fast. So Stephenson redesigned a train with improvements. While designing and building the train, he convinced Mr. Pease. At that time, in 1821, Mr. Peace was planning to lay a railway track from Stockton to Darlington for horse-drawn carriages. Following Stephenson's suggestion, Mr. Peace commissioned him to build a locomotive. After Stephenson was commissioned, he stepped up his work. Finally a new, more advanced steam locomotive was built, which he named the "Traveler."
On September 27, 1825, more than 40,000 spectators were packed near Stockton, England. The brass band also stood neatly beside the railway tracks. People were eagerly waiting and looking at the performance. The railway winds away from the couch. Both sides of the railway were also crowded with people coming to watch. Suddenly people heard a passionate whistle, and a locomotive spewed smoke and sped over. Behind the locomotive towed 12 coal cars and 20 carriages, with about 450 passengers in the carriages. Stephenson drove the world's first train himself. The train was approaching and the ground was shaking slightly. The audience was stunned and couldn't believe their eyes. They couldn't believe that the iron guy in front of them was so strong. The train came to a slow stop and a thunderous cheer erupted from the crowd. The brass band played passionate music, seven gun salutes were fired at the same time, and people celebrated the birth of the train in the world. The train traveled from Darlington to Stockton at a speed of 24 kilometers per hour, and the railway transportation industry began on this day.
By this time, the advantages of the train have been fully demonstrated. It is fast, stable, comfortable, safe and reliable. Immediately, there was a boom in building railways and locomotives in the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1832 alone, 17 railroads were built in the United States. Steam locomotives have also been greatly improved around this time, from the original two pairs of wheels built by Stephenson to 5 or even 6 pairs of wheels. And Stephenson continued as the inventor and advocate of this revolutionary means of transportation, solving many problems in railway construction, bridge design, locomotive and rolling stock construction. He has also served as a consultant on numerous railway projects at home and abroad. In this way, trains quickly developed all over the world. To this day, trains are still an important means of transportation in the world and play a huge role in the national economy.
Another theory
In 1801, inventor Trevisek first built a steam-powered vehicle that could travel on ordinary roads, and applied for a patent the following year. On this basis, he transformed Watt's steam engine into a high-pressure steam engine, and used this steam engine to successfully build a locomotive that could run on the track. On February 29, 1804, Trevisek's locomotive drove from Merse to Abercyon along a special track, initiating the glorious journey of the world's first steam locomotive.
Ten years later, the famous British inventor Stephenson built and modified a similar locomotive, laid rails, and began to use it in coal mines. In this way, later generations will regard him as the inventor of the train.