What is robert stephenson famous for

Primary Sources

(1) Samuel Smiles, Life of George Stephenson (1875)

Robert Stephenson went to Mr. Bruce's school in Percy Street, Newcastle, in 1815, when he was about twelve years old. His father bought him a donkey, on which he rode into Newcastle and back daily. When Richard went to school he was a shy, unpolished country lad, speaking the broad dialect of the pitman; and the other boys would tease him. As a scholar he was steady and diligent, and his master was accustomed to hold him up to the laggards of the school as an example of good conduct and industry.

(2) When Robert Stephenson wrote William James when he heard about his financial problems (August, 1823)

It gives rise to feelings of true regret when I reflect on your situation; but yet a consolation springs up when I consider your preserving spirit will for ever bear you up in the arms of triumph, instances of which I have witnessed of too forcible a character to be easily effaced from my memory.

(3) Samuel Smiles, a close friend of Robert Stephenson, became concerned about his poor health.

He was habitually careless of his health, and perhaps he indulged in narcotics to a prejudicial extent. Hence he often became ill. When Mr. Sopwith succeeded in persuading Mr. Stephenson to limit his indulgence in cigars and stimulants, the consequence was that by the end of the voyage he felt himself, as he said, "quite a new man". But he was of a facile, social disposition and the old associations proved too strong for him.

4) F. R. Condor, an engineer on the London & Birmingham Railway, wrote about Robert Stephenson after his death in 1859.

Robert Stephenson, in those days, almost lived on the line. In the earlier days he charmed all who came in contact with him. Kind and considerate to his subordinates, he was not without occasional outbursts of fierce northern passion. During the whole construction of the London and Brighton line, his anxiety was so great as to lead him to very frequent recourse to the fatal aid of calomel. There can be little doubt that his early and lamented death was hastened by this ill-considered devotion to the service of his employers, and the establishment of his own fame.