page_title: List of English inventions and discoveries
section_title: Locomotives
hierarchical_section_title: List of English inventions and discoveries / Transport / Railways / Locomotives
caption_attribution_description: English: Coupler UJ 1435mm gauge Rocket
context_page_description: English inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques invented, innovated or discovered, partially or entirely, in England by a person from England. Often, things discovered for the first time are also called inventions and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two. Nonetheless, science and technology in England continued to develop rapidly in absolute terms. Furthermore, according to a Japanese research firm, over 40% of the world’s inventions and discoveries were made in the UK, followed by France with 24% of the world’s inventions and discoveries made in France and followed by the US with 20%.
  The following is a list of inventions, innovations or discoveries known or generally recognised to be English.
context_section_description: 1802: First full-scale railway steam locomotive built by Richard Trevithick (1771–1833). This built on the endeavours of two other Englishmen, engineer Thomas Savery (c.1650–1715), son of Devon, and the first practical steam engine built in 1712 by Londoner Thomas Newcomen (c.1664–1729). James Watt did not invent the steam engine. Rather Watt, prompted by English backer and manufacturer Matthew Boulton, effected improvements sufficient to make the invention commercial viable.
  1812: First commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder Salamanca, designed and built by Matthew Murray (1765–1826) of Holbeck.
  1813: First practical steam locomotive to rely simply on the adhesion of iron wheels on iron rails, Puffing Billy, built by William Hedley (1779–1843).
  1814: First successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive, the Blücher, built by George Stephenson (1781–1848).
  1824: First steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail-line, the Locomotion No. 1, built by Robert Stephenson (1803–1859), son of George Stephenson.
  1829: Stephenson's Rocket built by George Stephenson (1781–1848) and his son Robert Stephenson (1803–1859); the Rocket was not the first steam locomotive, but it was the first to bring together several innovations to produce the most advanced locomotive of its day.
  1829: The Sans Pareil, a less advanced competitor of Stephenson's Rocket, built by Timothy Hackworth (1786–1850).
  1829: The Stourbridge Lion, first steam locomotive to be operated in the United States, built by Foster, Rastrick and Company of Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands; the manufacturing company was headed by James Foster (1786–1853) and John Urpeth Rastrick (1780–1856).
  1835: Der Adler the first steam locomotive in Germany. Built by George & Robert Stephenson in Newcastle.
  1923: The Flying Scotsman built to a design by Sir Nigel Gresley (1876–1941); the Flying Scotsman was in 1934 the first steam locomotive to be authenticated at reaching 100 miles per hour (160.9 km/h) in passenger service.
caption: Stephenson's Rocket, 1829
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