Rocket

Rocket, locomotive engine designed and built by George Stephenson, with the assistance of his son Robert and Henry Booth, the treasurer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It demonstrated the viability of steam locomotion. The locomotive was entered in the Rainhill Trials of October 1829, held by the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester railway to assist them in testing the capacity of steam locomotion to operate on the soon to be finished railway. Among the innovations that the Stephensons incorporated in Rocket was the multi-tubular boiler, which increased the surface of the heated area in the boiler, enabling the locomotive to generate more steam and so increase its speed. By the end of the third day of the trials Rocket was the only locomotive left in the competition, having covered 56 km (35 mi) in 3 hours and 12 minutes, and hauled a load three times its own weight at a speed of 20 km/h (12.5 mph), and a coach filled with passengers at 39 km/h (24 mph). It reached a maximum speed of 46 km/h (29 mph) on a locomotive-only trip. Stephenson and his colleagues won the £500 prize money and were awarded the contract to produce locomotives for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Rocket was rapidly outpaced by technological developments in locomotive building, and was retired within a decade. It was preserved in 1862, though in an incomplete state, and can be seen at the Science Museum in London.