Lives of the Engineers (George and Robert Stephenson): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Lives of the Engineers (George and Robert Stephenson), credited to Samuel Smiles, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Lives of the Engineers (George and Robert Stephenson), by Samuel Smiles. Read by Andy Minter. George Stephenson did not invent the steam engine, that was due to Newcomen and later to James Watt. He did not invent the steam locomotive, that was due to a number of people including Cugnot, Trevithick and others. He did not invent the Railway. Railways or tramways had been in use for two hundred years before Stephenson. The reason why Stephenson was known as ‘The father of the steam locomotive’ was that he took a primitive, unreliable and wholly uneconomic device and turning it into an efficient machine not very different to those which ran until fifty or so years ago, married it with the iron rail and alone, and against considerable opposition,began, via the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and then the London and Birmingham Railway, the development of steam railways in England and the world. George Stephenson began life in 1781 in the worst and poorest of all circumstances, he did not learn to read until he was twenty years old, but he, together with his son Robert, became the foremost engineers in the railway world. If, in the middle years of the nineteenth century you wanted to build a railway, then, if you wanted it big bold and imaginative you might go to Mr. Brunel. If you wanted it to pay however, you would go to the Sephensons. (Summary by AJM)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Lives of the Engineers (George and Robert Stephenson)
• Author credits: Samuel Smiles
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 21
• Listed recording duration: 12:49:15

Catalogue topics

• engineer
• biography
• stephenson
• rocket

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction Part 1 — 27:18
2. 01 - Introduction Part 2 — 30:25
3. 02 - Chapter 1 Newcastle and the Great Northern Coalfield — 19:25
4. 03 - Chapter 2 George Stephenson's Early Years — 35:16
5. 04 - Chapter 3 Engineman at Killingworth — 29:46
6. 05 - Chapter 4 The Stephensons at Killingworth — 27:25
7. 06 - Chapter 5 Early History of the Locomotive — 49:00
8. 07 - Chapter 6 Invention of the 'Geordie' Safety Lamp — 36:44
9. 08 - Chapter 7 Further Improvements of the Locomotive — 28:18
10. 09 - Chapter 8 - George Stephenson, Engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway — 42:27
11. 10 - Chapter 9 - The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Projected — 53:54
12. 11 - Chapter 10 - Chat Moss - Construction of the Railway — 38:12
13. 12 - Chapter 11 - Robert Stephenson in Colombia, The 'Rocket' — 51:25
14. 13 - Chapter 12 - The Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway — 30:51
15. 14 - Chapter 13 - Robert Stephenson Constructs the London and Birmingham Railway — 29:34
16. 15 - Chapter 14 - Manchester and Leeds and Midland Railways — 39:43
17. 16 - Chapter 15 - George Stephenson's Coal Mines — 51:10
18. 17 - Chapter 16 - Robert Stephenson's Career — 36:22
19. 18 - Chapter 17 - Robert Stephenson's Tubular Bridges at Menai and Conway — 35:42
20. 19 - Chapter 18 - George Stephenson's Closing Years - Illness and Death — 29:23
21. 20 - Chapter 19 Robert Stephenson's Illness and Death. Stephenson Characteristics — 47:07

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.