244 years ago today, on June 9, 1781 (May 18, 1781 lunar calendar), the founder of the modern steam car was born. "Father of the train" Stephenson was born on June 9, 1781 in a family of coal miners in Northumberland. He worked as a worker in his early years and received no formal school education. At the age of 19, he operated the Newcomen steam engine, attended night school in his spare time and continued to teach himself. In 1814 he developed the first steam locomotive, which could tow eight wagons loaded with 30 tons of coal at a speed of miles per hour. But he was not satisfied with this and continued to study ways to increase the power of the locomotive. The steam blast method was adopted, and this new design brought the steam locomotive into practical use. He made improvements to the tracks and locomotives, made of wrought iron, and laid pebbles under the sleepers; the locomotives used fire tube boilers. Railway transportation was born on September 27, 1825, when the first train carried 450 passengers from Darlington to Stockton at a speed of 24 kilometers per hour. People from all walks of life in Liverpool and Manchester asked him to build a 64-kilometer railway between the two cities. After the Liverpool-Manchester railway line was completed in 1830, railway construction quickly began in England, Europe and North America. Stephenson steam locomotive