Chris Conway
Chief Architect, Quantiv
Besides being the silver anniversary of the 21st century, 2025 also marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of the modern railway. To be precise: George Stephenson’s creation of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
I’ve always been fascinated by railways.
I have a family bias; my grandfather worked on the railway and on this very route, so I grew up with stories about its history and development.
But while the sound of certain locomotives can still make me misty-eyed (for the aficionados, Class 43s, and especially 55s), I don’t have an enduring love of trains.
And although I consider George Stephenson comes as close to the definition of an intuitive genius as it’s possible to get – self-taught, socially awkward, headstrong – it’s a personal admiration rather than anything specific.
So, instead of bias, affection or hero worship, I think the explanation is encompassed in the concept covered by that single word: ‘railway’.
How George Stephenson triggered the creation of various technologies
1825 didn’t mark the invention of steam engines (even mobile ones). They’d existed for some years, and that honour probably goes to the eccentric Cornish engineer, Richard Trevithick. Nor were ‘rail-ways’ discovered at that point, as private wagonways based on rails were in common use. And horse-drawn stagecoaches had much earlier started using systems of ticketing and ‘stations’ (inns).
The real significance of George Stephenson’s efforts is that the Stockton and Darlington Railway brought together all these existing components to form a completely new system. And in doing so, triggered the creation of many other technologies needed to support it, such as better locomotives (developed with his son Robert), track standards, signalling, bridging, buildings, ticketing and the concept of public access.
The standardisation of time
But perhaps the single most important result of the invention of the modern railway was something that today we take for granted: the standardisation of time. Again, the concept and measurement of time already existed well before the 19th century. However, until the railways existed, there was really no need to standardise time, i.e. to make it the same across different physical locations in Britain. And initially, that standardisation was frowned upon as an inaccuracy, because when it was midday in Stockton, it was ‘technically’ a slightly different time in Darlington.
That time standardisation, as well as Stephenson’s other developments, brought together a set of technologies that changed the world. Those effects in 1825 were the same as – or arguably greater than – those brought about by the internet and/or the World Wide Web in the late 20th century.
And I know it wasn’t all just the result of George Stephenson’s engineering. After all, his vison of a railway was admirably supported by a group of local businesspeople (including Edward Pease), who, it’s probably fair to say, didn’t really understand what he had in mind. However, their Quaker faith helped them to encourage the engineer.
Above everything else, it’s that combinational effect that fascinates me: the way many – apparently established/ordinary – technologies can be combined to create something radically different. Almost the definition of ‘engineering’.
The combinational effect
This is probably another bias, but it feels like those combinational effects are now particularly apparent in IT, where often the best approach is to use existing applications and services well, instead of creating new software.
But the challenge is to use those technologies to create new, novel services. This isn’t about complex science – of which artificial intelligence is perhaps the most obvious example – but instead about imagination and vision, which are two very human concepts.
How we can help
We’d like to think Quantiv’s services can help with this challenge. Our NumberWorks method is specifically designed to assist the analyses needed to support the combination of different systems by building a coherent model of operational processes and data. And our NumberCloud service can then be used to allow these systems to share data easily, ensuring information is available where needed but without introducing unnecessary coupling between systems.
And finally, George Stephenson declined a knighthood during his lifetime (as did his son). They had their reasons and so it seems wrong to force a particular honour on him posthumously. However, in this anniversary year, some recognition seems in order to honour the man who – literally – set the wheels in motion.
Learn more
To discover how our services could benefit your organisation, contact our team on 0161 927 4000 or email: info@quantiv.com
