The train is a vehicle of transportation, which was invented in 1822 by an English inventor named George Stephenson. Today solar power or electricity operates the train, but in the past the engine was a steam engine that ran on coal and wood.

George Stephenson was an English engineer, which is famous for inventing the train. He was born in 1781 (in Newcastle, England), and died in 1848. When he was 14, he started to take interest in machinery. He was working with his father (which was in charge of a water pump- that ran on steam), and slowly started inventing inventions of his own. With time Stephenson became in charge of all the machines in the big mine. He started to think on a machine that will transport the coal from the mine to a far part.

In 1822 Stephenson convinced the directors to replace the horses with engine. When he saw that his invention is successful he established his own factory to make engines. In 1825 the first public train in the world was operated.

Disadvantages of the train:

1. Accidents are very deadly (even though they are rare).

1. The train can go only on rails.

Advantages of the train:

2. The train can go faster than the car
3. The train doesn’t get caught in traffic jams
4. The train uses less fuel, therefore is less polluting and more economic. The train is able to transfer heavy loads.

The train caused to an enormous revolution in the world, and caused a lot of changes, for example: All of the western part of the USA wouldn’t have been exposed to the eastern part (and on the contrary) without the train that traveled from east to west. In addition, The Chinese came to work on the train rail paving from the eastern coast (New York) to the western coast (San Francisco). At the end of their work they settled in San Francisco and established a big community over there.

Main contributions and developments of the train:

1. The train gives transportation services to a lot of people, and there would be a lot more traffic jams without it.
2. The train is the main carrier of goods and other heavy loads.
3. These days, the trains are much faster and advanced than they used to be. Today, a train can develop a speed of 250 km/h.

4. Today, a new train is been developed in Japan. The new train will be able to achieve the speed of 500 km/h. The train will be operated on an Electric- Magnet principle, which means the coaches will hover over the rails.

An interesting example from the Ottoman era: In the Turkish era the ottomans developed the railways in Israel very much: in this era the trains were operated by steam, which ran by burning coal. This is the reason why in the ottoman era a lot of trees were cut, and the natural wood was extremely diluted (in addition to the uncontrolled goats’ grazing).

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