George Stephenson’s 1829 steam locomotive was named Rocket.
Rocket was designed and built in Newcastle by Robert Stephenson and his company, with important input from his father George and engineer Henry Booth. It was created for the Rainhill Trials, a competition held to determine whether locomotives could reliably power the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
Its success came from several influential features, especially a multi-tube boiler that sent hot gases through numerous small tubes surrounded by water. Rocket also used a separate firebox, a blastpipe and inclined cylinders. These innovations helped it outperform its rivals and win the £500 prize in October 1829.
Novelty was a competing Rainhill locomotive, but it did not complete the trials successfully. Locomotion No. 1 was another Stephenson locomotive, built earlier for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, while Puffing Billy dates from an earlier generation of steam engines. Rocket itself survives in the Science Museum collection.