Maths and the railways
The railways transformed life in our country, but behind this big change was a lot of maths.
British Railways network poster (1948) by British RailwaysScience Museum
Measurement and geometry are used throughout the rail industry to do things like designing trains, planning routes, creating timetables and setting fares. This involves measures such as weight, money, distance, time and speed.
Entrance into Manchester across Water Street (1831) by Thomas Talbot Bury, Henry Pyall, and Ackermann and CompanyScience Museum
Connecting the North of England
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the world’s first steam-powered railway to travel between towns and the first to transport both passengers and goods.
Before then, travel between Liverpool and Manchester took a long time: 12 hours by canal, or 3 hours by horse-drawn coach. Rail travel was quicker, taking only 2 hours.
Drawing of Rocket Locomotive (1859) by John Dobson WardaleScience Museum
As fast as a Rocket
Stephenson’s Rocket was the winning design for a new locomotive to operate on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Able to achieve a top speed of 30mph, Rocket was a significant improvement on earlier designs.
This sketch was drawn by the company’s head draughtsman (a person who makes detailed technical plans or drawings).
Photograph of North Eastern Railway Dynamometer car (1906) by North Eastern Railway and British RailScience Museum
Keeping track of performance
In the 1900s, competition for building the best locomotives was fierce. Dynamometer cars were attached behind the locomotive to measure things like pulling force, power, top speed, shaking of the carriages and so on.
Edmonson ticket dating press no. 103 (1837) by Thomas EdmonsonScience Museum
Tickets, please!
Before this machine was created, railway tickets were cut out by hand. With this new method, an operator could print 200 tickets per minute. These machines were used around the world and by the 1870s Britain printed more than 500 million tickets in a year.
British Railways network poster (1948) by British RailwaysScience Museum
The maths of maps
Maths was crucial in planning where the railways would go and when. Planners had to find the shortest distance between two places and work out what needed to be transported and how frequently.
At first different rail companies built their own local routes, but over time these expanded into a massive national network.
'Railway Time' clock (1840/1880) by William AvisonScience Museum
Railway time
When rail travel started, time throughout the UK differed slightly as it was based on the sun. The sun rises earlier in the east, so when it was 10.00 in London, it was only 09.49 in Bath and 09.42 in Exeter.
In the 1840s, railways switched to ‘railway time’ (Greenwich Mean Time) but GMT only became the legal standard everywhere else in 1880.
Bradshaw's Railway Companion timetable book (1843) by George Bradshaw and J.W. Adams (publisher)Science Museum
When is the next train?
How do you find out what time train you need to catch? These days, most of us check on our smartphones. But before that, we had to rely on big, heavy books filled with station names and travel times.
Engraving of George Bradshaw (1850/1859) by UnknownScience Museum
George Bradshaw created the first railway timetables in the 1830s. At first there were two separate books: one for northern train times, and one for southern train times. Eventually they were combined into one, with the times of every train in the country.
The last printed version of the National Rail timetable came out in 2019. It was over 1,000 pages long and weighed 2kg!
Bradshaw's Railway Companion timetable book (1843) by George Bradshaw and J.W. Adams (publisher)Science Museum
Conclusion
Billions of people still use railways every day to travel and transport goods. In every journey, mathematics plays an important role in helping them arrive safely and on time.
Science Museum is part of the Science Museum Group.
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.