Son of an illiterate mining employee in Wylam, Stephenson recognised the value of education and taught himself to read and write at the age of 18. His understanding of steam-driven mining machinery brought him a post as engine wright in the Killingworth collieries. Here he collaborated with Nicholas Wood to devise the mining safety lamp which in December 1815 they demonstrated at the Society’s monthly meeting. In September 1825 (two months after the opening of the society's building) Stephenson drove his 'Locomotion' on the Stockton-Darlington Railway, with a passenger coach attached. He became nationally famous after 1829 when he and his son Robert built the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with its prize-winning locomotive 'Rocket'.