Stevens, Robert Livingston

(born Oct. 18, 1787, Hoboken, N.J., U.S.—died April 20, 1856, Hoboken) U.S. engineer and ship designer. The son of John Stevens, he tested the first steamboat to use screw propellers. He designed the railway T-rail in 1830, and later the railroad spike. He found that rails laid on wooden ties, with crushed stone or gravel beneath, provided a roadbed superior to any known before; his construction remains in universal use.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica