What evidence supports the inference that George Stephenson’s development of the steam engine was made possible by the inventions of James Watt?

Question

The Steam Engine

Before the time of Watt, the steam engine was exclusively a steam pump—slow and wasteful of fuel. Watt made it a quick, powerful, and efficient engine, requiring only a fourth as much fuel as before. Under his first patent, the engine was still used only as a steam pump, but his later improvements adapted it for driving stationary machinery of all kinds. The commercial success of his engine was soon fully established.

George Stephenson further modified Boulton and Watt Company's creation. Stephenson initiated the use of steam for carrying passengers and goods. In September 1825, the first train passed over the road. It consisted of thirty-four cars weighing, all told, ninety tons. The train was pulled by Stephenson's engine, operated by Stephenson himself, with a signalman riding on horseback in advance. The train moved off at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, and on certain parts of the road it reached a speed of fifteen miles per hour. The trial was a complete success.

Pick ONE of the blue sentences.

Thank you

Answer 1

Hello, again, Sarah!

The best answer is: Stephenson initiated the use of steam for carrying passengers and goods. 

That is the only sentence that directly indicates that Stephenson took the idea of the steam engine and applied it a use (carrying passengers and goods) that Watt, the original inventor of the efficient steam engine, had not come up with. The description of the train ride is interesting, but doesn't directly advance the idea in the way that the sentence above clearly does.

Jeff M.