HISTORY is always throwing up surprises, the latest being that railway pioneer Robert Stephenson may have died of executive stress.
The key to the causes of his demise, at 55 in 1859, could lie in a lock of his hair held by the National Railway Museum.
Chemical analysis of the hair is likely to reveal much about his life and death.
So it is just as well that the stressed-out Stephenson didn't pull out all of his hair, or else there would be nothing to go on.
Updated: 10:21 Thursday, October 16, 2003
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