Richard Trevithick
(1771-1833)
Cornwall is proud of its many inventors.
Amongst these Richard Trevithick must be considered the most outstanding and
prolific.
The son of a mine manager, Trevithick grew up alongside the mighty Watt steam
engines which were used in Cornwall's mining industry. He devised many ways of
improving these engines but was frustrated by Watt who jealously guarded his
patents.
It is probable that Trevithick's greatest contribution to world transport and
industrialisation was his determination to develop the use of high pressure
steam. By doing this he circumvented Watt's patents and reduced the size of a
steam engine from a cumbersome thousand tons to less than ten. In one step
Trevithick had achieved a degree of miniaturisation which has not been equalled
since. Watt, in his wrath, said that Trevithick should have been hanged for his
dangerous use of high pressure steam.
As well as providing an efficient power source for industry, the lightweight
high-pressure steam engine designed by Trevithick was to become the basis for
all future steam propelled transport.
In 1801 Trevithick attached wheels and driving gear to one of his 'Puffer'
engines and so constructed the world's first self-propelled passenger carrying
road locomotive. This is the now famous vehicle upon which he and his friends
rode 'Up Camborne Hill' on Christmas Eve of that year. The statue to Trevithick
in Camborne depicts him holding a model of that first locomotive.
In the following year he patented his 'London Road Carriage' and introduced
motorised transport to the capital. In 1803 Trevithick designed the first steam
engine ever to operate on rails. This ran at Coalbrookdale. Next year he
accepted and won a wager of five hundred guineas by designing, building and
operating a steam engine at Penydarren in South Wales. He subsequently
introduced a steam railway locomotive to London.
Known as the High Pressure Locomotive the engine pulled a load of fifteen
tons and about 70 people in trams nine miles to Abercynon, and brought them back
again. This was the world's first train and it predated Stephenson's
Locomotion
and the Stockton and
Darlington Railway by twenty five years!
Trevithick was also responsible for a great number of other remarkable designs
and inventions. Some he built, like a steam threshing machine (which still
exists) and a steam bucket dredger. He was also responsible for
containerisation in ships, tunnelling under the Thames, the designs of a 1000
feet iron tower, a ships propeller screw and the refrigerator.
Trevithick's life was one of invention, endeavour, achievement and
disappointment. He spent many years in South America as an engineer,
adventurer and soldier. He returned to die a pauper.
It is planned to hold a bicentennial commemoration in 2001 of Trevithick's great
contribution to the industrial development of the world when a full-sized
replica of the 1801 'first car in the world' will run through the streets of
Camborne. The work of the Trevithick Society and local students, this event is
expected to draw a great deal of attention to Cornwall and Camborne in
particular.
A biography of Richard Trevithick is being prepared by the industrial
biographer, Anthony Burton, and will be available in 2001.
P.M.H.
The Trevithick
Society is a voluntary, learned society based in Cornwall devoted to the
restoration of Cornish engineering and promotion of Cornish industrial heritage.
Amongst many other projects it restored an old Cornish steam engine (Levant,
near Land's End) and its buildings to working order. The site is now the
property of the National Trust. The society is a Registered Charity
Cornish Steam & Engineering Co Ltd has been formed by The Trevithick Society to
undertake the building of the full-sized replica. The directors of the company
are:
Dr Colin French Trevithick Society Council Member
Philip M Hosken "
Francis Trevithick Okuno " and descendant of Richard Trevithick
John Sawle Project Engineer
Two of Richard
Trevithick's grandsons, Richard F. and Francis H., went to Japan and
participated in the development of the Japanese railway system. For more
information on their contributions to Japanese rail visit
this site.
It is probable that Trevithick's greatest contribution to world transport and
industrialisation was his determination to develop the use of high pressure
steam. By doing this he circumvented Watt's patents and reduced the size of a
steam engine from a cumbersome thousand tons to less than ten. In one step
Trevithick had achieved a degree of miniaturisation which has not been equalled
since. Watt, in his wrath, said that Trevithick should have been hanged for his
dangerous use of high pressure steam.