Part 3 (1/2)

RICHARD TREVITHICK

Born in Illogan, in the west of Cornwall, England, April 13, 1771 Died in Dartford, Kent, April 22, 1833

Richard Trevithick had er of the Dolcoath and other mines, and shortly after the birth of his son moved to Penponds, near Ca, writing and arithmetic, which were the li of reures and clever in drawing He developed into a young h, and having the frath of an athlete He was one of the most powerful wrestlers in the west country, and it is related of hiht an to assist his father as er, and at once proceeded to put his inventive faculty to practical test His initial success, in 1795, was an iine at the Wheal Treasuryin fuel and in power, and won for him his first royalty Before his father died, in 1797, he had attained to the position of engineer at the Ding Dong mine, near Penzance, and had already set up at the Herland ine built by William Bull, with improvements of his own His earliest invention of ier pu year, he developed into a double-acting water-pressure engine One of these engines, set up in 1804, at the Alport mine, in Derbyshi+re, was run until 1850

[Illustration: RICHARD TREVITHICK]

In 1780 he built a double-acting high-pressure engine with a crank, for Cook's Kitchen mine This was known as the Puffer, froeneral use in Cornwall and South Wales, a successful rival of the low-pressure steaan to give attention to the subject of steam locomotion, and a model constructed by hiton Museu a steahways The as done in a workshop at Camborne, and some of it in the shop of Captain Andrew Vivian

It was Christmas Eve of 1801 when this steaht out for trial

The following account of the first trial was made by one as present: ”I knew Captain dick Trevithick very well I was a cooper by trade, and when Trevithick was o every day into John Tyack's shop at the Weith, close by here, where they put her together In the year 1801, upon Christot up steah road, just outside the shop Whenthat Trevithick was going to turn on steaht of us 'Twas a stiffish hill going up to Camborne Beacon, but she went off like a little bird When she had gone about a quarter of a h piece of road covered with loose stones She didn't go quite so fast, and as it was a flood of rain, and ere veryfaster than I could walk, and went up the hill about half a ain to the shop” The next day the engine steamed to Captain Vivian's house, and a few days subsequently, Trevithick and Vivian started off for Tehidy House, where Lord Dedunstanville lived, some two or three miles froine being overturned in going around a curve; but they got back safely

This carriage presented the appearance of an ordinary stage coach on four wheels The engine had one horizontal cylinder which, together with the boiler and the furnace-box, was placed in the rear of the hind axle

The-motion of the piston was transh the -wheel, which was mounted with a fly-wheel, derived its motion The steam cocks and the force-pu combustion in the furnace, orked off the sah-pressure engines constructed on the principle of ainst the pressure only of the outside at year Trevithick went to London with his cousin, Andrew Vivian, and secured a patent Early in 1803 he e This was built at Camborne and taken to London, via Plyhly alarate keeper was so frightened at the appearance of the sputtering, s in every liate with the scared excla to pay My de--dear Mr Devil, do drive on as fast as you can Nothing to pay!”

The engine in this carriage had a cylinder five and one-half inches in diameter, with a stroke of two and one-half feet, and with thirty pounds of steam it worked five strokes per minute In every way it was superior to its predecessor It was not so heavy; and the horizontal cylinder, instead of the vertical, added very er diah roads which had brought the Camborne one to a standstill The boiler was ht iron, and the cylinder was inserted horizontally, close behind the driving axle A forked piston-rod was used, the ends working in guides, so that the crank axleand couplings were used on each side of the carriage for co axle The driving-wheels were about ten feet diaht iron The coach was intended to seat eight or ten persons, and the greater part of the weight ca axle

The coach was suspended upon springs

The London steae shop, in Leather Lane, and after its completion, Vivian one day ran the locomotive from Leather Lane, Gray's Inn Lane, on to Lords' Cricket Ground, to Paddington, and hoh the streets of London Several trips were made in Tottenham Court Road and Euston Square, and only once did they meet with accident

Finally, however, the fraine was detached and set to driving a mill

Trevithick's next experiineer of the Pen-y-darran iron works, near Merthyr Tydvil, where he built and ran on a railway a locomotive that was fairly successful In 1808 he built a locomotive for a circular railway or steam circus that he and Andrew Vivian set up in London, near Euston Square This ran for several weeks, carrying passengers at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles an hour around curves of fifty or one hundred feet radius One day a rail broke and the engine was overturned, which ended the exhibition

Subsequently, Trevithick applied his high-pressure engine to rock-boring and breaking, and dredging He laid out a syste the Thah-pressure steaine in 1812, constructed iron tanks and buoys, and modeled an iron shi+p He was one of the first to conceive the practical use of steaine for this purpose would ”double the population of the kingdom and make our markets the cheapest in the world”

In 1814, Trevithick became interested in a plan to work the silver h-pressure engines were sent to South Aineers He himself followed in 1816, and re several fortunes during that ti plants were destroyed, and he was forced to leave the country, penniless For a ti in Costa Rica, where he planned a railroad across the Isthmus froland, still a poorin Dartford, Kent, devoted hi to secure the help of the government in his work His later years were spent in poverty, and when he died, the expense of his burial was borne by his felloorkmen of Dartford

Undoubtedly, Trevithick was one of the foreineers of his day, a period that was rich with strong men of distinction in his profession Bycontributed ine and its broader adaptation to practical uses In his early years he was restrained in putting his ideas and experiments to practical test by the restrictions of Watt's patents Finally when that difficulty was re position in his profession Especially in the developine he is entitled to at least as nized in his generation and his ie was the result of financial reverses in business operations and not from the lack of substantial rewards for his inventive achievements

DAVID GORDON

The first experi with Willia compressed air for coas apparatus, and originated a society of gentle a co a ine, or of a gas vacuuas Alexander Gordon, his son, states that ”the committee of the society had only a limited sum at their disposal, nor were there to be e had been propelled for a considerable distance at the rate of ten miles an hour” David Gordon then tried to prevail upon the coine, but evidently without success

In 1821 he took out a patent for ies, and his loco Treatise on Elemental Locomotion, by Mr Alexander Gordon The e hollow cylinder about nine feet in dia its internal circued teeth, into which werewheels of a locoine, si coe, caused thee cylinder The center of gravity of the engine being thus constantly ht on the forward side of the axis of the cylinder, the latter was co the vehicle before it, and whatever train ht be added

Gordon's next attees for the common road was in 1824 The means proposed was a modification of the method invented by Willia operated upon by the alternating motion of the piston-rod, as in Brunton's vehicle, Gordon contrived to give them a continuous rotatory action and to apply the force of the engines in a e ran upon three wheels, one in the front to steer by, and two behind to bear the chief weight Each of the wheels had a separate axle, the ends of which had their bearings upon parallel bars, the wheels rolling in a perpendicular position This arrange the usual cross-axle, afforded an increased uninterrupted space in the body of the vehicle