Trevithick

Tomorrow is Trevithick Day, A Spring fair in the town of Camborne in Cornwall. I am going to go and take photos for a photographic scavenger hunt.

I guess none of you will have heard of Richard Trevithick. If he had been English rather than Cornish, this might have been rather different. When grand things are invented they build on the inventions and ideas of others. Some times it is a little tricky to say who is the one who should take the credit, who becomes famous.

Wallace and Darwin. The Wright Brothers weren't the only ones trying to make a flying machine. Watt wasn't the only one working on steam engines and Stephenson with his Rocket came along much later. It was in fact Trevithick that built and demonstrated the first ever transportation device powered by steam, the Puffing Devil. He introduced high pressure steam engines to the world and this allowed engines to be small enough and powerful enough to be moved. Watt, who is far more famous, actually said that Trevithick should be hung for bringing something so dangerous into the world!

Trevithick was born in 1771, the son of a mine captain near Camborne. At 19 his first job was as a consultant engineer in local mines. He first made high pressure steam engines work in 1799 and the Puffing Devil took it's first trip in 1801 and it is this famous (or at least it should be) trip that will be commemorated tomorrow.

Trevithick picked up several men in Fore street and proceeded with them up Camborne Hill to the village of Beacon. Three days later the devil broke down after going over a gully in the road. The operators stopped for a meal of goose at a local pub. Unfortunately the engine ran dry, overheated and burnt out, destroying it. This all inspired a folk song...

Goin' up Camborne Hill, coming down
Goin' up Camborne Hill, coming down
The horses stood still;
The wheels went around;
Going up Camborne Hill, coming down

White stockings, white stockings she wore (she wore)
White stockings, white stockings she wore
White stockings she wore:
The same as before;
Going up Camborne Hill, coming down

I knowed her old father old man (old man)
I knowed her old father old man
I knowed her old man;
He played in the band;
Going up Camborne Hill, coming down

I 'ad 'er, I 'ad 'er, I did
I 'ad 'er, I 'ad 'er, I did
I 'ad 'er I did:
It cost me a quid
Going up Camborne Hill, coming down

He heaved in the coal, in the steam (the steam)
He heaved in the coal, in the steam
He heaved in the coal:
The steam hit the beam
Going up Camborne Hill, coming down

Goin' up Camborne Hill, coming down
Goin' up Camborne Hill, coming down
The horses stood still;
The wheels went around;
Going up Camborne Hill, coming down

Did I ever mention that this was not a classy town in those days? It grew to house the workforce for the local mines. Lawlessness occasionally prevailed.....

Back to Trevithick.... He built the first steam locomotive which took it's first trip in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales pulling 10 tons of iron, 5 wagons and 70 men 9.75 miles in 4 hours and 5 minutes. He was a consultant on an early project to drive a tunnel under the Thames which was beset by difficulties and didn't reach completion. His proposal for solving the issues was eventually successfully implemented in tunneling under the Michigan River in Detroit. It was however Sir Marc Kingdom Brunel, assisted by his son Isambard, who drove the first successful tunnel under the Thames in 1843.

The Peruvian silver mines provided a challenge that low pressure engines couldn't solve because of the altitude. He left for South America to consult and was granted rights to several mines but was unable to develop them due to lack of funds and the political situation of the country. He was also accused of neglecting his wife and family, left back in Cornwall.... He explored Costa Rica on foot looking for a route for a railway.

Penniless, he met Stephenson who leant him £50 to get home. He died alone and penniless in 1833. He should have been rich and famous. Stephenson's Rocket was the first locomotive to run on tracks and was developed 25 years after the Puffing Devil.

It didn't surprise me that I nearly got stuck behind a steam engine on my way home tonight....