FOOTNOTES:
[141] A work to which I beg to acknowledge my indebtedness for the main facts of this notice.
[142] On her wedding finger-ring (the internal diameter of which was 7/8ths of an inch!) her husband had rudely engraved the pretty old English posy:
'God above
Increase our love.'
[143] A very remarkable man. Being anxious to ascertain how castings were made, in order to substitute cast-iron pumps for the bored wooden tubes formerly in use in the Cornish mines, he went 'up the country' for the purpose; but was refused admittance into any of the foundries, until he hit upon the expedient of dressing himself in rags and feigning to be half-witted, whereupon he gained employment as a sort of messenger to the workmen, and thus got an opportunity of acquiring the much-desired information.
[144] Still largely in use, in almost precisely the form in which he designed it in 1797.
[145] Cf. Gregory's 'Mechanics;' Ree's 'Cyclopædia;' and Stuart's 'History of the Steam Engine;' Luke Hebert on 'Railways;' Lean's 'Historical Account of the Steam Engine in Cornwall;' Davies Gilbert's 'Observations on the Steam Engine,' in Philosophical Transactions, 25 Jan., 1827; 'Memoirs of Distinguished Men of Science in 1807-8,' by Wm. Walker, junr.; R. Edmonds, junr.'s 'Contributions to the Biography of R. Trevithick;' the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for Oct., 1859; and All the Year Round, 4th Aug., 1860:—for much valuable technical, and other, information on the subject of Trevithick's inventions.
[146] Cf. Engineering, 27th March, 1868—'Trevithick was the real inventor of the locomotive;' also Zerah Colburn's 'History of the Locomotive,' p. 13 (ed. 1871); and O. D. Hedley's 'Who invented the Locomotive?' (ed. 1858). The second model had a horizontal instead of a vertical cylinder. His locomotive of 1804, built at Newcastle-on-Tyne, was specially fitted with flanged wheels for running on a railway.
[147] Sir Humphry Davy spoke of these machines more euphemistically as Trevithick's 'dragons.'
[148] Trevithick was born April 13th, 1771, and died April 22nd, 1833. George Stephenson was born June 9th, 1781, and died Aug. 12th, 1848.
[149] Viz., not until 1814—twelve years after Trevithick's locomotive.
[150] Brunel, who afterwards constructed the Thames Tunnel, at Wapping, is said to have formed the highest opinion of Trevithick's inventive skill in this operation. (It had been previously attempted by Dodd.) Trevithick very nearly lost his life when the water flooded the driftway, owing to his insisting upon seeing all his men safely out before him.
[151] Trevithick's claim to the invention of the screw-propeller was disputed.
[152] Earlier attempts were made in 1788 and 1803. The first remunerative steamboat for passengers seems to have been the Comet, which ran, in 1812, between Glasgow and Helensburgh, on the Clyde.
[153] 'The next step was to call in the aid of Steam to Agriculture. Steam is almost an Englishman.'—Emerson.
[154] Trevithick, before leaving England for South America in 1816 being pressed for money, sold a half share of his patent in the high-pressure steam expansive pole-engine to Messrs. Williams, of Scorrier, for £200. He remained abroad for ten years.
[155] Some of the remains of the machinery were seen lying about on the mountain-sides in 1850.