'Davies Gilbert.'
Thus was born the high-pressure engine, with which the name of Richard Trevithick will for ever be associated; and in a few months many of these machines were at work, notwithstanding Watt's allegations that they were dangerous to public safety. Indeed Trevithick, writing to Davies Gilbert, observed that 'James Watt said, ... that I deserved hanging for bringing into use the high-pressure engine.' Trevithick never afterwards reverted to the low-pressure model. And here it may be observed that Mr. Michael Williams considered that this invention, in conjunction with Trevithick's improved cylindrical boiler, doubled or trebled the work done by the old Boulton and Watt engines. The saving to the Cornish mines thus effected by Trevithick has been estimated at nearly £91,000 per annum.
He was now in full swing of work; much to the surprise of his father, was engaged in twenty different mines; and was everywhere recognised as a worthy successor of his father, and as the chief Cornish engineer in the county.
It was at this time, too (1797), that he married Jane Harvey. A tall man, 6 feet 2 inches high, broad-shouldered, as most Cornishmen are, with a massive head, bright blue eyes, and a large but shapely mouth, with a firm but kind expression. His bust was presented to the Royal Institution of Cornwall by Mr. W. J. Henwood, and his portrait—by Linnell, in 1816—is preserved at the National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington.
The young couple took up their abode at Moreton House, near Redruth, close to the residence of Murdock, the inventor, in 1792, of the gas-light. Watt lived not far off, at Plain-an-Guarry (the Playing-place), but the two rival engineers did not visit each other. Watt and his engines were patronized by the Eastern or Gwennap mine-owners, but Trevithick and his inventions were adopted by the Camborne, Illogan and Redruth or Western adventurers. As an instance of the strong feeling which existed in those days between the rival mine-engineers, Smiles, in his 'Lives of Boulton and Watt,' states that it was reported that old Captain Trevithick and Murdock had actually fought a duel over the subject of their inventions.
From Redruth, after only a few months' residence there, Richard and his wife moved to Camborne. Whilst here, and about this time, he invented his improved plunger-poles, the forcer temporary pump, the plunger-pole pump, the pole-pressure[144] engine, and the double-acting pressure-engine for Wheal Druid; all of them greatly conducing to the facilities required for removing the water out of deep mines.[145] He seems, too, to have been particularly happy in the methods which his versatile ingenuity employed in adapting old machinery to more modern requirements; and, though he was always busy as a bee, he was full of fun and good-humour, and noted for being a capital story-teller.
But Trevithick did not confine himself to the steam pumping-engine. The improvements which he and others had made and were making in that most important machine necessitated improvements in other parts of the mine. The ore must be drawn more rapidly to the surface, and the mode of sending it up the shafts must be improved. He was equal to the occasion: the steam whim solved the former, and the wrought-iron kibble (formerly a bucket, constructed of wood) the latter difficulty. About this period an amusing incident occurred which is worth recording, as exhibiting Trevithick's force of character in other than merely professional matters. His remuneration would appear to have consisted partly of a fixed salary, partly of the profits incident to the supply of machinery, and partly of royalties payable upon instruments of his invention. Now one of his engines was supplied to a mine called Wheal Abraham, whose shareholders, on somewhat fanciful and possibly unfair grounds, appear to have unnecessarily delayed satisfying Trevithick's just claims; whereupon, one night, the engineer and his men took the matter into their own hands, and (to the astonishment of the staff of the mine next morning) removed the huge engine bodily.
We now approach a very interesting episode in Trevithick's career—namely, the invention of his 'Camborne common road-locomotive.'[146] The idea of this may possibly have suggested itself to him (as doubtless other causes suggested similar ideas to Murdock, and to others before and after Trevithick) from his having to transport one of his portable engines from mine to mine, as required—sometimes at a considerable cost. To such a practical genius as his the idea doubtless occurred, 'Why not, with all this available power, make the engine move herself?' However this may be, the curtain now rises on an amusing little group in Trevithick's house; Davies Gilbert acting as stoker, and Lady De Dunstanville of Tehidy (on whose estate most of the great Camborne Mines were situated) playing the part of engine-man to a little model locomotive which ran round the table. The original working model of 'the Trevithick high-pressure locomotive,' the first working model for which was made in 1797, is still to be seen at the South Kensington Museum, in the machinery department; but it was not till Christmas Eve or (according to other authorities) Christmas Day, 1801, that the 'puffing devil,'[147] as it was locally termed by the astonished Cornish folk, made its first performances on the roads round Camborne, Tuckingmill, and Tehidy, carrying its ten or a dozen passengers uphill faster than a man could walk. The success, though not complete, was sufficient to determine Trevithick, with his brother-in-law Andrew Vivian—who found the money and shared in the speculation—to proceed forthwith to London in order to obtain a patent (his first), which was accordingly secured on the 24th March, 1802. Smiles points out, in his 'Lives of the Engineers,' that a remarkable feature in this engine was that it not only raised but also depressed the piston by the action of the steam; and he also tells how, in 1803, the wonder was exhibited to the public first at Lord's Cricket Ground, and afterwards near the spot where the London and North-Western Railway Station, Euston Square, now stands. This engine attained a speed of twelve miles an hour. When the noisy machine worked its way along Oxford Street, all horses and carriages were ordered out of the way; many of the shops were shut for fear of accidents, and the roofs of the houses were crowded with spectators. I believe it was also exhibited at one time on the site of the present Bedlam. To Trevithick, also, Smiles awards the credit of 'putting the two things together—the steam-horse and the iron way,' when he invented his second or railway locomotive. The controversy as to the priority of the invention has been thus ably summed up in the following extract from 'Locomotive Engineering,' by Zerah Colburn, C.E. (vol. i., pp. 32, 33; 1871):
'As a true inventor, no name stands in so close connexion with the locomotive-engine as that of Richard Trevithick. It was he who first broke through the trammels of Watt's system of condensation and low, if not negative, pressure; it was he who first employed the internal fire-place and internal heating surface; he was the first to create or promote a chimney-draught by means of exhaust steam; the first to employ a horizontal cylinder and cranked axle, and to propose two such cylinders with the cranks at right angles to each other; the first to surround the cylinder with hot air; the first to draw a load by the adhesion of a smooth wheel upon a smooth iron bar; and the first to make and work a railway locomotive-engine. Trevithick and George Stephenson were contemporaries;[148] the first locomotive seen by the latter was constructed by the former; and a personal acquaintance was afterwards established between them. Although irrelevant to the present purpose, it may be added that Trevithick patented the screw-propeller, and specified several forms of that instrument, and various modes of applying it, in 1815—years before those to whom the invention is more commonly ascribed had turned their attention to it.'