[35] The 'Comet.'
[36] John Clerk (Lord Eldin) pronounced the patent to be correctly drawn up, and that no doubt existed of Mr. Symington's right to recover damages from its invaders.
[37] Smiles's 'Lives of the Engineers.' London, 1861.
[38] Originally designed by Thomas Paine.
[39] Sixth Dissertation, by Dr. J. D. Forbes, F.R.S.—Encyclopædia Britannica, Eighth Edition.
[40] The specification of this patent gives likewise the first mention (we believe) on record of oscillating engines. Sir John Rennie, F.R.S., in his address to the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1846, mentions the following passage:—"Even the objection of extra friction, however, if tenable, is obviated by the vibrating cylinder described in Trevithick and Vivian's patent, in 1802; patented by Whitty in 1813, and by Manby in 1821, by whom the first engines of the kind were constructed."
[41] An eye-witness, who is still living, relates that on one of these trials he saw Trevithick's steam-carriage proceeding at the rate of twelve miles an hour.
[42] Mrs. Humblestone (1861) is now eighty-one years of age, and is residing in the neighbourhood of Edgware Road.
[43] Sixth Dissertation, Encyclopædia Britannica, Eighth Edition.
[44] See Practical Treatise on Railroads, &c., by Luke Hebert, London, 1837. Pages 21-4.—Mr. Francis Trevithick, who has spent considerable time in ascertaining the facts regarding his father's first locomotive, states that he has no doubt the wheels of this engine were not in any way roughed: that he has often conversed with those who made and worked the engine; that he has their copies of the original drawings; and that in all these cases he never heard or saw anything which indicated that the wheels were roughed.