90 POLE STEAM-ENGINE. 



pole ; therefore the whole engine must be again taken to pieces 

 and sent to a turning and boring mill to be newly turned and 

 bored. How to get this done I cannot tell, for the founders 

 here will not do it because they had not the casting them. 

 Already great expenses have been incurred by delays, and now 

 to send them back to Bridgenorth at an immense loss of time 

 and money will be a very serious business indeed. I think that 

 either the cylinder is bored crooked or the plunger-pole turned 

 crooked, or both, as it will sink farther down into the cylinder 

 on turning it round on one side than it will on the other. The 

 whole job is most shamefully fitted up, and was never tried 

 together before sent off. Write to me by return of post and 

 say what I am to do in this dilemma. 



" Yours, &c., 



" KICHARD TKEVITHICK. 

 " HAZELDINE, HASTBICK, AND Co., 

 " Bridgenorth:' 



The new engine- work from Bridgenorth on arrival 

 was found to be so inaccurately made that the pole 

 would not go into the pole-case. Henry Phillips, 1 who 

 saw the engine make its first start, says : 



" I was a boy working in the mine, and several of us peeped 

 in at the door to see what was doing. Captain Dick was in a 

 great way, the engine would not start; after a bit Captain Dick 

 threw himself down upon the floor of the engine-house, and 

 there he lay upon his back ; then up he jumped, and snatched 

 a sledge-hammer out of the hands of a man who was driving in a 

 wedge, and lashed it home in a minute. There never was a man 

 could use a sledge like Captain Dick ; he was as strong as a bull. 

 Then, he. picked up a spanner and unscrewed something, and off 

 she went. Captain Vivian was near me, looking in at the door- 

 way ; Captain Dick saw him, and shaking his fist, said : ' If you 

 come in here I'll throw you down the shaft.' I suppose Captain 

 Vivian had something to do with making the boilers, and 

 Captain Dick was angry because they leaked clouds of steam. 

 You could hardly see, or hear anybody speak in the engine- 



1 IStill working in Harvey's foundry at Hay It-, 18(!i. 



