io Book of Locomotives 



the last to have claimed to have been the 

 father of the iron horse. What he might 

 have claimed, and no one would ever dis- 

 pute it, was that he became the foster- 

 father of the locomotive, he brought up 

 a rather puling infant to full maturity in 

 his own lifetime. 



It is tolerably certain that Trevithick 

 made his first experiments in this old cot- 

 tage; it is certainly on record that he spoke 

 to Gilbert Davies as to what was in his 

 mind regarding the possibilities of steam. 

 This was at last as far back as 1796, six 

 or seven years before he made what is 

 usually allowed to have been the first rail- 

 way locomotive. 



It was a happy chance that led Trevithick 

 to leave Camborne and live at Redruth, 

 for here was another pioneer of steam: 

 this was Murdoch, a Scotsman, employed 

 by Boulton & Watt, of Birmingham, and 

 he had been sent down to Redruth to 

 superintend the working of some mining 

 machinery. It is quite possible that 

 Trevithick was interested in the steam 



