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RICHARD TREVITHICK. 



Born April 13, 1771. Died April 22, 1833. 



Richard Trevithick, inventor of the first high pressure steam- 

 engine, and the first steam-carriage used in England, was born in 

 the parish of Illogan, in Cornwall. He was the son of a purser of 

 the mines in the district, and although he received but little early 

 education, his talents were great in his own special subject, me- 

 chanics. When a boy he had no taste for school exercises, and 

 being an only son, was allowed by his parents to do much as he 

 pleased ; so that most of his time was passed either in strolling over 

 the mines amidst which he lived, or in working out schemes which 

 had already begun to fill his youthful imagination, seated under a 

 hedge, with a slate in his hand. Trevithick was a pupil of William 

 Bull, an engineer practising at that time in Cornwall, employed in 

 erecting Watt's engines, and who afterwards accompanied Trevi- 

 thick to South America. When he had attained the age of twenty- 

 one, Trevithick was appointed engineer to several mines, a more 

 responsible situation than the one held by his father, who, on hearing 

 of his son's appointment, expressed great surprise, and even consi- 

 dered it his duty to remonstrate with the gentlemen who had 

 proposed the appointment. About this period (in 1792) he was also 

 employed to test one of Hornblower's engines, and even before this, 

 had, with the assistance of William Bull, constructed several engines 

 which did not come under Watt's patent. Trevithick's duties, as 

 engineer, at this time, frequently required him to visit Mr. Harvey's 

 iron foundry at Hayle, who was in the habit of inviting him to his 

 house ; this ultimately resulted in his becoming attached to Mr. 

 Harvey's daughter, to whom he was married on the 7th of Novem- 

 ber, 1797. After his marriage Trevithick lived at Plane-an-quary 

 in Redruth for a few months, then at Camborne for ten years. 

 From about 1808 to 1810 he resided in London; but after his un- 

 fortunate failure in attempting to tunnel the Thames, returned to 

 Penponds in the parish of Camborne, where he lived for five or six 

 years, at the house of his mother, afterwards living at Penzance, 

 from which town he sailed for Peru on the 20th October, 1816. 

 While residing at Camborne, Trevithick influenced perhaps by the 

 success of Murdock's model steam-carriage, determined to build one 

 adapted to ordinary road traffic. One Andrew Vivian supplied the 

 pecuniary means and joined him in the project, for which, on its 

 completion, a patent was taken out in 1802, and in the same year a 

 small one was erected at Marazion, which was worked by steam of 

 at least thirty pounds on the square inch above atmospheric pres- 

 sure.* Their steam-carriage presented the appearance of an ordi- 



* The specification of this patent gives likewise the first mention (we believe) 



