CHAP. VI. CUGNOT'S LOCOMOTIVE. 75 



was not matured. Watt afterwards, in the specification 

 of his patent of 1769, described an engine of the kind 

 suggested by his friend Eobison, in which the expansive 

 force of steam was proposed as the motive power ; but no 

 steps were taken to reduce the invention to practice. 



The first locomotive steam-carriage was built at Paris 

 by a French engineer named Cugnot, a native of Lor- 

 raine. It is said to have been invented for the purpose 

 of dragging cannon into the field independent of the 

 help of horses. 1 The first model of this machine was 

 made in 1763. Marshal Saxe was so much pleased with 

 it that on his recommendation a full-sized engine was 

 constructed at the Arsenal at the cost of the -French 

 monarch, and in 1769 it was tried in the presence of 

 the Due de Choiseul, Minister of War, General Gri- 

 beauval, and other officers. At one of the experiments 

 it ran onward with such force that it knocked down a 

 wall which stood in its way. It was found, however, 

 that the new vehicle, loaded with four persons, could 

 not travel faster than two miles and a half in the hour. 

 The size of the boiler not being sufficient to keep up 

 the steam, it could only work for about fifteen minutes 

 at a time ; after which it was necessary to wait until 



CUGNOT 1 S ENGINE. 



the steam had again risen to a sufficient pressure. To 

 remedy this defect, Cugnot constructed a new machine 

 in 1770, which gave somewhat more satisfactory results. 



1 'Le Vieux-Neuf: Histoire An- I Modernes.' Par Edouard Fournier. 

 cienne dcs Inventions ot Decouvertcs I Paris, 1859. 



