CIIAP. VI. TREVITHICK'S STEAM-CARRIAGE. 81 



Thus the power of the engine was equal to the difference 

 between the pressure of the atmosphere and the elas- 

 ticity of the steam in the boiler. 



This steam-carriage excited considerable interest in 

 the remote district near the Land's End where it had 

 been erected. Being so far removed from the great 

 movements and enterprise of the commercial world, 

 Trevithick and Yivian determined upon exhibiting their 

 machine in the metropolis. They accordingly set out 

 with it to Plymouth, whence it was conveyed by sea to 

 London. 



The carriage safely reached the metropolis, and ex- 

 cited much public interest. It also attracted the notice 

 of scientific men, amongst others of Mr. Davies Gilbert 

 and Sir Humphry Davy, both Cornishmen like Trevi- 

 thick, who went to see the private performances of the 

 engine, and were greatly pleased with it. Writing to 

 a Cornish friend shortly after its arrival in town, Sir 

 Humphry said : "I shall soon hope to hear that the 

 roads of England are the haunts of Captain Trevithick' s 

 dragons a characteristic name." The machine was 

 afterwards publicly exhibited in an enclosed piece of 

 ground near Euston Square, where the London and 

 North- Western Station now stands, and it dragged 

 behind it a wheel-carriage full of passengers. On the 

 second day of the performance, crowds flocked to see it ; 

 but Trevithick, in one of his odd freaks, shut up the 

 place, and shortly after removed the engine. It is, 

 however, probable that the inventor came to the con- 

 clusion that the state of the roads at that time was such 

 as to preclude its coming into general use for purposes 

 of ordinary traffic. 



While the steam-carriage was being exhibited, a 

 gentleman was laying heavy wagers as to the weight 

 which could be hauled by a single horse on the Wands- 

 worth and Croydon iron tramway ; and the number 

 and weight of waggons drawn by the horse were some- 



VOL. III. Gr 



