84 



TREVITHICK'S TRAM-ENGINE. 



CHAP. VI. 



Basin-road, upon which road she was intended to work. 

 On the journey she broke a great many of the tram- 

 plates ; and before reaching the basin she ran off the 

 road, and was brought back to Pen-y-darran by horses. 

 The engine was never after used as a locomotive." l 



It seems to have been felt that unless the road were 

 entirely reconstructed so as to bear the heavy weight of 

 the locomotive so much greater than that of the tram- 

 waggons, to carry which the original rails had been 

 laid down the regular employment of Trevithick's 

 high-pressure tram-engine was altogether impracticable ; 

 and as the owners of the works were not prepared to 

 incur the heavy cost of such reconstruction, it was 

 determined to take the locomotive off the road, and use 

 the engine for other purposes. It was accordingly dis- 

 mounted from its wheels, and fixed and used for some 

 time after as a pumping-engine, for which purpose it 

 was found well adapted. Trevithick himself seems from 

 this time to have given up the locomotive as an im- 

 practicable engine, and took no further steps to bring it 

 into use. We find him, shortly after, engaged upon 

 schemes of a more promising character, leaving the 

 locomotive to take care of itself, and no further progress 

 was made with it for several years. An imaginary diffi- 

 culty seems to have tended, amongst other obstacles, to 

 prevent its adoption and improvement. This was the 

 idea that, if any heavy weight were placed behind the 

 engine, the " grip " or " bite " of the smooth wheels of 

 the locomotive upon the equally smooth iron rail must 

 necessarily be so slight that the wheels would slip round 

 upon the rail, and, consequently, that the machine 

 would not make any progress. 2 Hence Trevithick, in 



1 Statement of Rees Jones to Mr. 

 Menelaus, Dowlais Iron- works, made 

 9th September, 1858, and published 

 in the ' Mining Journal.' 



2 The same fallacy seems long to 

 have held its ground in France; for 



M. Granier tells us that some time 

 after the first of George Stephenson's 

 locomotives had been placed on the 

 Liverpool and Manchester line, a model 

 of one was exhibited before the Aca- 

 demy. After it had been examined, 



