Richard Trevithick | |
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 Portrait by John Linnell, 1816 (Science Museum, London) | |
| Born | 13 April 1771 Tregajorran, Cornwall, England |
| Died | 22 April 1833 (aged 62) Dartford, Kent, England |
| Known for | Inventing Steam locomotives |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields |
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Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive.[1] The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.[2][3]
Turning his interests abroad Trevithick also worked as a mining consultant in Peru and later explored parts of Costa Rica. Throughout his professional career he went through many ups and downs and at one point faced financial ruin, also suffering from the strong rivalry of many mining and steam engineers of the day. During the prime of his career he was a well-known and highly respected figure in mining and engineering, but near the end of his life he fell out of the public eye.
Trevithick was extremely strong and was a champion Cornish wrestler.[4][5][6]
- ^ Crump, Thomas (2007). The Age of Steam: The Power that Drove the Industrial Revolution. Carroll & Graf. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0-78672-047-7.
- ^ "Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive | Rhagor". Museumwales.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
- ^ "Steam train anniversary begins". BBC News. 21 February 2004. Retrieved 13 June 2009.
A south Wales town has begun months of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the invention of the steam locomotive. Merthyr Tydfil was the location where, on 21 February 1804, Richard Trevithick took the world into the railway age when he set one of his high-pressure steam engines on a local iron master's tram rails
- ^ Longhurst, Percy: Cornish Wrestling, The Boy's Own Annual, Volume 52, 1930, p167-169.
- ^ Trevithick, Ricard, Encyclopedia Britannica Vol XXIII, Maxwell Sommerville (Philadelphia) 1891, p589.
- ^ Cornish wrestling champion of 150 years ago, Cornish Guardian, 17 March 1966, p10.