THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE RAN FOR A BET

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 36, 11 August 1934, Page 25

THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE RAN FOR A BET

npHE recent unveiling at Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, of a memo.- . JJ_ rial to Richard Trevithick, one of the inventors of the steam engine, recalls the first locomotive journey, which took place in 1804, says the "New York Times." The memorial, a plain stone tablet, bears the' following inscription:

"Richard Trevithick (1771-1833). Pioneer of high-pressure steam. Built the first steam locomotive to run on rails on Ebb. 21, 1804. It traversed the spot on which this monument stands on its way to Abercynon."

The famous run referred lo was the result of a bet of five hundred I guineas made between two iron manufacturers that Tievithick's engine would not draw a load from the Penydarren iron works to Abercynon, nine miles down the valley..

Trevithick's omi account of the trip is as follows

"We proceeded on our journey with the engine and wo carried ten tons of iron and five wagons with seventy men riding on them the whole journey. It is above nine miles, which was performed in four hours and five minutes. We had to cut down some trees and remove some large rocks out of the road.- The engine when working went nearly five miles an-hour; no water was put into the boiler from the time we started until we arrived at our journey's end. On the return home, about four miles from the shipping place of the iron (Abercynon), one of the small bolts that fastened the axle lo the boiler broke, and all the water ran out of the boiler, which prevented the return of the engine until this evening. Tho gentleman that bet against it rode the whole of the journey-with us, and is satisfied that he lost, his bet." •

This "Penydarren" engine was not, according to accounts, used again in a Joconiotive^but. was employed as a stationary engine for thirty years. '.."'" ''.

Trevithick's lngh-pressur.c,..li.ion-.condcnsm« steam engine became a'rival to the low^pr£ssui;e..steain.engine of James Watt. Trevithick invented a number of valuable "devices, but died penniless. ,