Chapter X: Front Matter (10)

'I will give as good an account as I can of Richard Trevithick.
His father was the chief manager in Dolcoath Mine, and he bore the
reputation of being the best informed and most skilful captain in
all western mines; for as broad a line of distinction was then made
between the _Eastern_ and _Western_ mines (the Gwennap and the
Camborne Mines) as between those of different nations.

'I knew the father very well, and about the year 1796 I remember
hearing from Mr. Jonathan Hornblower, that a tall and strong young
man had made his appearance among engineers, and that on more than
one occasion he had threatened some people who had contradicted him
to throw them into the engine-shaft. In the latter part of November
of that year I was called to London as a witness in a steam-engine
case between Messrs. Boulton and Watt and Maberley. Then I believe
that I first saw Mr. Richard Trevithick, Jun., and certainly there I
first became acquainted with him. Our correspondence commenced soon
afterwards, and he was very frequently in the habit of calling at
Tredrea to ask my opinion on various projects that occurred to his
mind--some of them very ingenious, and others so wild as not to rest
on any foundation at all. I cannot trace the succession in point of
time.

'On one occasion Trevithick came to me and inquired with great
eagerness as to what I apprehended would be the loss of power in
working an engine by the force of steam raised to the pressure of
several atmospheres; but instead of condensing, to let the steam
escape. I, of course, answered at once that the loss of power would
be one atmosphere, diminished power by the saving of an air-pump with
its friction, and in many cases with the raising of condensing water.
I never saw a man more delighted; and I believe that within a month
several puffers were in actual work.

'DAVIES GILBERT.'

Thus was born the _high-pressure_ engine, with which the name of Richard Trevithick will for ever be associated; and in a few months many of these machines were at work, notwithstanding Watt's allegations that they were dangerous to public safety. Indeed Trevithick, writing to Davies Gilbert, observed that 'James Watt said, ... that I deserved hanging for bringing into use the high-pressure engine.' Trevithick never afterwards reverted to the low-pressure model. And here it may be observed that Mr. Michael Williams considered that this invention, in conjunction with Trevithick's improved cylindrical boiler, doubled or trebled the work done by the old Boulton and Watt engines. The saving to the Cornish mines thus effected by Trevithick has been estimated at nearly £91,000 per annum.

He was now in full swing of work; much to the surprise of his father, was engaged in twenty different mines; and was everywhere recognised as a worthy successor of his father, and as the chief Cornish engineer in the county.

It was at this time, too (1797), that he married Jane Harvey. A tall man, 6 feet 2 inches high, broad-shouldered, as most Cornishmen are, with a massive head, bright blue eyes, and a large but shapely mouth, with a firm but kind expression. His bust was presented to the Royal Institution of Cornwall by Mr. W. J. Henwood, and his portrait--by Linnell, in 1816--is preserved at the National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington.

The young couple took up their abode at Moreton House, near Redruth, close to the residence of Murdock, the inventor, in 1792, of the gas-light. Watt lived not far off, at Plain-an-Guarry (the Playing-place), but the two rival engineers did not visit each other. Watt and his engines were patronized by the _Eastern_ or Gwennap mine-owners, but Trevithick and his inventions were adopted by the Camborne, Illogan and Redruth or _Western_ adventurers. As an instance of the strong feeling which existed in those days between the rival mine-engineers, Smiles, in his 'Lives of Boulton and Watt,' states that it was reported that old Captain Trevithick and Murdock had actually fought a duel over the subject of their inventions.

From Redruth, after only a few months' residence there, Richard and his wife moved to Camborne. Whilst here, and about this time, he invented his improved plunger-poles, the forcer temporary pump, the plunger-pole pump, the pole-pressure[144] engine, and the double-acting pressure-engine for Wheal Druid; all of them greatly conducing to the facilities required for removing the water out of deep mines.[145] He seems, too, to have been particularly happy in the methods which his versatile ingenuity employed in adapting old machinery to more modern requirements; and, though he was always busy as a bee, he was full of fun and good-humour, and noted for being a capital story-teller.

But Trevithick did not confine himself to the steam pumping-engine. The improvements which he and others had made and were making in that most important machine necessitated improvements in other parts of the mine. The ore must be drawn more rapidly to the surface, and the mode of sending it up the shafts must be improved. He was equal to the occasion: the steam whim solved the former, and the wrought-iron kibble (formerly a bucket, constructed of wood) the latter difficulty. About this period an amusing incident occurred which is worth recording, as exhibiting Trevithick's force of character in other than merely professional matters. His remuneration would appear to have consisted partly of a fixed salary, partly of the profits incident to the supply of machinery, and partly of royalties payable upon instruments of his invention. Now one of his engines was supplied to a mine called Wheal Abraham, whose shareholders, on somewhat fanciful and possibly unfair grounds, appear to have unnecessarily delayed satisfying Trevithick's just claims; whereupon, one night, the engineer and his men took the matter into their own hands, and (to the astonishment of the staff of the mine next morning) removed the huge engine bodily.

We now approach a very interesting episode in Trevithick's career--namely, the invention of his 'Camborne common road-locomotive.'[146] The idea of this may possibly have suggested itself to him (as doubtless other causes suggested similar ideas to Murdock, and to others before and after Trevithick) from his having to transport one of his portable engines from mine to mine, as required--sometimes at a considerable cost. To such a practical genius as his the idea doubtless occurred, 'Why not, with all this available power, make the engine move herself?' However this may be, the curtain now rises on an amusing little group in Trevithick's house; Davies Gilbert acting as stoker, and Lady De Dunstanville of Tehidy (on whose estate most of the great Camborne Mines were situated) playing the part of engine-man to a little model locomotive which ran round the table. The original working model of 'the Trevithick high-pressure locomotive,' the first working model for which was made in 1797, is still to be seen at the South Kensington Museum, in the machinery department; but it was not till Christmas Eve or (according to other authorities) Christmas _Day_, 1801, that the 'puffing devil,'[147] as it was locally termed by the astonished Cornish folk, made its first performances on the roads round Camborne, Tuckingmill, and Tehidy, carrying its ten or a dozen passengers uphill faster than a man could walk. The success, though not complete, was sufficient to determine Trevithick, with his brother-in-law Andrew Vivian--who found the money and shared in the speculation--to proceed forthwith to London in order to obtain a patent (his first), which was accordingly secured on the 24th March, 1802. Smiles points out, in his 'Lives of the Engineers,' that a remarkable feature in this engine was that it not only raised but also depressed the piston by the action of the steam; and he also tells how, in 1803, the wonder was exhibited to the public first at Lord's Cricket Ground, and afterwards near the spot where the London and North-Western Railway Station, Euston Square, now stands. This engine attained a speed of twelve miles an hour. When the noisy machine worked its way along Oxford Street, all horses and carriages were ordered out of the way; many of the shops were shut for fear of accidents, and the roofs of the houses were crowded with spectators. I believe it was also exhibited at one time on the site of the present Bedlam. To Trevithick, also, Smiles awards the credit of 'putting _the two things_ together--the steam-horse and the iron way,' when he invented his second or _railway_ locomotive. The controversy as to the priority of the invention has been thus ably summed up in the following extract from 'Locomotive Engineering,' by Zerah Colburn, C.E. (vol. i., pp. 32, 33; 1871):

'As a true inventor, no name stands in so close connexion with the
locomotive-engine as that of Richard Trevithick. It was he who first
broke through the trammels of Watt's system of condensation and low,
if not negative, pressure; it was he who first employed the internal
fire-place and internal heating surface; he was the first to create
or promote a chimney-draught by means of exhaust steam; the first to
employ a horizontal cylinder and cranked axle, and to propose two such
cylinders with the cranks at right angles to each other; the first
to surround the cylinder with hot air; the first to draw a load by
the adhesion of a smooth wheel upon a smooth iron bar; _and the first
to make and work a railway locomotive-engine_. Trevithick and George
Stephenson were contemporaries;[148] the first locomotive seen by the
latter was constructed by the former; and a personal acquaintance
was afterwards established between them. Although irrelevant to
the present purpose, it may be added that Trevithick patented the
screw-propeller, and specified several forms of that instrument, and
various modes of applying it, in 1815--years before those to whom the
invention is more commonly ascribed had turned their attention to it.'

The history of steam locomotion by rail was thus conveniently summarized by a writer in the _Times_, on the occasion of the George Stephenson Centenary, 8th June, 1881:

'It may be mentioned that there were iron railways before Stephenson's
time. The earliest account is of a timber tram-line laid down near
Newcastle in 1602. Lines were made of iron at Whitehaven in 1738.
In 1776 an iron railway was laid down near Sheffield, by John Curr,
but it was destroyed by the colliers. Ten years later the first
considerable iron railway was laid down at Coalbrookdale. The first
iron railway sanctioned by Parliament--with the exception of local
lines used by canal companies--was the Surrey iron railway, worked
by horses, from the Thames at Wandsworth to Croydon, laid down in
1801. _In the year 1802 Trevithick and Vivian obtained a patent
for a high-pressure locomotive engine._ In 1813 William Hedley, of
Wylam Colliery, constructed the first travelling locomotive engine
in a colliery; and in the following year[149] the first locomotive
constructed by George Stephenson travelled at the rate of six miles
per hour.'

Notwithstanding, however, this practical success, from a pecuniary point of view Trevithick's position was far from flourishing. It is true that he was engaged, not only on his Cornish work, but also at Pen-y-darran in South Wales, at Coalbrookdale, and at Newcastle-on-Tyne; and it is also true that the exhibition of his 'Catch-me-who-can' engine, as Mr. Davies Gilbert's sister named the railway locomotive, working on a circular railway of about 100 feet in diameter, drew crowds of Londoners to witness its performance. But the shilling admission fees did not come in fast enough to counterbalance the legal difficulties which our engineer had to contend with in the working of ill-defined Patent Laws; and the breaking of a rail caused the engine to overturn--thus putting an end to the exhibition. Ill-health, too--typhus, gastric, and brain fever supervened; bankruptcy and imprisonment were the result; and, to anticipate a little, poor Trevithick was driven from London, after an unsuccessful application had been made to the Government for remuneration for his truly national services. He was not only, as his biographer contends, the real inventor of the blast-pipe; but, up to 1808, had constructed two road-locomotives (one for Camborne and one for London), railway locomotives for Coalbrookdale and Newcastle, and a tramroad locomotive for Pen-y-darran; to say nothing of his steam-dredger engine, his travelling steam-crane, his brilliant though ineffectual attempt to construct a driftway under the Thames at Rotherhithe,[150] etc., etc.

The following extract from the 'Catalogue of the South Kensington Museum' gives the official account of Trevithick and his patents:

'_Inventor and constructor of the first high-pressure steam-engine,
and the first steam-carriage used in England_; constructor of a tunnel
beneath the Thames, which he completed to within 100 feet of the
proposed terminus, and was then compelled to abandon the undertaking;
inventor and constructor of steam-engines and machinery for the mines
of Peru (capable of being transported in mountainous districts), by
which he succeeded in restoring the Peruvian mines to prosperity;
also of coining-machinery for the Peruvian mint, and of furnaces for
purifying silver ore by fusion; also inventor of other improvements in
steam-engines, impelling-carriages, hydraulic engines, propelling and
towing vessels, discharging and towing ships' cargoes, floating-docks,
construction of vessels, iron buoys, steam-boilers, cooking, obtaining
fresh water, heating apartments, etc.'

The following is a list of his patents:

NOS. DATES. PATENTS.

2599 (1802) Steam Engines for Propelling Carriages.
3148 (1808) Ship Propeller.
3172 (1808) Iron Tanks for Ships.
3231 (1809) Iron Docks, Ships, Masts and Spars, Buoys,
Steam-arm, etc.
3922 (1815) Screw-propeller.[151]
6082 (1831) Surface Condenser.
6083 (1831) Heating Apparatus for Rooms.
6308 (1832) Superheating Steam.

But this list by no means exhausts the whole of his inventions, for he was so fond of talking of them before they were matured that many were found sharp enough to seize Trevithick's ideas, and then to reduce them into some practical and remunerative form for themselves.

Sorry reward this for such incessant industry and varied inventive skill as induced Hyde Clarke to write as follows:

'In the establishment of the locomotive, in the development of the
powers of the Cornish engines, and in increasing the capabilities of
the marine engine, there can be no doubt that Trevithick's exertions
have given a far wider range to the dominion of the steam-engine than
even the great and masterly improvements of James Watt effected in his
day.'

The _Quarterly Review_ for October, 1867, has an article on 'George Stephenson and Locomotion,' in which George Stephenson is described as 'the father of railway locomotion;' and yet two pages after (p. 499) the writer of the article mentions, with greater accuracy, Richard Trevithick (or, as he spells it, 'Trevethick') as 'the first who put together the two ideas of the steam horse and the iron way.' Alas for our Cornishman! such is fame! It has been shown above that Trevithick not only first put together the steam horse and the iron way, but that he first worked the steam horse on the turnpike road; and to _him_ therefore is due the chief credit for there being 'not a line or a locomotive which does not bear testimony to his genius, his sagacity, and his perseverance; nor is there a traveller upon a railway, who saves time, money, fatigue and anxiety ... who has not reason to think of _Richard Trevithick_ with gratitude for the benefits which he has conferred, and with admiration for the intellectual triumphs which he achieved.'

Fortunate it was for him that he was a remarkably good-tempered man, most simple and frugal in his habits, and richly endowed with that 'friend of the brave'--Hope!

His freedom from debt and imprisonment seems to have been at length due to the sale of one of his patents for iron tanks (for ships) and iron buoys, to Mr. Maudslay, founder of the now eminent firm of London engineers of that name. Trevithick had pressed his proposals on the Admiralty for a long time in vain; and at last, with characteristic impetuosity, settled the matter for ever, it is said, by calling the Navy Board to their faces 'a lot of old women.'

Mrs. Trevithick now joined her husband in London, but not until after prolonged importunity on his part; and her reluctance is scarcely to be wondered at when we think of the difficulties which then existed in making the journey from Cornwall to the metropolis. She had to post all the way, three hundred miles, with four children, one of them a baby, and probably with no servant. Besides which, her brother, Mr. Henry Harvey, of Hayle, represented to her that Trevithick's position in London was hardly sufficiently assured as yet to warrant her making the move. Conjugal love, however, at length prevailed over every other consideration; and on her welcome arrival, a touching little incident occurred. She found her two last letters, unopened, in her husband's pocket; and on her reproaching him with this seeming forgetfulness, which she attributed to his being so thoroughly immersed in his multifarious engineering schemes, he confessed that he had not dared to open them, lest her arguments against their reunion should have prevailed over his wishes. It was well for both that the faithful wife came to town: for soon afterwards, had she not ransacked London for a doctor, whilst her husband lay almost dying in a sponging-house, it is unlikely that he would have survived to return to his native county. To Cornwall, however, he at length returned, in broken health and spirits, in 1810, to find that his mother had just died. Trevithick went home by sea, a six days' voyage, and, as we were then at war with France, the _Falmouth Packet_ in which he sailed was under convoy. They were chased by a French man-of-war, from whom they luckily escaped; her commander little dreaming that his small craft (which seems to have owed her safety chiefly to her captain's knowledge of the coast) had on board her the man who had laid proposals before the Government for fitting vessels with high-pressure engines and launching them against the French fleet equipped at Boulogne for the invasion of England.

Trevithick's first idea of steam navigation appears to have arisen in 1804, though his specification was not dated till 1808;[152] and in this, as in almost every other important step in his life, he relied very much on the sound judgment and sympathetic advice of his friend Davies Gilbert. Paddle-wheels, however (the original mode of propulsion), were found cumbrous to ships, especially in heavy weather; and this led Trevithick to the invention of the screw-propeller, a design for which he laid before the Navy Board in 1812, but without effect. The patent was not dated till the 6th of June, 1815; nor was success assured until after the busy engineer had left his native county on a voyage to Peru, which seemed to hold out promises of proving an El Dorado for him. His son and biographer, taking into consideration the numerous marine inventions and appliances of his progenitor, claims for his father, and not without much show of justice, that he may be regarded as the originator of our present iron steam fleet.

But, in fact, the man's versatility in his profession seems to have been unbounded. In 1813 he was the life and soul of the arrangements for constructing the Plymouth Breakwater; then he turns his attention to the manufacture of agricultural engines, and constructs the first steam thrashing-machine, which was until recently at work at Trewithan, in Probus, but now occupies a place of honour in the South Kensington Museum of Patents, together with a boiler of curious construction by him.[153] This invention, like some others of Trevithick's, seems to have been almost still-born; yet it was destined, as we now know, to re-appear as a powerful factor in the development of agriculture.

His next great stride was the new 'pole-puffer-engine' of 1816, in connection with which squabbles arose between the engineer and his relations, Henry Harvey and Andrew Vivian, both of whom were said to have been moved to jealousy by Trevithick's having arranged to get the castings for the first of these engines (viz., that for Wheal Herland, near Gwinear) made at Bridgenorth, instead of at Hayle. The first trial of the new engine, when at length set up, seems to have been somewhat of a failure, owing to the inaccurate way in which it was made. Here is an eye-witness's amusing account of its starting:

'I was a boy working in the mine, and several of us peeped in at the
door to see what was doing. Captain Dick Trevithick was in a great
way; the engine would not start. After a bit, Captain Dick threw
himself down upon the floor of the engine-house, and there he lay
upon his back; then up he jumped, and snatched a sledge-hammer out of
the hands of a man who was driving in a wedge, and lashed it in, in a
minute. There never was a man could use a sledge like Captain Dick; he
was as strong as a bull. Then he picked up a spanner, and unscrewed
something, and--off she went! Captain Vivian was near me, looking in
at the doorway. Captain Dick saw him, and, shaking his fist, said, "If
you come in here, I'll throw you down the shaft." I suppose Captain
Vivian had something to do with making the boilers, and Captain Dick
was angry because they leaked clouds of steam. You could hardly see,
or hear anybody speak in the engine-house, it was so full of steam and
noise; we could hear the steam-puffer roaring at St. Erth, more than
three miles off.'

Another altercation on the subject of this engine took place at a meeting of the Wheal Herland adventurers, when Trevithick said: 'I could not help threatening to horsewhip Joseph Price for the falsehoods that he, with the others, had reported. I hear that he is to go to London to meet the London Committee on Monday. I hope the Committee will consider J. Price's report as from a disappointed man. It is reported that he has bought very largely in Woolf's patent, which now is not worth a farthing, besides losing the making my castings, which galls him very sorely.'

The final result was that the Wheal Herland engine proved a great success.

'Every engine that _was_ erecting is stopped, and the whole county thinks of no other engine,' wrote its engineer; and that Trevithick had 'the courage of his convictions' may be judged from his saying: 'I have offered to deposit £1,000 to £500 as a bet against Woolf's best engine, and give him 20,000,000 (lbs. "duty"), but that party refuses to accept the challenge.' Indeed, Mr. Francis Trevithick claims that '_This engine performed the same work as the Watt engine, with less than half of the daily coal_.'

It would, in fact, be difficult to exaggerate the importance of Richard Trevithick's contributions to this branch of applied mechanics; and had he been as prudent in his management of his business affairs, and as sharp in looking after his pecuniary interests as he was brimful of talent in his scientific inventions, it would never have been necessary for the late Mr. Michael Williams, M.P.,[154] to write of him that 'he was at the same time the greatest and the worst-used man in the county.'

Such was Trevithick's position when he had reached the age of forty-five. Sanguine, impetuous, and brilliant--no sooner finishing one invention than commencing another (nay, sometimes before he had thoroughly completed the first)--a benefactor of incalculable extent to the prosperity of his native county, but so unsuspecting and so indifferent to his own, that he turned at length to the New World for the appreciation and reward that he had failed to secure in the Old.

The circumstances which led to this determination are somewhat curious. A desire having been felt amongst several wealthy Spaniards in Peru to rework certain of the old gold and silver mines which required draining, Don Francisco de Uville, of Lima, a Swiss gentleman, was sent to England to search for the best steam pumping-engines for their purpose. The names of Messrs. Boulton and Watt were so famous, that, almost as a matter of course, he first consulted them; but they discouraged the project, mainly on the grounds that the rare atmosphere of the Cordilleras would interfere with the efficiency of the steam-engine. Thus rebuffed, and much dejected, he chanced to see in the window of a shop, near the spot where the 'Catch-me-who-can' had been exhibited, a small model of one of Richard Trevithick's engines, which he at once secured for £20, and hastened back with it to Peru. Arriving there, he at once put its powers to the test, and was delighted to find that Boulton and Watt's doleful prophecies were not fulfilled. Accordingly he forthwith returned to England with the model, which bore Trevithick's name engraved on it, in search of the engineer who had constructed the wonderful machine, and had the good luck to find on board the same ship as that in which he made the voyage a cousin of Trevithick's--a Mr. Teague--who at once put the Don on the right track. Satisfactory interviews ensued, large orders for engines were put in hand--pumping-engines, winding-engines, sugar-rolling engines, and crushing-engines, to the tune of some £16,000. The anticipated profits were £50,000 a year, and Trevithick was to be paid, not in money, unluckily for him, but in shares, which were to secure to him an income of £10,000 per annum.

At length the engines duly arrived at Lima, and were landed under a salute from the guns of the batteries. But things did not work well. The men sent out were unaccustomed to the use of wood-fires, and they failed to carry out all Trevithick's instructions, whereupon he himself resolved upon going to the rescue; and accordingly he sailed from Penzance in a South Sea whaler, the _Asp_, on 20th October, 1816, intending to land at Buenos Ayres and work his way across the South American continent--an undertaking which, in those days, it need scarcely be added, was of a most formidable character, and no doubt, therefore, was all the more attractive to the remarkable man whose career we have been considering.

On his arrival in Peru, he was received with almost royal honours, and, at once getting to work, soon set matters to rights; for by the early part of 1817 there were four engines at work, including that used for coining at the Mint. An immediate collapse of the whole undertaking would probably have been the result but for the timely arrival of 'Don Ricardo,' as he was styled by the natives. Amongst the difficulties to be overcome in this enterprise may be mentioned those of transit, and these may be estimated from the facts that the Cerro de Pasco Mines were 170 miles from Lima, that the roads were for the most part mule-tracks only, and that the site was 13,400 feet above the sea! No wonder that, on his eventually triumphing over all these difficulties, thoughts were seriously entertained of erecting a statue to him in solid silver, and that, according to Mr. Walker's memoir, he was made a Marquis and Grandee of Spain. But the whole scheme was unhappily doomed to failure. Deaths and dissensions took place amongst the shareholders; Uville died in August, 1818, and the whole brunt of the management fell upon Trevithick. He now, too, foolishly engaged in other undertakings whilst his hands were already sufficiently full, and lost large sums of money in a speculative process for extracting silver by smelting instead of by amalgamation. Then a war of independence broke out, and poor Trevithick had the mortification of learning that the Royalists had actually destroyed his machinery, and flung it--where he had so often before threatened to fling _his_ enemies--'down into the shafts.'[155]

This was the death-blow of the affair, and he immediately set to work on a fresh venture, namely, the raising of the cannon from a Russian ship which had been sunk near Callao. By this he readily made no less than £2,500, but--will it be believed?--he forthwith lost it all by an imprudent speculation in a pearl-fishery at Panama! Some of the money would have been particularly acceptable to poor Mrs. Trevithick, whom her thriftless husband had left at Penzance unprovided for; in fact, he omitted (doubtless from sheer thoughtlessness) to pay, as he had promised to do, the house-rent a year in advance for her. Another curious instance of Trevithick's utter incapacity for understanding business matters appears in the following anecdote. Being very hardly pressed for payment of some account due from him, he snatched the bill from his creditor, and writing, 'Received--Richard Trevithick,' at the foot of it, handed it back to the poor man with an angry exclamation, in his strong Cornish dialect, of 'There! will that satisfy you?'

A strange episode in his career now occurs. Bolivar actually pressed him as a soldier; but Trevithick soon 'tir'd of war's alarms,' and the President readily allowed him to return to more congenial pursuits, sending him on some special mission to Bogota--yet not before Trevithick had signalized his connexion with the army by inventing a most ingenious carbine with an explosive bullet. Whilst in South America he also became, for the nonce, a surgeon, and actually amputated both legs of a poor fellow crushed by the fall of some of Trevithick's heavy machinery. The man was very proud of what he had undergone, and used to boast of his capital stumps.

Having previously paid a short visit to Chili, Trevithick (who had now lost all his property) finally left Peru in 1822, on the above-named special mission; but, distrustful of Bolivar's promises and hearing of something more to his advantage, as he considered, he made his way to certain rich mines that he had heard of in Costa Rica instead. Thither--to that region of snakes, miasma, and earth-quakes--we must now follow him.

There were known to be rich mines of the precious metals near Quebradahonda, in the interior of the little tract of mountainous country which forms part of the narrow belt of land connecting North and South America; but the difficulties of access in 1826-27 rendered them almost valueless, and Trevithick and his party conceived the idea of approaching them from the Atlantic side, by a route which should be practicable for steam conveyances--namely, by way of San Juan (now Greytown) and the rivers San Juan de Nicaragua and Serapique. Rafts and boats were constructed for the descent of those streams, and fearful hardships and dangers befell the explorers--who were bent upon accomplishing a somewhat similar task in Central America to that which Lander had performed a few years before in Western Africa. Three weeks were spent in accomplishing their object--during which the little party subsisted on monkeys and wild fruits; and more than once Trevithick, an indifferent swimmer, but who managed to buoy himself up by bundles of sticks which he placed under his arms, was nearly drowned. He had however, at length the gratification of reaching San Juan--the first European who had made the voyage from Lake Nicaragua to the sea.

By some means or other he contrived to reach Cartagena (de las Indias) on his homeward journey, disconsolate enough no doubt; but what befell him on his way is best told in the following letter:

'Stanwick, Cumberland, 27th November, 1864.

'SIR,

'I read in the public prints that in a speech made by you in Belle
Vue Gardens you referred to the meeting of Robert Stephenson with
Trevithick at Carthagena, which, if your speech be correctly reported,
you attribute to accident. The meeting was not an accident, although
an accident led to it, and that accident nearly cost Mr. Trevithick
his life; and he was taken to Carthagena by the gentleman that saved
him, that he might be restored. When Mr. Stephenson saw him he was so
recovering; and if he looked, as you say, in a sombre and silent mood,
it was not surprising, after being, as he said, "half drowned and half
hanged, and the rest devoured by alligators," which was too near the
fact to be pleasant. Mr. Trevithick had been upset at the mouth of the
river Magdalena by a black man he had in some way offended, and who
capsized the boat in revenge. An officer in the Venezuelan and the
Peruvian services (Mr. Bruce Napier) was fortunately nigh the banks
of the river shooting wild pigs. He heard Mr. Trevithick's cries for
help, and seeing a large alligator approaching him, shot the reptile
in the eye, and then, as he had no boat, lassoed Mr. Trevithick, and
by his lasso drew him ashore much exhausted and all but dead. After
doing all he could to restore him, he took him on to Carthagena, and
thus it was he fell in with Mr. Stephenson, who, like most Englishmen,
was reserved, and took no notice of Mr. Trevithick, until an officer
said to him, meeting Mr. Stephenson at the door, "I suppose the old
proverb of two of a trade cannot agree is true, by the way you keep
aloof from your brother chip. It was not thus your father would have
treated that worthy man, and it is not creditable to your father's son
that he and you should be here day after day like two strange cats
in a garret; it would not sound well at home." "Who is it?" said Mr.
Stephenson. "_The inventor of the locomotive_, your father's friend
and fellow-worker; his name is Trevithick--you may have heard it,"
said the officer; and then Mr. Stephenson went up to Trevithick.
That Mr. Trevithick felt the previous neglect was clear. He had sat
with Robert Stephenson on his knee many a night while talking to
his father, and it was through him Robert was made an engineer. My
informant states that there was not that cordiality between them he
would have wished to see at Carthagena.

'The officer that rescued Mr. Trevithick is now living. I am sure
he will confirm what I say if needful. A letter will find him if
addressed to No. 4, Earl Street, Carlisle, Cumberland.

'There are more details, but I cannot state them in a letter, and you
might not wish to hear them if I could.

'I am, sir,
'Your very obedient servant,
'JAMES FAIRBAIRN,

who writes as well as rheumatic gout will let him.

'P.S.--I forgot to say the name of the officer is Hall.

'To E. W. Watkin, Esq., M.P.'

On recognising Stephenson, Trevithick is said to have exclaimed, 'Is that Bobby!--I've nursed him many a time.' The younger engineer had £100 in his pocket, and generously gave his senior half of it to facilitate his return to England, which Trevithick shortly afterwards accomplished, by way of Jamaica, in the autumn of 1827, landing at Falmouth on the 9th October, after a weary, anxious absence of eleven years. His health does not seem to have been much injured; but his belongings were simply the clothes he stood upright in, a gold watch, a pair of dividers, a magnetic needle, and a pair of spurs. A friend had to pay his passage-money before he could leave the ship which brought him home.

But he had the happiness of finding his wife and their family of four sons and two daughters all well. The Church bells rang out a merry peal of welcome; and he was entertained at the houses of all the principal people in the county. A great deal was said of the handsome remuneration which was due to him for having been the means, through his many inventions, of saving Cornwall half a million of money,--but little or nothing seems to have come of all the talk; and when he claimed £1,000 from each of the leading mines which had adopted his machinery, they seem--so far as I can ascertain, with one exception only--to have repudiated them. The exception to which I refer was a compromise of his claims by the Messrs. Williams, of Scorrier, in respect of certain mines in which they were interested, for the sum of £150. Nor was his petition to Parliament, dated 27th February, 1828, setting forth his many truly _national_ claims for consideration, and containing an interesting summary of his inventions (but unfortunately too long to reproduce here), more successful.

Trevithick was now verging upon sixty years of age, and found that he had to begin life anew. His first endeavour was to form a company to work his mines in Costa Rica, but neither he nor his friend Gerard could succeed in doing this either in England, in France, or in Holland; and, if the report be true that he refused a cheque for £8,000 for his share in the mine-grants, he must have lived to repent it bitterly. However, his busy brain was soon at work again with inventions. First an iron ship and a gun with friction-slides; then a recoil gun-carriage, in which he utilized the recoil somewhat after the manner since so effectually accomplished by Moncrieff; then we find him suggesting a mode of making ice by steam. Next he invents a chain-and-ball pump for draining the Dutch marshes; and, soon after, we hear of his being employed by the Government of that country to examine into sundry important engineering works which they had in hand, whilst poor Trevithick had to borrow £2 from a friend to enable him to get over to Holland for the purpose. It may be mentioned, to show what a good-natured fellow he was, that he at once gave 5s. out of this to a poor neighbour who had had the misfortune to lose his pig.

During a great part of this period of his life Trevithick was at Hayle Foundry, engaged in the construction of the great draining engines for Holland; but he, nevertheless, found time for further inventions, notably for applying tubular boilers, a superheating system, and surface-condensers to marine engines, to say nothing of his proposals to make the same water act over and over again by alternate expansion and contraction, so as to avoid the objectionable necessity for using salt water in the boilers. By his method marine engines occupied only half their former space; were half the weight; and consumed half the fuel that they formerly did: and it would scarcely be too much to say that his genius rendered the first voyage across the Atlantic practicable. In connexion with this subject, he took out his eighth and last patent in 1832.

Perhaps his latest project was as original--not to say Utopian--as any that even his fertile brain ever conceived. It was to erect a perforated, gilt, cast-iron column, 1,000 feet high, to commemorate the passing of the Reform Bill. One novel feature in it was the air-elevator, which worked in a tube in the centre of the column, and shot the traveller from the base to the summit, on arriving at which he was to secure a glorious bird's-eye view of London.

But the end was approaching. He had been in indifferent health in the spring of 1830; and, although his son does not state the causes of his father's death, there is too much ground to fear that poverty and misery at least accelerated it. He was at work in April, 1833, in Messrs. Hall's factory, at Dartford, Kent, probably on one of his marine engines, when, on the 22nd of that month, somewhat suddenly--for his relations knew nothing of his illness--the great engineer died. He was penniless, and was indebted to charity for his grave, and to the mechanics of Messrs. Hall's factory for becoming the bearers and the only mourners at his simple funeral.

Unless a tombstone has lately been erected, Richard Trevithick furnishes another example of one of Cornwall's most illustrious sons being without a monument to mark where he lies. Is this creditable to the county, or the country, in which he was born, or to the age which he so much enriched by the versatile power of his genius?

Since the above was written,--and also since the date of a letter which I sent to the Cornish papers in June, 1881, calling attention to the facts above referred to,--endeavours have been made to procure some fitting record in Cornwall in honour of Trevithick's memory; and an influential meeting on the subject was held in London on 20th April, 1883.

FOOTNOTES:

[141] A work to which I beg to acknowledge my indebtedness for the main facts of this notice.

[142] On her wedding finger-ring (the internal diameter of which was 7/8ths of an inch!) her husband had rudely engraved the pretty old English posy:

'God above
Increase our love.'

[143] A very remarkable man. Being anxious to ascertain how castings were made, in order to substitute cast-iron pumps for the bored wooden tubes formerly in use in the Cornish mines, he went 'up the country' for the purpose; but was refused admittance into any of the foundries, until he hit upon the expedient of dressing himself in rags and feigning to be half-witted, whereupon he gained employment as a sort of messenger to the workmen, and thus got an opportunity of acquiring the much-desired information.

[144] Still largely in use, in almost precisely the form in which he designed it in 1797.

[145] Cf. Gregory's 'Mechanics;' Ree's 'Cyclopædia;' and Stuart's 'History of the Steam Engine;' Luke Hebert on 'Railways;' Lean's 'Historical Account of the Steam Engine in Cornwall;' Davies Gilbert's 'Observations on the Steam Engine,' in _Philosophical Transactions_, 25 Jan., 1827; 'Memoirs of Distinguished Men of Science in 1807-8,' by Wm. Walker, junr.; R. Edmonds, junr.'s 'Contributions to the Biography of R. Trevithick;' the _Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal_ for Oct., 1859; and _All the Year Round_, 4th Aug., 1860:--for much valuable technical, and other, information on the subject of Trevithick's inventions.

[146] Cf. _Engineering_, 27th March, 1868--'Trevithick was the real inventor of the locomotive;' also Zerah Colburn's 'History of the Locomotive,' p. 13 (ed. 1871); and O. D. Hedley's 'Who invented the Locomotive?' (ed. 1858). The second model had a horizontal instead of a vertical cylinder. His locomotive of 1804, built at Newcastle-on-Tyne, was specially fitted with flanged wheels for running on a railway.

[147] Sir Humphry Davy spoke of these machines more euphemistically as Trevithick's 'dragons.'

[148] Trevithick was born April 13th, 1771, and died April 22nd, 1833. George Stephenson was born June 9th, 1781, and died Aug. 12th, 1848.

[149] Viz., not until 1814--twelve years after Trevithick's locomotive.

[150] Brunel, who afterwards constructed the Thames Tunnel, at Wapping, is said to have formed the highest opinion of Trevithick's inventive skill in this operation. (It had been previously attempted by Dodd.) Trevithick very nearly lost his life when the water flooded the driftway, owing to his insisting upon seeing all his men safely out before him.

[151] Trevithick's claim to the invention of the screw-propeller was disputed.

[152] Earlier attempts were made in 1788 and 1803. The first remunerative steamboat for passengers seems to have been the _Comet_, which ran, in 1812, between Glasgow and Helensburgh, on the Clyde.

[153] 'The next step was to call in the aid of Steam to Agriculture. Steam is almost an Englishman.'--_Emerson._

[154] Trevithick, before leaving England for South America in 1816 being pressed for money, sold a half share of his patent in the high-pressure steam expansive pole-engine to Messrs. Williams, of Scorrier, for £200. He remained abroad for ten years.

[155] Some of the remains of the machinery were seen lying about on the mountain-sides in 1850.

_VIVIAN_,

THE SOLDIER.

_VIVIAN_,

THE SOLDIER.

'See! through the battle's lurid haze,
How Vivian, as the trumpet blew,
Led the last charge at Waterloo.'

H. S. STOKES: _Rhymes from Cornwall_.

The nest of the Vivian family was Truro; here our hero was born, and here resided his father, John Vivian, who may be called the founder of the copper trade in Cornwall, and who subsequently became Vice-Warden of the Stannaries: but the present seat of the Vivians is Glynn, the ancient residence of the Glynn family, from which place the subject of the following remarks, Richard Hussey, first Baron Vivian of Glynn and Truro, derived the former of his titles. He derived his second name from his grandmother, who was a Miss Hussey, of Okehampton; his grandfather was the Rev. Thomas Vivian, of Comprigney, Kenwyn; he was vicar of Cornwood, Devon, and was a man of some literary ability.

Well do I remember, when I was quite a youngster, an autumnal visit in 1842 to the well-wooded valley which Glynn overlooks, and through which rushes the Fowey, a lovely trout-stream, when the 'fiery finger' had been laid upon the leaves of the myriad-tinted oaks in its glades; and when Death had just claimed the owner of that noble mansion. On the grand staircase hung the great picture by Shee,[156] representing the lithe figure of the tall, bronzed hero advancing in his hussar uniform, dismounted and bareheaded, fresh from the 'rapture of the fray;' whilst in the background was a servant holding a spirited white charger. I thought then, and think so still, that I had never seen a more goodly presence.

Vivian's mother was as much distinguished for her beauty and vivacity as his father was as an upright man of business, and able administrator of the Stannary laws. She was a daughter of the Rev. Richard Cranch, vicar of St. Clement's, near Truro, an early friend and patron of Sir Joshua Reynolds; and, accepting her own admission, must have had a sufficiency of admirers. 'What a fine creature she was!' said Dr. Wolcot ('Peter Pindar'). 'I once told her in jest that she _must_ be my wife, for I had never been so deeply in love before.' 'It is out of the question, my dear doctor,' she replied; 'it is impossible. I am _five deep_ already!' The charming buxom profile of the good old lady, who died in 1816, might until recently have been seen on her cenotaph at St. Mary's Church, Truro;[157] as well as a medallion portrait, on his marble tomb (with an epitaph), of her eldest and illustrious son, the subject of this notice.

He was born at Truro--probably at the house to which reference has just been made--on 28th July, 1775; and when about eight years old was sent to the Truro Grammar School under Dr. Cardew. Here, however, he did not long remain, as we find him from 1784 to 1787 at school at Lostwithiel, from which place he went direct to Harrow.

Another three years of his life were passed there; and in 1790 he entered at the old West-Country College--'Exeter'--at Oxford; but he only kept two terms. His education seems to have been completed by a visit to France in 1792.

The time had now come for Vivian to choose a profession; and in this important matter one hardly knows whether to admire more the liberality of the father, or the instinctive sagacity of the son. Mr. Vivian wished his heir to follow a pursuit in which distinction had been gained both by himself and by other members of the family, and an attempt was made in this direction. Our hero was accordingly articled to a Mr. Jonathan Elford, a solicitor, of Devonport, with a view to Vivian's becoming a 'counsellor, learned in the law;' but the attractions presented by the lives and the uniforms of the officers of a garrison town were an all-powerful opposing force; and, besides, Vivian could urge family precedents for a military career; for was not his great-uncle, Colonel Hussey, amongst the heroes who fell with Wolfe on the heights of Abraham?[158]

Accordingly, an ensign's commission in the 20th Regiment of Infantry was procured for him on 31st July, 1793. In the following year he got a captaincy in the 28th, and was present in all the affairs of that time between the French and British armies in the Low Countries; his regiment suffering severe losses at Geldermalsem. In 1795 he returned to England; and shortly afterwards made an attempt--the second unsuccessful one--to get with his regiment to the West Indies. But the war god had other and higher services in store for Vivian; and the winds and the waves drove back the transports to the British shore.

For the next two years (1796-98) Vivian was doing garrison duty at Gibraltar. This sort of pursuit must have fretted so high a spirit as his, and probably led to his exchanging into a cavalry regiment, the 7th Light Dragoons, or 'Queen's Own' Hussars;--now, at least, he thought he should be sure to see service. Nor was he disappointed; for in 1799 he took part in the unfortunate Texel Expedition, under Sir Ralph Abercombie, one result of which, however, was the capture of Helder on the 28th August in that year.

To Vivian the piping times of peace during the next four or five years gave an opportunity for turning his thoughts from war to love; and in 1804 he married his first wife, Eliza, daughter of Philip Champion De Crespigny, of Aldborough (with whom, so the story goes, he ran off from a boarding-school). She was descended from an old French family, refugees from the Edict of Nantes; and the fruit of this marriage was two sons and three daughters.

The Peninsula was destined to be the scene of Vivian's next exploits; and in 1808 we find him landing with Sir John Moore at the once busy port of Corunna. He was engaged in most of the cavalry affairs during that brief campaign, and led the rear-guard during the historic retreat in January, 1809, collecting the infantry stragglers to the number of about 600, forming them, and so repulsing a pursuing enemy, almost as weak and winter-stricken as themselves. For his skill and valour on this memorable occasion he obtained the thanks of Sir G. Paget. He also received high commendation from that gallant hero and graceful gentleman, Sir John Moore himself, whose masterly tactics were recognised by his generous antagonist Soult's placing a monument to his remains on the Corunna ramparts,--celebrated in the ode with which we have all been familiar from our childhood.

After an interval of repose for about three years in Ireland, during which he was made Aide-de-camp to the Prince Regent, and attained the rank of a Colonel in the army, in 1813 Vivian was ordered to take part in the Peninsular campaign; and, in the August of that year, he landed at Bilbao--'the beautiful ford'--that scene of so many conflicts between the French and the Allies. He was now appointed Colonel on the staff, and had the command of a brigade of cavalry; and in the latter capacity he was present at most, if not all, of the important cavalry affairs in that campaign--gathering laurels at Orthes, Vittoria, and in the Pyrenees.

Vivian particularly distinguished himself in the following year at Croix d'Orade; of his conduct on that occasion there is no better description than that which is contained in the following extract from the Duke of Wellington's despatches to Earl Bathurst:

'Toulouse, 12th April, 1814.

'I have the pleasure to inform your lordship that I entered this
town this morning, which the enemy evacuated during the night....
The continued fall of rain and the state of the river prevented me
from laying the bridge till the morning of the 8th, when the Spanish
corps and the Portuguese artillery ... crossed the Garonne. We
immediately moved forward to the neighbourhood of the town; and the
18th Hussars, under the immediate command of Colonel Vivian, had an
opportunity of making a most gallant attack upon a superior body of
the enemy's cavalry, which they drove through the village of Croix
d'Orade, and took about one hundred prisoners, and gave us possession
of an important bridge over the river Ers, by which it was necessary
to pass in order to attack the enemy's position. Colonel Vivian was
unfortunately wounded upon this occasion, and I am afraid that I shall
lose the benefit of his assistance for some time.'

For this affair he bore on his coat of arms (amongst other allusions to his brave deeds) a flying pennon inscribed with golden letters, 'Croix d'Orade.' The wound referred to by the Duke was from a carbine-shot in the right arm.

It is curious to contrast the Great Duke's appreciative eulogy of this brilliant exploit with Napier's sour version of it in his 'English Battles and Sieges in the Peninsula' (p. 453, ed. 1873): 'In this operation a single squadron of the 18th Hussars, under Major Hughes, being _inconsiderately_ pushed by Colonel Vivian across the bridge of St. Martin de la Touch, suddenly came upon a regiment of French cavalry. The rashness of the act, as often happens in war, proved the safety of the British; for the enemy, thinking a strong support must be near, discharged their carbines, and retreated at a canter. Hughes followed; the speed of both parties increased; and as the road did not admit egress by the sides, this great body of horsemen was pushed headlong by a few men under the batteries of St. Cyprian.'