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N0KFQ > TODAY 24.12.11 19:11l 58 Lines 2694 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Dec 24
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Sent: 111224/1658Z 15465@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Dec 24, 1801:
Richard Trevithick introduces his "Puffing Devil"
British inventor Richard Trevithick takes seven of his friends
for a test ride on his "Puffing Devil," or "Puffer," the first
steam-powered passenger vehicle, on this day in 1801. Unlike the
steam engine pioneered by the Scotsman James Watt, Trevithick's
used "strong steam"--that is, steam at a very high pressure (145
pounds per square inch, or psi, compared to the Watt engine's 5
psi, which enabled him to build an engine small enough to fit in
his "Puffer" car. Trevithick's engines were undoubtedly more
dangerous than Watt's, but they were also extremely versatile:
They could be put to work in mines, on farms, in factories, on
ships and in locomotives of all kinds.
Trevithick was born in 1771 in a mining village in Cornwall,
England. He was a terrible student--his teachers thought he was a
"disobedient, slow, obstinate, [and] spoiled boy" who would never
amount to anything, and in fact he was basically illiterate his
entire life--but he loved to tinker with tools and machines. In
1790, Trevithick went to work as a steam-engine repairman, first
at the Wheal Treasury mine and then at the Ding Dong mine. In his
off hours, he worked on an invention of his own: a steam
locomotive that would be powerful enough to carry people and
things but compact enough to be practical.
On Christmas Eve 1801, Trevithick's Puffer (so named because it
puffed steam into the atmosphere) was ready at last. The machine
had a pressure-operated piston connected to a cylindrical
horizontal boiler and was large enough to seat all the onlookers
who were eager to accompany Trevithick on his test run. (The car
chugged steadily uphill, one of those passengers reported, "like
a little bird...going faster than I could walk.") A few days
later, however, the amazing Puffer was destroyed when it
overheated and caught fire.
In 1804, at the Penydarren Ironworks in Wales, Trevithick built
the first-ever steam locomotive to run along a track. It pulled
five cars loaded with ten tons of iron and 70 ironworkers about
nine miles, and chugging along at about five miles per hour.
Unfortunately, it was also so heavy that it broke its rails and
was retired after just three trips. In 1808, a similar
locomotive--dubbed the "Catch-me-who-can"--hauled daredevil
passengers in a circle around Torrington Square in London. (The
rails eventually broke there, too.)
Trevithick died in poverty in 1833, but his inventions lived on.
Without a doubt, he was one of the most important figures of the
industrial age.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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