Richard Trevithick: the Engineer and the Man

Abstract

IN William Walker's well-known group of British men of science alive in 1807-8 there is no more romantic figure than that of Richard Trevithick, who at that time was struggling with the problems of steam transport by road, rail and river and was also endeavouring to bore the tunnel known as the Thames Archway beneath the Thames between Limehouse and Rotherhithe. The latter was a project which Trevithick, with that buoyant optimism which was one of his characteristics, had undertaken, thinking “this will be making a thousand pounds very easey, and without any risque of a loss on my side”. Entered upon without sufficient preparation and with inadequate appliances the scheme proved a failure, but Trevithiek's position as the engineer of the concern had some share in making his name widely known and perhaps had some influence on Walker when choosing his portraits for the group of 1807-8. At any rate, we know to-day how well Trevithick deserved to be placed beside Watt and Telford, Brunei and Maudslay, Davy and Dalton.

Richard Trevithick: the Engineer and the Man.

By H. W. Dickinson Arthur Titley. (Trevithick Centenary Commemoration Memorial Volume.) Pp. xvii + 290 + 18 plates. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1934.) 10s. 6d. net.