Richard Trevithick: The Cornishman Who Invented the Steam Age

On Christmas Eve, 1801, a crowd gathered on the road above Camborne to witness something that had never been seen before in all of human history: a machine that moved by its own power, without horse or wind or water.

Richard Trevithick, the giant of a man from Illogan who stood six foot two and could lift a half-ton mine pump single-handed, had built the world's first self-propelled passenger-carrying vehicle. He called it the "Puffing Devil."

The machine coughed, hissed, and then — incredibly — began to move. It climbed Camborne Hill with Trevithick and several passengers aboard, terrifying horses and astonishing onlookers who had been told such a thing was impossible.

Trevithick went on to build the world's first railway locomotive in 1804, proving that smooth wheels could grip smooth rails. He invented the high-pressure steam engine that would power the Industrial Revolution. He drained the tin mines of Cornwall with engines of his own design.

Yet Trevithick died penniless in 1833, his genius unrecognised in his lifetime. His fellow engineers at the factory where he worked took up a collection to pay for his funeral.

Today, Cornwall celebrates "Trevithick Day" every April in Camborne, with parades of steam engines and a replica of the Puffing Devil that retraces its historic journey up the hill. The Cornishman who invented the steam age is finally remembered.

Source: Trevithick Society records, Science Museum archives, and historical accounts from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Public domain historical biography.