Richard Trevithick

Richard Trevithick was born at Illogan on April 13th 1771, the only son in a family which included five sisters; he was his mother's pet. His father, Richard Trevithick senior, was already well known in the local mining community and was a pious Methodist whose friends included the preacher John Wesley.

Trevithick completed his first full sized road locomotive in 1801. He demonstrated it to the public on Christmas Eve with his cousin Andrew Vivian at the controls. It successfully carried a number of men up Beacon Hill, an event commemorated by the old Cornish song "Going up Camborne Hill" and marked by Trevithick's statute which stands outside Camborne library, gazing up the hill in question. The high-pressure vehicle was patented on the 24th. March 1802. It was Trevithick's first patent. By February 1804 Trevithick had the first locomotive up and running at the Penydarn ironworks in South Wales. It travelled over nine miles at a speed of five mph, pulled a ten ton load, five wagons and 70 men. It was an historic moment. Another ran on a circular track off Gower Street in London in 1808 (near the present day Euston Station). Trevithick charged one shilling for a ride on the "Catch Me Who Can" but the idea never caught on. Twenty one years later his friend George Stephenson won The Rainhill Trails with "The Rocket!"