| |
| |
Caption: Dedication - Transportation Building Dedication Addresses
This is a reduced-resolution page image for fast online browsing.
EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:
story books to the contrary notwithstanding. Watt's patents kept Trevithiok restless and by no means voiceless until, happily in 1800 they expire and the brawny big miner's opportunity comes. Models follow models with kitchen table and floor as base of operation. Then Christmas time 1801 "Captain Dick's Puffer," as the towns- people call it, appears on the country road. His neighbors to the number of a half dozen are brave enough to accept his invitation and clamber to a foot or hand hold and off moves the uncouth contraption; slowly, and doggedly, but accomplishing the primary transport of passengers by steam in the world's annals. There was, as to be expected, much talk following these events; the whole neighborhood became agog, and the reports of the astonishing things Captain Dick had done spreading beyond the village confines oluminated in a wager that Trevithiok could not construct a locomotive that, on the Methyr Tydvale colliery tramway in South Wales, would demonstrate an efficiency equal to pulling ten tons. Trevithiok, despite the difficulties of movement of a locomotive on such as was the rough tramway, which was naturally not foreseen by the builder, promptly accented the challenge, built his engine, attached the little cars to it, and not only drew the ten tons of metal as stiptulated but two dozen or more people on top of it as well. Headway was slow, as trees had to be cut down where the width or height of the engine would not permit of its passage. Rocks and boulders 31
| |
