Lectures delivered before the Young Men's Christian Association . r! for when didecclesiastical Eome ever favour one useful discovery in artor science ? A little more than one hundred years after, the thoughtof moving carriages by steam on common roads occupiedmany minds in England; but the first model of a steamcarriage, of which we have any written account, was con-structed by Cugnot, a Frenchman, who exhibited it beforeMarshal de Saxe, in 17G3. Some of our transatlantic cousins claim the invention forOliver Evans, born in the State of Delaware, in 1755; butwhen he was four years old, Dr. Eo
Lectures delivered before the Young Men's Christian Association . r! for when didecclesiastical Eome ever favour one useful discovery in artor science ? A little more than one hundred years after, the thoughtof moving carriages by steam on common roads occupiedmany minds in England; but the first model of a steamcarriage, of which we have any written account, was con-structed by Cugnot, a Frenchman, who exhibited it beforeMarshal de Saxe, in 17G3. Some of our transatlantic cousins claim the invention forOliver Evans, born in the State of Delaware, in 1755; butwhen he was four years old, Dr. Eobinson and James Wattwere projecting a steam carriage, and when he was eightyears old, Cugnot had exhibited one. At the Great Exhi-bition of 1851, there was a model made by Mr. Murdoch, ofJames Watts Locomotive Engine of 1785. A similarengine was tried on the common roads in Cornwall, in 1785 PROGEESS ; LIFE OF GEOEGE STEPHENSOTT. 425 and 1786. With its three wheels and its cylinder and crankaction, it forms a wonderful contrast to the engine of thepresent JAMES WAIXS li;comot:ve, 17b5. Oliver Evans was, however, a most ingenious man; at theage of seventeen, he invented a steam carriage to travel oncommon roads; and at twenty-two, obtained from the Stateof Maryland the exclusive right to make and use steamcarriages. The invention nevertheless did not come intopractical use. JSTumbers of experiments were made—numbers of patentstaken out; but Trevethick, a most ingenious and restlessCornishman, seems to have been the first to connect theidea of the steam carriage and the iron rail together. In1804, he had an engine running on a tramway at MerthyrTydvil. Unhappily, though Trevethick had the genius tooriginate the idea, he had not the perseverance necessary tobring it to perfection ; and turning to fresli projects, heleft other men to pursue that which, if successful in hishands, would have enriched his estate, and immortalized hisname. r F 426 PEOGHESS ; LirE of GEOEGE STE
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