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It wasn’t in busy London or bustling Berlin and it wasn’t in busy Tokyo either: morning commutes weren’t born in a major city. It all began at the top of a valley in Wales (one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom) when the Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg of the 19th century bet on whether a steam engine could be made to move by itself.
In 1804, history was made when an engine developed by British inventor Richard Trevithick moved under its own power on rails.. “It was a moment that changed the world forever,” says historian Dan Snow.
The origins of the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Hogwarts Express and Thomas The Tank Engine (Thomas and his friends) date back to the Trevithick’s modest locomotive, considered by experts to be the first in the world. “Until that time, almost everyone lived and died within 18 kilometers of where they were born, and the fastest anyone could go was the speed of a galloping horse,” adds Snow.
“Look at the world now. Many have families in other regions, people marry people from different places and we work together with people from all over the planet. Trains, buses, cars and even planes take us to work,” she notes.
“It was an extraordinary moment for the human race, a massive technological advance. That revolution started in (the Welsh town of) Merthyr Tydfil,” he adds. “The best thing is that this happened in response to a bet between the rich businessmen, the Musks and Zuckerbergs of the time,” says Snow.
Trevithick had already pioneered stationary steam engines for mining and industry.. For his part, the Welsh steel businessman Samuel Homfray He bought the patents for his inventions and took them to his factories in Wales. “Trevithick had already created a locomotive called the Puffing Devil in 1801, which was basically a road steam train that moved under its own power,” Snow recalls.
“But it caught fire and was destroyed, so that didn’t really work. I had static steam engines running, but I dreamed of making vehicles move without horses,” she narrates. Homfray encouraged Trevithick to place a steam engine on a locomotive that could travel on the rails of a tram newly installed in the area, which connected his factories with a dock, 16 kilometers away, to facilitate the departure of the iron..
Richard Crawshay, a rival iron magnate, doubted that the idea could be carried out, so he and Homfray made a bet of 500 guineas (about US$665, which was then the estimated lifetime income of a person). ) about whether it would work.
After approximately 12 months of construction, Trevithick’s innovative unnamed five-ton locomotive was put into operation on 21 February 1804 and transported 70 people and 10 tons of iron along the banks of the River Taff (about 250 kilometers west of London).
“We continued our journey with the machine… While it was working, it was moving almost five miles per hour (8 kilometers per hour). No water was put into the boiler from the time we started until the end of our trip. The charcoal consumed was two quintals (200 kilograms),” the inventor later stated.
On the return journey, a bolt on what is now known as the Penydarren locomotive broke, causing a boiler leak. The fire had to be put out, so the machine did not return until the next day. The innovative locomotive also damaged the rails as it was very heavy and was later converted into a stationary locomotive driving a forge hammer at the Homfray factory.
“Trevithick demonstrated that a locomotive could not only move on its own, but could haul a load a significant distance.”says Museum of Wales senior curator Jennifer Protheroe-Jones. “It also silenced skeptics who felt that smooth iron wheels would not be able to grip smooth iron tracks. Trevithick showed that he could “, he adds. “It was really the beginning of a revolution in rail transportation. The Penydarren locomotive is the great-grandmother of all trains, since those primitive beginnings were where it all began,” he concludes.
Wales is considered one of the first industrial nations in the world and the south of the territory was a center of innovation, as coal was extracted from its valleys and sent around the world.. “Something extraordinary was happening in Wales 200 years ago, when it basically became the first region in the world to industrialize, and that would change the world,” Snow says.
“The way we all live now: in our factories, our commutes, our mechanized lives, working in globalized industries, it all starts in Wales and the West Midlands,” he says.
Merthyr Tydfil was the center of iron production and, in the early 19th century, was the most populous town in Wales. Workers from all over the world, including Trevithick, came to work in the steel and mining industries. “Wales was one of the great crucibles of the Industrial Revolution, which devastated Europe and later the world”adds Protheroe-Jones.
“Wales was the world center of tin and iron production, so great things were happening here and inventors came to develop their ideas. The city, at that time, was one of the great centers of technological advancement,” he concludes.
Although Trevithick invented the world’s first railway locomotive, George Stephenson is widely considered the father of railways.. It was he who built the first steam locomotive to transport passengers on a public railway line (the Stockton and Darlington Railway) in 1825, before opening the world’s first public intercity line, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, five years later.
“Stephenson perfected the idea of a railroad, from start to finish,” Snow says. “He not only invented the engine, but also the tracks, the signals, the protocols: he invented intercity train travel,” he adds. “That is why he is remembered as the father of railways, but Trevithick is undoubtedly the grandfather”clarifies.
The son of a mine manager, Trevithick had no academic training, but displayed an intuitive engineering talent that caused historians to describe him as a maverick. “He didn’t get as good publicity as Stephenson, who was excellent at self-promotion,” says Protheroe-Jones. “But his achievement surpasses Stephenson’s because he demonstrated that a steam locomotive was a viable contraption and could be economically useful,” he reasons.
“Stephenson’s developments and all other railway innovations rest on the shoulders of Trevithick, who invented the first steam engine that could move on its own and haul a load.”, ditch. Despite his many inventions, Trevithick, who had six children, had no luck in the business world and died penniless at the age of 62 in 1833. And he ended up buried in an unmarked grave.
By Peter Shuttleworth
