The history of steam vehicles had its beginnings with James Watt (1736-1819). He did invent a steam engine, which he patented in 1769, that was to make steam power available to manufacturing and to give impetus to the Industrial Revolution. Watt’s patent, renewed in 1775 and remained in force until 1800, gave him a virtual monopoly over the design and construction of low pressure steam engines employing the steam-condenser principle.
John Scott Russell’s private carriage for wealthy, titled Scotsman, 1824
1769. Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804), veteran of service in both the French and German armies and author of works on military science, invents a steam wagon intended for the propulsion of artillery pieces. Cugnot’s vehicle represents the first application of the high pressure or non-condensing steam engine with cylinders and pistons to the production of rotary motion. His engine is mounted on three wheels, the rear pair being carriers, while the front wheel is the driven wheel as well as the steered wheel. Cugnot thus becomes the first to use powered front-wheel drive.
1784. William Murdock (1754-1839) is convinced of the possibilities of steam for propulsion on land and builds a small working model utilizing high pressure steam. Its vehicle has three wheels, one of the rear pair being driven; control of the vehicle is uncertain because all of the driving force is on one side. Nevertheless it achieves a speed of between six and eight mph.
Steam Carriage by John Squire and Francis Macerone of Paddington, 1839
1796. Richard Trevithick (1771-1883) has a small model of a steam wagon in operation at the home of Miss Jane Harvey at Camborne in Cornwall. Miss Harvey later becomes Mrs. Trevithick.
1800. James Watt’s first steam engine patent expires; Trevithick and other inventors are now able to continue their experiments in steam propulsion with less danger of restrictive litigation.
1801.Trevithick’s four wheeled, full-size steam wagon is tested. It is one-cylinder affair, the power being applied through connecting rods to the rear wheels, and is capable of speeds of four to five mph. One innovation is that the exhaust steam is led into the smokestack to get rid of the noise and to enable the vehicle to operate near horses and horse-drawn vehicles.
F. Hill’s 1839 Birmingham and London coach
1803. Trevithick designs and builds a second steam carriage which makes several successful demonstrations in London.
1822. Inventors explore many avenues in their search for new ideas in steam propulsion: Goldsworthy Gurney (1793-1875) uses ammonia gas to run an engine.
1824. William Henry James (1776-1873) in London is active in solving the problem of the ideal form of the boiler and engine of steam carriages. Instead of activating several wheels with but one engine, James uses a separate engine for each wheel (thus becoming the first to use four-wheel drive) and gives his carriage greater flexibility in turning corners and negotiating curves.
1827. Walter Hancock (1799-1852) brings out his first vehicle – a phaeton for personal use. It is on three wheels. The power is applied by two oscillating engines on the front wheels.
Gurney’s steam coach, the Royal Patent, built in 1827
1828. The Johnson Brothers complete and put on the streets the first steam carriage or wagon built and operated as such in the United States. It has four wheels; the two rear driving wheels being eight feet in diameter, the two forward or steered wheel being smaller.
1830. Steam carriages continue to multiply on the roads of England, and improvements are made in vehicles and engines. In the 1830s steam reaches its high-water mark in England. Steam carriages stage lines are formed and carry passengers on regular schedules in the vicinity of many cities. Walter Hancock’s two coaches, “Autopsy” and “Era” carry four thousand passengers between Moorgate and Paddington in 1834. Nevertheless, the road is not a rosy one for steam stage operators: in addition to the natural roughness of the roads, early coach operators find rocks and stones piled in the way of their coaches, toll-road operators raise tolls for steam coaches, and there is increase opposition from horse-line stage operators (even bordering on sabotage)as well as a keen competition from the railroads.
The carriage built in 1828 by W.H.James and Sir James Anderson
1861. First restrictive British legislation, the “Locomotives on the Highways Act”, is passed.
1865. Second “Locomotives on the Highways Act”. This legislation and the Act of 1861 spell the doom of steam transportation on the highways of Britain. The laws stipulate that three persons must be on each vehicle to drive it, that a man precede each vehicle carrying a red flag, that the maximum speed permitted be four miles per hour, and that no steam blow-off be allowed. Such ridiculous and restrictive legislation effectively kill the experimentation with and use of steam carriages.
