James
Watt, a Scottish inventor and mechanical
engineer, was responsible for improvements
to the steam engine that caused this device
to see wider use and encouraged wider
experimentation, though it was not used
for locomotive power until Richard Trevithick
developed the high pressure steam engine
in the 1800s. The first steam locomotive
was built by Richard Trevithick, an English
engineer, in 1804. His locomotive had
no name, and was used at the Pennydarren
ironworks in Wales. It was not financially
successful, because it was too heavy for
the track and kept breaking down. Despite
his inventive talents, Richard Trevithick
died in poverty, with his achievement
being largely unrecognized. In 1812 Oliver
Evans, a United States engineer and inventor,
published his vision of what steam railways
could become,
with
cities and towns linked by a network of
long distance railways plied by speedy
locomotives, greatly reducing the time
required for personal travel and for transport
of goods. Evans specified that there should
be separate sets of parallel tracks for
trains going in different directions.
In 1813, George Stephenson persuaded the
manager of the colliery where he worked
to allow him to build a steam-powered
machine. He built the Blucher, the first
successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive.
The flanges enabled the trains to run
on top of the rails instead of in sunken
tracks. This greatly simplified construction
of switches and rails, and opened the
way to the modern railroad.
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