Life of Richard Trevithick

Cornishman Richard Trevithick (1771–1833) was one of the pioneering engineers of the Industrial Revolution. Best remembered today for his early railway locomotive, Trevithick worked on a wide range of projects, including mines, mills, dredging machinery, a tunnel under the Thames, military engineering, and prospecting in South America. However, his difficult personality and financial failures caused him to be overshadowed by contemporaries such as Robert Stephenson and James Watt. This two-volume study by his son Francis, chief engineer with the London and North-Western Railway, was published in 1872, and helped to revive his neglected reputation. It places its subject in his historical and technical context, building on the work of his father, Richard Trevithick Senior, and the Cornish mining industry. It contains much technical detail, but is still of interest to the general reader. Volume 1 covers his predecessors, and early life, before examining his work thematically.