Strong Steam
Derek Webb
Genre: Drama
Cast size: 4-17
Duration: 2 hours
Derek Webb | Drama | Full Length | 3m, 1f OR 13m, 4f
Short synopsis
- Synopsis
- Characters
The inventor of the railway locomotive was not George Stevenson or his son Robert, it was a Cornishman – Richard Trevithick. And his invention first steamed along a railway track in South Wales. Yet his name is surprisingly unknown to many people. Surprising because Trevithick did more than invent the steam locomotive and, by extension, the railway as we know it, itself. He invented or led to the invention of the shipping container, the ship propeller, floating docks, iron ships, portable room heaters, refrigerators and the steam turbine among many other now common things.
Whereas competitors, such as James Watt, built steam pumps, they used atmospheric pressure to do the actual work. Trevithick advocated the use of high-pressure steam – ‘Strong steam’ as he called it – to provide the muscle. And he was derided for the notion by many.
He was a man way ahead of his time, but his mind was so full of new ideas that he didn’t stay with one long enough for it to become accepted, and left it to others to develop them and take the credit (and the financial rewards). Brilliant but impetuous, he was his own worst enemy and he doesn’t enjoy the legacy he should.
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