Richard Trevithick

The career of this erratic genius is an extraordinary story. The son of a Cornish mine captain, Trevithick single-handed totally changed the unwieldy steam engines of Newcomen and Watt to efficient movers with many applications, inventing in the process a range of widely differing machines, from high-pressure engines to the world’s first railway locomotive. His physical strength was legendary. Yet his strength was nothing compared to his mental energy and initiative, involving mechanical refrigeration, tunnelling under the Thames, wreck salvage, agricultural machinery, land reclamation, and gun mountings.