Richard Trevithick

Richard Trevithick was born in1771 in Illogan, Cornwall. In high school he was much more interested in sports than learning. Some called him "The Cornish Giant" because he grew to a size of 6 foot 2 inches. Trevethick loved steam engines. In 1796 he produced a working engine boiler combination. After his success on the model engine he decided to create a full scale engine. On Christmas Eve 1801, Trevethick and some friends went for a short ride on "The Puffing Devil". Although it worked well it could not hold the steam for very long which made it quite impractical for use. In 1804 he created the first steam locomotive to successfully run on rails. It made three successful runs, however the 7-ton locomotive broke the rails every time so it was abandoned. He jumped from failure to fail until he died on April 22, 1833. His uses of steam can rightly credit him as the father of steam locomotives.