ch stroke of the piston in the single cylinder.
The waste steam was thrown into the chimney through a tube inserted into
it at right angles; but it will be obvious that this arrangement was not
calculated to produce any result in the way of a steam-blast in the
chimney. In fact, the waste steam seems to have been turned into the
chimney in order to get rid of the nuisance caused by throwing the jet
directly into the air. Trevithick was here hovering on the verge of a
great discovery; but that he was not aware of the action of the blast in
contributing to increase the draught and thus quicken combustion, is
clear from the fact that he employed bellows for this special purpose;
and at a much later date (1815) he took out a patent which included a
method of urging the fire by means of fanners. {70}

[Picture: Trevithick's High Pressure Tram-Engine]

At the first trial of this engine it succeeded in dragging after it
several waggons, containing ten tons of bar-iron, at the rate of about
five miles an hour. Rees Jones, who worked at the fitting of the engine,
and remembers its performances, says, "She was used for bringing down
metal from the furnaces to the Old Forge. She worked very well; but
frequently, from her weight, broke the tram-plates and the hooks between
the trams. After working for some time in this way, she took a load of
iron from Pen-y-darran down the Basin-road, upon which road she was
intended to work. On the journey she broke a great many of the
tram-plates, and before reaching the basin ran off the road, and had to
be brought back to Pen-y-darran by horses. The engine was never after
used as a locomotive." {71}

It seems to have been felt that unless the road were entirely
reconstructed so as to bear the heavy weight of the locomotive--so much
greater than that of the tram-waggons, to carry which the original rails
had been laid down--the regular employment of Trevithick's high-pressure
tram-engine was altogether impracticable; and as the owners of the works
were not prepared to incur so serious a cost, it was determined to take
the locomotive off the road, and employ it as an engine for other
purposes. It was accordingly dismounted, and used for some time after as
a pumping-engine, for which purpose it was found well adapted.
Trevithick himself seems from this time to have taken no further steps to
bring the locomotive into general use. We find him, shortly after,
engaged upon sche