Stuart, in his “Historical and Descriptive Anecdotes of Steam Engines and
of their Inventors and Improvers,” gives a description of what was
supposed to be the first model of a steam carriage. The constructor was
a Frenchman named Cugnot, who exhibited it before the Marshal de Saxe in
1763. He afterwards built an engine on the same model at the cost of the
French monarch. But when set in motion it projected itself onward with
such force that it knocked down a wall which stood in its way, and—its
power being considered too great for ordinary use—it was put aside as
being a dangerous machine, and was stowed away in the Arsenal Museum at
Paris. It is now to be seen in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.
Mr. Smiles also remarks that “An American inventor, named Oliver Evans,
was also occupied with the same idea, for, in 1772, he invented a steam
carriage to travel on common roads; and, in 1787, he obtained from the
State of Maryland the exclusive right to make and use steam carriages.
The invention, however, never came into practical use.
“It also appears that, in 1784, William Symington, the inventor of the
steamboat, conceived the idea of employing steam power in the propulsion
of carriages; and, in 1786, he had a working model of a steam carriage
constructed which he submitted to the professors and other scientific
gentlemen of Edinburgh. But the state of the Scotch roads was at that
time so horrible that he considered it impracticable to proceed further
with his scheme, and he shortly gave it up in favour of his project of
steam navigation.
“The first English model of a steam carriage was made in 1784 by William
Murdoch, the friend and assistant of Watt. It was on the high-pressure
principle and ran on three wheels. The boiler was heated by a spirit
lamp, and the whole machine was of very diminutive dimensions, standing
little more than a foot high. Yet, on one occasion, the little engine
went so fast that it outran the speed of the inventor. Mr. Buckle says
that one night after returning from his duties in the mine at Redruth, in
Cornwall, Murdoch determined to try the working of his model locomotive.
For this purpose he had recourse to the walk leading to the church, about
a mile from the town. The walk was rather narrow and was bounded on
either side by high hedges. It was a dark night, and Murdoch set out
alone to try his experiment. Having lit his lamp, the water shortly
began to boil, and off started the engine with the inventor after it. He
soon heard distant shouts of despair. It was too dark to perceive
objects, but he shortly found, on following up the machine, that the
cries for assistance proceeded from the worthy pastor of the parish, who,
going towards the town on business, was met on this lonely road by the
hissing and fiery little monster, which he subsequently declared he had
taken to be the Evil One in _propriâ personâ_. No further steps,
however, were taken by Murdoch to embody his idea of a locomotive
carriage in a more practical form.”