More specifically, what came in between 1801 and 1804, when instead of a least-expense low-speed colliery tug, you actually take advantage of a high-pressure engine:
http://www.steamcar.net/brogden-1.html
Note the reasons given for its ‘failure to thrive’ – a little reminiscent of Emett’s machine that did the work of three men and a boy. But still… imagine if there had been a ‘good roads’ movement associated with MacAdam, or if vulcanizing had been developed a couple of decades prior…
And then there was Capitaine Cugnot, a French army engineer, who in 1769 came up with a self-propelled steam carriage. Didn’t work out for various reasons but hey, sometime’s you’ve just got to push the technology just a bit to engineer some progress.
Here it is in replica.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP_oQHYmdRs
Can you imagine a fleet of those things hauling 24-pounder siege guns around the Yorktown battlefield?
No wonder the British required a man with a red flag to precede road vehicles, until 1904 anyway. Regarding the Cugnot, I’ve heard that it had a habit of crashing into walls which might have been one reason why they weren’t adopted by the French army.
The Tampa Bay museum is amazing, I’ve met Alain Cerf several times. He’s quite a character. Anyone who would build a Cugnot would have to be.
I guess parallel parking the thing would have been out of the question too.
Give Cugnot a break, he did design a traction engine that worked reasonably well. Steering gear would have to come later.
Hey, I have nothing but respect for the good Capitaine, the French army’s engineers and artillerymen were the best in the world at the time, bar none.
And as I said, sometimes someone’s got to push the technology a bit to see where it can go. Everyone knew about stationary steam engines at the time, Cugnot tried to see if he could make one do just a little more. Even though the design was a failure you’ve got to hand it to him for trying.
Only because it does not have a formal reverse gear. On les aura!
There was another replica of the vehicle made in the mid-Thirties, which can be seen (briefly being crashed) in a German movie about steam history.
Note that the steering-bar arrangement is not just a double tiller – think of it as like an early version of a bus steering wheel. Even with the appallingly high polar moment of inertia on that front wheel, I think an adequate ratio for turning (and very low road kickback) would be present. As with automobiles, a little familiarity is good.
The problem more likely revolves around the lack of proper suspension, braking, or a somewhat Reliant-Robinish predilection to tip if turned too quick. ISTR there was a problem with the lack of steam generation combined with fixed cutoff – it used the same mass flow whether or not ‘towing’ something.
If I remember correctly, that law and the ridiculously low road speed limits were ‘arranged for’ precisely because of capable steam carriages, of which there were getting to be many toward the end of the 1820s. While Trevithick’s was too small to pay, and Gurney’s still a bit clunky to steer, there were some interesting developments (like the use of elliptic springs as wheel spokes) that would rapidly have made use of many of the principal roads “problematic” at best for many forms of equitation. I think of it as a “must consume its own smoke” that kept its teeth…
Loved the video! The original of Cugnot’s vehicle is in a museum in Paris.
Interesting reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas-Joseph_Cugnot
Also interesting, as illustrated in a very nice photo, was how linear motion was transformed to rotary motion.
I wonder why there never was a New and Improved Modele Deux. Or would that be a Dash Deux?
Ed
I don’t know myself and can’t find out why, but I’d say the simplest explanation is the best. There was probably no money available. It was around this time the French army was overhauling it’s artillery arm to the new Griveaubal System, and that was going to be expensive!
It’s interesting at the difference between British locomotive preservation and their naval preservation. While they’ve saved some of their very old ships (Warrior, etc.), nothing much from the past 100 years besides for HMS Belfast. Warspite or the last Invincible would’ve been good candidates, IMHO.
It takes a lot of money to preserve a steel ship in salt water. Look at the USS Texas which is pretty much ready to sink. I’ve heard that the Queen Mary in Long Beach is in pretty rough shape. A locomotive can sit in a shed like an old car and it won’t deteriorate to the point that it isn’t restorable, unless it sits outdoors and even then it can be brought back. Think of all the locos saved from Dai Woodham’s Barry scrapyard. The fact that so many were saved is why the British heritage railway scene is as vibrant as it is.
I am involved in two major projects. The Medway Queen Preservation Society, a 1924 built paddle steamer (at Gillingham Pier) and The Border Counties Railway (The North British Railway’s Waverley Route). Both are expensive projects. In the longer run the Medway Queen will be the more expensive to operate than the Border Counties Railway.
Ah, but there is a preserved British-built pre-dreadnought battleship, and you’ll never guess where it is! Well, maybe some of you will…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyzKKCLJIJA&t=9s
Backshop mentioned Warspite. There was a great fighting ship that deserved preservation. She fought to the end, breaking her towline and throwing herself on the rocks at Land’s End rather than go to the scrapyard.
They say ships are inanimate objects without spirits or souls, but sometimes you have to wonder.
Interesting the way the Japanese have “floated” that ship on dry land. It probably reduces the maintenance cost considerably over the long term. I wonder if some existing preserved ships in the US might someday get similar treatment.
Permanent drydocking like the British have done with some of their ships isn’t a bad idea, it would certainly save on maintenance costs, salt water is certainly some nasty corrosive stuff. Certainly the initial costs would be heavy, but would be worth it in the long term.
I would think that a wooden ship should stay in the water- look what happened to the Cutty Sark a few years ago. Wood shrinks and warps if it’s not kept wet. Steel rusts and rots if it is. I understand that the Vasa is still kept wet with sprays to keep it from falling apart but I could be wrong about that.
At ‘Locomotion’ Railway Museum, Shildon, County Durham, UK.
‘Sans Pareil’ the real one
Next to it a replica of ‘Sans Pareil’
David
That contraption with all of those beams and links:
Is that a Deltic with the cowl removed? [:-^]
This one perhaps[:D]
David