The Cornish invented the car :p

[Dr.Flay]

Long before the first horseless-carriage, and even before the locomotive engines, a local Cornish lad accidentally invented the car/automobile.

Richard Trevithick (born 1771) lived about 10 miles from me, and every well brought-up Cornish person knows about him, because we celebrate his invention every year as it covers the same (non)historic journey he made.
http://www.trevithick-day.org.uk

I've just been watching a documentary on the history/future of power, and his story came up in it (@ 22 minutes).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... ited-power


It nicely shows that greed is the thing that holds us back most, as it was built in response to greedy licensing.
We could have all been using personal motorised transport a whole lot earlier.

[a nameless entity]

I love programs like the one in the video. But sadly, I cannot watch it because I do not live in the UK.

Can you explain more about this fellow? It looks like he invented a steam engine that ran on road wheels.

Although perhaps I have seen that show because I recently watched a program about the development of steam engines in the UK and their uses that went on to become the British railway system.
The investment frenzy surrounding railroads and the over inflated prices of everything to do with railroading led to a huge stock market bubble whose inevitable crash nearly destroyed the economy of Britan. The solution? A huge bailout of the too big to fail banks by the government.

(So, 2008 was nothing new. And we still haven't learned anything. )

Edit: Whoops, I can watch the embedded version. Click on that one folks!

[EvilGrins]

But sadly, I cannot watch it because I do not live in the UK.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and can see the video fine.

[a nameless entity]

But sadly, I cannot watch it because I do not live in the UK.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and can see the video fine.

Well that's odd. I can watch the embedded version for some reason, but if I try to open the link above in a new tab I get this message in a little box superimposed over the webpage:

BBC iPlayer TV programmes are available to play in the UK only. Find out why.

If you are in the UK and see this message please read this advice.

[Dr.Flay]

I gave the BBC link so you can read the info, and managed to find all of the series posted as a playlist in youtube.
The youtube version should work for most people.

The main thing Trevithic did was turn the giant steam-house into something so small it could use its own power to move itself to where it was needed.
Remember at that time, steam power was just to mill grain or drive pumps etc.

Later on, the equivalent would have been the larger steam traction engines, commonly used on farms, which finally turned into the modern "Tractor" as we know it.

[Hook]

I've said it before, I will be visiting over there Flay!
(on my bucket list)