This was originally an essay I wrote in 1992; just before I went to university.  As it was starting to show signs of age I have updated it for 2001. This essay spans 6 pages and may not be re-produced in any format elsewhere without prior permission from Elvis Payne.

Section 1: The Steam Age.

Love them or loathe them the 3-wheeler, Cycle-car or even Tri-car has had an important impact in the development of the present day motor car.  From the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in 1760 to the Concept cars of the future, these vehicles can hold their headlamps up with pride. They were present at the birth of motoring and possibly may well be the the answer to the future with the constant depletion of the Earths energy resources.

Through the centuries there have been many attempts to build a self-propelled vehicle, and whilst many of these ideas have failed one way or another, all have made small contributions to the final result.  Names such as Huygens, Volta, Leonardo DaVinci, Hans Hautsch, Du Quet and Father Verbiest are among many whose work has been used by later engineers to produce a self-propelled vehicle. One of the first experimenters was a Frenchman, Denis Papin who in 1698, after seeing a Dutchman fail by attempting to move a vehicle with a gun powder propellant, took this method and modified it replacing gunpowder for steam. He then built his first model engine, but due to the poor construction of roads, combined with their meandering nature, it became difficult to navigate. He did however find success later by applying his knowledge to the marine sector, as most laws then governed self-propelled vehicles as, "carriages to plough landes and make voyages upon the oceans as swifte as boates that sayl in faire windes."

It was in Paris that the" first mechanically propelled vehicle" which performed was made. Nicholas Joseph Cugnot was the builder and driver of this new steam machine, which was a full size prototype of his light weight model made six years earlier in 1763.  At this time steam engines were employed as pumping and winching devices, and it was a couple of generations before the first railway was to be seen.

Cugnot's steam wagon was a huge 3-wheeler carrying a front mounted boiler and a two cylinder engine located over the front wheel. The wagon worked in a fashion with a top speed of 2 mph with enforced stops every 12 minutes to rebuild pressure.  He later made a larger boiler and even though his steam vehicle (fardier a'vapeur) was tested he never became officially recognized.  His vehicle eventually caused the worlds first motor accident when it ran out of control and demolished a garden wall. Twenty years later in England William Murdock (a former pupil of James Watt) who had seen Cugnot's plans learnt from his mistake by designing a model steam 3-wheeled vehicle with the engine over the rear wheels to improve stability. It was said that this model first ran in 1784 in Redruth,Cornwall and on one occasion was tested at dusk, the machine ran hissing and sparking past the vicar who then thought the devil was paying him a visit!

Murdock's machine was also seen by Richard Trevithick in London, who decided to develop a high-pressure engine powered by steam and on Christmas Eve, 1801, he rolled it out for its first test.  The vehicle, no more than a boiler on 3-wheels, took Trevithick and a number of his friends half a mile up a hill. However as he sat in his local pub one day, the boiler burnt dry and destroyed the vehicle, and so undeterred Trevithick built another steam carriage, this time complete with seats and a real carriage like appearance. He drove it through London's Oxford Street on demonstration runs but nobody was interested and so he sold the power unit to a local Miller.

As a result of the Industrial Revolution, Steam trains and coaches were successfully being developed in Great Britain.  As well as Murdock and Trevithick, James Goldsworthy, Gurney, Hancock, Macerone and Squire all produced steam vehicles which were used with great success on public roads. One reason for Britain's lead was the fine hard-surfaced roads constructed by Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and McAdam (1756-1836) who during their lives built many miles of roads and canals suitable for these new machines.  McAdam's contribution to the new roads was a new surface, although his surface was a development of Telfords. Telford made the greatest contributions with his bridges.  These two factors combined made Britain's roads much more durable, whereas few roads in other countries were more than rutted tracks joining together the towns and cities.

Steam coach/car development in Britain was at least forty years ahead of its nearest overseas rival, but then declined into virtual oblivion due to two main factors: The first was for the levies imposed on steam vehicles using the Toll roads network. These tolls were raised to cover the cost of building better surfaced roads, and so it was not unheard of for a steam coach to have to pay a toll fifteen times greater than that imposed on a horse drawn carriage. The second and final blow came in 1865 with the introduction of the Road Locomotives and Highways Act, more commonly known as the 'Red Flag Act', which stated that every road locomotive must have three persons in attendance, one to stoke, one to steer and one to walk ahead with a red flag to warn oncoming traffic, and to help control horses. The speeds also became restricted and the maximum speeds allowed were 4 mph in open country and 2 mph in towns. This drove the vehicles off the roads and as a result the development of self propelled vehicles in Great Britain came to a virtual standstill.

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