Locomotion 1820

[Jeremy Cumberland]

"1820?" I hear you ask. Yes, that's right. In today's Guardian.

Steam-powered boots.

 

Read the whole article on outlandish modes of transport here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/18/shock-of-the-old-11-transport-fantasies-that-never-got-off-the-ground-from-jetpacks-to-swan-powered-paragliders

[Hroth]

The delivery wagon looks like the white van man of today, who uses nothing but unrefined, reeking chip shop oil to avoid having to pay for diesel.

 

Nothing changes!

 

[Reorte]

Well, that's completely spoiled The Wrong Trousers for me, now I know it wasn't an original idea!

[jjb1970]

The genre of steam punk seems to have evolved out of 19th century futurology, it's a fascinating niche of history.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

I don't know how accurate the date of 1820 is, but it seems very early for depicting steam road vehicles in such a way, and without being given the date, I would have placed it a decade later (or perhaps 15 or so years earlier, shortly after Trevithick's London Steam Carriage). In 1820, a few steam locomotives were being built in the north of England, but there weren't any in the south of the country that I am aware of, and in any case the vehicles look nothing like contemporary locomotives. I don't know of any steam powered road vehicles in Britain between Trevithick and the early 1820s, and none in London till 1830 or so.

 

There were steam fire-pumps, though (I have no idea how common they were), and the vehicle in the foreground looks something like a cross between a fire pump and a bath chair. Well done to George Cruikshank if he was able to conjure up a steam carriage out of a fire pump, pre-empting John Ericsson and John Braithwaite's Novelty at the Rainhill Trials.

 

I also note the "Safety Coach" on the far left, "guaranteed not to explode". Clearly, boiler explosions must already have been a concern.

[Hroth]

The earliest steam stage coach was devised by a chap called Gurney and ran between London and Bath around 1827.  I believe that it was priced off the road by a combination of conventional coach operators and turnpike trusts, and was the victim of the Red Flag laws to boot!

 

https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/363070/view/steam-powered-coach-1826

 

 

Edited April 19 by Hroth
Image link and forgot to put in the date!

[Jeremy Cumberland]

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

...and was the victim of the Red Flag laws to boot!

I hadn't even thought of the Red Flag Act, but now I look it up I see it was passed in 1865, far later than this cartoon could possibly have been drawn. The earliest legislation I can find for powered road vehicles is 1861.

 

The Highway Act 1835 mentions steam engines, but these are stationary engines associated (primarily) with mines. Some of the other provisions refer specifically to horse-drawn vehicles, and others don't mention the means of propulsion.

[Hroth]

I'm afraid my comment came from a very vague recollection of the page about steam coaches in the Ladybird book "The Story of the Motor Car" (1962)  My copy is very battered but I still have it, and can say that it reported that road steam carriages were actually penalised by the stage coach operators and, gasp, the RAILWAYS!     The act, as well as introducing the Red Flag (to be carried 60 yards ahead of the offending vehicle), also imposed speed limits of 2mph in towns and 4mph on the open road.

 

So the steam coach was killed by the 1865 act but its clear that there was opposition in some quarters as far back as the 1820s.