The trial, however, was not very successful. Trevithick’s engine was too heavy for the tramway on which it ran, and the proprietors were not prepared to put down a stronger road. Furthermore, it once alarmed the good folk, unused then to railway accidents, by actually running off its rail, though only travelling at about four or five miles an hour. It had to be ignominiously brought home by horses. That settled the matter. It became a pumping engine, and as such answered very well. In this locomotive, however, it should be noted Trevithick employed a device which, a quarter of a century later, Stephenson made so valuable that we might call it the very life-blood of the Locomotive. We mean the device of turning the waste steam into the funnel (after it has done its work by driving the piston), and thus forcing a furnace draught and increasing the fire. Stephenson, however, sent the steam through a small nozzled pipe which made of it a veritable steam-blast, while Trevithick, apparently, simply discharged the steam into the chimney. Disgusted it would seem by the failure, the inventor turned his attention to other things. Trevithick appears to have lingered on the very brink of success, and then turned aside. Another effort and he might have burst the barrier. But it was not to be; though if any one man deserve the title, Inventor of the Locomotive, that man is the Cornish genius Trevithick. Readers who may desire fuller information of Trevithick and his inventions will find it in his “Life” by Francis Trevithick, C.E., published in 1872. It must be borne in mind that Stephenson found the imaginary hindrance that smooth wheels would not grip smooth rails, cleared away for him by Hedley’s experiment, whereas Trevithick had to contend against this difficulty. He strove to conquer it by roughing the circumference of his wheels by projecting bolts, so that they might grip in that way. That is, his patent provided for it, if he did not actually carry out the plan. It is very significant that this imaginary fear should have hindered the development of the locomotive. The idea seems to have prevailed that, no matter how powerful the engine, it could not haul along very heavy loads unless special provision were made for its “bite” or grip of the rails. Another difficulty with which Trevithick had to contend was one of cost. It is said that one of his experiments failed in London for that reason. This was apparently the locomotive for roads, as distinct from the locomotive for rails. A machine may be an academic triumph, but the question of cost must be met if the machine is to become a commercial and industrial success.