A great charm in Trevithick's character was his freedom and largeness of view in questions of competition. He was then making three engines at Coalbrookdale, to be worked with high-pressure steam, combined with the Watt air-pump and condenser; and though smarting from the contest with his great rival, yet wrote, "I think it is better to make them ourselves, for if we do not, some others will, for there must be a saving of coal by condensing. But with small engines, or where coal is plentiful, the engine would be best without it." Those words accurately describe the practice of the present day, though written sixty-six years ago, and were followed by others equally true in principle, though varied in form to suit special requirement. "They say at the Dale about putting two cylinders, but I think one cylinder partly filled with steam would, do equally as well as two cylinders." These sagacious views required the untiring labour of the following twelve years to perfect and make practical, when applied to the largest engines of the time; which we shall now trace in the construction of a strong and economical boiler, supplying high-pressure steam to the cylinder during only a comparatively small portion of the stroke, completing it by expansion, so that at its finish the steam had become of low pressure when passed to the condenser. The moving parts and expansive gear were so simplified as to be applicable to the then existing low-pressure steam vacuum engines without the complication of the double cylinders of Hornblower and Woolf. "DEAR SIR, "PENYDARRAN PLACE, _December 26th, 1804_.