The inventor of your high-pressure steam-engine
is a cousin of mine, living within a few miles of Falmouth, the port
we are bound for." On landing, Uville, still weak and obliged to keep
his bed, was told that Trevithick, the engineer, lived in London, and
was constructing the Thames Tunnel; but further inquiry showed that he
also had suffered from brain fever, and had just returned to Penponds,
only a few miles from Falmouth. On the 10th of May, 1813, a letter
reached Trevithick, requesting him to visit the sick Uville, and in a
fortnight from that time the engineer had mastered the requirements
of the Peruvian mines, and had designed and made arrangements for the
supply of six pumping engines, together with the pumps and all things
necessary for the underground workings; the whole to be delivered in
four months.
[Footnote 120: See vol. i., p. 194.]
[Footnote 121: See London locomotive, vol. i., p. 198.]
[Rough draft.]
"SIR, "CAMBORNE, _May 22nd, 1813_.
"I have engaged to get six engines, with pit-work, &c., to send
abroad. A great part of the wrought-iron work and the boilers I have
arranged for in Cornwall. These engines will be high-pressure engines,
because the place they are for has a very deep adit driven into the
mountain; and lifting condensing water to the surface would be a
greater load than the whole of the work under the adit level.
"I call a set of work, a 24-inch cylinder single engine, 6-feet
stroke, piston, cylinder bottom, single nozzle, with two 5-inch valves
and perpendicular pipe; no cylinder top; the piston-rod not to be
turned; 3-inch safety-valve, fire-door, two small Y[**symbol] shafts
and gear-handles, &c.; a good strong winch set in a broadish frame,
such as is often used on quays or in quarries, 25 fathoms of 12-inch
pumps, a 12-inch plunger, an 11-inch working barrel, clack-seat and
wind-bore, with brass boshes and clacks, a force-pump for the boiler,
and 10 fathoms of 3-inch pipes to carry the water to and from the
engines. I have engaged to supply six full sets of the above-mentioned
materials.
"All these castings must be delivered in Cornwall in four months from
the time the orders are given; therefore, if you take the job, or any
part of it, you must enter into an engagement to fulfil it in the
time. As there ought not to be a moment lost, I wish you to answer me
immediately in what time you will deliver those materials in Cornwall;
or otherways, what part of them you can execute in the time.
"I am making the drawing, which will be ready before I can receive
your answer. For whatever part of the job you may engage I will lodge
the money to pay for the whole in Mr. Fox's hands, which will then
be paid for before you begin the work, as soon as you execute the
agreement.
"R. T.
"MR. PENGILLY, _Neath Abbey, South Wales_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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