Cornish invention

This was the name given to an early locomotive built by the Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick. In 1808, Trevithick created what was later called a ‘steam circus’, a circular track for the ‘Catch Me Who Can’. People paid five shillings to go round and round its 30-metre diameter on an open carriage pulled by the engine.

The entertainment lasted for two months but Trevithick’s aim of proving steam power better than horse power was thwarted when the rail eventually broke under the weight of his locomotive.