von Bob Barton (mit freundlicher Genehmigung von VisitBritain.com)
- Statue of Richard Trevithick, Camborne, Cornwall
An invention that changed the world is 200 years old in 2004: Britain is celebrating the bicentenary of the steam railway locomotive. But it is not an engineering giant such as James Watt or George Stephenson being fêted.
The man who first put steam engines on rails was a tall, strong (Mann aus Cornwall, County im Südwesten Englands) Cornishman described by his schoolmaster as ‘ (stur, starrköpfig) obstinate and (unaufmerksam) inattentive’. Richard Trevithick (1771-1833), who learnt his craft in (kornisch, aus Cornwall stammend) Cornish (Zinnerz-Mine) tin mines, built his ‘Penydarren tram road engine’ for a line in South Wales whose primitive wagons were pulled, slowly and (mühselig) laboriously, by horses.
On February 21, 1804, Trevithick’s pioneering engine (haul = ziehen, transportieren, schleppen) hauled 10 tons of (Eisen) iron and 70 men nearly ten miles from Penydarren, at a speed of five miles-per-hour. He was 20 years (seiner Zeit voraus) ahead of his time–Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’ was not even on the (Reißbrett, Zeichenbrett) drawing board–but Trevithick’s engines were seen as little more than a (hier: Kuriosität) novelty. He went on to engineer at mines in South America before dying penniless aged 62. But his idea was developed by others and, by 1845, a (hier: Netz) spider’s web of 2,440 miles of railway were open and 30 million passengers were being carried in Britain alone.
With the (Herausgabe) launch in January 2004 of a new £2 (Münze) coin bearing both his name and his (geniale Erfindung) ingenious invention, Trevithick has at last received the public (Anerkennung) recognition he (deserve = verdienen (Anerkennung, Lob)) deserves.
- Penydarren tram road engine, animation
Weitere Infos zu Richard Trevithick und seiner Dampfmaschine:
Auf der Seite www.worldwidewales.tv kannst du dir einen kurzen englischen Film zum Thema ansehen. Wenn du im Anzeigefeld auf S klickst, wird auch der englische Untertitel mit eingeblendet (so wirst du den Text sicher besser verstehen können).