Trevithick's High Pressure Steam Engine and Boiler, c. 1806

This is a unique high-pressure steam engine constructed in around 1806 to Richard Trevithick’s design by one of his preferred engine builders, Hazledine and Co. of Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Richard Trevithick was the first British engineer to use ‘strong’ steam - that is, steam at high pressure. Engines like this consumed three times more coal than James Watt’s earlier engines, but could be made far more compact. They were simple and easy to install or adapt, and could be put to an unprecedented range of uses in industry, railways, agriculture and at sea. This engine was found on a scrap heap and restored in 1882.