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Steam-powered showman's engine from England. The history of steam road vehicles comprises the development of vehicles powered by a steam engine for use on land and independent of rails, whether for conventional road use, such as the steam car and steam waggon, or for agricultural or heavy haulage work, such as the traction engine.
This category is for all road vehicles powered by steam. The category is also intended for (steam) road haulage vehicles and their manufacturers. It includes manufacturers of steam lorries and of the vehicles themselves. Also included are people closely associated with the development of steam road vehicles.
The first experimental steam-powered cars were built in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it was not until after Richard Trevithick had developed the use of high-pressure steam around 1800 that mobile steam engines became a practical proposition. By the 1850s there was a flurry of new steam car manufacturers.
Limits of technical knowledge and manufacturing technology meant that practicable road vehicles powered by steam did not start to appear until the early years of the 19th century. In 1841, Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies produced an early traction engine. The design (which was led by a horse to steer it) failed to attract any purchasers. [4]
Trevithick's London Steam Carriage 1803. The London Steam Carriage was an early steam-powered road vehicle constructed by Richard Trevithick in 1803 and the world's first self-propelled passenger-carrying vehicle. Cugnot had built a steam vehicle 30 years previously, but that had been a slow-moving artillery tractor, not built to carry passengers.
Image of a Thornycroft Steam Wagon from around 1904 'Thornycroft of Basingstoke' - (Hampshire Cultural Trust) - extensive coverage of history and vehicles; Thornycroft vehicle preservation group; Thorneycroft Classic Motor History; Youtube video of an existing Thorneycroft rifle in the Royal Armories in Leeds, England
A couple of years later Kemna started producing various other steam-powered vehicles (such as road rollers) but also high quality steam ploughing engines and road steamers. Knight: England: 1868–1870: In 1868–1870 John Henry Knight of Farnham built a four-wheeled steam carriage which originally only had a single-cylinder engine. Long: US: 1880
The vehicle weighed about 2.5 tonnes tare, and 2.8 tonnes full, and had two wheels at the rear and one in the front where the horses would normally have been. The front wheel supported a steam boiler and driving mechanism. The power unit was articulated to the "trailer", and was steered from there by means of a double handle arrangement.