[Footnote 21: Recollections of Mrs. Marm, Bridgenorth, 12th June, 1869.]
The engines described by Mr. Pape are of the type made by Trevithick, in Wales, about 1804, having a fire-place in the boiler, and similar in form to the Welsh locomotive.
The drawings which served to light the fires certainly included Trevithick's plans for the steam-locomotive, ploughing engine, the screw-propeller, and many others of equal interest.
"DEAR SIR, "STABLEFORD, _March 26th, 1870_.
"My grandfather's name was John Jasper, Esq., of Stableford; he must have been one, if not the first, user of a steam-engine for thrashing, winnowing, and shaking the straw all at one operation; it may have been erected eighty years ago, for an old servant of the family just now dead, aged ninety, worked when a boy in the steam-mill at Bridgenorth erected by my grandfather about the same time.
"The thrashing engine was a side-lever engine, worked with a three side-way cock and tappet, a cylinder about 8-1/4 inches in diameter, and a 3 feet 4 inch stroke, cast-iron crank-shaft, cross-head, and guides. The boiler was placed underneath the engine, the fire under it, with brick flues. The boiler was about 9 feet long and 4 feet diameter.
"The old side rods made of wood are still here, and so was the engine until about twelve years ago. I sent the cylinder, &c., to Coalbrookdale.
"I am, Sir, "Yours truly, "THOMAS SMITH."
The Stableford agricultural engine was probably made in 1804. The cylinder, of 8-1/4 inches in diameter, is precisely the size of that in the Welsh locomotive, but the stroke was reduced from 4 feet 6 inches to 3 feet 4 inches, being very nearly the same as the Newcastle locomotive. The cross-head, side rods, and boiler were very similar to the Welsh stationary engines of that date. This engine remained in use more than fifty years.
The engines specially referred to in this chapter fully prove, from their length of service, the practical character of Trevithick's inventions, and of his having persevered with his high-pressure portables until their usefulness as locomotives and as agricultural helps had been established; but the ploughing, though fully designed, and probably put into practice, was not followed up to the same approach to perfection, or the record of its progress has been lost.