Introduction
Richard Trevithick neglected the job he was hired for, and diverted Research and Development funds into a hare-brained private project to get a steam engine to haul itself and some waggons along a railway not designed for that purpose. In 1803, his boss hailed him as a genius. Today, he’d have been fired.
IN 1803, the owner of the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Samuel Homfray, brought Richard Trevithick over to South Wales to build a steam-driven hammer for his factory.
Instead, Trevithick mounted his steam engine on wheels and set it running along the factory’s primitive railway.
An excited Homfray made a bet with his fellow businessman, Richard Crawshay, that Trevithick's engine could propel itself and ten tons of iron 9¾ miles along the Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad, and then bring the empty wagons back again.
On 21st February 1804, Trevithick’s ungainly engine, all flywheels and pistons, justified Homfray’s confidence.
It took four hours and five minutes, at not quite 2½ mph; the five ton engine cracked the fragile cast iron rails as it ran;* and a boiler leak meant that the return journey was not completed the same day.
Even so, it was the very first railway trip by steam locomotive. History had been made.
In 1981, a replica was built for the Welsh Industrial & Maritime Museum in Cardiff. It broke the rails there, too.
Précis
Richard Trevithick was employed to build a stationary steam hammer, but he put the engine on wheels instead, and drove it on a return journey over a nine-mile railway track, hauling ten tons of iron. It was the first time anyone had done anything like that, and it was the beginning of the railway revolution. (55 / 60 words)
Richard Trevithick was employed to build a stationary steam hammer, but he put the engine on wheels instead, and drove it on a return journey over a nine-mile railway track, hauling ten tons of iron. It was the first time anyone had done anything like that, and it was the beginning of the railway revolution.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, if, otherwise, since, until, whether, who.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Build. Day. Hammer.
2 Itself. Steam. Take.
3 Could. Iron. Railway.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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