Were 12 prisoners used to demonstrate the first steam locomotive?

Question

I have recently read in The Book of Secrets that the first time the steam locomotive started in England no one was willing to sit in it even after being paid money to do so because no one thought it would stop once started. In the end, it was proved by having 12 prisoners ride in it. Is this story true? I have my doubts since I can't find any similar info on the web.

Do you know what happened in England? When the first train started, no one was ready to sit in it -- no one! Many people were persuaded, bribed, they were given money to sit in the train, but at the last point they escaped. They said, "Firstly, steam cannot do such miracles. Such a simple thing as steam cannot do such miracles. And if the engine starts, that means that the devil is at work somewhere. The devil is running the thing, it is not the steam. And what is the guarantee that once the thing starts you will be capable of stopping it?"

So twelve criminals from the jail were brought as passengers. Anyhow they were going to die, anyhow they were sentenced to death, so there was no problem if the train was not going to stop. Then the mad driver who thought that it was going to stop, the scientist who had invented it and these twelve passengers who were anyhow going to be killed, they alone would all be killed. "Such a simple thing as steam," they said at that time. But now no one says this, because now it is working and you know it.

Answer 1

The best candidate for protagonist in this story is probably William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt's who had an interest in using Watt's steam engine concepts for locomotion.

What is well-documented is that in 1784 he built a working model in his living room (yes, household model trains are older than real trains!), and then probably another larger one that he nearly patented.

Sadly not much else is known, and there are all sorts of wonderful apocryphal stories floating around about what he did next.

The next best candidate would be Richard Trevithick. He moved next door to Mr. Murdoch, and soon took up the mantle. He created the first documented full-scale operating passenger steam carriage in 1801, and carried 6 (not 12) passengers. Interestingly, the best documentation I could find for this is actually a folk song. Obviously not the most reliable of references, but it does mention a female passenger wearing white stockings (so probably not a prisoner).

Answer 2

Seems to be an apocryphal story.

The first steam locomotive that transported passengers is thought to be the Puffing Devil, created by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick. Its first demonstration was on Christmas Eve 1801, after being assembled in a Redruth blacksmith shop. The event became a passenger carrying exercise because bystanders jumped on to the engine as it started. It seems highly unlikely that any of them could possibly be prisoners.

Twas a stiffish hill going from the Weith up to Camborne Beacon, but she went off like a little bird. When she had gone about a quarter of a mile, there was a roughish piece of road covered with loose stones; she didn’t go quite so fast, and as it was flood of rain and we were very squeezed together, I jumped off. She was going faster than I could walk, and went on up the hill about a quarter or half a mile farther, when they turned her and came back again to the shop.

_{-- Stephen Williams, a local cooper}

Trevithick's London Steam Carriage is the first steam locomotive passenger vehicle. It had a capacity of about eight people maximum; so the number doesn't fit with "12 prisoners" right off the bat. Moreover, there is no evidence they used prisoners at all.

The first steam locomotive train was the Pen-y-Darren Locomotive. On 21 February 1804, it hauled 70 passengers and 10 tons of iron from Penydarren 16km to to Abercynon. Again the numbers alone doesn't fit. Again, no evidence of prisoners.

In no cases were there any hint of prisoners being used experimentally, so to speak, on locomotives. Nor should there have been reason to; steam was not magic and various attempts at steam locomotives had been going on for decades by the time "the first train started". As evidenced by the Puffing Devil's experience, it is hardly necessary to resort to condemned criminals to find people willing to test.

Most likely the author simply invented a (rather unbelievable) story to support his ideas.

Answer 3

The idea that the first steam engine powered locomotive was treated as such magic is ludicrous, the steam engine was invented in the first century AD, but first became commercially useful during the industrial revolution, with the Newcomen Atmospheric Engine, which was used to pump water out of mines (that's a problem when you dig bellow sea level!) which was developed in 1712.

On February 21, 1804 (92 years later!!!) in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales first steam train, developed by Richard Trevithick, was demonstrated.

So, really, no, the idea that 92 years after the first commercial steam engine was marketed, people were mystified by the idea of steam powering movement is just crazy.

And your book got the country wrong.