William Felton was a London coachmaker from 36 Leather Lane in Holborn, and 254 Oxford Street near Grosvenor Square, and noted for his 1796 illustrated two-volume book, A Treatise on Carriages; comprehending Coaches, Chariots, Phaetons, Curricles, Gigs, Whiskies, &c Together with their Proper Harness in which the Fair Prices of Every Article are Accurately Stated. [1]
In the introduction, Felton wrote that he had no literary pretensions, but rather that his aim was to produce an authoritative guide to the construction, maintenance and repair of horse-drawn coaches. The Monthly Review agreed that it was not a literary masterpiece, but praised it for its encyclopaedic treatment of the subject. [2] The Sporting Magazine in its sixth issue was equally complimentary about Felton's Treatise. [3]
In the 1806 publication "A List of Bankrupts with their Dividends and Certificates, &c. &c. for the last Twenty Years and Six Months from January 1, 1786 to June 24, 1806 inclusive", William Felton's name is entered on 3 December 1803. [4] The 1823 edition of "Kent's Original London Directory" lists W. J. Felton of 6 Long Acre Street as being a coachmaker. [5]
Richard Trevithick's 1803 London Steam Carriage was the first steam-powered vehicle designed for transporting passengers around London, but was never a commercial success. The carriage was carried by ship from Falmouth to London and arrived at Felton’s carriage works in Leather Lane in April 1803. Felton constructed the body, designed to accommodate eight people. The driver steered the front wheel using a tiller, with the engineman on a low step behind the coach. In July 1803 it was driven for some ten miles to Paddington then back through Islington with 8 passengers, and as a precaution streets were closed to other vehicles. On one of the vehicle's test runs it tore down 7 yards of garden railing, causing London's first motor accident. [6]
In the 1980s a full-size replica of the London steam carriage was constructed. [7] It was driven on the streets of Camborne on 28 April 2001, and in July 2003 retraced some of the original route between the Felton works in Leather Lane and St Cross Street.
A plaque marking the route was unveiled: [8]
William FELTON's carriage works was close to this spot. In 1803 he built a carriage powered by a steam engine designed and supplied by Richard TREVITHICK, the great Cornish engineer. The carriage made several trips from here with up to about 8 passengers. In July of that year, one trip was made via Greys Inn Lane, Dorset Square and Tottenham Court Road to Paddington, returning the same day via Islington. This was the first self-powered vehicle to run in the streets of London and the world’s first self-powered road people carrier. The London Steam Carriage heralded the age of the car. This plaque was unveiled by Francis Trevithick Okuno, descendant of Richard Trevithick, on July 6th 2003. [8]
Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the North River Steamboat. In 1807, that steamboat traveled on the Hudson River with passengers from New York City to Albany and back again, a round trip of 300 nautical miles, in 62 hours. The success of his steamboat changed river traffic and trade on major American rivers.
The 1800s was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on 1 January 1800, and ended on 31 December 1809.
A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping or, on those made in recent centuries, steel springs. Two-wheeled carriages are usually owner-driven.
Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
Horseless carriage is an early name for the motor car or automobile. Prior to the invention of the motor car, carriages were usually pulled by animals, typically horses. The term can be compared to other transitional terms, such as wireless phone. These are cases in which a new technology is compared to an older one by describing what the new one does not have.
A buggy refers to a lightweight four-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse, though occasionally by two. Amish buggies are still regularly in use on the roadways of America. The word "buggy" has become a generic term for "carriage" in America.
Andrew Vivian (1759–1842) was a British mechanical engineer, inventor, and mine captain of the Dolcoath mine in Cornwall, England.
A chaise, sometimes called shay, is a light two-wheeled carriage for one or two people. It may also have a folding hood. The coachmaker William Felton (1796) considered chaises a family of vehicles which included all two-wheel one-horse vehicles such as gigs and whiskies, whereas a similar carriage pulled by two-horses was considered a curricle.
A gig is a light, two-wheeled open carriage with large wheels, a forward facing seat, and shafts for a single horse. The gig's body is constructed above the shafts, and it is entered from step-irons hanging from the shaft in front of the wheels. Gigs are enclosed at the back, and have luggage space under the cross-seat. Early gigs were crude and unsprung; later gigs were elegant for town driving and were constructed with springs. The term "gig" is short for "whirligig".
Catch Me Who Can was the fourth and last steam railway locomotive created by the inventor and mining engineer Richard Trevithick. It was an evolution of three earlier locomotives which had been built for Coalbrookdale, Penydarren ironworks and Wylam colliery. Demonstration runs began in July 1808, and Catch Me Who Can was the first locomotive in the world to haul fare-paying passengers.
William Bridges Adams was an English locomotive engineer, and writer. He is best known for his patented Adams axle – a successful radial axle design in use on railways in Britain until the end of steam traction in 1968 – and the railway fishplate. His writings, including English Pleasure Carriages (1837) and Roads and Rails (1862) covered all forms of land transport. Later he became a noted writer on political reform, under the pen name Junius Redivivus ; a reference to a political letter writer of the previous century.
Sir Goldsworthy Gurney was an English surgeon, chemist, architect, builder, lecturer and consultant. He was a prototypical British gentleman scientist and inventor of the Victorian era.
Railmotor is a term used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere for a railway lightweight railcar, usually consisting of a railway carriage with a steam traction unit, or a diesel or petrol engine, integrated into it.
Walter Hancock was an English inventor of the Victorian period. He is chiefly remembered for his steam-powered road vehicles, but also received a patent for preparing and cutting natural rubber into sheets. He was the younger brother of Thomas Hancock, the inventor of rubber mastication who is also claimed by some to be the inventor of rubber vulcanization.
William Felton may refer to:
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.
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.
Buggy is generally used to refer to any lightweight automobile with off-road capabilities and sparse bodywork. Most are built either as a kit car or from scratch.
William Vidler was an English nonconformist minister and editor, ultimately of universalist views.
J & E Hall is an English manufacturer of refrigeration equipment. It was originally established as an iron works in Dartford, Kent in 1785, with products including papermaking machines, steam engines and gun carriages, before it started producing refrigeration machinery in the 1880s. During the early 20th century, the company diversified to produce commercial vehicles, lifts and escalators, before refocusing on its core refrigeration and air conditioning products in the late 1960s. The company retains a head office and some R&D facilities in Dartford.