Transportation Inventions of Longford Man Richard Lovell Edgeworth 1744-1817 | Season 4 - Episode 54

👋 Hey followers! In this episode we are bringing interesting transport inventions from the mind of Richard Lovell Edgeworth from the world epicentre of transport innovation, Edgeworthstown in County Longford.
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⬇️ Tell us about your visit to the Maria Edgeworth Centre & Museum? Comment below ⬇️
The Ireland Made team recently travelled to the Maria Edgeworth Centre, to hear at first-hand how the inventions of a local man influenced transportation across the globe. Our guide for the day was Matt Farrell a member of the Edgeworth Society and the Volunteer Manager of the Maria Edgeworth Centre at Edgeworthstown, County Longford.
EDGEWORTH FAMILY
Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744 - 1817) was a descendant of an English family who were granted lands in County Longford by King James the First in 1619. The Edgeworth family lived at Edgeworthstown House, in the village of the same name also known as Mostrim (Irish: Meathas Troim).
SAIL POWERED CARRIAGE
The invention that brought him into contact with Erasmus Darwin was the invention of a (horseless) carriage that could run on the road and be powered by a sail. While the invention was an undoubted success, the British government banned it for obvious safety reasons.
BOG VEHICLES
In early 1810 Edgeworth was appointed to the Bogs Commission set up by the British Government to explore achieving economic value from Irish bogland. Sitting on the commission, Edgeworth surveyed 10,000 acres of bogland in the midlands. He also included in his report his designs for several machines that could be used extract resources from the bog.
THE MACHINE THAT RAN ON ITS OWN ROAD
What a lot of people may not know is that in 1787 Richard Lovell Edgeworth invented, patented and had in use the forerunner of what we now know as caterpillar tracks. Edgeworth had described his design as “the machine that ran on its own road”. His machine design consisted of several sleepers that were joined together, and the machine ran on the sleepers and as it ran forward it pulled the sleepers behind over the top of the machine and back onto the bog so that the machine could drive forward.
EDGEWORTH VS. MCCADAM
When you are driving along the roads you are driving on a surface we commonly known as “macadamisation”. And according to Matt Farrell, if “fair was fair” you should be driving on a road that was called an Edgeworth as in 1813 he published his “An Essay on the Construction of Roads and Carriages” as he had designed a system for the construction of roads which involved using different sizes and types of aggregate that when rolled into the ground formed a solid surface.
Unfortunately, RL Edgeworth did not patent his design and in what can only be a strange coincidence, seven years later in 1820 Scottish engineer John McAdam used Edgeworth’s ideas to develop his system and he has since gone down in history as the man who developed the most efficient roads!
THE LIST GOES ON..
Over his lifetime Richard Lovell Edgeworth had a long list of other transport inventions including a velocipede (cycle), “perambulator” (land-measuring machine), one-wheeled chaise (light carriage) and a phaeton (a four-wheeled open carriage).
This August bank holiday weekend, plan your visit to the Maria Edgeworth Centre, Edgeworthstown, County Longford where you will receive a warm welcome and find out all about the unique transport inventions of Richard Lovell Edgeworth.
Our thanks to Matt Farrell, Janine Roder and the Maria Edgeworth Centre
Information Sources and Photo Credits:
A Brief History of Roadmaking - Roads and those in Tring
Amorous and Airborne Adventures: the Edgeworths in Oxford, Paris, and Dublin - Janine Roder
Bord na Móna
Britannica
Dictionary of Irish Biography
Early lessons (2 vols, London, 1816); Experiments on carriage wheels (Dublin 1817) - Richard Lovell Edgeworth
Erasmus Darwin - Wikipedia Commons
Essay on the construction of wheels and carriages (London 1813) Richard Lovell Edgeworth
MacTar Ltd
Met Museum
National Library of Ireland
Report on district no. 7’ in Second report of the commissioners for improving the bogs of Ireland (London 1810) Richard Lovell Edgeworth
Roadstone
Texas Final Drive
The Man Who Invented Tarmac - SL Driveways
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