Inventor, born in Treator, Cornwall, SW England, UK. He trained and practised as a surgeon, but became more interested in solving scientific problems. Inspired by Stephenson's Rocket, he built a steam-powered carriage which completed a return journey from London to Bath at an average speed of 15 mph. He opened a passenger service, but this drew much opposition from horse-coach operators, and was soon taxed out of existence. He improved the lighting and ventilation in the House of Commons, for which he was knighted in 1863.
Sir Goldsworthy Gurney (1793-1875) was a surgeon, chemist, lecturer, consultant, architect, builder and prototypical British inventor of the Victorian period. and laid claim - still discussed and disputed today - to the blastpipe, a key component in the success of steam locomotives, engines, and other coal fired systems.
Biography
Gurney was born in the village of Treator near Padstow, Cornwall on 14 February 1793. and had the opportunity to see Richard Trevithick's 'Puffing Devil', a full-size steam road carriage, at Camborne.
After his medical education and marriage to Elizabeth Symons, a farmers daughter, in 1814 he settled in Wadebridge, Cornwall practicing as a surgeon, but he also became interested in chemistry and mechanical science.
In 1830, Gurney leased a plot of land overlooking Summerleaze Beach in Bude, from his friend Sir Thomas Ackland, and set about the construction of a new house to be built amongst the sand hills.
In 1863, Gurney was knighted by Queen Victoria, but later that year suffered a paralytic stroke;
Gurney's steam carriage
In the period 1825-9, Gurney designed and built a number of steam powered road vehicles, amongst the first designed with the intent to commercialise a steam road transport business - the Gurney Steam Carriage Company. Gurney was by no means the only inventor working in this field - Luke Herbert, in his 1837 Practical Treatise on Rail-Roads and Locomotive Engines rebuts in scathing fashion claims made for Gurney in preferece to Trevithick as inventor of the steam carriage:
"...it is a matter of fact, that Gurney's carriages, made in every essential respect after Trevithick's models, did, occasionally, run [on the public roads]; and so did the carriages
of many other locomotionalists; some prior, some subsequent to Gurney; some decidedly superior to his, and all those that were inferior, were incapacitated from proceeding beyond preparatory
trials, by want of that material with which gentlemen of fortune, then unacquainted with steam locomotion, had so lavishly furnished on Mr. Gurney."
One of his vehicles was sufficiently robust to make a journey in July 1829, two months before the Rainhill Trials, from London to Bath and back, at an average speed for the return journey of 14 miles per hour - including time spend in refuelling and taking on water.
The steam carriage was not a commercial success. There was an understandable apprehension on the part of the public to a conveyance atop a dangerous steam boiler; seeking to overcome this objection, Gurney designed an articulated vehicle, termed the Gurney steam drag, in which a passanger carriage was tethered to and pulled by an engine. According to the Steam Club of Great Britain:
The first was sent by sea to Leith, but it was damaged in transit. It appears that this carriage was left in Scotland while Gurney returned to London for spares. He gave instructions for it not to be used, but it was transferred to the military barracks where it was steamed and a boiler explosion ensued, severely injuring two people. The second carriage may have run a service for a short time but it remains unclear whether any passengers were carried for money.The remains of one of this pair rests in Glasgow Museum of Transport, to which it was presented, having been found in a barn near the Paisley Road. Again, according to the Steam Club of Great Britain, it comprises:
an almost complete chassis with the engine, some pipe work, the valve gear and the steering gear.A regular service was established by between Cheltenham and Gloucester by Sir Charles Dance, running four times daily, for a number of months and based on a fleet of three of Gurney's carriages; but the aspirations of Dance and Gurney were effectively dashed, according to Francis Maceroni in his 1836 book A Few Facts Concerning Elementary Locomotion
The many wealthy horse-coach proprietors, together with the narrow minded country gentlemen and magistrates of the district, who erroneously conceived their interests threatened by the substitution of steam power for horse, formed one of the most disgraceful and mean conspiracies against a national undertaking that can be well remembered. By means of parliamentary intrigue, and false representations, these despicable persons obtained certain local turnpike bills to pass "the Honourable House" establishing tolls on steam carriages, which amounted to a virtual prohibition on their use.A charge of £2 was levied on each steam carriage journey, whilst the toll for a horsedrawn carriage was 2 shillings.
At the same time, press coverage of an accident befalling a Glasgow steam drag adversely affected the reputation of the vehicles. Gurney was bankrupted with debts of £232,000.
Sufficient was the concern about Gurney's bankruptcy, and sufficient were his contacts, that a House of Commons select committee was convened from 1831 to 1835 on Mr.Goldsworthy Gurney's Case. Its final report stated:
"Mr Goldsworthy Gurney was the first person to successfully operate steam carriages on common roads, and he took out patents for his invention in 1825 and 1826-27. In 1830 Mr Gurney entered into contracts with various individuals for the commercial exploitation of his invention, carrying passengers at a lower fare than horse carriages. In 1831 more than 50 private bills were passed by Parliament imposing prohibitive tolls on steam carriages (two pounds or more, while horse carriages might pay six shillings or less), and the contractors suspended their operations, pending a petition to Parliament. A select Committee was appointed, and concluded that steam carriages were safe, quick, cheap, and less damaging to roads than horse carriages, that they would be a benefit to the public and the prohibitive tolls should be removed. Mr. Gurney, having kept open his factory until this point was forced to close it and sell off his materials and tools at a loss. Mr Gurney's losses included the costs of keeping his workshop open for six years, loss of contracts, loss of mileage duty on the various routes and the costs of patents. He also lost the advantage of being the first to develop a working steam carriage, as others used the intervening period to develop their own machines, and lost his advantage over the railways. This left him unable to either build and operate steam carriages, or to protect his patents. Sections of those Acts imposing prohibitory tolls on steam carriages should be immediately repealed, and such tolls should be replaced by those for which horse carriages are liable. Mr Gurney's patent should be extended at public expense for a period of fourteen years beyond the date of its expiry, or a sum of not less than £5000 should be offered to Mr Gurney in lieu of such extension. Other parties have an interest in Mr. Gurney's patent, and half of the money or benefits should be kept aside for Mr. Gurney exclusively." Gurney its first exponent. According to A History of The Growth of The Steam-Engine by Robert H Thurston, Gurney was a proponent of the ammonia engine. Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney, who subsequently took an active part in their introduction, stated, in his lectures, that "elementary power is capable of being applied to propel carriages along common roads with great political advantage, and the floating knowledge of the day places the object within reach." He made an ammonia engine - probably the first ever made - and worked it so successfully, that he made use of it in driving a little locomotive." In her 1875 letter to The Times, his daughter traces the path of the idea: Gurney communicated it to Timothy Hackworth, who employed it in his Royal George locomotive, from which Stephenson allegedly took his inspiration for its inclusion in the Rocket. and Herbert - clearly not a fan of Gurney - seeks to debunk claims for Gurney's invention by comparing the output of Gurney's carriages with those of Trevithick. Gurney injected some 8M cubic feet of chokedamp (a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide) into the mine by means of his steam-jet to extinguish the combustion; Bude lights were fitted in the House of Commons - where it is said that he replaced 280 candles with three such lamps, which lit the House for sixty years until the arrival of electricity - as well as along Pall Mall and in Trafalgar Square where recently refurbished replicas of the two styles originally used can be seen. Gurney worked on many other projects, with interests and patents extending from improved steam engine design, to electric telegraphy and the design of musical instruments.
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