Note 40 — RICHARD TREVITHICK.
Reading edition
The specification of this patent gives likewise the first mention (we believe) on record of oscillating engines. Sir John Rennie, F.R.S., in his address to the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1846, mentions the following passage:—"Even the objection of extra friction, however, if tenable, is obviated by the vibrating cylinder described in Trevithick and Vivian's patent, in 1802; patented by Whitty in 1813, and by Manby in 1821, by whom the first engines of the kind were constructed."