U n I t 2

Text: The first passenger-carrying steam vehicle.

Grammar: Degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs.

Indefinite pronouns.

Vocabulary

locomotion	– передвижение
engaged	– занятый
conclusion	– завершение, окончание
approval	– одобрение, благоприятное мнение
indignant	– негодующий, возмущенный
abuse	– плохое обращение, оскорбление
curiosity	– антикварная, редкая вещь
threshing machine	– молотилка сельскохозяйственная
ingenuity	– изобретательность, искусность, мастерство
obstacle	– препятствие
insurmountable	– непреодолимый
to match	– подходить, соответствовать, сочетать
enclosure	– огороженное место
to attain	– достигнуть
to draw	– тащить, тянуть
recognition	– признание, одобрение

Read and translate the text and then do the following exercises.

Text

The first passenger-carrying steam vehicle

It was James Watt who built the true steam engine. He made studies of the possibility of using such an engine for locomotion, but being heavily engaged in the construction of stationary engines for the textile industry, he did not carry out his locomotion idea to a practical conclusion.

His competitor, Francis Moor, and the manager of his work shop, William Murdoch, did so, however, almost at the same time as Cugnot in France. Moore’s vehicle was demonstrated to the King and, though it received royal approval, nothing more was heard of it, probably due to the energetic reaction of the indignant Watt, who protested against the abuse of his patents. Murdoch performed his experiments secretly at night, but they became public as a result of an accident, and the machine remained a curiosity which finished in the British Museum.

The next chapter in the history of the motor car becomes a series of names – all of them English – of men who constructed progressively improving steam engines.

Fist was William Symington, who constructed a vehicle similar to that of Murdoch, which created considerable curiosity, some enthusiasm, and a lot of fear among the inhabitants of 17th century England.

He was followed by Richard Trevithick, who amongst other things, was the builder of the first railway actually constructed and of the first steam –driven threshing machine. Between 1796 and 1801, he built various tricycles for carrying light goods and, in 1802, the first passenger-carrying steam vehicle. But the ingenuity and originality of these pioneers, backed by the designers and industrialists, soon approached an obstacle that seemed insurmountable: the rapidly increasing technical development was not being matched by a corresponding technological advancement. Moving to London, Trevithick managed to commercialise his invention in a most unusual manner. He produced a new steam- driven coach weighing some eight tons, and then he organised public performances in a circular enclosure where the spectators, for a small sum, could compete on foot in races with the puffing monster. The vehicle which could attain the speed of 9 mph on the flat and 3 mph on a hill was also used to draw horseless coaches, again for the amusement of the Londoners. Parliament later refused Trevithick a grant in recognition of his achievements and he was forgotten by everyone, even those Londoners who had been amused by his genius.