The Trevithick Road Engine
In 2011 we made the main film for the audio visual space at Heartlands. Centre Screen, Manchester produced and directed the film and SFL provided the Brief, editorial and creative structure. A true collaboration. Members of the Trevithick Society are manning the engine and David Prior is shown at the bottom. His company is called Liminal and David was our sound artist for the piece and for the audio throughout the exhibition.
Here we are shooting the scene where the Trevithick road engine runs round the AV space from right to left. I was very keen to show Richard Trevithick in the film. A truly gifted engineer and local Cornishman, Trevithick pioneered high pressure steam. To show what it might do he built in 1801 his 'Puffing Devil' a road engine which was trialled in Camborne - about a mile away from the Heartlands site. I wanted to meet the engine on screen as if it were taking a road trip along a country lane - imagining the moment of shock for an Eighteenth century Cornish man or woman. We are of course used to steam and to the commonplace that steam and coal helped build the industrial world but this should not lessen Trevithick's achievement, which was extraordinary. Trevithick society links are given below.
Photographs courtesy of Centre Screen.