Trevithick rock drill[edit]

pp138 - 139 of H. W, Dickinson and Arthur Titley Richard Trevithick, The Engineer and the Man, CUP, 1934 record extracts from Trevithick' letter (Camborne, 29 Jan 1813) about this. The steam borer was devised for the quarries where the stones for the Plymouth Breakwater came from. The borer drilled hole along the top edge of the stone bed allowing lumps to be broken away for finishing

The letter includes some statistics of the rates of boring (manual or machine) and a note that the price per ton reduced to 1 shilling from 2 shillings and 9 pence by using the machine.

This development is noted in Francis Trevithick's 'Life of his father, 1872 Vol 2 p55. (See Internet Archive)

There seems to be no evidence that his borer was ever used underground. Apwoolrich (talk) 19:48, 4 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]