Greetings Card – William Symington’s Steam Carriage 1786

Description

Greetings Card – William Symington.

William Symington was an engineer at Wanlockhead Mines in Lanarkshire. He invented the Steam Carriage as a precursor to the automobile and it was exhibited in Edinburgh in 1786 where it was said to have worked successfully. However, it was abandoned as the state of the public roads was so bad that no steam carriage could cope. A drawing of the Steam Carriage in the Hackworth archive inspired artist Sharron Bates to create this piece of artwork using a variety of vintage and antique sources as well as the original drawing. Hidden within the art you will see references to Timothy Hackworth’s plug wheel, a vintage linen map of Scotland, old end papers and photo negatives, a cover from logarithmic tables and a vintage British Rail message pad.