---
title: "Goldsworthy Gurney"
chunk: 2/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Perhaps arising out of the Boyton farming connection he took a second wife, being married at St. Giles in the Field to Jane Betty, the 24-year-old daughter of a farmer from Sheepwash, Devon; Gurney was 61. The marriage appears to have been unsuccessful; there was perhaps some contention between Anna Jane (39) and her much younger stepmother. Jane Betty was removed from Gurney's will, although they were never divorced.
Gurney continued to divide his time between London and Cornwall, variously engaged in work with clients; experimenting and innovating in diverse fields such as heating (the Gurney Stove) or electrical conduction; and in improving his Hornacott estate. He was appointed president of the Launceston Agricultural Society.
In 1863, Gurney was knighted by Queen Victoria, but later that year suffered a paralytic stroke; he sold Hornacott and retired back to Reeds in Cornwall, where he lived with his devoted Anna Jane, ultimately dying on 28 February 1875. He is buried at Launcells parish church.

== Gurney's steam coach ==

In the period 1824–31, Gurney designed and built a number of steam-powered road vehicles. He established a business, the Gurney Steam Carriage Company, to develop and promote steam-powered road transport. He obtained patents for various claimed technical improvements, sold franchises to investors to run services using his vehicles and built at least one steam coach and ten steam drags, steam-powered towing vehicles.  The army took an interest in his activities and for them he undertook in July 1829 the first long-distance steam-powered journey by rail or road.   
In 1824, Gurney began work on applying steam power to road vehicles. Throughout his period in London he resided at 7, Argyle Street, near Oxford Circus. Initially he had a workshop close by, which was drawn by G.J.Scharf. It was a room, suitable for making a boiler, parts of a vehicle or a working model, not a full-size vehicle.  
In early 1825 he was approached by Walter Hancock, who had just completed his own first prototype steam carriage; they agreed to meet in Regent's Park where Gurney would demonstrate the prototype which he had had built based on his own working model. During a journey of two miles along a well-made road, the vehicle, which was a steam drag (tow-vehicle) stopped involuntarily five times. The two parted. 
On 14 May 1825 Gurney obtained patent No. 5170 for his implementation of propellers, mechanical legs whose action imitated that of horses. These were shaped like a long "s", ʃ, and can be seen in front of the rear wheels on the promotional 1827 image. On 21 October 1825 he obtained patent No. 5270 for his design of a lightweight tubular boiler. 
In 1826 Gurney bought the manufactory works at 154, Albany Street, in the Regent's Park district of London. Just to the north was Regent's Park Barracks, the home of the Life Guards and the Royal Artillery. Gurney subsequently used the barracks yard as the main testing ground for his vehicles. In February 1827 the partnership Gurney and Co was dissolved: it was between Gurney and Colonel James Viney of the Royal Artillery. 
Gurney was by no means the only pioneer in the history of steam road vehicles – Trevithick was first and Hancock a contemporary – but Gurney had a flair for publicity and drew wealthy – and well-connected – investors, such as Colonel Viney. After the dissolution of his partnership with Gurney, Viney paid him £5,000 for a share in the patents and the licence for the Gloucester - Cheltenham road. Such investments enabled Gurney to get ahead with building, testing and improving his vehicles.

Gurney solved some problems which faced those developing steam carriages, but not others. He placed the two double-acting cylinders horizontally in the chassis, enabling him to have the heavy rear part of the carriage, which contained the boiler, sprung. He adopted a cranked transmission to the rear wheels, although this did lead to broken rods, axles and spokes. He developed a lightweight high-pressure water-tube boiler which he claimed was less likely to explode (although this did happen to one of his steam drags after the safety valve was removed).
Along with his contemporaries, he used crude clutches on each driven wheel which were engaged manually when the axle was stationary. In the absence of a differential, the drive was usually taken to a single rear wheel; the second wheel was engaged only when extra traction was required (going uphill or on a loose surface) or when using engine braking (going downhill).