Steam Horse locomotive

Brunton 's Mechanical Traveller was an early, experimental steam locomotive of the Butterley Company in Derbyshire by William Brunton ( 1777-1851 ). Also referred to as " steam horse", the machine ran on four wheels. The drive was, however, by mechanically moving "feet".

The machine was known primarily for her tragic end when she was on 31 July 1815 destroyed by a boiler explosion in Philadelphia, County Durham, England. The explosion killed depending on the source 13 or 16 people, mostly spectators who were standing close to the curious vehicle.

This accident is remarkable in several respects, for he is

• The oldest known boiler explosion of a locomotive,
• The boiler explosion of a locomotive with the highest number of deaths at all and
• The first railway accident was at the complaining a greater number of deaths - until the railway accident at Versailles in 1842, this was the worst railway accident at all.