a traction engine hauling goods could have
looked like this |
on the roads |
One of the most unsettling, and 'steampunk', visions of 19th century Jamaica is provided by these off-hand sentences from Sir George Seymour Seymour, business man and mayor of Kingston.
Daily Gleaner, July 21, 1932
[George Seymour Seymour, reportedly, speaking of his father, George Solomon, said:] 'He used to own Bushy Park and there were people - of the older generations - who told him that they remembered how they cursed his father when he introduced traction engines which used to convey goods from Kingston to Spanish Town and make enough noise to wake up the dead of the whole island, and of how when one of the engines buried itself along the Spanish Town Road they got work to take it out (laughter)' |
I am still looking for confirmation of this bizarre and interesting account: traction engines hauling goods between Kingston and Spanish Town is a totally unexpected proposition, and it is not clear at what period this took place! It certainly presents a 'steampunk' vision of later 19th century Jamaica, and is a sharp reminder that our conceptions of the past can be fundamentally wrong, because of the limited data on which we have based those conceptions.