The early life of Robert Blackburn in Edwardian England was very different to that of young people in the early part of the 21st Century. The pictures of the motor cars above help to demonstrate the great differences in technology between Robert's time and today. Motor cars were a very new invention and there would have been very few on the roads. Only the very rich would have had motor cars. Horse drawn vehicles were still the most common form of transport in crowded city steets. Steam trains provided the long distance travel for milions of people.