House of Commons, Great Britain

“ By that means great weight is saved?—Yes; perhaps one-third is saved in exerting an equal power. In stating my opinion of the probability of a profitable result, after twelve months' trial of three coaches to run regularly two hundred miles every day, with despatches only, I contemplated that the engines and passengers would be ultimately in one Carriage, because that plan has a most decided mechanical advantage in making progress along the road, and also in facility of steerage, and safety in going down hill, and fewer servants are required to manage one Carriage than two. ”

“ My objection to attempting to make a Steam Coach go up a steep hill, in the present state of our knowledge, is, that it requires to have a great strength, and consequent weight of machinery to have a sufficient power to do so with safety, and which weight is a useless incumbrance and impediment to progression at all other times. ”

“ Of course, a Steam Carriage going slower than ten miles an hour will be more expensive to travel, on account of the greater expenditure of fuel?—No; the consumption of fuel, according to time, would be as much less as the motion would be slower; so that the consumption of fuel, according, to distance, would be the same, whether for a quick speed or for a slow speed; but when profit is considered, every thing is in favour of quick speed; because all goods carried slow must be carried cheap ”

“ Hancock's Carriage, the waste steam which is discharged from the engines after having performed its office, is thrown into the fire-place, and makes its escape upwards along with the fame, smoke and heated air, and gas, which ascend from the fire to act on the boiler?—That is the way in which he gets rid of the waste steam which the engines discharge, and I understand that he there by avoids the puffing noise and appearance of steam which is common with high-pressure engines. ”

“ In forming such an opinion, I follow a maxim which I have always found to hold true; viz. that Steam power is certain to be more profitable than horses, if the work is to be kept constantly going on, because then the great advantage of Steam power, that it does not tire, becomes fully available, and to perform the same service by horses a very great number must be kept for change; but for business which require only occasional working, or for working during only as many hours each day as horses can do without changing. ”

“ The Steam Coaches I have tried, have made very good progress along the road, but have been very deficient in strength, and consequently in permanency of keeping in repair, also in accommodation for passengers and for luggage; for which reasons they are none of them models to proceed upon to build Coaches as matter of business, From the complexity of their structures and the multiplicity of pieces of which they are composed, it is impracticable to give them the requisite strength by mere addition of materials, because they would then be too heavy to carry profitable loads as stage coaches. ”

“ You consider the danger to passengers by the chance of bursting of a boiler as not equivalent to the danger of horses running away?—It is not equivalent in my opinion, the probability of a coach being overturned by the horses is far greater than that of a boiler bursting, and when either accident does occur, the probable extent of mischief from an overturn in which all the passengers must participate, is much greater than could be expected from the bursting of a boiler, which must always be kept at a considerable distance from the passengers on account of the heat. ”

“ Each of the three inventors I have named has brought his Steam Coach to that state which renders it a full-sized model for making such experiments as serve to prove the principle of action, and to teach how a better Coach may be made the next time, but nothing more. The probability that such next better coach will be sufficiently perfect to answer as a trading business, depends as much upon the natural judgment and acquired skill of each inventor, as upon the qualifications of his present production. ”

“ The actual breadth that will be suitable to any given weight will depend upon the hardness of the materials of which the road is made, and roads differ very much in that respect: I think that in all cases the breadth of wheels which will enable the Carriage to make the best progress, will be that which will do the least injury to the road, for it will be that which will occasion no disturbance of the stones after they have been consolidated, but let, will only wear away their upper surfaces, and the iron of the tire. ”

“ I think it will be a great public benefit when Steam Coaches come into common use, and hence that it is expedient that a moderate bounty should be offered for the adoption of Steam Carriages, by giving them all possible advantage they can have without trenching on the interests of individuals; and if they were allowed to run toll free and duty free, until a certain number were in use, or during a certain time, it would much accelerate their introduction, because it would diminish the loss that must necessarily be incurred by running them before they are perfected in their construction ”

“ The wages of engineers, conductor and guard, will be only one-fourth with the quick speed, and the first outlay in machinery would be only one-fourth because four times as many engines must be on the road, with their attendants, at the same time, to do the work at a slow speed, as at a quick speed; but the money earned by the carrier at the slow speed, will be only a small part of what would be earned at the quick speed. ”

“ Going at what speed can you turn round a sharp corner without any danger?-I do not remember turning with any considerable speed, nor should it ever be attempted with any Carriage if it can be avoided, and there can be no pretence or necessity for going quick when tanning a Steam Coach, as its power is quite controllable, in which respect it has a great advantage over a common Carriage ”

“ Expensive machinery, which is only to be worked occasionally, will not in some cases do work so cheap as it can be done by men or by horses without machinery; and that I conceive to be the case with the extra cost, weight, strength and complication which must be given to the machinery of a Steam Coach, in order to enable it to go safely up steep hills without assistance. I apply these remarks to the present Steam Coaches, but future improvements may in time produce that species of machinery which will effect the going up hill with less difficulty than the present. ”

“ The daily expences of fuel and attendants will be very much less than that of horse keep and attendance; the wear and tear of the Coaches and all that is coachmakers' work will be only the same as at present, but the wear and tear of Engines and machinery, though a very expensive item on each Engine, will be nothing to compare with the present repairs, loss and decay of horses, because the number of Engines is so small. Stage Coach horses require to be all renewed every three years, notwithstanding a heavy annual expence for what may be called repairs of horses ”

“ Steam power loses its great advantage over horses, and in some cases they will do the work cheaper. One great item of the expence of Steam power is the first cost of machinery and engineers' wages, both which would be only the same for working twelve hours per day as for one hour and a half, which is the utmost that a Stage Coach horse can draw at ten miles an hour.—A Steam Coach should work twelve or fourteen hours in every twenty-four hours, to gain the full advantage of the system of Steam power over horse labour ”

“ I am confident that Carriages to be impelled by Steam machinery turning the wheels cannot be made to answer any good purpose, either for conveyance of travellers or goods, so long as they materially injure the roads, because if the wheels slip materially on the road, or if they cut sensible ruts in the road, they will not advance the Carriage efficiently. ”

“ I understand that the old system of regulations and penalties, as to over weights on given breadths of wheels for common Carriages, has been done away with on the roads in an extensive district round London, and I think that is good policy, from the circumstance that the proportion regulates itself by the interest of the owners of Carriages, when the fact is understood that Carriage wheels, which are too narrow in proportion to the load on them, and to the hardness and goodness of the road, will always draw heavier than wheels of a suitable breadth ”

“ Hancock's Carriage is so arranged, that a greater proportion of the whole weight of the Carriage is thrown upon the Winder wheels, to one or both of which the power of the engines is applied, than upon the fore wheels: that I think is very judicious, because it ensures such an effectual adhesion of the hind wheels to the road that no slipping can take place. The breadth of the wheels must be 80 proportioned to the pressure that they exert on the road, that they will not indent or press in, to leave deep marks behind them. ”

“ Would horses drawing 80 cwt, upon a road, with a slow walking pace, in your opinion do more injury to the road than an engine doing the same work?—I have had no experience of drawing heavy weights by Steam to enable me to form an opinion respecting the effect that the broad wheels, which must then be used, would have on the road, and what advancing power they would have before they began to slip on the road, without advancing the Carriage forwards ”

“ Another way of getting sufficient power to go up hill, is to have the pistons only a suitable size for going along the ordinary, road, and to introduce wheel-work, which can be thrown into action when a hill is to be ascended, and which will turn the wheels of the Carriage round only once for three turns of the cranks of the Engine, and consequently with a triple force. Mr. Hancock has shown me the parts of such machinery which he is now making for a new Steam Coach, with wheel-work and endless chains, on a plan which I think very likely to answer for ascending moderate hills ”

“ The difficulties with which the Steam Coach inventors are at present contending are chiefly of a practical nature, which, I think, are not likely to be avoided by any great efforts of genius or invention; but I expect that they may be surmounted one after another by the experience which may be gained by competent mechanicians in a course of practice. I do not look for much more invention as necessary to the establishment of Steam Coaches ”

“ The profit of Stage Coaches which load well is very high, particularly in the fine travelling season, and that occasional profit creates an excitement which induce the injudicious setting up of more Coaches than are wanted for an average of all seasons; and for the reasons above stated, their expences when once set going, cannot be reduced to meet bad times. The adoption of Steam Coaches will set the trade free from its great commercial difficulty, because they can be laid up and kept idle without considerable loss and brought out again when wanted without any new outlay ”

“ The ultimate success to which I look forward is entirely dependent on the circumstance of the first speculators in Steam Coaches being enabled to go through a sufficient term of inefficient performance, and consequent loss, to acquire experience in the new business, and that experience will, no doubt, lead to expensive alterations and reconstructions of their machinery. There is so much mechanical talent to be had for money, that I have no doubt of the final accomplishment, if the attempts now making are continued long enough ”

“ To get up ordinary and moderate hills, that is certainly the right plan; but it requires the strength of all the moving parts of the Engines to be made sufficient to bear the utmost force that the pistons can exert when impelled by the strongest Steam that is ever to be used; also, the large wheels which run upon the road should be made very broad on the edges, and of proportionate strength. The present Coaches have been faulty in these respects, and yet the machinery is too heavy. ”

“ There have been, for several years past, a number of locomotive engines in constant use on railways, all of them having large high pressure boilers, very much more dangerous than Mr. Gurney's or Mr. Hancock's, whether we consider the probability of explosion, or the consequences likely to follow an explosion, because being of large diameters they are less capable of sustaining the internal pressure of the steam, and also they contain a large stock of confined steam and hot water, The instances of explosion among those locomotive engines have been very rare indeed. ”