House of Commons, Great Britain

“ Suppose there are sharp ascents upon a common road, how would that apply?—There is no ascent that any common carriages go over, where the Steam Carriage will not go down hill with one wheel chained; no road in the neighbourhood of London that they would not run down with one wheel chained; that is, only one quarter part of the weight of the Carriage, if the wheel is chained, if you are drawing up hill with two or four wheels driven by an Engine, by their all turning round, they are as likely to go up hill. One wheel ought to put it up hill. ”

“ I do not think the road is injured so much, there is less friction; if a two-inch wheel goes two inches deep, and a four-inch wheel goes only one inch deep, there is two to one difference in the friction, for the ascent in getting up out of a two-inch rut requires a great deal more friction; the wider the wheels in my opinion, though the greater extent the less the friction; they use wide wheels to go over soft ground on farms to prevent their sinking; there is a great friction, for it is always going down hill and the friction is pulling it up hill ”

“ What height would the shaft be, as applied to your Steam Carriage?—It does not require to be higher than a common Steam Carriage.
Have the Steam Carriages that now ply on the roads a shaft?—No; they get their fuel through a fire door, but it will answer best to fill through you get considerable advantage. In the first place, you have a less boiler; by having a less boiler it is lighter; it is much stronger by getting a greater pressure; there is 75 per cent, of the fuel; if you take the average of the advantages, it will save daily nearly ten to one on travelling Engines. ”

“ The space that would be filled instantaneously from the hot tubes being suddenly cooled, the space occupied by that superabundance would fill three hundred times the space usually allowed for steam, and a safety valve of five times the size would give no relief, or not in time; a proof that a high-pressure Steam Engine boiler has not been broken generally by the pressure of the high steam, but from being heated, is because the portable gasholders are about ten inches diameter, and the sixteenth of an inch thick, and they are charged with 30 atmospheres, or 450 lbs, each without accident ”

“ Have the goodness to state to the Committee your opinion with respect to the wear of the road by Steam Carriages?—I think that the roads will not be injured so much by Steam Carriages in future as they have been, because there will be no need to chain the wheels; by putting the valve to the stop, the steam going off that has never yet been applied, there is no need to chain the wheel; that is very easily done; if the steam is prevented escaping; the piston must stand still, and it can be let down as gently as possible; they may either stop instantly or go as easily as they please ”

“ Are there not Steam Engines in which the cylinder is within the boiler?—Yes; those are commonly used now in the high-pressure Steam Engines.
Have you ever considered what toll should be charged upon Steam Carriages, assuming that a Steam Carriage of 40 cwt, is equal to four horses, and does no more damage than four horses would do upon a road?—I should judge that there would be no need to fix them heavier than just to pay for repairing the road, whatever it may be; people are not to get their maintenance out of roads ”

“ If you keep the present dish, you must have a narrow wheel, or it is rubbing; but if it is a straight axle, it ought to be as wide as that where there is no more friction, and then the wide wheel will not do half the mischief that the coach-wheel does. The present stage coach-wheel will do a great deal more mischief, working as it does, than if it had been perpendicular. ”

“ I believe, by their getting foul and incrusting with salt from using salt-water; the low-pressure Engines have burst as well as the high pressure; if the tubes of the boilers are heated red-hot, and the Engine is standing at the time the water is still in, the boiler is quiet; but on the Engine setting to work, a discharge of Steam from the boiler to the cylinder causes a great ebullition in the boiler, and the water splashing over the hot sides makes a superabundant generation of steam. ”

“ There is a particular width of wheel in which no injury will be done to the road, but rather good?—It will be rather good after the road has been mended to settle it down; there will be wear in it as at other times; but in certain states of the roads to settle them down they will be doing good, but at no state of the road could it do good with narrow wheels. ”

“ What would be the effect when the road was once settled?—You see very often roads which have been gravelled; in dry weather the dust blows away; they can never settle again, but if the broad wheels passed over to crush it over with the dust, it would settle down much firmer ”

“ You see no objection to a Steam Carriage, intended to travel fast with passengers, which may weigh as much as a coach and four with its horses, having a six-inch tire?—No; I know it is condemned by people in general ”

“ You do not suppose that a Steam Carriage weighing four tons would do more injury than a horse carriage?—A Steam Carriage with the same weight would do nothing like the same injury as a horse coach, for they have narrow wheels and these have not ”

“ Will the increasing breadth of the wheel render slipping in ascending a hill more or less likely to take place?—I rather think that will increase the friction, because that does not tend to make a rut. In making a rut there is a very great difficulty in the wheel getting out of that rut, for there is no footing ”