24 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



even two hundred, upon the square inch. This is a great advantage, 

 and if we may judge by the great improvements which are taking 

 place with regard to the steam engine, the locomotive as well as the 

 condensing engine, I am inclined to think that we are not by any 

 means arrived at the full economy of the production of steam in this 

 country and all other countries. Instead of working at the rate of 

 two hundred pounds upon the square inch, I think it is very likely 

 that it will reach five hundred pounds." 



Mr. Gladstone, who followed Mr. Fairbairn in another speech, 

 described this progress of railroad mechanism by another interesting 

 illustration, which we give in his own language : "I would recom- 

 mend those who wish to measure practically the advancement in this 

 department of mechanical science, to read the evidence which was 

 given by the elder Mr. Stephenson before the first committee of the 

 House of Commons, which was appointed to consider the first bill for 

 the purpose of making a railway from Liverpool to Manchester. 

 When that gentleman appeared as a witness in the face of able and 

 learned men, whose business it was to convict him of being a mere 

 dreamer and enthusiast, he judiciously avoided stating what, perhaps, 

 his prophetic spirit had divined of the great results that were about 

 to be achieved ; and I think that when Mr. Stephenson was asked at 

 what rate it was probable that the locomotive engine would carry 

 passengers along that railway, he judiciously confined himself to the 

 statement that he was sanguine enough to believe that such an engine 

 would be able, under favorable circumstances, to draw those passen- 

 gers at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour. But even that did not 

 satisfy the relentless ingenuity of those who cross-examined him, and 

 they solemnly adjured Mr. Stephenson to say whether, upon his 

 credit as a man of practice and a man of science, he would undertake 

 to assure that committee, that he thought that such an instrument as 

 a steam engine ever would draw people along the iron rail with such 

 velocity as the speed of eight or ten miles an hour. And Mr. Ste- 

 phenson was so wise in his generation, that he would not adhere to the 

 speed of eight or ten miles. I do not recollect the figure to which 

 they brought him down, but I think at last he would not absolutely 

 commit himself to promise a speed of more than five or six miles an 

 hour. Mr. Harrison was the leading counsel against Mr. Stephen- 

 son. He was not satisfied with the modesty of that eminent man, 

 and the prediction he had made. He ridiculed those predictions, and 

 said : ' Woe be to the unfortunate gentleman, who, living in Liver- 

 pool or Manchester, and having an engagement to dine in the coun- 

 try at a particular hour, shall trust himself to one of our trains with 

 the expectation that it will bring him in time for dinner.' Well, 

 ladies and gentlemen, we have passed by that scene ; and I believe I 

 should be correct in saying that even since the locomotive began to 

 display its powers in practice, since the railway system was estab- 

 lished, those powers have been far more than doubled ; and we 

 do not know at what point the limit of their application may be 

 reached." 



