1911] on Travelling at High Speeds on Surface of Earth. 133 



I began my lecture by pointing out why speed was instinctively 

 taken as a test and a measure of locomotion from the earliest times. 

 Shakespeare makes one of his characters say, " The spirit of the time 

 shall teach me speed," but he might have said this of any period 

 equally with that of King John, though never more so than of to-day, 

 for the changes in the requirements of civilisation have only altered 

 in detail, and speed is of as much importance as ever in the struggle 

 of life. The probably unconscious recognition of this fact has always 

 led questions of speed to be raised as prime factors in proposals for 

 new modes of locomotion, and it is interesting to look back only 

 a comparatively few years to see, in raising these views, this was 

 always the case, but how little any ideas of future possibilities were 

 realised. When George Stephenson, backed up by a few courageous 

 and enterprising men, was fighting the battle of the railway, and in 

 particular trying to secure the passing of the Bill for improved com- 

 munication between Liverpool and Manchester, the question of speed 

 was the most important one raised ; the opposing counsel, Mr. 

 Harrison, spoke as follows : — " When we set out with the original 

 prospectus, we were to gallop, I know not at what rate ; I believe it 

 was at the rate of 12 miles an hour. My learned friend, Mr. Adam, 

 contemplated — possibly alluding to Ireland — tiiat some of the Irish 

 members would arrive in the waggons to a division. My learned 

 friend says that they would go at the rate of 12 miles an hour, with 

 the aid of the devil in the form of a locomotive, sitting, as postilion 

 on the fore horse, and an honourable member sitting behind him to 

 stir up the fire, and keep it at full speed. But the speed at which 

 these locomotive engines are to go has slackened : Mr. Adam does 

 not go faster now than 5 miles an hour. The learned serjeant 

 (Spankie) says he should like to have 7, but he would be content to 

 go 6. I will show he cannot go 6 ; and probably, for any practical 

 purposes, I may be able to show that I can keep up with him hy the 

 canal. . . . Locomotive engines are liable to be operated upon by 

 the weather. The wind will affect them ; and any gale of wind 

 which would affect the traffic on the Mersey would render it im- 

 possible to set ofp a locomotive engine either by poking the fire or 

 keeping up the pressure of steam till the boiler was ready to burst." 

 The committee, after hearing the arguments of Mr, Harrison, threw 

 out the Bill for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway by a majority 

 of 19 to 13. In order to realise that the above ideas were general, 

 the following may be quoted from the great journal of the day. The 

 Quarterly : — " What can be more palpably absurd and ridiculous 

 than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as 

 stage coaches ? . . . . We trust that Parliament will, in all railways it 

 may sanction, limit the speed to eight or nine fniles an hour, which 

 we entirely agree with Mr. Sylvester is as great as can be ventured 

 on with safety." 



Even in more recent times we see the struggle for the road loco- 



