110 REPORT—1846. 
committee, however, in concluding their labours, stated that they were not able to 
deduce from them any law, or semblance of a law; that the resistance increased 
with the velocity, but it did not appear to do so according to any simple function of 
the velocity, neither as the velocity directly, nor as the square of the velocity. Since 
that time the question has been a guestio vexata among practical men and mathema- 
ticians. A paper read at the Royal Society last winter comes to the same conclusion 
as the old committee of the British Association, viz. that no law is manifested in 
the experiments, of which at high velocities the results are quite anomalous. The 
consequences of errors on such a point have become now so serious, especially where 
velocities of 50 or 60 miles an hour are attempted, that it has been thought desirable 
that the question should be, if possible, thoroughly resolved. For this purpose I have 
undertaken a series of practical experiments, on a large scale, with railway trains of 
a great variety of size and weight, and at velocities as high as 61 miles an hour. 
They were made on the South-Western, London and Brighton, South-Eastern, Shef- 
field and Manchester, and Croydon Atmospheric Railways. I have combined with 
these the experiments formerly made by the British Association, and some by Mr. 
Harding on the broad gauge; and it is the result of this great variety of facts which 
I wish to lay before the Section, The experiments themselves are arranged in the 
following table :— 
No. of | Uniform velocity Resistance Resistance 
Expe- | maintainedin | in lbs. per ton by | in lbs. per ton by 
riment. | miles per hour. Experiment. Formula. 
1 10 8°40 9°30 
2 14 12°60 13°90 
3 14 12°60 13°90 
4 29 16°50 15°70 
5 31 23°30 25°40 
6 31 18°20 16°30 
fi 32 22°50 27°20 
8 33 22°50 22°70 
9 33 15°68 16°90 
10 33 15°96 17°00 
11 34 16°60 17°30 
12 34 16°95 17°30 
13 34 17°70 17°30 
14 34 23°30 27°20 
15 34 25°00 23°10 
16 35 22°50 26°10 
17 36 22°50 22°40 
18 36 22°40 21°50 
19 37 17°50 18°20 
20 37 25°00 28°40 
2] 39 30°00 31°00 
22 41 22°99 19°60 
23 41 26°78 19°60 
24 45 21°70 21°00 
25 46 23°10 21°30 
26 46 30°31 31°00 
27 47 33°70 33°10 
28 50 32°90 36°30 
29 51 26°40 23°00 
30 53 41°70 42°10 
31 61 52°60 54°80 
These experiments show the great amount of resistance at high velocities ; but they 
also show the apparent anomaly of the results. We have many higher velocities 
than others with much lower resistances. These are the difficulties in the way of 
any simple and apparent solution, The method of investigation I have adopted is 
this—I have taken all the results of experiments, and removed from them, in the 
