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Notice of Observations made on the Rapidity of Motion, and on 

 the Dtiration of the Stoppages on the Liverpool and Manches- 

 ter Railway.* By Edward Sang, Esq. F.R. S.E., late 

 V.P. S. A., Lecturer on Natural Philosophy, &c. Edin. 



(Communicated bj the Society of Arts.) 



If any one had asserted a century ago, that vehicles carrying 

 a dozen of passengers would be drawn at the rate of ten miles 

 an hour from London to Edinburgh, not merely now and then, 

 but every day throughout the year, he would have been ridi- 

 culed as talking of an impossibility ; so ten years ago, the pro- 

 spects of ever being able to travel at twenty or thirty miles an 

 hour, seemed almost as unreasonable. 



The velocity of twenty-five miles an hour is, however, already 

 attained , and speculations are afloat as to whether even that 

 prodigious rapidity may not yet be exceeded. That a far 

 greater velocity than twenty-five miles an hour can be obtained 

 by locomotive engines on a well laid rail, is certain ; for at pre- 

 sent that velocity is steadily maintained with a train of ten or 

 thirteen waggons, each having from twenty to twenty-four pas- 

 sengers. 



The question is, not whether such a velocity as forty or fifty 

 miles an hour can be had, but whether it be practicable at such 

 a speed to regulate and command the machinery ; and whether 

 the increased expense may not counterbalance the advantages of 

 such a rate. 



To the first of these questions I mean at present to attend. 



During the last summer, I had occasion to travel twice every 

 week from Liverpool to Manchester, and back ; the total extent 

 of my journeys on the rail being somewhere about 800 miles. 



At the first, the rapidity with which the objects in the vicinity 

 of the road were passed, and the apparent rotatoi'y motion 

 which those even at a distance seemed to have, caused an un- 

 pleasant and confused sensation, which was removed at once by 

 looking at the parts of the train, or at objects several miles off. 

 One or two trips, however, served to accustom the eye so well 

 as to allow of an inspection of the objects at the very edge of the 



• Read before the Society for the Encouragement of the Useful Arts in 

 Scotland, 15th February, 1837. 



