172 Report of the Select Committee 
they are susceptible ?—Certainly not; Mr. Woolf’s engine has 
been much simplified since its first invention, and my opinion is, 
it will be still further improved. 
You would then consider any measure which should tend to 
impede the use of high pressure engines to be injurious to the 
country ?—Certainly, I should. 
Mr. Henry Maupesiay’s Evidence. 
What is your profession ?>—I am an engineer, residing at Lam- 
beth. 
You construct steam-engines?—Yes, a great many. 
Are you at all acquainted with the circumstances attending 
the explosion of the steam-engine at Norwich ?—Yes, I am. 
Have you been there since this accident ?—No. 
Did you know the steam-boats there before the accident ?— 
Yes ; because I made a steam-boat for Yarmouth. 
_ Was the steam-boat you made, a high pressure or a low pres= 
sure engine ?—A low pressure engine. 
Will you be so good as to tell the Committee, what is your 
opinion with regard to the proper construction of those engines, 
to secure the passengers on board those boats ?—I never consi- 
dered high pressure engines were applicable to boats, because 
the purpose of a high pressure engine is to save water, and water 
cannot be wanted on board a vessel] ; the difference between the 
one and the other makes no saving either in the weight or expense, 
taking it ultimately, particularly when steam-boats are properly 
contrived. As far as my opinion goes as to steam-engines and 
steam-boats, I would not go from here to Margate in a high 
pressure boat, because there are many reasons why that may be- 
come much more dangerous, and no more advantageous to the 
public generally or to the individuals. A low pressure engine is 
of very high power; a high pressure engine has a higher power 
in proportion to its height of steam. It is pretty well under- 
stood, that a gentleman who engages in a steam-boat company 
seldom attends to the engine himself, but leaves it to his men. 
I built the Regent steam-boat last summer with a low pressure 
engine ; there was a dispute between two men, and one of them 
swore that he would blow his boiler up, but he would beat the 
Regent in coming up. The man certainly did exert himself as 
much as he could,and kep this steam as highas he could get it, and 
it flew out of the safety-valve very frequently,and he hurt his boiler 
materially from doing so, but he did not beat the Regent; but 
if it had been a high pressure engine, he would either have beat 
her or blown up his boiler, hecause he had the power in his own 
hand. 
Had it been a high pressure engine, and the boiler properly 
constructed, 
