448 ON DRAUGHT. 



more effect will it produce in diminishing the draught: with a C spring a 

 very contrary effect is produced. 



A carriage hung upon C springs may certainly be made the most com- 

 fortable to the rider, but all the ease that can be required, and much more 

 than is found in the generality of post-chaises, may be obtained by well- 

 constructed grasshopper springs, and, therefore, with considerable advan- 

 tage to the horses. 



The practice of loading coaches as high as possible to make them run 

 light, as the coachmen have found by experience, is only a mode of assist- 

 ing the springs. The mass being placed at a greater htight above the 

 wheels, acting at the extremity of a longer lever, is not so easily displaced 

 laterally by any motion of the wheels, v/hich, therefore, may rise and fall 

 on either side as they run over the stones, without producing any suddtn 

 concussions upon the load, which swings to and fro with long, easy move- 

 ments; it is probable also, tliat the weight, being thus swung from side to 

 side, may, upon good roads, diminish the draught, as it is in fact generally 

 running upon two of the wheels; while, in the other direction, it equally 

 admits of the front and hind-wheels successively passing over any impedi- 

 ments; and yet, by the manner in which it is fixed upon the springs, it 

 does not admit of any longitudinal elasticity. 



The fact of coaches thus loaded running light has been clearly proved 

 by the failure of what were called Safety Coaches, in which the only dif- 

 ference consisted in placing tlie load very low. These coaches, although 

 completely answering their purposes of safety, were discontinued sole?y, 

 we believe, from their being found destructive of the horses. 



Experiments, nevertheless, have been made to prove that this was only 

 an idle prejudice of coachmen; but universally received opinions, even if 

 leading to erroneous conclusions, which is hardly possible, must always 

 have some good foundation ; and coachmen, altiiough they may not have 

 been so much so at the time these experiments were published (in 1817), 

 are certainly now rather an intelligent class of men. We should, there- 

 fore, prefer risking a theory, if a theory were necessary, in support of their 

 prejudices, rather than in opposition to them. The experiments alluded to 

 were not, hi our opinion, made under the circumstances which occur in 

 practice. Small models (the wheels being seven inches in diameter) were 

 drawn along a table across which were placed small strips of wood to 

 represent the obstructions met with in a road ; but these strips of wood 

 came in contact with each pair of wheels at the same time, and never 

 caused any lateral motion. They produced, therefore, a totally different 

 effect from that which takes place in a road, where the action rarely 

 affects more than one wheel at a time, or if two, they are almost invariably 

 those two on the same side of the carriage; consequently, in the model, the 

 wheels in passing over an obstruction, threw the whole weight, backwards 

 in a direction exactly opposite to the movement required; while in prac- 

 tice, tlie carriage is generally thrown sideways, which does not affect 

 its forward motion. 



The conclusions drawn from these experiments are, therefore, as might 

 be expected, at vaiance with practical results, and directly contrary to the 

 opinions of those v/hose experience ought to enable them to judge correctly. 



The effects, also, of velocity and momentum must be diincult to imitatd 

 in models. 



The advantage of placing the load high will not, however, equally applj 

 at low velocities, still less when springs are not used: it may frequen'ly, 

 Indeed, in the latter case, produce quite a contrary effect 



