CARRIAGE-SPRINGS. 



71 



steel, the bearing being at a. Now, supposing that 

 a village blacksmith, who knew nothing about ma- 

 chinery, were to be placed in charge of the engine, 

 he would probably be dissatisfied with the spring as 

 being inadequate to its work, and therefore danger- 

 ous. ' It will never answer,' he might say, ' to trust 

 the weight of a heavy engine on a few strips of steel, 

 any one of which might break, upset the engine, and 

 throw it off the line.' So he would cut away the 



B B 



RAILWAY SPRING AND HORSE'S HOOF. 



central bearing, as shown by the dotted line at a, 

 and substitute heavy blocks of iron, as shown at 

 B B, thus abrogating the springs, and throwing the 

 bearing to the sides instead of the centre. 



This proceeding may seem very absurd, but it is 

 not one whit less ridiculous than the mode in which 

 the farrier of the present time treats the hoof of the 

 horse, and, in fact, is almost identical with it. 



In fig. 2 a diagrammatic section of the hoof and 



