III. — Every person, who travels in the north of this empire, knows that he is continually meeting brie- 

 horse carts, and indeed seldom any other kind of heavy carriage. It is no uncommon sight to meet 

 nine, or more of these carts following each other, and driven by only three persons, perhaps two of 

 them women, or perhaps one woman and two girls, and for myself, I could not view such a sight with- 

 out examining the cause, and ask myself whether it is better to drive as we do in Norfolk, a heavy wag- 

 gon by four horses, or three or four of these carts. In this instance, my dynanometer* served me well. 

 For I discovered, what is almost incredible, that one of these carts,t loaded with stones to the amount of 

 1 ton, 1 cwt. 4 stones, 7 lbs. was not more laborious to a horse, upon level ground, than one of our 

 waggons without any load at all. For its bearing upon the horse's back, i. e. the weight of the shafts 

 was in that state only 1\ stones, i. e. wanting f of a stone of a cwt. and the power necessary to draw 

 it, which I will call the power of draught, only 2 cwt. 1 stone* These facts were accurately ascer- 

 tained, and the load of stones carefully weighed in 1 1 parcels, thus : — ; 



Slo?ies. 



Carry over 101 



One horse could draw the above upon level ground with ease, and to any distance whatever ; no 

 more tlian two horses are at any time required. 



Now a waggon, which I had previously examined at West Lexham, required 2 cwt. 5 stones, to 

 draw it upon level ground without any load at all. Thus the cart loaded with more than a ton weight, 

 was not so much toil to a horse as the waggon at West Lexham without any load. But it is not from a 

 single instance of trial that t would draw any conclusion, and particularly an instance such as this, which 

 I am free to own contradicts the doctrine of an excellent experimental philosopher, Desaguliers, who 

 read lectures first at London, and afterwards at Oxford. This philosopher has given M. De Camus* 

 experiments and instances to shew that, under any circumstances, a carriage upon four wheels, requires 

 less power to draw it and to overcome obstacles, than a cart with two wheels under the same circum- 

 stances. I deny, positively, this fact in practice. This is strong and bold language, but such as I am 

 bound to hold, and in which I shall be supported by those persons, who were witnesses to my experi- 

 ments, two of whom I shall mention, J. C. Curwen, Esq. and Mr. E. Befek, the former of whorh saw 

 me use my dynanometer, at Workington, in Cumberland, and the latter saw me use the same 

 dynanometer at West Lexham, in this county. It is in vain to say the instrument erred, because what- 

 ever might be its error, it was the same in both places, and of course the relative powers of draught 

 were the same, however, the positive draught might in both places be wrong from an error in the 

 graduation. 



* This was made by the Rev. W. A. Barker, at my express request, and received the premium for the best implement 

 shewn at Holkham, in the year 1806. It is the invention of M. Regnier, a Frenchman, 

 t See a delineation of one in page lith. 



D 



