Loads, Wheels and Roads 47 



the trustees being authorised to protect themselves against 

 loss from such free passage by imposing higher tolls on all 

 carts and waggons the wheels of which were not nine inches 

 in width. 



The idea in having these broad wheels was that they would 

 not only be less injurious to the roads than the narrow wheels, 

 but would even tend to keep the roads in good order by helping 

 to smooth and consolidate them in the same way as would 

 be done by garden rollers. Mr Bourn, who was an enthusiast 

 on the subject, even proposed to have cart and waggon 

 wheels made of cast iron with a breadth of sixteen inches ! 

 He says in his pamphlet : 



" I would recommend having the wheels made in the 

 following manner : 



" Let there be run out of cast iron at the founders hollow 

 rims or cylinders, about two feet high, sixteen inches broad 

 or wide, and from one to near two inches in thickness, according 

 to the design or necessity of the proprietor, and the burden 

 he intends them to bear. Let the space, or cavity between 

 these cylinders be filled up solid with a block of wood, through 

 the center of which insert your arbor or gudgeon, and leave it 

 two inches and six eighths at each end longer than the cylinder; 

 which parts must be round, and about two inches thick, being 

 the pivots, and when the whole is well wedged the wheel is 

 compleat. 



" Here then is a solid wheel, which answers all the intentions 

 of the garden roller ; now can anything be conceived that 

 would have so happy a tendency upon the roads ? to render 

 them smooth and even to harden and encrust the surface, 

 and make it resemble a terrass walk ? I say, can anything 

 be equal to these kind of cast iron rollers to produce the fore- 

 going effects ? " 



Without adopting Mr Bourn's 1 6-inch cast-iron garden 

 rollers, the carriers of the period did, apparently, adopt 

 the 9-inch wheels favoured by Parliament ; but as they 

 found that, with g-inch wheels, they could carry much heavier 

 weights, there had to be a further resort to legislation directed 

 to a limitation of loads. This was done by 5 Geo. III., c. 38, l 



1 This Act also provided that when the wheels of a waggon were so 

 arranged that those at the back followed in a line with those in front, the 

 two pairs thus running in one and the same groove, only half the usual 

 tolls should be charged. 



