50 History of Inland Transport 



other things, that the streaks or tires of wheels were to be 

 fastened with flat, and not rose-headed, nails ; and an Act 

 passed in 1822, in the reign of George IV., directed that when 

 the nails of the tire projected more than a quarter of an inch 

 from the surface of the tire the owner of the waggon should 

 pay a penalty of 5 and the driver one of forty shillings for 

 every time such vehicle was drawn on a turnpike road ; though 

 an amending Act, passed the following year, reduced the 

 penalties to " any sum not exceeding " forty shillings for the 

 owner and twenty shillings for the driver. 



Towards the end of the long period here in question it began 

 to be realised that what was wanted, after all, was an adapta- 

 tion of the roads to the traffic rather than an adaptation of the 

 traffic to the roads ; but the change in policy was not definitely 

 effected until two practical - minded men, John Loudon 

 McAdam and Thomas Telford, had introduced, at the begin- 

 ning of the nineteenth century, the first attempt at really 

 scientific road-making which had been made in this country 

 since the departure of the Roman legions in the early part of 

 the fifth century. 



