38 DRIVING. . 



This roller was to be an inch and a half from the ground, so 

 that when the going was good it would not touch the surface. 

 When, on the other hand, the wheels would otherwise have 

 sunk into ruts, the weight of the carnage would be supported 

 on the roller, so that the wheels could not sink below the 

 surface of the ground. As the inventor pointed out, 



By making the protection a little higher than the lower level of the 

 wheels, it is evident that on good hard roads or streets the wheels 

 will always bear the weight of the load, nor can they make any 

 ruts, or sink into old ones, however deep they may be ; while the 

 middle of the road remains firm, for the protection [the * road pro- 

 tector ' was the name by which the inventor described his roller] 

 will always roll upon the middle, which will certainly be a much 

 easier drag out for the horses than if the wheels were in deep ruts. 



To all but the ingenious Mr. Bealson it must have seemed 

 out of the question that horses should thus be obliged to 

 drag about on all occasions a huge roller weighing several 

 hundredweight. The objection was, of course, fatal to the 

 invention, and carriage-makers continued to build sound and 

 solid, but tremendously heavy, vehicles, which would resist the 

 strains to which they must have been so often subjected. The 

 difficulties in the way of easy travelling must have seemed 

 insuperable ; but, on the whole, coach-builders were very well 

 satisfied with things as they were, not perhaps recognising the 

 possibility of such roads and carriages as those with which 

 the present generation have been made familiar. 



An eccentricity which may here be mentioned, though it 

 came later than Mr. Bealson's road protector in 1828, to be 

 exact was a device invented by Mr. Jean Tellier of America, 

 to prevent the upsetting of carriages. A rod, hinged to the 

 top of the vehicle, hung down on either side, the end, furnished 

 with a rowel like that of a huge spur, coming down to within 

 two or three inches of the ground, when the carriage was 

 upright. When, however, by means of any accident, the 

 coming off of a wheel for instance, the carriage was thrown 

 over sideways, the rod would either stick into the ground and 



