CHAP. X. ANTICIPATION AS TO SPEED. 197 



ready to set down the projected railways of 1825 as mere 

 bubbles of a similarly delusive character. 1 



Among the most sagacious newspaper articles of the 

 day, calling attention to the application of the locomotive 

 engine to the purposes of rapid steam-travelling on rail- 

 roads, was a series which appeared in 1824, in the Scots- 

 man newspaper, then edited by Mr. Charles Maclaren. 

 In those publications the wonderful powers of the loco- 

 motive were logically demonstrated, and the writer, 

 arguing from the experiments on friction made more 

 than half a century before by Yince and Coulomb, which 

 scientific men seemed to have altogether lost sight of, 

 clearly showed that, by the use of steam-power on rail- 

 roads, the more rapid, as well as cheaper, transit of 

 persons and merchandise might be confidently antici- 

 pated. 



Not many years passed before the anticipations of the 

 writer, sanguine and speculative though they were re- 

 garded at the time, were amply realised. Even Mr. 

 Nicholas Wood, in 1825, speaking of the powers of the 

 locomotive, and referring doubtless to the speculations 

 of the Scotsman as well as of his equally sanguine friend 

 Stephenson, observed " It is far from my wish to pro- 

 mulgate to the world that the ridiculous expectations, or 

 rather professions, of the enthusiastic speculist will be 

 realised, and that we shall see engines travelling at the 

 rate of twelve, sixteen, eighteen, or twenty miles an 

 hour. Nothing could do more harm towards their 

 general adoption and improvement than the promul- 

 gation of such nonsense." 2 



1 " Many years ago I met in a 

 public library with a bulky volume, 

 consisting of the prospectuses of va- 

 rious projects bound up together, and 

 labelled, 'Some of the bubbles of 

 Among the projects thus 

 described, was one that has since 



tion of mankind effected since the first 

 dawn of civilisation : it was the plan 

 of the Company for constructing a 

 railway between Liverpool and Man- 

 chester." W. B. Hodge, in ' Journal 

 of the Institute of Actuaries,' No. 40, 

 July, 1860. 



been productive of the greatest and j - Wood on Railroads. Ed. 1825, 

 most rapid advance in the social condi- p. 290. 



