260 



REQUIREMENTS AS TO SPEED. 



CHAP. XIII. 



The requirements of the directors as to speed were 

 ;not excessive. All that they asked for was, that ten miles 

 an hour should be maintained. Perhaps they had in 

 mind the animadversions of the ' Quarterly Reviewer ' 

 on the absurdity of travelling at a greater velocity, as 

 well as the remarks published by Mr. Nicholas Wood, 

 whom they selected to be one of the judges of the com- 

 petition, in conjunction with Mr. Rastrick of Stourbridge 

 and Mr. Kennedy of Manchester. 



It was now felt that the fate of railways in a great 

 measure depended upon the issue of this appeal to the 

 mechanical genius of England. When the advertise- 

 ment of the prize for the best locomotive was published, 

 scientific men began more particularly to direct their 

 attention to the new power which was thus struggling 

 into existence. In the mean time public opinion on the 

 subject of railway working remained suspended, and the 

 progress of the undertaking was watched with the most 

 intense interest. 



must be able to draw after it, day by 

 day, twenty tons weight (including 

 the tender and water-tank) at ten 

 miles an hour, with a pressure of 

 steam on the boiler not exceeding fifty 

 pounds to the square inch. 



3. The boiler must have two safety 

 valves, neither of which must be fast- 

 ened down, and one of them be com- 

 pletely out of the control of the engine- 

 man. 



4. The engine and boiler must be 

 supported on springs, and rest on six 

 wheels, the height of the whole not 

 exceeding fifteen feet to the top of the 

 chimney. 



5. The engine, with water, must 

 not weigh more than six tons ; but an 

 engine of less weight would be pre- 

 ferred on its drawing a proportionate 

 load behind it ; if of only four and a 

 half tons, then it might be put on 

 only four wheels. The Company to 

 be at liberty to test the boiler, &c., by 

 a pressure of one hundred and fifty 

 pounds to the square inch. 



6. A mercurial gauge must be af- 

 fixed to the machine, showing the 

 steam pressure above forty-five pounds 

 per square inch. 



7. The engine must be delivered, 

 complete and ready for trial, at the 

 Liverpool end of the railway, not later 

 than the 1st of October, 1829. 



8. The price of the engine must not 

 exceed 550?. 



Many persons of influence declared 

 the conditions published by the di- 

 rectors of the railway chimerical in the 

 extreme. One gentleman of some 

 eminence in Liverpool, Mr. P. Ewart, 

 who afterwards filled the office of 

 Government Inspector of Post Office 

 Steam-packets, declared that only a 

 parcel of charlatans would ever have 

 issued such a set of conditions ; that it 

 had been proved to be impossible to 

 make a locomotive engine go at ten 

 miles an hour; but if it ever was 

 done, he would eat a stewed engine- 

 wheel to his breakfast. 



