APPENDIX. ROAD LOCOMOTION. 493 



called my father's attention to the question of gradients in future 

 locomotive lines. He then became convinced of the vital 

 importance, in an economical point of view, of reducing the 

 country through which a railway was intended to pass, to as 

 near a level as possible. This originated in his mind the dis- 

 tinctive character of railway works as contradistinguished from 

 all other roads, for in railroads he early contended that large 

 sums would be wisely expended in perforating barriers of hills 

 with long tunnels, and in raising low ground with the excess cut 

 down from the adjacent high ground. In proportion as these 

 views fixed themselves upon his mind, and were corroborated by 

 his daily experience, he became more and more convinced of 

 the hopelessness of applying steam locomotion to common roads, 

 for every argument in favour of a level railway was an argu- 

 ment against the rough and hilly course of a common road. He 

 never ceased to urge upon the patrons of road steam-carriages 

 that if by any amount of ingenuity an engine could be made 

 which could by possibility traverse a turnpike road at a speed at 

 least equal to that obtainable by horse-power and at a less cost, 

 such an engine if applied to the more perfect surface of a railway 

 would have its efficiency enormously enhanced. For instance, 

 he calculated that if an engine had been constructed, and had 

 been found to travel uniformly between London and Birmingham 

 at an average speed of 10 miles an hour, conveying say 20 

 or 30 passengers at a cost of Is. per mile, it was clear that the 

 same engine if applied to a railway, instead of conveying 20 or 

 30 people, would have conveyed 200 or 300 people, and instead 

 of a speed of 10 or 12 miles an hour, a speed of at least 30 to 

 40 miles an hour would have been obtained. It is difficult now 

 to understand how it was that this obvious inference never 

 occurred to the minds of those who so long persisted in vain 

 attempts to apply locomotive power to turnpike roads. 



" Identified as my father at this period had become with every 

 step made towards increased utility in the locomotive engine, he 

 did not allow his enthusiasm to carry him away into costly 

 mistakes. He most carefully drew a broad line between those 

 cases in which the locomotive could be advantageously employed, 

 and those in which stationary engines were more economical. 

 This led him, when called upon to execute railways over rough 

 countries where gradients within the compass of the locomotive 

 engine could not be obtained, to apply stationary engines most 

 extensively. Many instances of the successful application of 



