SIT? ISAAC NEWTON'S STEAM CARRIAGE. 233 



have been impossible to shut it off completely when 

 it was desired to do so ; and had there been any 

 escape, it must have frightened horses, particularly 

 as a London street is not like a country road, where 

 they could turn off the steam until a horse had passed. 

 There could have been scarcely a moment during the 

 day when the street w^as without horses of some kind., 

 all liable to be frightened by coming in contact with 

 a machine of this description ; otherwise there is much 

 to be said in favour of road locomotion, and I have 

 no doubt, in the present greatly improved condition 

 of the steam-engine, a very light and simple loco- 

 motive could be built at the present time capable 

 of travelling at a great pace and with perfect safety ; 

 but possibly it would be necessary to banish horses 

 from the road were steam carriao^es introduced on 

 highways and byways as a regular mode of conveyance. 



Another writer gives the following particulars. He 

 says that Sir Isaac Newton, in 1680, was the first 

 person to design a steam carriage for road travelling. 

 This vehicle was of the most primitive and elementary 

 kind ; in fact, toys have been manufactured recently, 

 working on the same principle. It consisted of a 

 globular boiler, under which there was a fire ; there 

 was an outlet to this boiler, terminating in a long tube 

 in an opposite direction to which the carriage was 

 travelling ; this permitted an escape of steam, which 

 rushed forth in volume immediately the water boiled, 

 and by the reactionary force of the external air against 

 which it was impelled forced the carriage along. 



It is upon the same principle that the hydraulic 

 steamships were propelled. There are several steam 

 floating fire-engines on the Thames, which have 



