470 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



great objection to the cyclometer is that one cannot put 

 the hands back. From the time it is first used it com- 

 mences its registration, and, as one continues to use it, 

 it goes on computing distance, so that, every time it is 

 used, one has to remember the distance already regis- 

 tered on the dial. It certainly might be unwound by 

 attaching it to the face-plate of a lathe, and, by working 

 the lathe, reverse the action of the carriage-wheel ; but 

 the labour of moving the treadle of the lathe sufficiently 

 long to bring the hand back to the starting-point would 

 be too great, and not worth one's while. It of course 

 registers distance, owing to the successive revolutions 

 of the carriage-wheel. The height of such wheel must 

 be given to the makers of the cyclometer, that they 

 may supply an instrument in exact accordance with the 

 wheel of the vehicle for which it is intended. The 

 maker's name and address from whom I obtained my 

 cyclometer is Thompson, 4, King Street, Tower Hill, 

 London, E. It is of course a patent. 



When upon a driving tour it is useful, as one has 

 not then to calculate distance upon maps with either 

 compasses or any other instrument,'" since you have 

 on your carriage the very best register of distance 

 that it is possible to imagine ; every yard of the way 

 is indicated on the dial that forms, as it were, the 

 screw cap on the box of the carriage wheel. If your 

 carriage merely pulls across the road or in the course 

 of your journey makes the slightest detour, you are 

 conscious all the while that every yard of your way is 

 being registered ; and on the close of a long day's 

 journey, if there are no mile-stones to assist you, you 

 can easily prove the correctness or incorrectness of the 

 maps with which you are supplied, or verify the state- 



* Perhaps the best instrument for measuring distances on a map 

 is the Wealemefna, sold by all matheinaLical instrument makers. 



