584 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



and the traction on the common road is not more than from 

 eight to twenty times greater than it is on rails 1" The reply 

 of some English engineers, who had seen steam carriages, has 

 been, that the suspension was so imperfect that the jolting caused 

 excessive wear and tear, and great expense for repairs. Eussell 

 declares this to have been tjie case with all carriages built pre- 

 vious to 1832; and he adds that unless steam carriages could 

 have as perfect suspension as common carriages, all future experi- 

 ments must share the fate of the past. He was, nevertheless, 

 confident that the difficulty could be solved, and built six car- 

 riages for a company in Scotland, which w^ere better suspended 

 than their predecessors, but still far from fulfilling the " indis- 

 pensable" condition of their inventor. And the echtors of the 

 Mechanics' Magazine and Herbert's Encyclopedia, both familiar 

 with the subject, and intimate with professional engineers, have 

 stated it as their opinion that to suspend a steam carriage as. well 

 as a common carriage, and yet preserve steadiness of motion, was 

 simply a mechanical impossibility. The case seems to have been 

 abandoned as utterly hopeless. Gurney no longer puts his en- 

 gines on springs at all; Russell and Hills used two setts — those 

 which bore the engines being too rigid for the passengers ; Han- 

 cock had settled on a low speed as the most economical ; and the 

 rest Avere in no better condition; all agreed that the only question 

 remaining was that of durability, and this depended on suspen- 

 sion. If the noncontinuance of steamers on common roads, was 

 in consequence of any difficulty except that of prohibitory tolls, 

 and the manifest determination of the House of Lords not to 

 abate them, this was the difficulty. It is, however, positively 

 affirmed that, in spite of mechanical defects, the steamers worked 

 with profit at half the fares of horse coaches; and that nothing 

 but fair play was wanted to enable them to beat horses off the 

 road. And I am of opinion that steamers without springs at all, 

 if their wheels be large, can work cheaper than horses, at any 

 speed attainable by horses ; but it is unquestionable that easy 

 suspension would give them foui'fold advantage, as to durability 

 and economy of power. 



On common roads, as all agree, elasticity, and a very great elas- 

 ticity, is the condition without which both carriage and road will 

 be rapidly worn, and power ruinously wasted; but on rails, it 

 seems to be assumed, there is little need of springs — the rails 

 being supposed to be true. This supposition is manifestly gratu- 

 itous; the jolting on railways, with the rigid springs they use, is 



