28 PROCEEDINGS or THE 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



For the following valuable extracts from the proceedings of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, we are indebted 

 to the Reports of the London Athenceum. The Association met at 

 Newcastle, under the Presidency of Sir "Wm. Armstrong. 



EXTRACTS FEOM THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



The history of railways shows what grand results may have their origin in 

 small beginnings. When coal was first conveyed in this neighbourhood from the 

 pit to the shipping-place on the Tyne, the pack-horse, carrying a burden of 8 cwt., 

 ■was the only mode of transport employed. As soon as roade suitable for wheeled 

 carriages were formed, carts were introduced, and this first step in mechanical 

 appliance to facilitate transport had the effect of increasing the load which the 

 horse was enabled to convey from 8 cwt. to 17 cwt. The next improvement 

 consisted in laying wooden bars or rails for the wheels of the carts to run upon, 

 and this was followed b the substitution of the four-wheeled waggon for the 

 two-wheeled cart. By this further application of mechanical principles the 

 original horse load of 3 cwt. was augmented to 42 cwt. These were important 

 results, and they were not obtained without the shipwreck of the fortunes of at 

 least one adventurous man whose ideas were in advance of the times in which he 

 lived. We read, in a record published in thfr year 1649, that " one Master 

 Beaumont, a gentleman of great ingenuity and rare parts, adventured into the 

 mines of Northumberland with his 30,0001., and brought with him many rare 

 engines not then known in that shire, and waggons with one horse to carry down 

 coal from the pits to the river, but within a few years he consumed all his money 

 and rode home upon his light horse." The next step in the progress of railways 

 was the attachment of slips of iron to the wooden rails. Then came the iron 

 tramway, consisting of cast-iron bars of an angular section : in this arrangement 

 the upright flange of the bar acted as a guide to keep the wheel on the track. 

 The next advance was an important one, and consisted in transferring the 

 guiding flange from the rail to the wheel ; this improvement enabled cast-iron 

 edge rails to be used. Finally, in 1820, after the lapse of about 200 years from 

 the first employment of wooden bars, wrought-iron rails, rolled in long lengthsi 

 and of suitable section, were made in this neighbourhood, and eventually super- 

 seded all other forms of railway. Thus, the railway system, like all large 

 inventions, has risen to its present importance by a series of steps ; and so 

 gradual has been its progress, that Europe finds itself committed to a gauge 

 fortuitously determined by the distance between the wheels of the carts for 

 which wooden rails were originally laid down. 



Last of all came the locomotive engine, that crowning achievement of mechan- 

 ical science, which enables us to convey a load of 200 tons at a cost of fuel 



