April I St, 1887.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEV/S. 



39 



proposed railways lodged in the Private Bill Office, and 

 forty-eight were under the consideration of Parliament ; but 

 no railway had crossed the borders of either Scotland or 

 Wales. 



The problem of using steam-carriages on common roads 

 was then still a burning question, although perhaps it had 

 excited more interest at a previous time. It was a feature 

 round which raged much of the vigorous correspondence 

 distinctive of the Magazine, rival inventors slinging vitu- 

 perative ink with a freedom from restraint that must have 

 been very easeful to their feelings when experiments 

 went wrong. In the year Her Majesty succeeded to the 

 throne there were " three or four new productions " of this 

 nature on Vauxhall Bridge Road and the Finchley Road. 

 " In mercy to the inventors," says a correspondent of 

 that date, who himself had laboured in the same field, " I 



will not mention names, having seen their performances, 

 which, like so many others, bring common road steam- 

 locomotion into utter contempt." The two best-known 

 names amongst the designers of steam-carriages were 

 Hancock and Gurnej'. The engraving below, also taken 

 from the pages of the Mechanics^ Magazine, gives an 

 illustration of the former inventor's design. It was built 

 in 1836, and at the time the picture was published had 

 run twenty weeks continuously on the Stratford, Islington, 

 and Paddington roads. During this time it covered 

 about 4,200 miles, and carried 12,761 passengers. The 

 general rate of travelling was 12 to 15 miles an hour, 

 but 21 miles had been reached wiih 20 passengers 

 on board. For five weeks this wonderful apparatus 

 might have been seen at the Bank twice a daj'. The 

 cost for fuel was said to have been 2id. per mile. The 

 cylinders were 12 inches in diameter. The boiler was 

 perhaps the chief feature of interest. It was composed of 

 flat plates bolted together with alternate flue and water 

 spaces. A short time ago, during a discussion on torpedo- 

 boat boilers, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Sir 

 Frederick Bramwell referred to the " Hancock " boiler, and 

 advised torpedo boat-builders to turn their attention to it, 

 as likely to afford better results than the loco-marine type 

 now in use for these vessels. 



Before leaving the subject of locomotion we should 

 like to give one more example of an invention of 

 fifty years ago. The annexed engraving is another re- 

 production from the Mechanics' Magazine of 1837. It 

 represents " Uri Emmon's Patent Improved Single Rail 

 Railroad." The carrying wheels are placed, it will be 

 seen, near the roof, the carriage being slung on each side, 

 much as a donkey's panniers are balanced across the 

 animal's back. To prevent the whole apparatus tilting or 

 jamming against the railway, two horizontal guide wheels 

 are attached to the bottom of the carriage on each side, and 

 these revolve against suitable guides on the way. We give 

 this illustration because a device somewhat similar has 

 been resuscitated within the last few months, and a company 



has been formed to construct railways acting on this general 

 principle, with steam engines, however, to supply motive 

 power. In fact, the arrangement is one of those which 

 has been re-invented again and again any time within the 

 last fifty years. 



Both our space and our readers' patience are limited, 

 otherwise we might be tempted to fill many columns with 

 the wonderful inventions that were the result of that 

 sanguine age. The majority of these have not survived, 

 even if they ever reached to the dignity of practical 

 realization. One enthusiast proposes to obtain motive 

 power by means of a vast circular building, which is to be 

 rotated by animals walking, or, rather, attempting to walk, 

 inside. Another ponderous invention, which was dignified 

 with the full-page illustration of the issue, was a balance 

 canal lock, in which the whole structure pivoted in the 

 centre and swung up to admit the barge as if it were a huge 

 mouse-trap. Yet another inventor proposed to make the 

 rails for railways hollow, so they might be used as speaking- 

 tubes. There were numerous inventions relating to paddle 

 wheels. One is worth notice. It was suggested that the 

 paddle-wheels should be planked all over so as to be 

 buoyant. This, the genius who suggested the idea remarked, 

 would stop the ship from rolling in a heavy sea ; but he 

 does not give any suggestions as to the length of main 

 bearings. A gunpowder engine is also illustrated. It was 

 considered to ofier great promise in the matter of econoni}'. 

 Further on there is a rotary engine, the drawing of which 

 might easily be mistaken for that of some forms quite recently 

 patented. Another invention found in this volume, which 

 is worthy of attention, is the " sea gauge " of Dr. Hales. It 

 consisted of a bent tube, like an inverted syphon, con- 

 taining mercury. One leg was hermetically sealed, and 

 on the surface of the mercury at that end there is a 

 film of treacle ; the other end was left open. Upon the 

 apparatus being lowered into the ocean the increasing 

 pressure would compress the air in the enclosed end, and 

 the treacle, smearing the tube, would enable an estimate to 

 be formed of the depth reached by the apparatus. This 

 device of fifty years ago, the illustration of which we repro- 

 duce below, is interesting, as it contains the germ of the idea 

 which has since been brought to greater perfection by Sir 

 William Thomson. 



Amongst inventions described in this book which have lived 

 and prospered may be found the fire-escape, Bunnett's revol- 

 ving iron shutters, Massey's patent log, 

 and outsidesurface condensers forsteam- 

 boats. The latter is a device which 

 has of late years been successfully ap- 

 plied, more especially in America and 

 the Colonies. Whitworth's screw stock 

 and a revolving gun are illustrated as 

 novelties, whilst the failure at certain 

 gas-works is attributed to the use of 

 fire-clay retorts. Velocipedes are also 

 mentioned, and although the modern 

 bicycle was then unknown, the tri- 

 cycle was represented by a machine 

 similar in principle. Some of our pre- 

 sent-day flyers of the wheel will read 

 with amusement the following para- 

 graph taken from a letter inserted in the Mechanics Maga- 

 zine of August 26th, 1837 : — " I should feel much obliged," 

 wrote " A Constant Reader," " if yourself or one of j'our 

 talented correspondents would explain what is the ra- 

 tionale of the velocipede Can a man employ 



his muscular power to effect a greater velocity than 

 walking or running, by mechanical interventions, without a 

 proportionate exhaustion, or has nature placed a limit that 



