General Notices. 477 



reward is offered, the thing will be done. Or whoever thinks fit to employ 

 such an engineer as Brunell, will have the locomotive power invented and 

 executed in a month, as a matter of course. If this mode is not adopted, 

 stationary engines, at the ends of the ridges, must be resorted to; or 

 fixed points, found or placed there, to which an engine and plough, attached 

 by a chain, might plough itself forward. We recommend the subject to the 

 -Mechanics' Magazine. It must never be forgotten that, independently of 

 the saving of horses and their food, the farmer would never be* obliged to 

 work his soil but when it was in a proper condition for that purpose. This, 

 in our opinion, is one of the principal arguments in favour of the application 

 of steam to agriculture. — Cond. 



Dick's Railways. — An elevated railway, and a suspension railway, on an 

 entirely new construction, have lately been invented by Mr. Maxwell Dick. 

 For details, we must necessarily refer to other publications, to the Scotsman, 

 Mechanics' Magazine, No. 358. and 360., and to a pamphlet, Description of 

 the Suspension Railway, 4-<?.,with engravings; sold at Mr. Dick's office at 

 Charing Cross, London, where large models of the different kinds of rails 

 are exhibited and explained by Mr. Dick. The contemplated results, if 

 obtained (and there seems no reason why they should not), will give a con- 

 veyance of goods and passengers at any rate which may be fixed on, between 

 20 and 60 miles an hour ; and of the mail or light packages, at between 60 

 and 100 miles an hour. The means by which this celerity is obtained are, 

 the diminution of friction to the greatest practicable extent, and the nearest 

 practicable approximation to a level and straight line. Another advantage is, 

 that the ground which it passes over may be used, with the exception of the 

 spaces occupied by the props or pillars, for agricultural purposes. The total 

 expense of purchasing the ground, and erecting this rail complete, is estimated 

 at about 1400/. a mile. A common ground railroad, complete, averages about 

 4500/. per mile. We hope Mr. Dick will endeavour to erect a specimen some- 

 where in the neighbourhood of London ; say a circle, or a straight line of a 

 mile or two miles (government permitting), in Hyde Park. This will do more 

 for establishing the transcendent merit of this invention than any thing which 

 we could write respecting it. — Cond, 



A Suspension Railway, of a different description, has recently been erected 

 in the Panharmonicon Gardens, Liverpool Street, Gray's Inn Road. It 

 consists of a single rail, about 12 ft. from the ground, from which a carriage 

 is suspended, somewhat in Palmer's manner ; and the rail being on a level, 

 a considerable weight (say that of the carriage and 24 persons) is moved 

 along it by a locomotive power worked by two men, at the rate of 12 or 15 

 miles an hour. These gardens occupy about 2 acres, and are now forming at 

 a very great expense ; but we regret to say that, both in point of planting and 

 architecture, they are much behind contemporary taste. The pedestals to the 

 statues of the cabinets, and the landscapes on the walls, are execrable ; but 

 the idea of the railway, the subterraneous passage, grotto, suspension-bridge, 

 waterfall of 50 ft., and green-house that, when finished, will be nearly half a 

 mile in length, are suitable to the locality and probable visitors, and only 

 require to be well executed. What is wanted is, the occasional assistance of 

 an architect of taste ; of Mr. Fowler, for example ; or, in what concerns vases 

 and sculpture, of Mr. Allason. — Cond. 



Locomotive Steam Engines. — We think so highly of the capabilities of 

 these new inventions, that, in our opinion, an Edinburgh man of thirty, with 

 fair prospects of life, may expect, before he dies, to enjoy the felicity of 

 passing from his own home to the metropolis during the daylight of one long 

 summer's day! ( Scotsman, Oct. 10. 1829.) By Dick's railway, he might 

 go, stop two hours, and return in the same time. — Cond. 



Some very interesting Experiments with Canal Boats have lately been made, 

 by the suggestion of Mr. William Houston of Johnstone, on the Ardrossan and 

 Paisley canal. The result is, that, by using boats of a particular description, 



