Trials of Traction-Engines at IVolvcrhamjdon. 529 
of the circle was thrown out of p^ear, and when this Avas ofTected 
the carriage woukl come round In its own length. The steering 
gear consisted of a chain-wheel fixed to the fore axle, with the chain 
passing over a small pulley on a vertical steering-spindle. There 
was a break for the steersman (to be pressed by his foot), which 
held the fore-wheels in any position in which he had put them, 
and which (except when he was in the very act of turning) saved 
his arm from the effects of the jar produced by the action of the 
road on the wheels. The waste steam was blown into a box 
before it was suffered to issue into the chimney. The chimney, 
however, was barely in sight ; the fuel was coke : the steam 
escaped along with the products of combustion, and, except in 
case of very damp weather, was invisible. Thus there was no 
smoke and no steam, nor was there any noise of the waste 
steam ; neither was any machinery to be seen. It is quite certain 
that in respect of quietude of travelling, and in the way of not 
being an annoyance to others upon the road, Hancock's 
coaches of thirty-five years ago far exceeded anything of the 
present day. These coaches of Hancock's commonly travelled 
10 miles an hour, and have travelled 14. It may be asked why 
it was that, if they were so meritorious in an engineering point 
of view, they did not continue to run? This is a difficult ques- 
tion to answer. ]\Ir. Hancock always endeavoured to show that 
they paid, but it is believed that he was a better engineer 
and inventor than he was a commercial man. Be this as it 
may, however, it is unhappily the case that after many years 
of effort he gave up the endeavour, and with him common-road 
locomotion practically ceased ; railways began to be established 
throughout the country ; the old coach speed of 12 miles an hour, 
or the fourteen miles per hour of common-road steamers, was not 
sufficient to satisfy the public, and the demand for something better 
than the stage-coach to travel on common roads died out, while the 
opposition of horsemen and of riders in horse-carriages continued. 
These persons naturally enough complained of the danger they 
were exposed to when some of their unreasoning animals took 
fright at machines, to the presence of which they had not been 
trained. 
After Hancock ceased his efforts, common-road locomotion, 
as has already been said, was practically in abeyance for many 
years, and when it was revived it was revived in the traction- 
engine form to compete with the horse in drawing heavy loads, 
and not in that of the high-speed, light-loaded steam-carriage. 
Another instance in which slow-going steam locomotion has 
been revived within the last few years, is in connection with 
steam-ploughing. The carrying out of this great improvement in 
