SUCCESS OF THE STEAM CARRIAGE. 
683 
(carriage, or whose carriages when built have 
oever stirred out of the factory yard. 
Sir, — Tuesday evening, the 20th inst., 
completed twenty weeks’ continued running 
on the Stratford, Islington, and Paddington 
roads, during this year, and I beg to hand 
you as faithful an account as I can of the 
performances of my carriages. 
Since the last notice in your Magazine, a 
new carriage, the “Automaton,” has been 
brought upon the road, the only difference 
between which and those preceding it is, that 
the engines are of greater power (having 
cylinders of 12 inches diameter, whilst those 
of the others are of 9 inches) , and the carriage 
altogether of larger dimensions than the 
others, it having seats for 22, whilst they 
are only calculated for 14 passengers. It is 
an open carriage like the “ Infant and 
although only calculated for the accommo- 
dation of 22 passengers, it has carried 30 at 
one time, and would then have surplus power 
to draw an omnibus or other carriage con- 
taining 18 more passengers, without any 
material diminution of speed ; its general 
rate of travelling is from 12 to 15 miles 
per hour. On one occasion it performed 
(when put upon the top of its speed, loaded 
with 20 full-grown persons) a mile on the 
Bowroad, at the rate of 21 miles per hour. 
The first time the “ Automaton” was 
brought upon the road (the latter end of 
July) it conveyed a party to Romford, and 
back, at the rate of 10 to 12 miles per hour, 
without the least interruption or deviation in 
its working, although it was the first, or as 
I may calHt, the day of proving ; nor has it 
required any repairs whatever to this time. 
After this digression in describing the 
“ Automaton,” I will return to the actual 
work done on the public roads and streets of 
the metropolis during the last twenty weeks, 
or five months, in as concise a manner as 
1 can : — 
The miles run, about . ^ 4,200 
Passengers carried 12,761 
Trips— City to Islington, and back . 625 
Do. .. Paddington do. .. 143 
Do. .. Stratiord do. .. 44 
Supposing Ihe carriage had always 
been fulf, the passengers carried 
would have been 20,420 
Average time a carriage has run 
each day - 6 hours, I 75 minutes. 
An exact account of the number of times 
that the carriages have gone through the 
City in their journeys has not been kept, but 
I should suppose that it mast be more than 
200. For the last five weeks a carriage has 
been at the Bank twice a day, viz. between 
the hours of 2 and 3 and 5 and 6 in the 
afternoon. 
It was on one of the morning trips from 
Stratford to the Bank, through the City, 
that the steamer became entangled with a 
waggon at Aldgate ; and which, 1 am happy 
to say. is the only accident worth recording. 
The shafts of the waggon were swung by the 
the contact against the projecting front of 
a shop ; the damage done was trifling, and 
occasioned by the wheels of the steam carriage 
having got into the iron gutter, and out of 
which it is not an easy thing to gain the fair 
surface of the street with any ordinary car- 
riage in so confined a situation as that part 
of Aldgate in which the accident happened ; 
and it should be observed, that this occurred 
in making way for another carriage passing 
at the time. 
I will now give you an account of all other 
accidents (which have all happened to the 
damage of the steamers themselves) viz. the 
chain pulley of the “ Enterprise” once broke 
on the axletree ; the same occurred once to 
the “ Infant,” which were permanently and 
immediately replaced by castings from the 
same pattern, with a greater thickness of 
metal, and which have since stood well. 
The severe test afforded by the state of the 
City Road and onward to Paddington, caused 
these failures ; for the pulleys had stood well 
on other roads, for many miles. 
Another accident was ahind-wdieel of the 
“ Erin” coming off in the New Street, near 
the Bank, on which occasion the carriage 
sunk only about eight or nine inches, in con- 
sequence of the frame-work of the machinery 
taking the ground ; and so little was the 
coach thrown out of the level, that the inside 
passengers were surprised when informed 
that the wheel was off. The concluding 
accident was by the steerage chain of the 
“ Infant” being too slight, and breaking at 
Islington, when the carriage turning short 
round, with one of the fore wheels against the 
curb, the wheel was broken. This wheel was 
an old one, of much slighter constructioa 
than 1 now make them. 
In the early part of the five months’ run- 
ning, the close-bodied carriages. “ Erin” 
and “ Enterprise” were about equally em- 
ployed — in the latter part, and to the present 
time, in consequence of the fine weather, the 
open carriages *• Infant” and “ Automaton” 
have been running. 
I have occasionally examined the boilers 
and engines of all the carriages, and found 
that the engines have in most parts actually 
improved, whilst the boilers and fire-places 
have suffered a deterioration, less than could 
have been expected, from the use they have 
undergone. 
It may be remarked, that both boilers and 
machinery are suspended on well acting 
springs, and which account for the state of 
all the parts being so well preserved. Some 
of the boilers have been in use for two or 
three years. 
There have been consumed in the before- 
mentioned traffic, 55 chaldrons of coke, 
which is equal to 79 miles per chaldron, or 
about 24§d. per mile for fuel ; but this on 
long.journeys would be much reduced by the 
application of the moveable fire-place, patent- 
ed by me about three years ago, as our 
greatest expenditure of coke in these short 
journeys is in lowering and again raising 
the fire. 
