MECHANICS. 
be applied to one or both wheels, as judged neceffhry, and 
•will be a great relief to the fhaft-horfe. This cart is al(o 
well calculated for laying dung upon land, as it may be 
retained in any angle required, fo as to permit the manure 
to be laid in feparate heaps on the field, without tearing 
up the grafs fod of meadows, as is done when the com¬ 
mon tail prop is ufed. 
The drag, fig. 19. has three holes at top, any one of 
which goes on a bolt in the (baft at B, and is fecured by 
a pin ; at the other end is a block, fuited to the curve of 
the wheel, and faced with iron, the point of which turns 
up like the iron of a fkait ; this is fattened to the wheel 
by a chain, and keeps its place by the hook lifing on one 
fide and the chain-loop on the other, as thown in lection, 
fig. 20. The advantage of this drag is, that the whole 
weight of the cart is taken from the horfe, and reits on it 5 
for th 5 bafe which it adds to the wheel is about one-third 
its diameter. This is aifo the beft prop, as it locks the 
cart; and, let the horfe move ever fo much, he cannot 
bring the weight on himfelf; and, if left, he cannot run 
away. The cart is alfo poifed exaflly on the (halt over 
the axis, and the weight can be thrown forwards or back¬ 
wards, or placed even on the axis at pleafure, (whether go¬ 
ing up or down hill, by the adjulfing bar M, in front of 
the cart, fig. 19. which hides through the middle of a crofs 
bar N ; and, by the two pins O O, the cart is kept at the 
height required for poil'ng. Fig. 21. (hows how the axis 
of the adjulting-har is fixed to the (hafts. Fig. 22 is the 
hook which attaches the cart to the fhafts ; this hook fo 
fits the hole, that it can never get off till the cart is down 
low enough for fnooting the load ; and, (liould it then be 
liable to jolt off, a chain may be added from the middle 
front of the cart to the middle of the axis, which will be 
tight in that polition, fo that it can never get off without 
loofening the chain. The drag mud: be unpinned from 
the (haft, as well as unchained from the wheel, to take it 
away ; and may then be hung from the (haft to the axle- 
ti'ee, or along the (haft, to which it will chain, as to the 
wheel. Two drags may be ufed at once, as here (hown, 
if preferred. 
On the 16th of December, 1815, there was exhibited 
at Hetling-houfe, before a great number of the agricultu¬ 
ral members, a waggon with double fhafts lengthways, 
and with an adjulfing fcrew, by which means, in going 
up hill, a portion of the load is diltributed on the horfes’ 
backs, equally the leader as the fhafts; and in going- 
down hill the weight is thrown upon-the hind wheels ; by 
thus preventing the neccjjity of any drag , the horfes defcend 
with eafe. The experiment was made by two horfes 
drawing a load of three tons, with the greateft eafe, up 
and down Gay-lfreet. It was accompanied by a great 
number of gentlemen, who all telfified their high appro¬ 
bation of this invention of a Mr. Pope, of Briftol. 
The following remarks, to recommend placing carts, as 
•well as coaches, upon fprings, are part of an Elf'ay read 
before the Literary and Philofophical Society of Manchef- 
ter in 1810, by Dr. Jarrold : “ About fixty years fince, a 
mechanic at We/t Bromwich invented and applied fprings 
to carriages before that period the gentleman’s coach 
was in conflrutfion a cart. When it was dife.ove.red that 
the body of the coach being placed upon fprings greatly 
contributed to the eafe of the traveller, the country adopt¬ 
ed the plan, and carriages on fprings became general. 
All travellers are not mathematicians, but many are ; and 
thefe might have calculated what portion of the power, 
exerted by the horfe, was fpent in fhaking the paffengers 
in a cart. The propofition may appear ludicrous, yet it 
is moll important ; but a traveller, without the aid of 
mathematics, might have concluded, that if a horfe could 
draw him in a chaife eight miles an hour, with more eafe 
to itfelf than it could a cart five miles, it might draw 
merchandife with the fame facility ; but the idea does 
not appear to have been entertained; it is that, therefore, 
which I now recommend to notice. It is unnecelfary to 
683 
appeal to arguments, becanfe faffs are before us. Some 
(tage-coaches, drawn by four horfes, have weighed near 
four tons ; the weight, on ordinary occafions, is three 
tons; with this the horfes travel fix or eight miles an- 
hour. The utmoft weight of a broad-wheeled wag¬ 
gon, with eight large unwieldly horfes, is four tons; if 
the horfes could take more, the turnpike-laws on moft 
roads forbid it; but experience has proved, that half a 
ton is all a heavy horfe can draw an ordinary flage on an 
ordinary road. The very ponderous calt-iron boilers, 
which are often feen upon our roads, are loaded upon 
balks of timber, the elasticity of the timber rendering the 
labour of the horfes lefs, by acting as a fpring. With 
this faff every fkilful carter is acquainted ; but it will 
not be denied, that a carriage with fprings is drawn with 
lefs exertion of ftrength than one without, I with, there¬ 
fore, to recommend the ufe of fprings for general purpofes, 
not only in removing the more valuable, but every de- 
fcription of moveable property, coals, fand, and in fhort 
every thing, and for the following reafons : Firff, the ex- 
penfe is lets : a heavy waggon-horfe colls more money, 
and eats more corn, than a half-bred horfe ; the average 
allowance to a waggon-horfe is four pecks of oats daily ; 
to a ftage-coach horfe it is but two, and the work done by 
the coach-horfe is the greatelf. The man alfo is occupied 
lefs time ; for initance, fuppofe I wifh a ton of coals to be 
taken ten miles, a man would deem it a full day’s work 
with a cart; but the fame man would drive a carriage 
upon fprings, that took the fame weight, in a few hours ; 
fo that a very important reduction may be made in the 
price of carriage by this means. A fecond reafon, and 
in my eftimation by far the molt important, is the reduc¬ 
tion which the general application of the plan will occa- 
fion in the coniumption of corn, by the fmaller horfes 
eating lefs than the larger. A third reafon is the improve¬ 
ment which it will occafion in the perfonal comforts and 
moral habits of the carters, as well as in the fafety of 
travellers; the extreme irkfomenefs of attending a cart at 
the flow rate at which it moves, the length of time the 
attendants are expofed in the molt inclement weather, 
confign the office of carter to the very lowelt clafs of the 
community, and confirm their condition. Every clafs 
muft have employment; but it is not defirable that the 
lowelt clafs (liould hold a confpicuous place, and one in 
which, from their drunkennefs and incivility, travelling 
is abridged of its fafety and pleafure. Place a man upon 
a dickey, let the fpeed at which he drives be four or five 
miles an hour, and a ve.y conliderable improvement will 
take place in the comfort, and confequently in the cha- 
rafler, of carters; the roads will no longer abound with 
carts without drivers, as is the cafe now, but every man 
tnuft be at his poll. Another important advantage arif- 
ing to the community from placing carts upon Iprings, 
will be the improvement which mult follow in the (fate 
of the roads. The government of the country has be¬ 
llowed very conliderable attention on the high roafis of 
the nation, that the public might be accommodated ; a6ls 
and regulations have fucceeded each other as circum- 
fiances called for them ; but this legiflative attention has 
wholly been dire< 5 led to the roads and the wheels of the 
carriages. The broader the wheels, the lefs injury is fup- 
pofed to be done the road ; and, in proportion as the 
wheels have been made broader, heavier horfes have been 
ufed to draw them, fo that the injury done the road 
has not been much leflened ; but, when fprings (hail be 
generally applied to carriages, the increafed velocity with 
which they will move, and the affiltance the fprings will 
afford in pafling over the irregularities in the furtace off 
the road, will be fo great a relief to the roads, that a lel- 
fening of the tolls may be anticipated.” 
An experiment of great fimplicity, and an obvious im¬ 
provement in the mode of drawing heavy loads along the 
ltreets and public roads, was lately tried by MeflVs. Pear- 
Ion and Well, of Ueaufort-Buildings coal-wharf, in the 
Strand, 
