132 R O 
hese and other incidental charges, occasion a much larger 
expenditure in a canal than a rail-toad, mile for mile, sup¬ 
posing them to run to and from the same places; to say 
nothing of the excess of length which, in the canal, will be 
generally about one-third greater than the rail-road. As to 
the original cost, we are credibly informed, that of the esti¬ 
mates of seventy-five canals, including those of the greatest 
and those of the least expense, the general average is, £7,946 
per mile 5 but as the estimated expense is generally much ex¬ 
ceeded, we may fairly set down the real cost as £9,000 per 
mile. We have also a list of rail-roads (some tram-rails, 
others edge-rails, some of cast and others of wrought iron,) 
containing upwards of 500 miles, and the general average 
(allowing them a double set of tracks) is as near as possible 
£4000; but, from the imperfections of these old roads, we 
may extend the average to £5000 per mile. The estimate 
for the Liverpool and Manchester we have understood to be 
taken at £ 12,000 per mile, but that road is meant to be exe¬ 
cuted on a magnificent scale; to be sixty-six feet wide; the 
rails to be laid down in the best possible manner; and the 
purchase of land at the two extremities must be paid for at 
an enormous price ; this estimate also includes the costs of 
engines, waggons, and warehouses. The Union canal, how¬ 
ever, is stated to have cost just as much; the Forth and 
Clyde twice as much; the Regent’s canal we know not how 
many times as much, and the Caledonian more than four 
times as much. We observe also that Mr. Jessop, after a 
minute survey of the proposed Peak Forest railway, pa¬ 
tronized by the Duke of Devonshire, states its estimated cost 
at £149,206; and that a canal, to form the same connection 
as is proposed by the rail-way, was estimated in October, 
1810, by the late Mr. Rennie, at £650,000, being more 
than four times the cost of the former. 
The disadvantages of a canal are numerous. The frost at 
one season of the year entirely puts a stop to all conveyance 
of goods; and the drought at another renders it necessary to 
proceed with half cargoes. A rail-road is exempt from both 
these serious drawbacks; and even if snow blocked, nothing 
„can be so easy as to send forward a scraper at the front of 
the steam-carriage to clear it as it proceeds. 
The speed, by which goods can be conveyed on a rail¬ 
road, can be so regulated as to be certain and constant, while 
boats are frequently delayed for hours at the lockages of a 
canal. The speed besides is limited on canals, as we shall 
presently shew, but unlimited, as far as the power of steam 
can be made to exceed the power of friction, on rail-roads. 
To what extent, with safety and convenience, this advantage 
is capable of being carried, nothing but experience can de¬ 
termine. Rail-roads may be made to branch out in every 
direction, to accommodate the traffic of the country, what¬ 
ever be the nature of the surface: the possibility of carrying 
branches from a canal in any direction , must depend en¬ 
tirely on the surface, and a supply of water. 
In every case with regard to speed and the weight to be 
moved, the rail-road has the advantage, except when that speed 
is less 2.82 miles an hour, when it is in favour of the canal, 
but even this small advantage is lost by the circuitous wind¬ 
ings of the one, and the direct line of the other. As this 
rate of going is about the greatest speed of an ordinary 
horse, whether drawing on a canal or a rail-way, and as the 
resistance of the water at' that speed is less than the friction 
to be overcome on a rail-way, we may understand why canals 
have hitherto been preferred to rail-roads, so long as horse 
power only has been used. But on these two points of ve¬ 
locity, and the weight to be moved, it may be necessary to 
enter into a few details, in order to show the vast superiority 
which rad-roads have over canals. 
With regard to the weight which a horse will draw on a 
rail-road, there are scarcely two accounts that agree, though 
the principal is reduced to a mathematical calculation ; the 
difference arising from the care, or otherwise, with which 
the roads are constructed, the form of the rail, the size and 
structure of the engine and waggon-wheels, and the power 
of the animal. It has been stated that a horse on a rail-road, 
with a descent of sixty feet in a mile, will draw twenty tons 
A D. 
at the rate of three miles an hour; and that the same horse 
will draw the same weight with equal speed on a canal. 
Mr. Telford has said that a horse will draw from twelve to 
fifteen tons on a railway with a slope of fifty-five feet in a 
mile, and return with four tons. On Sir John Hope’s rail¬ 
way, which is about two miles, there is a descent of 1 in 
80 for about 500 yards, and an ascent of 1 in 400 for 500 
yards, the rest level, and a horse will drag ] 2 tons from end 
to end at the rate of two and half miles in an hour. Mr. 
Gumming says, that on some of the" tram-roads in South 
Wales, where the inclined plane is about half an inch in the 
yard, one horse usually takes down from thirty to forty tons 
over and above the weight of the waggons. Mr. Wilkes, 
of Measham, has stated, that one horse, value 20/. on a 
railway declining 1 in 115, drew thirty-five tons, which, 
on a level railway would have been reduced to about six and 
a quarter tons. But the most extraordinary feat is that stated 
by Mr. Banks, and to which many persons were witnesses, 
of a horse which drew sixteen waggons, weighing fifty-five 
tons, for more that six miles along a level or very slightly 
inclined part of the Surrey railway. On the whole it 
appears that, on a well-constructed level rail-road, an ordi¬ 
nary horse will draw with considerable ease a load of seven 
or eight tons at the rate of two and a half miles an hour, or 
ten or twelve tons, at that of two miles an hour. This may 
be considered as the greatest draft on a railway, while the 
same horse will draw on a canal, at the same speed, about 
three times the weight. But this advantage is counterbalanced 
by the greater original cost of the canal than that of the 
rail-road, and by its greater length. 
The application of steam or other mechanical powers to 
draught-carriages, shews, in a much stronger light, the 
superior advantages of the rail-road. For while, on canals, 
the resistance opposed by friction increases in excessive pro¬ 
portion to the velocity of motion, in a rail-road this effect is 
scarcely perceptible, as may be seen by the following table, 
drawn up by Mr. Silvester. 
Table of the relative advantages of common Turnpike 
Roads, Rail-roads, and Canals. 
WEIGHTS TO BE MOVED. 
Velocity. 
On a Turnpike 
Road. 
On a Rail-road. 
On a Canal. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
2 
3024 
22,400 
44,800 
3 
■ . 
same. 
19,911 
4 
— 
—— 
11,200 
5 
6 
__„ 
r ■ , 
4,978 
7 
2 nx 7 
8 
.. 
__ 
2,800 
9 
--- 
2,212 
10 
— 
— 
1,792 
In the article Mechanics, p. 790, may be seen an account 
of the application of steam to rail-road carriages, and a 
plate illustrative of the same. 
As to the invention of rail-roads, this seems, though recently 
much improved, an ancient practice, having been used in 
the Newcastle coal-mines so early as the year 1680. Slips 
of ground of the requisite breadth for the railway were 
marked out between the coal-pits and the river, and were 
either leased by the coal owners, or purchased of the dif¬ 
ferent proprietors whose ground the proposed line of foad 
intersected in its course. To obtain the most easy and regu¬ 
lar descent, this line was varied in its direction to meet the 
inequalities of the ground; or, where these inequalities were 
inconsiderable, it was carried straight forward, and the regu¬ 
lar slope made up by embankments and cutting. The 
ground being then smoothed and levelled as for an ordinary 
road, large logs of wood, or sleepers, cut in lengths equal t» 
the breadth of the road, were laid-across it, and firmly 
imbedded 
