PROGRESS DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
109 
Next, in 1836, our line, then known as the London & Birmingham, 
was opened as far as Boxmoor; and in 1838 to Birmingham, when 
the first through train made the journey at over 20 miles an hour. 
Since then railways have gone on improving both over, on, and 
under-ground, until it seems that the limit of safety on the ordinary 
line is somewhere about 100 miles per hour. In order to make 
farther progress in the direction of speed, it is now proposed to 
adopt an overhead mono-rail system for the new suggested high¬ 
speed railway between Manchester and Liverpool. The mono-rail 
idea is of course no new one, having been employed years ago with 
horse-traction, an early instance of which is recorded at Cheshunt, 
where in 1825 an overhead mono-rail with horse-traction was used 
for taking bricks to the river. A somewhat similar idea has been 
followed out in the many aerial wire railways which are used chiefly 
for the carriage of minerals and timber in mountainous districts. 
Another important development of land-travel has been the 
bicycle, which was first practically used about 35 years since, 
although its remote ancestor, the “hobbyhorse,” appeared as long 
ago as 1815. The bicycle, on account of its comparative speed and 
great cheapness, now occupies a position of its own in locomotion 
from which there seems little likelihood of its immediate deposition. 
The most recent method of locomotion, the auto-mobile or motor¬ 
car, long since foreshadowed by the abortive road locomotive first 
made in France by Cugnot so long ago as 1769, and in more 
recent days by the cumbrous traction engine, must still be con¬ 
sidered in its infancy, as its practical development only commenced 
in 1895 ; but no doubt it has a great future before it as soon as it 
has undergone a chastening improvement in its details, accompanied 
by an enormous reduction in its prime cost. 
At the commencement of the century inland navigation had 
received a great impulse in this country at the hands of “Francis, 
3rd Duke of Bridgewater and Father of Inland Navigation,” who 
died in 1803, and whose monument in Ashridge Park forms so con¬ 
spicuous a local landmark. In 1800 the Grand Junction Canal was 
opened, and this valley had the benefit of cheap carriage; probably 
few now realize how extremely useful this and other canals have 
been, and indeed still are, nor how great a future they are destined 
to have when some- satisfactory method has been devised for 
applying electric traction to the barges. 
Again, it is the steam-engine which has caused such enormous 
development of navigation during the last century. The first 
experimental application of steam-power for this purpose was made 
by W. Symington in a boat built for Mr. P. Miller, which ran at 
