Page:Inland Transit - Cundy - 1834.djvu/82

 two of those machines which seem to be most ripe for practical operation.

The earliest and most enterprising projector in this adaptation of the powers of the steam-engine was Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney. To his perseverance and sagacity the public are indebted for the removal of many erroneous prejudices, which long obstructed the progress of this invention, and discouraged the mechanical skill of the country from taking a direction so beneficial in its effects as this improvement in transport. By journeys, in an experimental carriage, between London and Bath, and frequent trips in various directions near the metropolis. Mr. Gurney gave incontestible experimental proof of the practicability of impelling a carriage on a turnpike road by a steam-engine, with a speed equal to that of the swiftest four-horse coach. He proved, also, that the objection was groundless, that the working wheels would slip round without propelling the carriage; and that a similar objection, that such a carriage could not be driven up considerable hills, was also unfounded. His experimental carriage, though extremely rude and ill-constructed, and subject to many defects, ascended without difficulty, all the hills between London and Bath, as well as the hills on various roads round London, including Stamford Hill, and the hill which ascends from Kentish Town to Highgate, called old Highgate Hill. The last ascent rises at the rate of one foot in twelve from the foot to the corner of the terrace at Holly Lodge. From this point to the top, it is more steep, rising one foot in nine. So steep a hill as this never occurs on any of the lately constructed mail-coach roads in England.