Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/101



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. of the road, when the treading action, which causes an equal wear of horses' shoes, does nothing but mischief. The harder and more solid the road becomes, the less this may be apparent, because the wear of the road becomes so imperceptible; nevertheless, I think the proportion of legs wear by wheels than by horses' shoes, will still hold true.

What is the average width of the tire of the wheels of Steam Carriages you have tried?—Mr. Hancock's wheels are two inches and three inches broad; in Mr. Gurney's Carriage, when he carried the bound along with the engines, the wheels were two inches and a half broad; but I understand be has widened them since he has altered his system of drawing a separate Carriage, which is to be expected as a necessary consequence of the alteration.

Do you think the machine would act with less advantage if the wheels were wider?—That depends entirely upon the weight resting upon the wheels, and the sort of roads they are to run upon. I think it would be better for those individual Carriages to use broader wheels than they had.

If the tire of Mr. Hancock's were six inches broad, would it be an advantage or a disadvantage?—I think six inches would be too wide for that description of Carriage; about four inches I should think a suitable width for his wheels. Mr. Hancock's Carriage is so arranged, that a greater proportion of the whole weight of the Carriage is thrown upon the Winder wheels, to one or both of which the power of the engines is applied, than upon the fore wheels: that I think is very judicious, because it ensures such an effectual adhesion of the hind wheels to the road that no slipping can take place. The breadth of the wheels must be 80 proportioned to the pressure that they exert on the road, that they will not indent or press in, to leave deep marks behind them. The actual breadth that will be suitable to any given weight will depend upon the hardness of the materials of which the road is made, and roads differ very much in that respect: I think that in all cases the breadth of wheels which will enable the Carriage to make the best progress,