Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/110



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. subject of going up steep hills, and what ascent do you think can be surmounted?—In forming my opinion of the probability that Steam Carriages will be brought to bear, I could not overlook the circumstance that they would have to go up and down hills; but most of our great lines of roads are now so improved, that what were formerly called steep hills are not very numerous or frequent; but wherever they do occur, I propose to give the Steam Coach the assistance of a pair of post-horses in aid of its own power. In going down hill, Steam Coaches are very safe, because the whole power can be effectually exerted to retard or resist the turning of the wheels.

Mr. Gurney's Steam Coach has gone up Highgate Hill without horses?—Yes, but I understood that it was broken to pieces in coming down again. My objection to attempting to make a Steam Coach go up a steep hill, in the present state of our knowledge, is, that it requires to have a great strength, and consequent weight of machinery to have a sufficient power to do so with safety, and which weight is a useless incumbrance and impediment to progression at all other times. The question is, whether all the machinery of a Steam Carriage should be made twice as strong and heavy as is necessary for impelling it with safety on a tolerable level road, merely that it may have power within itself for going up a few occasional bills, or whether it is better to make the machinery lighter, and take the occasional assistance of a pair of post horses. There can be no objection to the latter expedient, except the expence of such horses; and as the Steam Coach can carry goods to profit in place of all the weight of machinery which is saved by making it lighter, 1 think that the aid of post-horses would be an economy. In forming such an opinion, I follow a maxim which I have always found to hold true; viz. that Steam power is certain to be more profitable than horses, if the work is to be kept constantly going on, because then the great advantage of Steam power, that it does not tire, becomes fully available, and to perform the same service by horses a very great number must be kept for change;