Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/124



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. a Carriage which will injure the road. I think that principle must apply to Steam Waggons as well as to Steam Coaches.

Then the heavier the loads to be drawn, the more important it is to apply Steam instead of horses, if the roads will be benefited by that substitution?—I think so, as far as the roads are concerned, but I doubt if Steam Waggons will offer any comparison of the profit to be derived from Steam Coaches. To get along the road. Steam Waggons will require very broad wheels, and there is no danger of doing injury to the road by them, for they will not get along if the wheels are too narrow, but narrow-wheeled waggons drawn by horses may do an injury to any extent, for extra horses may be put on, and they will injure the road with their feet at the same time that they draw a Carriage after them, which also injures the road. It will be a loss to the carrier to do so, but there is nothing in the nature of the operation to prevent it being done, as there would be in the case of Steam Waggons.

Of course, a Steam Carriage going slower than ten miles an hour will be more expensive to travel, on account of the greater expenditure of fuel?—No; the consumption of fuel, according to time, would be as much less as the motion would be slower; so that the consumption of fuel, according, to distance, would be the same, whether for a quick speed or for a slow speed; but when profit is considered, every thing is in favour of quick speed; because all goods carried slow must be carried cheap; and quick conveyance will bear the highest price of carriage, on account of the expence of going quick by horses. For instance, a ton of goods may be carried a mile by Steam power with a certain consumption of fuel, but it should take no more fuel to carry it a mile, at the rate of two and a half miles an hour than at ten miles an hour; there is some qualification to be made in that statement according to the state of the roads; it will be true if they are hard and good, but if they are heavy, the expence of fuel will be a little more for the quick speed than for the slower speed; and