Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/127



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. wheels of other Carriages, which pass over such depressions, drop heavily with force into them, so as to make the depressions continually deeper and larger, and to loosen the surrounding stones. In this manner the horses after injuring the road themselves, prepare the way for further injury to the road by the wheels of Carriages. For to have the full benefit of the rolling action of the wheels, in consolidating the road materials, the latter must be laid smooth and level before the wheels come upon them; but if the materials are previously thrown up into little hills and holes, the wheels will do mischief instead of good.

Suppose the Engine and machinery in a Steam Carriage to weigh two tons, and to be able to advance an additional load, equal to their own weight along a good road, at an average speed of ten miles an hour, do you think that any additional toll should be imposed upon Steam Carriages beyond that paid by four-horse Stage Coaches, or Vans; assuming the four horses to weigh two tons, and to draw a load of two tons, at the rate of ten miles an hour?—In such a case I can see no reason whatever for any increase of toll; but the diminished wear of the roads, which I anticipate from the use of Steam in lieu of horses, will be a reason for a reduction of tolls, whenever such a diminution of wear is realized.

Would horses drawing 80 cwt, upon a road, with a slow walking pace, in your opinion do more injury to the road than an engine doing the same work?—I have had no experience of drawing heavy weights by Steam to enable me to form an opinion respecting the effect that the broad wheels, which must then be used, would have on the road, and what advancing power they would have before they began to slip on the road, without advancing the Carriage forwards; nor what would be the weight of Engines which could advance 80 cwt, at a slow speed. I feel some doubt of the practicability of making Steam Engines advance so many times their own weight, as I expect it would be, with effect, and I feel confident that in the sent state of the art, there would be no profit in doing it; but if it were accomplished I believe that the