Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/153



Davies Gilbert Esq. M.P. 17 August, 1831. a time, to places the most remote from the Metropolis, induces a hope and expectation that as roads improve, the means of preserving them will improve also, possibly in an equal degree; so that permanence and consequent cheapness, in addition to facility of conveyance, will be distinguished features of the McAdam system.

I have made some further remarks, which I would beg to deliver in also, tending to point out particularly the advantage of steam conveyance when the rate of travelling is great: I would beg to add, that it appears to me extremely difficult to lay down any general rule which would be applicable to all situations and all roads, inasmuch as they vary with the nature of the materials: that up to a certain weight, proportionate to the corresponding width of the wheel, it is probable that the injury to any road may be very little, but that beyond a certain weight, compared again with a corresponding breadth of the wheels, the materials would be entirely crushed and the road totally destroyed; therefore it follows, that even on all roads there must be a limit to the weight of Carriages, as it is quite impossible that a wheel of enormous breadth could bear uniformly on all its surface. For instance, where trains of artillery are drawn over roads, the excess of their weight beyond what materials are capable of sustaining, has been found sufficient for grinding them to powder. "The slow conveyance of heavy weights may perhaps be effected by steam on well-made and nearly level roads, so as to supersede the use of horses; but steam power is eminently useful for producing great velocities. It was last year determined by the Society of Civil Engineers, after much inquiry and discussion, that the expence of conveying Carriages drawn by horses was at its minimum when the rate of travelling equalled about three miles an hour, and that expence increased up to the practical limit of speed, nearly as the velocity; including the greater price of horses adapted to swift driving, their increased feed and attendance, the reduced length of their stages, and, with every precaution, the short period of their services; on the contrary, friction