Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/155



Mr. Nathaniel Ogle. 17 August, 1831. Hare you invented any Carriage of this description actually now in practice?—Yes, partly so.

Have you run your Carriage for any length of time on public roads?—About: 800 miles, or rather more, over roads of various descriptions, and up lofty hills.

Will you describe generally the nature of your Carriage, and of any improvements you have made, since you first turned your attention to the subject?—The object in all locomotive vehicles is to obtain a mode of generating steam that shall give the command of a sufficient power; under all, varying circumstances to be met with on the common roads. We have obtained that desideratum; by combining the greatest heating surface: in the least possible space, with the strongest mechanical force, so that we work our present boiler at 250 lbs, pressure of steam on the inch, with the most perfect safety. Our experimental vehicle, weighing about three tons, or rather more, we have propelled from London to Southampton, and on the roads in the vicinity of Milbrook, at various speeds. The greatest velocity we obtained, over rather a wet road, with patches of gravel upon it, was between 32 and 35 miles an hour, and might have been continued under similar circumstances; and we could, on a good road, have increased that velocity to 40 miles. We have ascended a hill, with a soft wet bottom; rising one foot in six, at rather a slow rate. We have ascended one of the loftiest hills in the district near Southampton, at 16½ miles an hour. We have gone from the turnpike-gate at Southampton to the four mile stone on the London road, a continued elevation; with one very slight descent; at a rate of 24½ miles an hour, loaded with people. The locomotive vehicles used on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad would not go at three miles an hour on a common level roads, and would pot ascend any hill; and on account of the diameter of their boilers, cannot, scientifically speaking, be considered safe. The vehicle is under perfect control in every respect. No accident from explosion can take place. We have had whole families of ladies, day after day, out with us in all directions, and who have the most perfect confidence. We are