Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/17

 The danger arising from the use of Steam Carriages, was stated to be two-fold;—that to which passengers are exposed from explosion of the boiler, and the breaking of the machinery, and the effect produced on horses, by the noise and appearance of the Engine. Steam has been applied as a power in draught in: two ways; in the one, both passengers and Engine are placed on the same Carriage; in the other, the Engine Carriage is merely used to draw the Carriage in which the load is conveyed. In either case, the probability of danger from explosion has been rendered infinitely small, from the judicious construction of boiler which has been adopted.

These boilers expose a very considerable surface to the fire, and Steam is generated with the greatest rapidity. From their peculiar form, the requisite supply of Steam depends on its continued and rapid formation; no large and dangerous quantity can at any time be collected. Should the safety valve be stopped, and the supply of Steam be kept up in greater abundance than the Engines require, explosion may take place, but the danger would be comparatively trifling, from the small quantity of Steam, which could act on any one portion of the boilers. As an Engine, invented by Mr. Trevithick, has not been as yet applied to Carriages, the Committe can do no more than draw the attention of The House to the ingenuity of its contrivance. Should it in practice be found to answer his expectation, it will remove entirely all danger from explosion. In each of the Carriages described to the Committee, the boilers have been proved to a considerably greater pressure than they can ever have to sustain.

Mr. Farey considers that "the danger of explosion is less than the danger attendant on the use of horses in draught; that the danger in these boilers is less than in those employed on the Railway, although there even the instances of explosion have been very rare." The danger arising to passengers from the breaking of the machinery need scarcely be taken into consideration. It is a mere