Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/199



Mr. James Stone. 25 August, 1831.  our Carriage. In one instance, going out of Gloucester, we were just behind the Stage Coach, and a horse in a chaise coming past took fright at a Stage Coach, and when he came up to us he took no notice of us, and therefore, I am fully persuaded, that horses do not take more fright at us than at a loaded Stage Coach, from the observations I have made upon a number of experiments.

Were there 14 inches of stone laid on the road at the time the accident happened of the breaking the axletree?—Yes, it was; when the stones were levelled they measured seven inches, but at that time they were merely laid across the road, so that the Carriage could not pass them without going through them.

Do you know that the passengers on the common Stage Coach got out and helped the Couch along?—No, I do not know it, I only heard it; I do not know it. 



you Surveyor of the Holyhead line of road?—As far as St. Alban's.

Have you the superintendence of any other portion of it?—Of no other portion of it.

Have you had considerable experience in road-making, and superintending roads?—Yes, for the last fourteen years.

Have you made any experiments, or are you able to give any information to the Committee, as to the comparative wear of roads, or injury to roads by Carriages and horses passing?—I have generally found that horses' feet do very great injury to the surface of a well-made road; and I am of opinion, that a Carriage with properly-constructed wheels does less injury to a road than the horses drawing.

Would you explain what the operation of the injury done to the road is by travelling on it; is it the wear of the road, or the displacement of the materials?—Both take place; the wheels to a certain degree wear out the material, but upon a road properly constructed, and that has become consolidated, and the surface smooth, that wear is very small and gradual; 