Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/202



Mr. J. McAdam. 25 August, 1831. the Trustees of the Wadesmill Road to dispense with the use of their weighing Engine, they having found by experience that the wheels required by the Metropolis. Commissioners, were not only best for the road but the most advantageous for themselves to use, and in consequence of that application, on Friday last, the only remaining Engine on the roads of which I am Surveyor, was ordered to be abandoned.

Can you state the weights of a loaded Stage Coach, and a loaded Waggon, and a loaded Van, on the average?—I should state a Stage Coach loaded, at from two and a half to three tons; a Waggon from five tons, to seven and a half.

Does that include the weight of the Waggon?—Eight tons would; I should think the weight of the Vans about four or five tons.

Have you observed the operation of wheels when they are dragged?—Yes, they are injurious upon roads newly coated certainly, but upon an old road. I mean a road that has become consolidated upon the surface, the injury, with proper skid pans is but small, and confined of course to one side of the surface of the hill.

Do you think the efficacy of your toll in protecting the road is equally applicable to a heavy Van as a loaded Coach—I think that the toll per horse will always be a sufficient guard for the weights drawn, the Van being on springs does infinitely less injury in proportion than such a weight without them.

But if the injury to the road proceeds from the weight the horses have to draw, the same rate of toll would not be applicable to a Carriage of two tons and one of six tons, both being drawn by four horses?—Certainly not; but that is a supposition hardly fair to be taken, because we conclude that the additional weight requires additional horses.

But in practice the Vans pass all through the country with only four horses, and the Coaches equally with four horses?—That is true; the Coaches go at a much more rapid pace.

Do you think that the velocity with which a Coach