Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/210



Mr. John Macneil. 6 September, 1831. men remark that Carriages with such wheels run wild in descending hills in summer, but heavy in winter, and when the roads are soft and muddy. The Mail Coaches weigh very nearly twenty cwt. Some of them, the Holyhead Coach for instance; frequently carries upwards of a ton of letters and parcels, independent of passengers and their luggage. The average weight of the whole may probably be taken at two tons. Some others, the Liverpool day Mail for instance travel very light, and probably will not average one ton and a half. The breadth of tire of Mail Coaches is two inches and a quarter; the four-horse Vans, which travel about six miles an hour, weigh on an average four tons and a quarter, including the Carriage; the breadth of tire of one which I measured was two inches and a half, but I am not prepared to say that this is the general size of such wheels; the horses used in these Carriages are of the very best and largest description, which added to so great a weight on narrow wheels, probably renders this Carriage more injurious to the public roads than any other description of vehicle at present employed. There are four descriptions of Waggons in general use, the eight-horse Waggon, the six-horse waggon, the four-horse Waggon, and the Farm Waggon, which is drawn sometimes by two, three or four horses, according to the load. The eight-horse Waggons, though frequently weighing, with the load, seven tons, may probably be averaged at not more than six tons the year round; the wheel is nine inches in the tire, but from a very improper plan followed in its construction the bearing on a hard solid road is only three inches, for these wheels are generally shod with three hoops of three inch iron, the centre one of which is of a greater diameter than the others, and projects full half an inch beyond them, which on weak roads such as in the Neighbourhood of London, must be most injurious. I have measured one since I came to London, which travels on the Bath and Bristol road, the outer rim is conical, and can certainly never come in contact with the road surface, unless it be one on