Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/216



Mr. John Macneil. 6 September, 1831. and the wheels of Carriages be estimated in the same proportion. I think it would probably be near the actual effect produced, that is to say, the injury done by the wheels of fast Coaches is to the injury done by the horses which draw them as one to three in round numbers. The effect produced by slow Carriages and horses is different; a Waggon drawn by four horses, which travels regularly from London to Daventry at the rate of three miles an hour, is worked by fifteen horses; the waggon weighs twenty-five cwt, and carries on an average sixty-seven cwt.; the hind wheels are four feet eight inches in diameter, and the front ones four feet; the breadth of the wheels is six inches; they are nearly upright but not cylindrical; the iron tire, when put on, weighs on the fore wheels, 285 lbs., on the hind ditto, 396 lbs., making 621 lbs. When removed, the weight is on the fore wheels, 144 lbs.,, on the hind ditto 168 lbs., making 312 lbs.; wear in five months, 309 lbs. The number of miles travelled in this time is 6,048; the shoes that are put on the horses employed to draw this. Waggon, weigh when new from two pounds and a half to three pounds each; the average of a great many gave two pounds and three quarters, and when removed one pound and a quarter; they last from four to six weeks, according to the weather and state of the road; but we may assume five weeks as an average, and the wear in that time for each horse six pounds, and for fifteen horses for five months, it would be 360 lbs. The proportion in this case would be as 309 to 360, or as one to l.16 or nearly one to 1¼; on the generality of roads therefore,