Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/220



Mr. John Macneil. 6 September, 1831. Neither the rates of acclivity, or the lengths of the planes, were taken at the time, but it might still be done if thought necessary by the Committee, as the points are well ascertained.

If 266 lb. be required to move a Carriage of 21 cwt. 8lbs. up an inclined plane of one in ten, what amount of weight would be required to keep the Carriage stationary, or to allow it to descend with the slowest possible motion on the same inclination; this question has reference to the injury done to roads by "dragging" the wheels, and subsequently to the slow motion of the propelling wheels of Steam Carriages in descending hills?-If the base of the inclined plane be 10, and its height 1, the length will be

nearly, and we have the proportion 10.05 : 1 :: 2360 : 234.82 lbs. the weight which would be required to keep the Carriage stationary if the surface of the plane was hard and smooth, and the mass collected in a point; but as 266 is stated to be the moving power, the resistance arising from the friction of the surface, and the axle-trees would in this case be 31.18 lbs; it may be well to observe here, that the experiments made, on inclined planes, as detailed in the Seventh Report of the Parliamentary Commissioners of the Holyhead and Liverpool Road, were not intended for any thing further than to get practical results, the description of which could be easily understood by Road Surveyors and their Assistants, and even by men in the habit of driving Coaches; it could not be