Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/30

 may be used) is charged on a Carriage drawn by two horses.

In the second class they have placed all other Steam Carriages, except those travelling at slow rates, for goods only; Carriages of this class should pay the same Toll as may be charged on a coach drawn by four horses. This may at first appear unjust from the supposed power of Steam to draw almost unlimited weight. The Committee have already enumerated the difficulties hitherto encountered in attempting to propel very heavy loads on turnpike roads.—They are such as to discourage the expectation, that, within any short period of time, the system will have been so perfected as to give rise to inconvenience from this source; should any hereafter be found, it will then be sufficient to remedy the defect. Until a due proportion of the parts of the machinery shall have been ascertained, the makers of these Carriages will vary but cautiously, from the models at present in use; their object will be, for some time, the perfecting of them, rather than the uncertain experiment of increasing their size.

The Committee do not anticipate, that, for a considerable period. Steam will be used as a propelling power on common roads for heavy Waggons. It ap pears to have been the general opinion of the Witnesses, that in proportion as the velocity of travelling by Steam on common roads is diminished, the advantages of Steam over horse power are lost. The efficiency of horses in draught is rapidly diminished as their speed is increased; while, on the contrary, the weight, which could be carried or propelled, at any great velocity, by Steam, could not be more cheaply conveyed, were the speed decreased to that of the slowest waggon.

As speed, therefore, is the cause of greatly increased expence where horses are used, while with Steam it is comparatively unimportant, it is probable that the latter will be chiefly resorted to when rapidity of conveyance is required. Mr. Gurney considers, that under four miles per hour, horses can be used in draught more economically than Steam.