Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/35

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Mr. G. Garney. 3 August, 1831. first experiment I made connected with the subject, in which I conceived I had removed the difficulty of driving Steam Carriages on common roads, by inventing a light and powerful boiler, of which this is a representation. The application of that boiler will be seen in No. 2. The boiler itself is not represented on the Carriage in this drawing, but simply the engine, and the modes of propelling the Carriage. This was in the year 1825. It was then a very prevalent opinion that the bite or friction of the power to the ground was not sufficient to propel the Carriage along a common road, particularly up hill; it was thought that the wheel would turn round, and the Carriage not proceed. With that view, the apparatus shown in this figure. No 2, which I call feet or propellers, were proposed to be used; the mode of action I presume will be seen from the drawing. I soon found by experience, in numerous experiments not connected with the drawing, that the propellers were rarely or never wanted, and I then applied the power immediately to the two hind wheels, through a crank, in the common mode of a steam-boat, the propellers being also fixed, but travelling slower than the wheels, were brought into action if the wheels slipped which it was thought would be the case in difficult situations. This Carriage went up Highgate Hill in 1826, and to Edgeware, also to Stanmore, and went up Stanmore Hill, and Brockley Hill, near Stanmore, and against all those hills the wheels never turned, and the legs never came into action. This is No. 3. After these experiments, the legs or propellers were entirely removed, and from further experiment it was found, by a peculiar application of the steam, (namely by "wiredrawing,") that the bite of one of the hind wheels was sufficient for all common purposes. If the steam was let on suddenly, the wheel would turn round, and the Carriage not go forward; but when wire-drawn, one wheel was found sufficient. By this arrangement, also, the Carriage was guided more accurately and more easily The second wheel was applied by uniting it with the crank at any time, if one was found insufficient.