Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/63



Mr. G. Gurney. 5 August, 1831. common road, that we ought not to calculate on doing more than weight for weight.

The diameter of your steam-wheel is rather greater than the diameter of a carriage-wheel?—Yes; the size of the wheel I proportion to the Engine, so that the piston may work under the most favourable circumstances.

It is by experiment simply that you have arrived at your present size of cylinder?—Yes.

You stated in your former evidence, that you anticipated that passengers would be carried at one-half the rate by your Steam Carriages that they are by the common carriages, what difference in the ordinary expences of carriage would it make if you had a paved road for this purpose?—I think that it would reduce the expence to one-half again.

If there were properly paved roads, you conceive that passengers might be carried at one-fourth the present expence?—Not exactly; because the total expence includes the government duty, tolls, &c. as the same; but as far as the steam-power is concerned they would. These subjects have been inquired into by a mathematical friend of mine, and he has published the result of his inquiries, which I will take the liberty of delivering in.

You have stated that in certain states of the road you find increased difficulty than in other states?—I have; and the difficulty arises, from a mechanical application of the steam simply; namely, in consequence of the road being in a greasy state, and the wheels therefore more easily slipping, and under the circumstances do not furnish so good a fulcrum for propelling.

Have you ever watched the operation of your Carriages in snow?—I have; I have used them both on snow and on ice. On ice, a very little roughing of the wheels is necessary, in the same manner as you rough horses, and little power is sufficient to propel the Carriage, because under those circumstances, the power to draw the weight is very considerably reduced, and