Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/65



Mr. G. Gurney. 5 August, 1831. one-ton Carriage would be little compared with the proportion of power required to draw two. My answer to the question is, generally, as I find the public roads at this time.

To what velocity could you increase your present rate of travelling with your engine?—I have stated that the velocity is limited by practical experience only; theoretically it is limited only by quantity of steam; 12 miles, I think, we might keep up steadily, and run with great safety. The extreme rate that we have run is between 20 and 30 miles an hour. I stated in my former Evidence, that the Carriage when upset by Sir Charles Dance, was at that time going at 18 miles an hour, but no injury happened either to the machinery or the persons upon it; still I am of opinion, that that speed might be maintained with perfect safety by a little experience in practical management.

What are the practical objections to going at that rate?—I think the principal objections are want of knowledge and experience; I have been so many times disappointed in what theoretically I had imagined true, that I am afraid to give a decided opinion on subjects not practically proved.

Have you any thing further that you wish to state to the Committee?—I would state generally, in regard to the main improvements on Steam Engines, by which this country has been so much benefited, and the prospects of advantages arising from Steam Carriages, that they have almost always been in a direct ratio with that of removing horses; that the great and splendid improvements of Mr. Watt have generally been supposed to be principally connected with the separate condenser of the Steam Engine, and the saving of the fuel; but before Mr. Watt's day, we could empty our mines of water in Cornwall, and we could do a variety of other simple work by the Steam Engine, and so far the improvement of Mr. Watt was simply with respect to the saving of fuel; but I consider that the great national advantage arising from Mr. Watt's improvement, has been his application of the Steam Engine to machinery; and the extent of that advantage to the