Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/74



Mr. Walter Henrick. 5 August, 1831. the road, and not shy at my. Engine. There is one very curious instance which I had once occurred, and I was: obliged to the gentleman for the pains he had taken, He had a fine horse on the road, and this horse shyed; he was determined to get over the difficulty, if it were possible; and to make him acquainted with it, he came with the Engine to town; and at last, when we got to London, the horse got quite tranquil, so that he put his head in the engine- house, which is very uncommon, and which is a thing I never saw a horse do before.

Then you anticipate that if such Engines become more common, there will be less difficulty in this respect?—I have no doubt of it.

Does it produce any very extraordinary noise in its motion?—We have worked so quiet latterly, that I have almost run over people on the road, and they have not heard me; I have had to halt very often, they have not been aware of the coach coming.

Under any circumstances, the noise that is anticipated would take place from the defect of the machinery, and not from the machinery itself?—Yes; we make one-third of the noise of a common stage.

When you let off steam, does it produce any violent noise in stopping?—I can give an instance to the contrary which occurred in London, which is the best place to put the thing to a test; about a fortnight or three weeks ago, Mr. Wilks was kind enough to mention my running on the Stratford Road, and I wished him to present a petition front me to the House of Commons, and at the same time requested that he would take a ride with me in my Engine on the Stratford road; I waited three quarters of an hour for him, and the machinery was working the whole of the time; there were hundreds of people walking round it, and I suppose they did not know it was working at all; there was no noise at all in the machinery; and you could not, unless you had gone to the back, know that it was working.

Does spare steam pass off without noise?—Not any.