Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/80



Mr. Walter Henrick. 5 August, 1831. Supposing that a coach of four horses were to run that seven miles, how many passengers would it take?—It would carry the same number.

What weight, upon a dead level, will set your Carriage in motion on the road if you were to attach a rope to the pole, and suspend that rope over a pulley, and attach a weight to it, what weight will get your Carriage in motion?—It is an experiment I have never tried, and I am not prepared to answer.

Do you know what, if you were to set your Carriage on an inclined plane, is the inclination that will set it moving?—No, that is not a thing which I have tried.

Do all the wheels follow in the same track?—Yes, they do.

Have you ever tried your Carriage up hill on an inclination?—Yes, I have, repeatedly.

Do you find an increased difficulty in proportion to the length of the inclination?—No, we go much slower; but we never find any difficulty.

Have you ever found your wheels slip?—No, excepting once on the City Road, at the time when the frost was on the road; it was quite slippery; and then, for an experiment, I tried to see if I could run up the Pentonville Hill with one wheel only, and I did, but it was with some difficulty towards the top; if I had propelled by the two wheels, there would have been none.

Have you found at what inclination in a frost the wheels will begin to turn?—I never witnessed such a thing.

Are you aware that such a thing will occur?—Yes; but I think there are no hills which are to be found, upon which horses travel, but what a coach would propel itself up.

Have you ever seen your Carriage get into a deep rut?—Yes.

In such a case what generally happens?—If it is a single wheel, it may go round two or three times; if I have two wheels, it is improbable I should get into such a situation.

Do you find peculiar states of the roads upon which