Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/88



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. hill, but yet far more so in horses. The chance of breaking down has hitherto been considerable, but it will not be more than usual in stage coaches, when the work is truly proportioned and properly executed. The risk of explosion of the boilers is the only new cause of danger, and that I consider not equivalent to the danger from the horses. There have been, for several years past, a number of locomotive engines in constant use on railways, all of them having large high pressure boilers, very much more dangerous than Mr. Gurney's or Mr. Hancock's, whether we consider the probability of explosion, or the consequences likely to follow an explosion, because being of large diameters they are less capable of sustaining the internal pressure of the steam, and also they contain a large stock of confined steam and hot water, The instances of explosion among those locomotive engines have been very rare indeed.

Have you seen Mr. Hancock's last improvement?—I consider Mr. Hancock's boiler to be much better for Steam Coaches than any other which has been proposed or tried,

If that boiler were to explode it is understood that there would be no danger at all?—It is very difficult to foresee that; at the same time the risk of explosion in Mr. Hancock's boiler is certainly very much less than is the locomotive boilers, which are in constant use on a large scale on railways, and where we have proof that the extent of the danger is very small.

Do you think his boiler might explode without the passengers knowing any thing about it?—The metal plates of which the boiler is composed will burn through by the continuance of the action of the fire, and may crack or open so as to let the steam or water out of the boiler and disable the coach from proceeding, but that is hardly to be called an explosion; no one would be hurt; the crack which lets out the hot water is sure to throw it into the fire in that case, and not on the passengers.

You consider the danger to passengers by the chance of bursting of a boiler as not equivalent to the danger of horses running away?—It is not equivalent