Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/99



John Farey, Esq. 10 August, 1831. a certainty by other observations on the working of that Carriage. It will be a long time before a sufficient number of Steam Carriages travel over any road to bring their effect on the materials to the test of experience; but on general principles I have no hesitation whatever in stating my opinion, that they never will answer as long as they do injure the roads any more than the fair wear occasioned by the wheels of other Carriages of the same weight; for any injury they might do to the road must be by a slipping of their wheels on the road, which would be a waste of the power of their Engines, and hitherto they have had no power to spare; or, if their wheels are too narrow, and they cut deep into the road, the power of the Engines will be wasted. If they are to be efficiently advanced, the whole power must be fairly exerted in advancing them forwards along the road, without turning their wheels in vain on the road, or cutting ruts in the road. I am confident that, if the wheels slip at all on the roads so as to lose motion, or if they penetrate so as to make ruts, those Coaches will not answer, and the defects must be remedied, or the Coaches must be given up. I do not mean to affirm whether the present Steam Coaches which draw other Carriages after them do or do not slip on the road, because I have not examined them; but I am of opinion that for the ultimate successful application of steam power, the Carriages must be so constructed that they will do less injury to the roads than Carriages drawn by horses; and whenever Steam Coaches become common, I think the roads will be most materially benefited by the change.

Supposing the total weight of a stage or mail coach, drawn by four horses at ten miles an hour, to be two tons, and the weight of the four horses to be two tons, what proportion of the wear of a Macadam road would you expect to be occasioned by the wheels of the coach, supposing them to be the usual breadth of stage coach wheels, and what would be the wear by the horses' feet ?-It is impossible to fix an accurate proportion for such a question as that; but I have no doubt but that, weight for weight, horses' feet do far