A SCIENTIFIC CHAPTER.
I had intended to conclude my remarks on the subject of the mail
coaches, but have been induced to invest in another chapter by an
ingenious proposal which was brought to the notice of the
Postmaster-General in the year 1807. If it led to no results, at any
rate it shows that there were those who took a keen interest in the
subject.
[Illustration]
The Rev. W. Milton, Rector of Heckfield, Hartford Bridge--the same
reverend gentleman whose acquaintance we have previously made as the
advocate of broad wheels--invented a coach, which he claimed would
prevent overturns and breakdowns. The body of it was this shape, which
I give as it appears in the minutes on the subject, still preserved at
the General Post-Office. It is certainly singularly deficient in
graceful curves, and I can only suppose that it is meant to indicate
the manner in which the luggage box was placed. At any rate, we are
told that the coach was so constructed that nearly all the luggage was
carried in a box below the body of the carriage, which was not higher
than usual; but the appearance of the coach was deemed heavy, and as
the load was low, it was thought that the draught would be heavier
than the coaches then in use. Many coaches which loaded heavily with
luggage were already furnished with a receptacle for it denominated
the "slide," which was fixed under the hind axle, and thus, no doubt,
did add considerably to the draught; but to remedy this, as we shall
see, Mr. Milton makes use of unusually high wheels.
To prevent breakdowns the coach was fitted with idle wheels on each
side of the luggage box, with their periphery below the floor, and
each as near as was requisite to its respective active wheel. These
idle wheels were ready, in case of breakdowns on either side, to catch
the falling carriage, and instantly to continue its previous velocity,
till the coachman could pull up the horses. The bottom of the luggage
box was fourteen inches from the ground, and the idle wheel five or
six inches. The following extracts will convey a better idea of the
value of the invention. It evidently received a practical trial:--
"Mr. Ward, the coachman, soon found what he might venture, and he took
the coach accordingly over such ground as would most assuredly have
caused an overturn of any stage-coach with its usual load. This was
repeatedly done in the presence of six insides and ten outsides,
besides the coachman. Seven parts, perhaps, in ten of the load, which
was nearly three tons, lay on the hind wheels. These, by the
patentee's directions, were six feet high, and with no dishing, and,
as he deemed, sufficiently strong. They did not fail; but it was the
opinion of Mr. Thomas Ward, and all the practical men on the spot,
that they were not such as could show the principle of safety as to
dangerous and side-long ground up to its full extent. As it was,
however, any common coach would have gone over at fifty different
places during the stage which this coach took without the least
symptom of overturning. A linch-pin of one of the hind wheels was
taken out. The coach went on, and presently off came the wheel, and
down dropped the carriage about seven inches on a small idle wheel,
which immediately continued the motion without the least inconvenience
to the outside passengers or puzzle to the horses, and the shock was
not greater than what was produced by taking over a stone in the
night, and, if it had been required, the coach might have been taken
five or six miles by means of the idle wheel; and Mr. Thomas Ward very
confidently thinks these two circumstances of safety would invariably
attend any stage-coach so constructed."
So confident was the reverend patentee that he wrote the following
challenge: "I have no fear that either science or practice can
effectually controvert the following remark: Supposing, in a
stage-coach as at present, that the centre of gravity be four feet
above the main axle, and the width on the ground the same in two
cases, then the higher the wheels the greater will be the danger of an
overturn from an equal cause. It is not so with me, for the higher the
wheels the deeper may the luggage box be, so that the antidote follows
the growth of the danger; and here, from the full conviction I have of
its truth, I wish to offer the following opinion: Let seven or eight
parts in ten of the total load be within the hind wheels, and let them
be at least six feet high, on horizontal cylindric arms, by this
disposition, compared against the present, more than one horse in
forty would be saved or spared, for the goodness of the draught would
come out even through the intricacy of the medium, the fore-carriage;
but in many coaches the door at the middle of the side does not permit
so advantageous a hind wheel, and that at the expense just mentioned."
The invention was not accepted by the Postmaster-General, although it
was, to some extent, admitted to combine a principle of safety with
the celerity required in mail carriages. The cost, however, of such a
change in the mail coaches would have been very heavy, which, no
doubt, had a good deal to do with its rejection.
The fact, however, is that these inventions were not wanted, clever as
they might have been and effective where required. The mail coaches
were not called upon to travel over "dangerous and side-long ground,"
but upon fairly good roads at the worst, for which the coaches, as
then constructed, possessed quite sufficient stability, and the idle
wheels, however great the security they would have imparted to
heavily-loaded stage-coaches, were not required on the mails, where
the sustaining power was so great in proportion to the comparatively
light loads which they carried, that a broken axle was unknown among
them, and it was impossible for a wheel to come off with Mr. Vidler's
axle and boxes; and, of course, the idle wheels must have added to the
weight.
Although these patent-safety coaches were rejected by the Post-office,
they did find favour in one or two quarters. One worked for some time
between London and Stroudwater, and several were in use in Reading, as
the following certificate will prove:--
"We, the proprietors of the Reading coaches, beg leave thus
jointly to inform our friends and the public that we have each of
us, during the last five weeks, tried the Rev. W. Milton's
patent-safety coach, built by Brown and Day. We are fully
persuaded that its draught will be as fair as that of any coach on
the road, and have such a conviction of the safety of its
principles, that we have no doubt that we shall be induced to put
them on as early as shall be convenient to every coach we have.
"Signed,
"WILLIAMS & CO., Coachmasters, London and Reading;
"E. EDWARDS, Coachmaster, Reading;
"J. MOODY, Coachmaster, London."
It is very disappointing that no drawing appears to have been
preserved showing what these coaches looked like when they stood up
upon their wheels; but evidently the patent parts were capable of
being applied to the ordinary coaches, as is proved by the following
portion of an advertisement:--
"Any particulars regarding these coaches and the application of the
principles of it to stage-coaches at present in use may be had by
applying to Brown and Day, Coachmakers, Reading." And again they say,
"The safety of the plan depends upon the union of the two principles.
The same charge will be made for the application of the luggage box or
idle wheels, where either may be required separately, as for the two
together."
The Postmaster-General appears to have been fortunate in the number of
his counsellors, but, judging by the following suggestion, it would
have required a very great multitude to produce wisdom. Indeed, a more
objectionable change could hardly have been thought of.
By a memorandum at the General Post-Office, it appears that in
February, 1831, the Rev. W. C. Fenton, of Doncaster, made a suggestion
that postilions should be substituted for the coachmen. The suggestion
was rejected, as it was considered that the change of postilions would
necessarily be much more frequent than the change of coachmen, and
therefore the chances of delays would be greatly multiplied. It was
also thought that, were such a mode of driving adopted, it would be
the means of raising the fares, and the mails would again require
support. Many of the coachmen drove from forty to fifty miles without
a change. The Postmaster-General, Duke of Richmond, considered the
horses had enough to do without carrying additional weight.
The horses would not only have had the weight of an extra man to share
among them, but they would have had to carry both men in a way best
calculated to distress them. The easiest way for a horse to move a
weight is by his draught, the worst when placed upon his back.
Then again there was the difficulty of who was to pay the postilions.
They must have been changed at every stage, and I should think the
passengers, although in those days pretty well accustomed to giving
fees of one sort or another, would have objected to being _kicked_ by
two postboys at the end of every stage.
I can fancy I hear one of the uninitiated exclaim, "I should think
they would object to such treatment as that at any time," but, in the
language of the road, the word _kicking_ had no brutal signification
attached to it--it only meant asking the passengers for their fees,
and the word _shelling_ was often used to express the same process in
less objectionable language. The word was understood something in the
way that an Irishman uses the word _kilt_, which the following
anecdote will explain:--
An English gentleman had rented some shooting in Ireland, and had gone
over to enjoy the sport. On the morning after his arrival, having
engaged a lot of boys to beat for him, he started off to look for
game, but before he had gone very far, after firing a shot, he heard a
great commotion and chatter among the boys. Thereupon he called out to
them to ask if anything was the matter, to which the answer he
received was, "Nothing your 'anour,' only you've kilt a boy." I need
hardly say, that, being a stranger to the country, he was very much
alarmed till he reached the spot where the boys were assembled, when
he discovered, to his infinite relief, that the word "kilt" conveyed
no mortal signification in that country.
I will venture to give a few more instances of the propositions made
to the Postmaster-General. Some were certainly ingenious, but he very
wisely could not be induced to give up a system which had been well
proved, for what at the best, and however clever in itself, was
untried.
On September 14th, 1816, Mr. Peter M'Kenzie of Paddington offered to
construct a steam engine to run on rails at the rate of fifteen miles
an hour. He asserted that the mountains of Wales or any other part of
the United Kingdom would not impede its velocity. To enable him to
build a small model he asked that a hundred and fifty or two hundred
pounds might be advanced to him. As may be supposed this was refused
him, and the plan was abandoned. This gentleman also claimed that in
1802 the idea of printing newspapers by steam first originated with
him.
Mr. John England, writing from Aberdeen in August, 1820, wants the
department to adopt a travelling carriage or machine, which was
impelled by means of the expansion and contraction of compound fluids.
The machine was stated to weigh about 90 lbs. The plan was not
entertained. Again, in the year 1832 the same person submitted an
improved machine worked on the same principle, but, as may be
imagined, it met with no better result than the first.
In the next suggestion we appear to be approaching the present railway
system, but I should suppose that he intended laying his rails by the
side of the turnpike roads.
Mr. Thomas Gray, writing from Brussels in November, 1821, suggests
steam coaches on iron rails. In support of it, he stated that the
journey to Edinburgh would be done in half the time taken by the mail
coaches, and that the expense of laying the iron rails would be more
than covered by the extra passengers that could be carried in the
additional coaches which could be run.
This also met with a cold reception, and no doubt appeared at the time
to be simply speculative, yet the light of time compels us to take a
different view, and to recognize in it the germs of a great invention.
Mr. James Rondeen, of Lambeth, on June 3rd, 1823, submitted a scheme
to convey the mails by engines consuming their own smoke, of four or
six-horse power, which would cost from two hundred and fifty to three
hundred pounds each, and impel a coach at the rate of from fifteen to
twenty miles an hour. He estimated that there were two hundred and
eighty coaches running daily from London and on the cross roads, the
work of which, if his scheme was adopted, would be performed by
eighty-two engines. This scheme was considered an extraordinary one,
but the condition of its acceptance imposed by the inventor could not
be complied with.
I should gather from what is said here, that Mr. Rondeen's plan was of
the nature of a traction engine to run upon the existing turnpike
roads, and, if I am right, the Postmaster-General of that day had a
better opinion of that mode of progression than of the system of
rails. No doubt, several descriptions of traction engines were tried,
but none succeeded, and I have heard of surveyors of turnpike roads
laying such extra thick coverings of stone on the roads as to clog the
engine wheels; but however this may be, experience has proved that
they are not capable of much pace, however useful they may be found
for slow traffic.
A Mr. Knight, in January, 1822, suggested an elevated road or railway.
The carriage was to be slung from the road on rails above, and two
men, suspended in it at the bottom, would turn machinery to propel it
along the groove or railway. After the idea had been talked over by
Mr. Knight with the head of the mail coach department, the latter was
satisfied that it would be of no use to the Post-office.
A Mr. Elmes of Regent Street, in October, 1823, offered to convey the
mails to any part of the United Kingdom at the rate of from fifteen to
seventeen miles an hour, by means of a mechanical carriage, which
could be worked by horses or not. He stated that his contrivance would
reduce the cost of conveyance to about a quarter of that then
incurred. It need hardly be said that this proposal was too indefinite
to be entertained.
On the 25th of November, 1826, a Mr. Thorold, of Great Milton,
Norfolk, suggested the application of steam to mail coaches for
propelling them on turnpike roads. This plan appears to have been
considered feasible, as it is recorded that the plan was not adopted,
as it was considered best to wait until the idea was _seen_ in
practice.
On April 27, 1826, a Mr. Cadogan Williams submitted a plan for the
rapid conveyance of mails by means of tubes. The outline of his plan
was this: That a square of cast-iron or brick be laid from one stage
to another, with its extremities communicating with vaults of
sufficient magnitude for the purpose; one vault having an
air-evaporating apparatus, and the other a condensing, such as is used
to blow iron furnaces worked by steam power. At the neck of the tube
joining the condensing apparatus should be two stoppers, on the
principle of those that are used in beer cocks. Between the stoppers
should be a door for putting in the box of letters. On closing it the
stoppers should be turned, and the condensed air would exert itself in
the box and produce its rapid movement. This was certainly very
ingenious, if somewhat complicated. At any rate, he was informed that
his plan was not applicable to the purposes of the department.
And now comes a really wonderful proposal. A Mr. Slade, on May 14,
1827, offered to convey the mails at the rate of a mile a minute; but
he appears not to have been of a very communicative disposition, as he
did not state by what means this very high rate of speed was to be
obtained, but he estimated the cost for carrying out his plan at two
thousand pounds a mile. As may be supposed, this was considered too
visionary and costly to be enquired into further.
And now I have got what I think will raise a smile. It will hardly be
believed, but so it was, that a Royal Engineer--an officer, I
suppose--suggested that the mails should be conveyed by means of
shells and cannon. His idea was to enclose the letters in shells and
then fire them to the next stage, three miles distant, and then to the
next stage, and so on to the end of the journey. He said a good
bombardier could drop the shell within a few feet of the spot where
the next one was stationed.
As early as the year 1811 a trial was made of a drag, or break,
apparently a good deal resembling the breaks now so generally applied
to wheels. In that year a drag, as it was then called, was introduced
by a Mr. Simpson to the Post-office authorities, and was tried on the
Brighton and Worcester mails; but the advantages claimed for it by the
patentee were not borne out in practice. The advantages claimed were
that in case of the reins or pole breaking, or horses running away,
the drag could be at once applied by the guard without leaving his
seat, as it was put in action by a lever or shaft affixed to the body
of the coach, and worked by hand. It does not appear, however, to have
possessed sufficient attractions for it to be brought into general
use, as nothing more is heard of it. In the year 1811 I don't suppose
there was much to be feared from horses running away!
Before quite taking leave of science I will venture to touch upon a
subject which, if not exactly science, is nearly related to it. At any
rate, it can only be solved, if at all, through the medium of science.
I can fancy I hear some votary of science exclaim with some
indignation, "What is this doughty question which is to puzzle
science?" To this I can only answer that if science has or can solve
it satisfactorily, I humbly beg its pardon for doubting its powers.
Well, the subject I am raising is expressed by the word _Traction_.
Traction, I mean, as connected with pace. What is the difference in
power required to move a given load at ten miles an hour and at five
miles an hour? I have somewhere seen it argued as if it was the same,
and that therefore the horses must suffer greatly over the latter part
of a stage, supposing that their powers were less and the weight to be
drawn remained the same. Of course, the weight does in one sense
continue the same, but every coachman who has had any experience in
driving will have observed how much longer time it requires to pull up
a coach going at a high speed than one at a slow pace; which of itself
proves that after the coach is once set in motion and has acquired a
fast pace, the exertion required to keep it going is considerably
reduced. Without for a moment forgetting the cardinal truth that "it
is the pace which kills," it is quite apparent that the disease and
the remedy, to some extent at least, travel together. Another fact
which can be attested by all old stage coachmen, and which goes
strongly to prove how much reduced the draught is by pace, is that
four light horses can get a load up a steep pitch at a gallop which
they would be quite incapable of surmounting at a walk.
Then there is another item which adds to the complexity, which is
this--that the greater the weight, the longer the time required for
pulling up. It would seem, therefore, as if a heavy weight, to a
certain extent, assisted its own propulsion. The same circumstances
are observed on the railways, and, probably, from the hardness of the
metal on which their wheels run, it is still more apparent than on a
road. I was once travelling for a short distance upon a locomotive
engine without a train behind it, and upon asking the driver how long
it would take to bring his engine to a standstill, he said, "I could
stop it almost immediately now, but it would be very different with a
long train behind her." Probably there are few coachmen who have
driven any great number, of miles through whose brain this question
has never trotted, but without arriving at any solution of it. At any
rate, I confess my own ignorance, and only throw down the question at
the feet of science after the custom of the ages of chivalry, when the
herald threw down the gauntlet into the midst of the assembled
knights, to be picked up by the best man.
The following narrative will convey some idea of the force of velocity
which appertains to the wheels of a coach travelling at a high
speed:--
As the "Mazeppa" coach was proceeding on her journey from Monmouth to
Gloucester, when descending a hill about three miles from the former
place at a fast pace, the tire of the near hind wheel came off, and
the impetus was so great that it caused it to pass the coach and run
on for nearly half a mile, thus proving that the power required to
draw a carriage when it has attained much speed must be very much
diminished. It only requires to be kept moving.