cranks; g the apartment for the inside passengers, which has glazed windows in front; h the seats for the outside passengers; i the conductor, who guides the carriage by means of four cross levers, turning a small toothed pinion, that

works a toothed sector, fixed on a circular frame; pp propellers, of which the whole six are brought into view; ss straps by which the propellers are lifted from the ground. In the experiments that were made with this carriage on the common road, the feasibility of this mode of propulsion was proved, but the steam power provided was found to be inadequate to produce the required velocity of motion; and the patentee, we believe, becoming afterwards convinced that the application of the power to the running wheels (as insisted on by Trevithick in 1802) was fully effective, and therefore preferable in many points of view, the project was given up.

The next invention in the order of time that presents itself to our notice, is one possessing considerable originality; and though it has not been carried into effect, it contains some ingenious and amusing suggestions, that have formed the groundwork of subsequent inventions. It is the subject of a patent granted to William Francis Snowden, of Oxford-street, London, on the 18th of December 1824, for a "new invented wheel-way and its carriages for the conveyance of passengers, merchandise, and other things, along roads, rails, and other ways, either on a level or inclined plane."

The specification describes the invention under two distinct heads; the first, as respects the wheelway, explains it as consisting of a hollow trunk with a platform of iron on the top for waggons or other carriages to roll upon; inside the trunk is placed a machine, called by the patentee a mechanical horse, to which is connected a toothed wheel, that is made to revolve in a horizontal plane, and to take into the teeth of a horizontal straight rack fixed on one side of the hollow trunk. The vertical axis of the horizontal toothed wheel passes through a longitudinal opening in the wheel-way; above which it is connected to a locomotive steam-engine, and is actuated thereby; through the medium of bevil geer the motion thus communicated to the latter by the engines, is applied by the vertical axis to the horizontal wheel of the mechanical horse, inside the hollow trunk; and as the horizontal wheel is geered into the toothed rack, which is fixed on one side of the trunk, the mechanical horse of necessity moves forward with the same velocity as the horizontal wheel is made to revolve by the power of the engine. Those to whom our literal description may not be clear, will understand it by the annexed figure, which affords a longitudinal section of the

mechanical horse, and the hollow trunk or wheel-way. a is a vibrating cylinder, and b the boiler of a locomotive engine, by which the bevil geer c d is actuated, and through the medium of the vertical axis e, the horizontal toothed wheel f which takes into a toothed rack g; the mechanical horse h is made to advance in its course, and to take with it the engine and the train of waggons that may be in connexion. ww is the wheel-way, and t t the hollow trunk. As the top of the wheel-way is supposed to be flat, and the carriages without lateral flanges to their tires, it is proposed to guide the carriages by means of tongues like that at i, which enters the longitudinal aperture, and which may be provided with an antifriction roller to prevent lateral rubbing. The inventor proposes to adopt a similar arrangement to the foregoing for the towing of barges, by erecting his patent wheel-ways by the sides or banks of canals and

rivers.

The second head of invention under the patent is of a more singular character, and however preposterous it may at first appear to those who have not considered the subject, it is in reality by no means absurd in principle, nor in the

rationale of the proposition; but we will first describe it, and afterwards make our observations.

Instead of placing horses outside of a carriage to give it motion, the patentee puts them inside for that purpose; and his reason for doing this, that of increasing the force or velocity, will to many appear to be quite as paradoxical. The above Fig. 1 affords a perspective view of a machine of the kind, and

Fig. 2 a section of the wheel-way and mechanism by which the process of propulsion is effected. This second part of the patent is thus described in the Register of Arts:-"bb represents a vertical section of the road in which an excavation is made, and the ground well rammed, so as to lay down, at uniform distances, a series of cast-iron frames or sleepers c c. In the several partitions of the sleepers are placed, lengthways, four lines of timber. The two principal rails, dd, are of oak, and stand about three inches above the level of the other parts. The other two lines of timber, e e, are three-inch planks, set on edge, and bolted to the framing. Resting upon these deal planks and the iron partitions, and flush with the oak timber, are laid, crossways of the road, short pieces of three-inch oak plank, leaving an open crevice about one inch and a half wide between them. These short planks are laid edge to edge, uniformly along the whole line, so as to form a level floor, over which is screwed down a complete covering of wrought-iron plates, a a. On this hard and level surface, the wheels of the carriage are intended to roll. Inside the hollow trunk is the mechanical horse, which is actuated by motive force applied above, through the medium of similar gear to the before-described. Only two-toothed wheels are shown in the trunk; there is, however, another, which cannot be seen in this view, which, when put into gear with the opposite rack, reverses the rotatory motion, and causes the carriage to proceed in the same direction. The lowest wheel of the three shown is made light, as it only operates as an antifriction roller, and for that reason occupies the whole space between the two three inch deals. The perspective sketch in Fig. 1, though rather disproportioned in some of its parts, exhibits a carriage of the kind described in the specification. It consists of two stories, the upper one for passengers, containing both inside and outside berths; and the lower one for merchandise, which is deposited on a circular floor, around which two horses are made to work, as in a mill, being yoked to the two opposite extremities of a horizontal lever, that turns a vertical axis, to which is connected multiplying gear that causes the mechanical horse in the hollow trough, and the carriage above, to move at any predetermined velocity of motion; the horses, however, continuing to move at that slow pace (of about 2 miles per hour), by which they can most efficiently exert their force. The diagram marked Fig. 2 is explanatory of these motions: g g are two yokes, to which the horses, being attached, give motion to the horizontal lever and the vertical shaft h, on which is also fixed, close under the floor of the carriage, a large horizontal spur-wheel i; the revolution of this wheel actuates a pinion j, which pinion being on the same spindle as the toothed wheel on the mechanical horse, which takes into the rack, causes the carriage to advance at about four times the velocity of the horses, or at ten miles an hour. Mr. Snowden calculates the power of an average horse, in drawing a load, at the rate of 24 miles per hour, for four hours a day, as equal to the constant force of a weight of 250 pounds, when drawing in a straight line: if the speed of the horse be doubled or increased to 5 miles per hour, his power of traction will be reduced to only 50 pounds; and if the speed be again doubled, or made 10 miles per hour, the horse can do no work whatever, except through only a very short space of time. The slow motion, therefore, is by far the most favourable mode of applying the power of a horse; and although the contracted circuit of a mill-walk is unfavourable to the full exertion of his powers, Mr. Snowden estimates that a force of about 200 pounds may thus be obtained. Of this available force he proposes to sacrifice three fourths, by means of multiplying gear, into velocity; and thus enable each horse to give out, in effect, a force of 50 pounds at 10 miles per hour; whereas, if the horses were to move themselves at that velocity, they would be totally ineffective. If, therefore, we consider two horses to bestow a force of 100 pounds, and that the resistance on the patentee's wheelway is no more than that of the Manchester and Liverpool railway, namely, 1 in 240, we have 100 x 240 24000 lbs. propelled by two horses, at the rate of 10 miles an hour. But the friction of such machinery must be considerably more than I in 240, and the above-estimated force of a horse moving in a circle of 16 feet diameter, is probably much too high. Let us therefore suppose the

=

useful effect to be only half, reducing it to 12000 lbs. The popular objection to this plan, is the apparent absurdity of the horse having to carry his own weight; but this objection equally applies to the steam engine, or any other locomotive power: the whole question, however, resolves itself into one of convenience and economy, as applied to particular cases and circumstances, which we cannot here discuss; and as we shall have occasion, in our account of Brandreth's Cyclopede, to notice the subject again, we shall here conclude with the remark, that we believe it is worthy of the consideration of the machinist to devise the most perfect locomotive machinery, for converting the force of a horse at a slow motion, into a higher velocity with a diminished force.

To enable locomotive carriages to ascend steeper inclined planes than had heretofore been considered practicable, and likewise to enable the carriages and trains to wind round curves in the road, without the severe friction and straining to which they had been previously subjected, was the object of a patent granted on the 5th of March, 1825, to Mr. W. Henry James, of Birmingham, whose common road locomotive is described in the preceding pages. This invention has not, we believe, been carried into effect on the great scale; but we have been credibly informed, that the most satisfactory proofs have been afforded of the ability to effect this, by repeated trials on a railroad more than a hundred feet in length, laid down for the purpose of experiment, on which it was found that a train of carriages would (with the patentee's machinery,) ascend inclined. planes three inches in the yard, which is equal to 440 feet in the mile. This important advantage is gained by applying the power to the axletrees of the wheels of the several carriages in the train, by means of the rotation of a long horizontal rod (or series of connected rods), actuated by bevel gear under each carriage.

An ingenious plan has also been proposed by Mr. James for enabling the carriages on a railway to pass around turns or curves in the road, without additional friction. For this purpose, the horizontal rotatory shafts, which cause each pair of wheels in the train to revolve, and propel the carriages forward, are connected together by a novel kind of universal joint, which communicates the rotatory motion to each successive carriage, even if so placed on the curves of the roads, that the sides of one carriage shall present to the side of the next an angle of thirty degrees. To cause the carriage wheels to run round the curves of the railway, without the usual destructive rubbing of their surfaces, the rails in those parts are made with several ribs or elevations, and the wheels of the carriages are consequently formed to correspond with those ribs, by their peripheries being grooved in like manner; so that a wheel, in effect, possesses as many diameters as there are variations in the surface of its periphery, by which means it may be made to travel faster or slower, as may be desired.

The following engravings will render these plans intelligible to the reader. a is the boiler of a steam-engine; b the engine with two cylinders, the alternating motion of the piston in which gives rotation to the crank c above; the rods e e, attached to the same, being also fixed to the crank of the horizontal shaft fff (which passes under the carriages), causes that to revolve with a similar speed to the crank of the engine. Two square boxes, 9 g, are fixed under each carriage; through these the axletrees of each pair of wheels pass; the rotatory shaft f passes also through the boxes above the axletrees, and at right angles with them; each of the boxes gg contain a double-beveled horizontal wheel, which presents a circle of cogs in its upper as well as its lower side, and turns upon cross bearings now the shaft ƒ carrying upon it a vertical beveled pinion in each box, takes into the upper circle of teeth of the horizontal wheel, while the under circle of the teeth of the same actuate a beveled pinion on the axletree underneath, consequently compelling the wheels to revolve; and the power being thus applied to every pair of wheels simultaneously, sufficient resistance is obtained, on a smooth surface, to ascend inclined planes of considerable elevation. uuuu are the universal joints, which communicate rotatory motion when the carriages are not in a straight line; these, and other moving parts are distinctly shown in Fig. 2, which is upon a larger scale. ffis the rotatory shaft; gg the two boxes, with the front plates moved, to show the

VOL. II.

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