behind the carriage; and the fore part of the carriage is entirely for the convenience of passengers, being made of greater or less length according to the number of persons. The guide sits in front, at l, and steers by means of a wheel, o, placed horizontally, as in Mr. Gurney's carriage; with this difference, that instead of the vertical spindle having a pinion at p, it is made with a horizontal drum or shive, upon which the middle of a chain is fastened; the ends of the chain are attached to the different ends of the fore-axletree in such manner that one or other of the fore-wheels may be hauled forward to turn the carriage. One important improvement in the guide-motion has been made by Mr. Hancock, which is by means of a friction-strap or band at p, passed round a small friction drum; the guide can, by pressing a pedal with his foot, tighten this band on the drum when the carriage does not require to be turned out of the straight course. When the carriage is thus held in its line of direction, the guide's hands may be released from the tiller-wheel, o; for the jolting of the wheels over rough pavement or other inequalities of a road, are not sufficient to slip the friction-band. In case of requiring to turn, the guide's foot is either relaxed or taken off the pedal, and the tiller, o, worked by his hands. This band is of great importance in many cases, and by it a guide with feeble arms may steer as well as a Hercules. This carriage is capable of carrying sixteen passengers, besides the engineer and guide. The weight of it, inclusive of engines, boilers, coke, and water, but exclusive of attendants and passengers, is about three and a half tons.

The wheel tires are 3 inches wide. The diameter of hind wheels, 4 feet. The width of tire is not considered by the patentee to be so objectionable in practice as it might be considered. This he accounts for, by the variable nature of the roads; "a broad wheel on gravel is considered to be an advantage; it is however a great disadvantage on a road between wet and dry; but in those latter cases we have always an overplus of power (steam) blowing off at the safety-valve." Blowing off steam, either from the safety-valve or from the engines, creates no nuisance, because it is injected "into the fire in every direction," and so destroyed. The carriage can be turned in little more than ten feet, and stopped in much shorter space than any horse-coach. A metallic band, pressing upon the outer part of the wheel, is applied as a drag or brake when descending hills. In slippery roads, or steep hills, both hind wheels are connected with the engine, in order to increase the adhesion to the road; but in general one driving wheel is found to be sufficient.

"In October, 1832, Mr. Hancock determined to make a trip to Brighton. On Wednesday, October 31, this steam carriage came from Stratford, through the streets of the city, at the different speeds necessary to keep its place behind or before other carriages as occasion required, and took up its quarters on Blackfriars Road, to prepare for the following day's trial. Accompanied by a scientific friend, a distinguished officer in the navy, I joined Mr. Hancock's friends on the next morning, making eleven passengers in all. We started at the rate of nine miles an hour, and kept this speed until we arrived at Redhill, (where all the coaches at this season require six horses,) which we ascended at the speed of between five and six miles an hour. The bane of the journey was an insufficient supply of coke and water; the water, indeed, we were obliged to suck up with one of Hancock's flexible hose pipes, at such ponds and streams as we could find. These difficulties delayed the completion of the journey (subsequently performed by steam in less than five hours) till next day; but on our return our speed was much increased, and one mile was accomplished up hill, at the speed of seventeen miles per hour."-Elemental Locomotion, p. 111.

"Reverting to the history of my carriages," observes Mr. Hancock, "I may remark that the Infant was the first steam carriage that ran on a common road for hire, which it commenced in February, 1831, between Stratford and London, and on which duty it continued several weeks in regular performance; but as I had not at this early period practised any person in steering, and my presence being required at home, I was under the necessity of taking it off the road. This carriage was also the first one that steamed through the public streets of the city of London.

"My time was now engaged in building a powerful carriage, the Era, which has only worked on proof on the roads in the neighbourhood, and been once to Windsor, in 1832, the parties for whom it was built not having yet come to any determination upon it.

"A steam carriage company, The London and Paddington,' being now formed, I entered into agreement to build three carriages for them; the first of which, to have been titled the Demonstration, afterwards altered to Enterprise, was put to work between the City and Paddington, in April, 1833. It ran for sixteen succeeding days, and performed more than was stipulated for; but some disagreement led to the dissolution of this company, and the Enterprise became mine again by purchase, on the company winding up its affairs, which was nearly two years after the carriage was delivered to them; during all which time it stood in an open yard, belonging to the company's engineer, serving the office of a model for him to build another carriage by.'

These untoward circumstances, however, only served to renew the energies of Mr. Hancock, who busied himself in completing a new carriage for his own use, which he significantly denominated the Autopsy; it was brought upon the road in the same year (1833), and commenced running for hire between the city and Islington, in October, which it continued till the end of November. An engraved representation of this carriage is given on the adjoining page; but as it may be remarked that the introduction, in this place, of a carriage built in 1833, does not accord with our intended chronological arrangement, it is proper we should explain, that this carriage contains nothing essentially different from the Infant, and that it can only be regarded as a second and more splendid edition of that carriage. All Mr. Hancock's subsequent carriages are built upon the same model in an engineering point of view; therefore, to keep the history of Mr. Hancock's locomotive career in a connected state, we shall here insert his brief account of all his carriages.

"During the winter I built the Era (now the Erin). This carriage commenced running for hire on the Paddington road, in August, 1834, on which duty it continued daily in company with the Autopsy, for upwards of three months, when I took them off in order to repaint and embellish the Era with appropriate devices, and alter its title to Erin, ready to fulfil an invitation that I had received from some gentlemen at Dublin, who were desirous of seeing its performances in their city. In the summer of this year (1834) I built a drag for a gentleman at Vienna, for which place it was shipped in July, after having stood satisfactory tests by taking it on different roads, with a loaded carriage attached.

"At the latter end of December I shipped the Erin for Dublin, and run it there, and in the vicinities, during the greatest part of January, 1835, much to the gratification of the inhabitants, it being the first that had run in that country.

"In 1835 I built a drag, by order, for Dublin, which has given most satisfactory proof of its power and efficiency, but which is still upon my hands.

"During the year 1835 I also brought out a gig calculated for the accommodation of three persons. I have run it repeatedly, and it is not to be believed by any but those who have travelled by it, how easy the motion of it is; I do not know the limit of its speed; probably from 27 to 30 miles, but it is seldom worked more than 17 or 18 miles per hour.

"In May this year (1836) I again put the carriages upon the Stratford and Paddington roads, and they have continued running daily for hire up to the present time (October) with all the precision and success that could be desired.

"In the month of July this year, a new and powerful carriage, the Automaton, was brought out, and has taken its share of work on the Paddington road, per forming with the Infant in fine weather, these being both open carriages, whilst the Erin and Enterprise have run in wet weather.

"To avoid confusion in my narrative, I have not noticed in the order of time, many journeys which the carriages have performed; I might name amongst others, that the Infant, in the autumn of 1832, ran to Brighton, the

first steam carriage that had been seen there; again it ran there in the summer of 1833, as did also the Autopsy. The first day the Automaton was worked, it took a party to Romford and back, without the smallest repair or alteration being required; the speed was from 10 to 12 miles per hour: this carriage has, within the last fortnight, run twice to Epping, each time with a party desirous of witnessing its performance on that hilly road; it travelled on the ordinary road at 12 to 14 iniles, and ascended the hills, which are very steep, at 7 or 8 miles per hour." (We annex a representation of the Automaton, extracted from the Mechanics' Magazine.)

"The carriages have all proved more powerful than I had expected; the first time I was forcibly acquainted with this fact was whilst running for hire in the year 1834. A trifling casualty to the machinery of the Autopsy brought it to a stand, and the Erin was fetched to its assistance, when it towed the Autopsy up Pentonville-hill to the station in the City-road, without any material diminution of its speed, although this, as well as the other carriages, had only been calculated to carry a certain number of passengers, with water and fuel for the trip. The average working speed of all the carriages is from 10 to 12 miles an hour, though they may be pushed far beyond this. The fuel costs about twopence-halfpenny a mile. The wear and tear is principally confined to the boilers, fireplaces, and wheels; but this is not so great as might be expected; and some of the carriages now running have had their boilers in use upwards of two years; when they are worn out it is only the chambers that require renewing, for my boilers are so constructed that all the main and expensive parts, such as bolts, stays, &c., will last for many years, and wear out several sets of chambers. As to the machinery, the wear and tear appears to be very trifling, as far as the carriages have yet performed; they have, in many respects, actually improved and even the Infant, which has been so many years in action, is in as good condition as ever it was in the original parts of its machinery.

"It may be readily supposed, that in bringing out a novelty of the kind now under consideration, and putting it into actual and effective operation, we have not been without accidents in our career, but are happy to say they have been few, and of trivial amount, with the exception of one, which was that of a workman, who, by a daring of the most imprudent stamp, caused an accident, which, whilst it proved the general safety of my boiler, I regret to say, deprived him of life. This statement was fully borne out to the satisfaction of the coroner and jury.

"I will now describe the general arrangement of my carriages.

"At the front sits the steersman, who governs the way and speed of the carriage; behind him is the body or open seats of the carriage, whichever may be its build; at the back of the body, and with a good screen or partition between it and the passengers, is the engine room, containing a pair of inverted engines, working direct upon the crank shaft, from which motion is communicated to the axle of the hind or working wheels, by endless chains and pulleys; adjoining the engine room, in the rear, is the boiler, with the fireplace under it. A lad stands behind to feed the fire as the carriage proceeds; and a man competent to judge of the working of the engines and machinery, and also to keep them oiled, is always in the engine room, whilst the carriage is working. The coke is contained in iron boxes at the back of the boiler, and the water for supplying the boiler is contained in tanks under the seats of the carriage. The fire is urged by a revolving blower under the flooring or body of the carriage.

In conclusion, I will give a list of the carriages I have built, with the number of passengers they are each calculated to accommodate; not what they will and actually have carried, for this has sometimes, on particular occasions, been an increase of 50 per cent.; as an instance, the Autopsy, when first running to Islington, in 1833, carried, on two or three trips, 21 or 22 passengers, though its complement is but 12.