* Unfortunately, there then sprang up a belief in men's minds that such a locomotive could not travel on an aseeut ; that the wheels would not bite " on the rails, but would slip while they rotated, making no onward advance.
They tried it on a tramroad at Merthyr Tydvil in 1804, where, according to Stuart, "it travelled at the rate of five miles an hour, and drew as many carriages as contained ten tons of iron, for a distance of nine miles, without requiring any water to be introduced into the boiler from the period of its starting until it had reached the end of its journey.  "* Unfortunately, there then sprang up a belief in men's minds that such a locomotive could not travel on an aseeut ; that the wheels would not " bite " on the rails, but would slip while they rotated, making no onward advance.  If any one had had the forethought to test this theory, by constructing a piece of inclined railway for the purpose, much vexation, contention, expense, and loss of time would have been saved ; instead of this, engineers sought for a cure for the evil, without haviug ascertained that the evil really existed.