The Sun.
London, England, 1829-10-26 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL.

(Prom the Scotsman.)

It is melancholy to observe how rarely objects,
events, or individuals are estimated according to
their true importance. All the principal pens in
London at this moment are at work upon the
Turkish Treaty, the New Police, Cobbett's
Corn, Mr. Lister's tragedy, the Newark meet-
ing,—and perhaps, one or two " most bloody
and barbarous " murders. We have columns
and pages filled day after day, with comments on
these matters, which two months hence will be
completely superseded by something equally
ephemeral, while we have not seen in one of the
Metropolitan prints a single remark on the ex-
periments at Liverpool, which unveil mechanical
truths of such stupendous importance, that if oh-
jects are to be judged of by their influence on
the condition of man, the Russian campaigns,
the Catholic Question,—nay, though some may
stare, we will add—the French Revolution, sink
into nothing in the comparison ! How trifling
was the effect produced by all the wars of the
fifteenth century on the state of the world, com-
pared with the discovery of Printing ? And
how little were the consequences of that dis-
covery understood by the cotemporaries of Faust
and Guttenburg ? The experiments at Liver-
pool have established principles which will give
a greater impulse to civilization than it has ever
received from any single cause since the Press
first opened the gates of knowledge to the hu-
man species at large. They may be said to have
furnished man with wings, to have supplied him
with faculties of locomotion, of which the most
sanguine could not have dreamed a few years
ago. Even steam navigation gives but a faint
idea of the wondrous power which this new
agent has put into our hands. It is no exag-
geration to say, that the introduction of steam
carriages on railways places us on the verge of a
new era—of a social revolution of which imagi-
gination cannot picture the ultimate effects.
We have given in the present and preceding
numbers of our Paper the full details of these
experiments, and need not do more here than
sum up in a few words the general results.
The three best engines, when yoked to loads
equal to three times their own weight, respec-
tively performed as follows ;—The first travelled
at the rate of 11 miles, the second of 14 miles,
and the third of 20i miles in an hour. The
distances passed over were not short in these
cases, the first having travelled 70 miles, the
second 25, and the third 21. In another trial,
the lightest engine was proceeding at the rate of
24 miles an hour with its full load, when the
joint of a pipe failed, and stopped its motion.
It is to be observed, too, that the engines worked
under considerable disadvantages.. The piece
of railroad selected for the experiment being only
1/ mile long, the engine had to check its velo-
city, make a full pause, and begin again about 12
times in going 20 miles. A great amount of
power was thus wasted, and in many cases the
engine perhaps had not acquired its maximum
or terminal velocity, when the stop took place.
We run no risk, therefore, in saying, that the
performance upon an unbroken line of road of
the full length travelled over, would have been
greater than the average of these short trips,
One of the heavier engines (the Rocket),
drew 36 passengers, in a carriage at a velocity
which sometimes reached 28 miles an hour !
The lightest engine (the Novelty) when loaded
with 45 passengers in waggons, made several
trips with a velocity of 22 miles an hour, at an
average ; but when she was going at her greatest
speed, she travelled at the scarcely credible rate
of 32 miles an hour !

The Rocket also drew a number of passengers
(about 30, we believe,) up an inclined plane,
rising one foot in 96, at the rate of 12 miles an
hour. This single fact shows how much the
powers of the locomotive engine have been un-
derrated ; for Mr. Walker, in the Report which
we noticed on Wednesday last, inferred from the
facts he had collected, that the entire power of
one of these machines would be consumed in
dragging its own weight up an acclivity like this,
at two or three miles per hour.

We are quite aware that the performance of
a single engine, when its powers are tasked by
way of experiment, and for a short time, will ex-
ceed the average rate of a number working per-
manently. But against this we must place, on
the other hand, the disadvantage of having the
motion checked and renewed every five or six
minutes, the inexperience of our engineers in the
construction of machines for such rapid rates of
motion, and the accidents to which first attempts
are liable. The Novelty, the most successful of
the engines, was the first which the makers had
ever built. Making due allowances for these
circumstances, we have not the slightest doubt
that we have it now in our power to command a
velocity of 30 miles an hour on a level well made
railroad, or 25 miles allowing for the necessary
stops ; and we know that this is the opinion of
some of the most skilful engineers who witnessed
these experiments. Such a rapid rate of travel-
ling, of course, will not be attempted at first.
Perhaps it would be attended with too much
danger to be permanently adopted at any time ;
but taking it as the extreme term of what is
practicable, we may approach as near to it as
circumstances will permit. No one who saw
the experiments doubts that twenty or twenty-
'four miles an hour is within reach, safely and
easily, whenever a double railway is laid, (as it
will be by and bye) to allow of two different ve-
locities being employed; a slow one for goods,
and a quick one for passengers.
Twenty years ago, we believe, the mails did
not travel faster than about seven miles an hour
From seven miles it was raised to eight, and
every one cried out what an improvement ! From
eight it was raised to nine, and this was hailed
as nothing less than " prodigious !" Attempts
are now making to force it up to ten miles an
hour, but at any thing beyond this, to a certainty
horse power fails us. How thee► shall we find
terms adequate to express the value of a dis-
covery which lifts us at once from nine miles to
20 or 24 miles an hour !—which carries us as
far beyond the speed of the mail, as the mail is
beyond that of a brewer's dray, or a carrier's
waggon !

The extraordinary speed of this conveyance is
only one of its many advantages. A friend of
ours, who was present at all the experiments,
and in the waggon when going at 32 miles an

hour, assures us that the motion is so rematlia'ily
smooth and easy, that if you fix your eyes on the
inside of the machine, or on any:distant object,
you cannot believe that you are travelling fas'er
than in an ordinary stage coach, and it is on!v
when you look at the hedges, trees, ci -house
close to the road, and see them vanishing like
meteors, that you get an idea of the tremendous
velocity of your movement. The Editor of the
Leeds Mercury, who was present, says, " We
had the pleasure to travel on a level at the rate
of 28 miles an hour, with as little appearance of
danger, and even of undue speed, as is felt in a
.tage coach travelling on the highway at the
ordinary speed. The motion, indeed, of tlin
carriage was so light, that the passenger?, could
.ead with perfect ease at the period of its utmost
velocity, and, if the springs on which the katriago
for passengers was mounted had been in perfeett
order, we think it would not have been very W.--
ficult to write." Were the vehicle nicely poised
on springs, and covered in to exclude the external
ourrent of air created by its motion, you might
imagine that you were in a state of perfect rest,
while you are flying along the surface with the
speed of a racer. Then the steam-horse is oa
apt, like his brother of flesh and blood, to be
frightened from his propriety by sudden panics
which defy the prudence and skill of the driver.
Explosion, if it takes place, will not injure the
passengers, for they are in a separate vehicle,
and the enginemen may be trusted with the care
of their own lives. The rails, too, which confine
and regulate the tnotion, of the engine and car-
riage, keeping them upon one invariable line,
and that line perfectly smooth, lessen the chances
of accident in a remarkable degree, as the pro.
ceedings at Liverpool shear ; for though scores
of persons were hanging about the.camagea, and
thousands standing along the sides of the paths/
and pressing within a few inches of the machines/
while moving with their utmost speed, not a
single individual received the smallest injury. In
day light, and with good arrangements, our
friend's opinion is (and few are more competent
to judge), that travelling in the steam coach at
twenty miles an hour may be much more safe as
well as pleasant, than in an ordinary stage "coaal,
at eight or nine.
One of the great recommendations of this
species of conveyance will be its cheapness. It
is expected that goods will be carried from Man-
chester to Liverpool for less than ss. per ton.
Men, of course, cannot be packed like bales of
calico, but let us allow them five times the spaces
and suppose that the charge is in proportion.
Now, since twelve passengers, with their luggage,
are reckoned equal to a ton in the mails, it fol.-
lows that a place in the steam coach from Matt,
chester to Liverpool should cost the twelfth part
of 2Ss. or 2s. We may arrive at the same re-
sult by another process. It may be inferred
from one of the 'experiments that the Novelty
would carry 50 passengers from the one town to
the other at the rate of 20 miles an hour, and
would of course yield the proprietors the sum of
Si. by an hour and half's work. Six trips a day
performed at this rate would produce 30/.
which we conceive would make the conveyance
of passengers a very profitable branch of trade.
As the Railway Company will have a monopoly,
they may probably charge more at first, but
when railway carriage is subjected like other
branches of business to the law of competition,
we imagine the terms will not be higher than we
have stated.

Let us now take the speed and the cheapness
together, and see what changes this new mode of
conveyance is likely to produce, when railways
are made along all our great thoroughfares. Let
us suppose the speed to be 20 miles an hour,
and the expence ls. for 15 miles of road; and
the fares by ordinary stage coaches about 4d. per
mile.

The journey from London to York by the
mail costs at present about 31., and occupies 23
hours. By the steam-coach it will be accom-
plished in 10 hours, at at an expence of 14s. T.
The ,saving of money and time will be as great
in the case of Liverpool and Manchester, which
are at nearly the same distance from the metro-
polis. A Leeds or Manchester manufacturer
may take an early breakfast in his own house at
seven, dine in London at five, transact business
that night or next morning, and reach his home
on the following evening, while a two-pound
note will cover his whole expences
The journey from Manchester to Liverpool,
or from Liverpool to Manchester (31 miles),
will be performed at an expence of 23. in one
hour and a half, or, as some already anticipate,
in one hour. Now, an active pedestrian in the
metropolis will spend two hours in going from
Grosvenor-square to Wapping; or, with the
luxury of a hackney coach, he may go in one
hour, at an expence of 7s. Thus, by the ad-
mirable invention of steam carriages, Liverpool
and Manchester will be brought nearer to one
another, in a moral, social, and commercial sense,
that the extremities of London now are. If
this be not absolutely annihilating time and
space, it is abridging both in a wonderful degree.
Suppose that an Edinburgh man has a friend
to visit or business to transact in London ; his
journey up costs him two days travelling, with a
sacrifice of two nights rest, and a sum of 71. ;
and his journey down the same. By the steam-
coach and railway he will be able to reach Lon-
don in 20 hours without losing one night's
sleep, at an expence of 265. or 365., including
his food ; and his journey home will be per-
formed in the same time, and at the same ex-
pence. If we compare the two cases, the time
will be as 2i to 1, the expence as 4 to 1, and
comfort and convenience as 6 to 1, in favour of
steam conveyance. The inducements to travel
would be in something like a compound ratio of
all these, or, to speak moderately, as 20 or 30
to 1.

An Edinburgh dealer might send off a letter
at eight at night on Monday, which would be
delivered to the manufacturer in Leeds or Man-
chester at eight on Tuesday morning. The
latter might despatch the goods ordered in the
course of the same day, and they would reach
the dealer when his shop opened on Wednesday
morning. Thus only one entire day would
elapse betwixt writing the order and receiving
the articles. The manufacturer's sale-room in
Manchester would, in this case, be almost as
much at the shopkeeper's command, as his own
warehouse in a neighbouring street.
An Edinburgh merchant could leave his house
at seven, breakfast in Glasgow at nine, (assum-
ing that a railway is made), transact business
there till two, and be home to his own dinner at
cfoouarch.,ahtirea,n
ande xpelns. ce6od.
for7s.fb
6d, namely,
ely,
At 6 s.for
pre-
sent the journey, including subsistence and a
night's lodging, would cost him seven times as
much.

Within a few years after steam navigation was
introduced on the Clyde, the intercourse be-
tween Glasgow and Greenock, according to Mr.
Cleland, was increased tenfold. The expellee
in this case was reduced about two-thirds, but