The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-24 00:00:00

CARRIAGE.

We have the pleasure of laying before our rea-
ders this day, a very accurate description of Mr.
Buratall's steam carriage, which we hope shortly W
see travelling in full career upon our roads. Mr,
Burstall has made material alterations in his plan
since we described his coach tiro years ago : and
with the view of getting a correct idea of the actual
Working of the machine at a moderate expense, he
has constructed the model coach which is exhibited
in the Waterloo Rooms. The model coach is upon
a scale of three inches to the foot, or one-fourth
linear measure, of the size of the full machine. As
this proportion is accurately preserved in all the
parts,the model not only exhibits a faithful repre-
sentation of the carriage to be used on the roads,
but affords a measure of ite'performance, though net
of course a very correct one, .because models are
scarcely ever so carefully made as machines of a fUll
size, and are generally liable to a much greater waste

of power. •
The coach is exactly of the common form, and
carries six inside and twelve outside pes,:engers, but
it has an additional pair of wheels behind for sup-
porting the boiler. The length of the model is Si
feet, its height 22 inches; the length of the fall
sized coach, with its engine, will be 22 feet ; its
height 7 feet 4 inches. The steersman or driver sits
on front, aid, by. turning a circular horizontal plate,
gives the first pair • of wheels a direction to the
right or the left, as in a common coach, when the
bends of the road require it. The boiler is sup-
ported by an iron frame, extending from the second
to the third pair of.wheels. It is shaped like a bee-
hive or cone, and will be about 41 feet high in the
full machine, exclusive of the chimney. The fire is in
the middle, and the water and steam on the outside.
The engine is on the high-pressure principle ; and
the boiler, which is of copper, is made strong enough
to bear a pressure of 300 pounds on the inch, though
it is intended to work with only 25 pounds. Two
cylinders are employed, as in ships. They occupy
the hind boot, resting exactly ou the axle of the
middle wheels; and in the model are three inches in
diameter, with a stroke of three inches. The cistern
is below. The engine pumps up water for itself,
which passes from the cistern by a pipe; another
pipe conveys the steam to the cylinders; a third
pipe carries off the waste steam from the cylinders
into the chimney, from which, being expanded by
the heat, it escapes invisibly. The engine when
worked. with steam of 25 pounds, will be of
wholeoften
horse power in the full-sized carriage, turd ti
weight of the engine and carriage, with the cLarge
of fuel and water, will be about three tons.:
We saw the model carriage at work on Saturday
last.—lt travelled round a circle of 17 feet diameter,
on an uneven deal floor, with a speed equal to seven 1,
or eight miles an hour. It carried no' load, but this
was of little consequence, because, in point of fact,
the weight of the machine itself, with its fuel and
water, is so great, that a full assortment of passengers
makes but an' inconsiderable addition to it. At .the
Waterloo Rooms it will be exhibited with a load
equivalent to the weight of eighteen passengers. We
need not inform persons skilled in mechanics, that ,
the mode adopted of exhibiting its performance ne-
cessarily does it injustice; for the loss of power is
unavoidably great when a machine - like this, with
six wheels, travels in a circle, the diameter of which
is only three or four times its own length.
Mr. Burstall has avoided one error into which Mr.
Gurney seems to us to have fallen. The boiler,
which forms so great a part of the entire weight, is
placed near the ground, and the cistern being under
the axle of the middle wheels, the centre of gravity
of the whole machine is thus kept much lower than
in Mr. Gurney's, which must contribute greatly to
the stability and safety of the vehicle. The steam
coach will travel by stages like the vehicles now in
use ; she will require to stop about once an hour, to
renew her supply of water and fuel; but a very few
minutes will suffice for the operation.
With regard to, the danger attending the use of
steam coaches, our own impression is, that it will
be smaller than what attaches to our present modes
of conveyance. If nothing less than a speed of
eight or ten miles an hour will serve us, we must_be
dragged by horses, which have a good deal of blood
in them ' • and such horses will now and then have
their freaks, and set the skill and prudence of the
driver at defiance. But the steam power, if the ap-
. paratus is rightly constructed, has no will of its own,
but will always be amenable to the hand of the
j steersman. With proper precautions, the danger of
explosion may be entirely obviated. It may either be
wholly prevented, or so regulated that' if it does
occu.is it shall operate in a direction which will injure
nobody. Steam coaches, when once introduced, will
probably have this further advantage, that, upon good
roads, the velocity we shall be able to command
will have no other limits than such as are prescribed
by the danger of the vehicle or machinery flying to
pieces. The rate of sailing in steam-boats has al-
ready been carried beyond what some clever men
considered as its natural limits. In calm ,water
twelve miles an hour are now frequently attained in
this country. The Americans, who are a nation of
travellers, and will have rapid motion at all risks,
even go, a good deal beyond this. We conversed
with a gentleman from the United States a few days
ago, who recently arrived here, and he assures us,
that the newest steam boats navigating the Hudson,
perform the voyage from New York to Albany, 160
miles, in the incredibly' short period of 10f 'hours..
Of about four hundred steam-boats, plying on' the
rivers and coasts of the United States, a great ma-
jority, probably two-thirds of the whole, have high
pressure engines. Yet accidents are rare, and per-
sons of all classes travel in them with confidence.
We do not take upon us to pronounce as to the
final success of Messrs. Burstall and Hill's attempt-
We have little doubt that a steam-coach capable of
travelling will soon be constructed, and we think
they have as fair a chance to succeed as any of their
competitors. But the task of making a machine
that shall have sufficient motive power to carry a ton
or a ton and a half besides its own weight, and to
encounter all the inequalities of declivity and surface
occurring in our common toads; that shall also work
steadily amidst the incessant shaking and jolting
prodtrialsuceds
in bwy
fe
ai
lsaur
ree,.. rapidh oviur.reen
vodetori
not
t,ohtinvolvt es e mytdhajaffintenudelati
el
nearly
are
r superable,i cs for whichm,e allowance
shall
h nl
not
o t despairm ust
bobaufeni
of
building
ehraieagemvd
even
naviga-
tion improve-
ment, Poi
third
mr,
Miller's
Int
yter,e:tstlrisboouaeglthaapnsfiedr first, anti
be
eatnlvdeen
second,th e
introduction
into common use, during all which time the
Opinion of superficial observers was, that steam na-
vigation had been brought to the test of experiment
and found impracticable.—Seolsnian.

At a Court of Examiners held at the Royal
College of Surgeons on Friday, the 21st inst., Sir A.
CooraK, President, the following Gentlemen, after being
strictly examined as to their skill in the science .of anatomy
and surgery, were admitted as members of that incorporate
body :
Mr..la.atxs YEARSLET, Cheltenham.
ARTHUR MATTHEWS, Gosport.
WiLmAil Yount:, Narbeth.
ALEXANDER BLACK, Aberdeen.
WILLIATti JOHN THOMAS, Liverpool.
ALEXANDER WILSON, Ireland.
ROBERT Ha al LTO24, Nottinghamshire.
ROBERT RISEBROOK Moan's, Northamptonshire.
TOOKER COOBAN, Plymouth.
After their examination the President, in the name of
the Court, complimented them on the knowledge which
they had that evening ,hewn, adding that they were not
only a credit to themselves but to those whom they studied
under, and that no doubt the inhabitants of those places
where they intended to practice would find in them valuable
acquisitions not only as surgeons but gentlemen.

The Framework-knitters held a meeting at
Red-la, on Monday, pursuant to atl3ourninent. About
150 persons assembled on the occasion, and a feeling ^f
the most conciliatory kind pervaded the meeting. Arb"
tic-meeting of the trade is to he held at the Crois rs'
in Nottingham, on Plough-Menday.—Nottingl. Re.
view.