Star.
London, England, 1829-09-28 00:00:00

MR. GURNEY'S IMPROVED STEAM
CARRIAGE.
Mr. Gurney, in perfecting this invention, has followed
Dr. Franklin's advice—to tire and begin again. It is now four
)esrs since be first commenced his ingenous enterprise. He began
with a large boiler, but public prejudice was too strong for it ;
.11441 knowing people talked of high pressure accidents ; the steam
could not, of course, be altogether got rid of, so to divide the
danger, Mr. Gurney made his boiler in forty welded iron pipes ;
situ the steam ran in a main pipe beneath the whole of the car-
riage, and the evil was but modified. At length the inventor has
.letached the engine and boiler, or localotive part of the appa-
l. stir..., which is now to be fastened • to the carriage, and may he
.)11,1dt:fed as a STILA2I.IIOII3I, with no more danger than we should
,•Pitrthend from a restive animal, in whose veins the steam or
mettle circulates with too high a'pressure. Fair trials have been made
of the Improved Carriage on our common roads, the Premier has
dscided the machine " to be of great national importance," from
sundry experiments witnessed by his Grace, at Hounslow Bar-
racks ; and the coach is announced " really to start next month
(the Ist) in working—not experimental journeys—for' travellers
between London and Bath."• Crack upon crack will follow joke
upon joke; and a journey to Bath and the Hot Wells by steam will
suou he an every-day event.
Descriptions of ?dr. Gurney's carriage have been so often he-
tore the public, that extended detail is unnecessary. The
recent improvements have been perspicuously stated by Mr. He-
rapath of Cranford, in a letter in the Times newspaper, and we
cannot do better than adopt and abridge a portion of his commu-

'deaden.
" The present differs from the earlier carriage, in several im- !
provements in the machinery, suggested by experiment; also in
having no propellers and in having only four wheels instead of
six; the apparatus for guiding being applied immediately to the '
two fore wheels, bearing a part of the weight, instead of two extra
leading wheels bearing little or none. No person can conceive the
absolute controul this apparatus gives to the director of the car-
riage, unless he has had the same opportunities of observing it
which I had in a ride with Mr. Gurney. Whilst the wheels obey
the slightest motions of the hand, a trifling pressure of the foot
keeps them inflexibly steady, however rough the ground. To the
hind axle, which is very strong, and bent into cranks of nine inches
radius, at right angles to each other, is applied the propelling
power, by means of pistons from two horizontal cylinders. By
this contrivance, and a peculiar mode of admitting the steam to
the cylinders, Mr. Gurney has very ingeniously avoided that cum-
bersome appendage to steam-engines, the fly-wheel, and preserves
uniformity of action, by constantly having one cylinder on full
pressure, whilst the other is on the reduced expansive. The dead
points—that is, those in which a piston has no effect from being in
the same right line with its crank,—are also cleared by the same
means. For, as the cranks are at right angles, when one piston Is
at a dead point, the other has a position of maximum effect, and
is then urged by full steam power ; but no sooner has the former
passed the dead point, than an expansion valve opens on it with
full steam, and closes on the latter. Firmly fixed to the extremities
of the axle, and at right angles to it, are the two ' carriers'—(two
strong irons extending each way to the felloes of the wheels).—
These irons may be bolted to the felines of the wheels or not, or to
the felines of one wheel only. Thus the power applied to the axle
is carried at once to the parts of the wheels of least strtss—the cir-
cumferences. By this artifice the wheels are required to be of no
greater strength and weight than ordinary carriage-wheels; and,
like them, they turn freely and independently on the axle ; but one
or both may be secured as part and parcel of the axle, as circum-
stances require. The carriage is consequently propelled by
the friction or hold which either or both hind-wheels, according as
the power is applied to them jointly or separately, have on the
ground. Beneath the hind part drop two irons, with fi feet,
called' shoe-drags.' A well-contrived apparatus, with a spindle pas-
sing up through a hollow cylinder, in which the guiding handle is af-
fixed, enables the director to force one or both drags tight on the
road, so as to retard the progress in a descent, or, if be please, to
raise the wheels off the ground. The propulsive power of the
wheels being by this means destroyed, the carriage is arrested in a
yard or two, though going at the rate of 18 or 20 miles an hour.
On the right hand of the director lies the handle of the throttle.
valve, by which he has the power of increasing or diminishing the
supply of steam ad libitum, and hence of retarding or accelerating
the carriage's velocity. The whole carriage and machinery weigh
about 16 cwt. and with the full complement of water and tote
22 eat. of which, I am informed, about 16 cwt. lie on the bind-

wheels." •
• Mr. H. then enumerates the principle of the improvements:-
" That troublesome appendage the fiy-wheel, as I have observed,
Mr. Gurney has rendered unnecessary. The danger to be appre-
Lended in going over rough pitching, from too rapid a generation
of steam, he .voids by a curious application of springs; and should
these be insufficient, one or two safety valves afford the ultimatums
cf security. He ensures an easy descent down the steepest decli-
vity by his • shoe-drags,' and the power of reversing the action of
the engines. His hands direct, and his foot literally pinches obe-
dience to the course over the roughest and most refractory ground.
The dreadful consequences of boiler-bursting are annihilated by a
judicious application of tubular boilers. Should, indeed, a tube
burst, a hiss about equal to that of a hot nail plunged into water,
contains the sum total of alarm, while a few strokes with a ham-
mer will set all to rights again. Lastly, he has so contrived his
• carriers,' that they shall act without confining the wheels, by
which means there is none of that sliding and consequent cutting
up of the road, which, in sharp turnings, would result trom
inflexi-
ble constraint.
" Hills and loose slippery ground, are well known to be the res
adverse of steam-carriages ; on ordinary level roads they roll along
with rapid facility. in every ascent there are two additional cir-
cumstances inimical to progressive motion. One is, that carriages
pre.. less on the ground of a hill than on that of a plain, thus giv-
ing the wheels a less forcible grasp or bite. But this may be easily
remedied in the structure of a carriage, and is not of very material
consequence in the steepest bills that we have. The other is more
serious. When a carriage ascends a hill, the weight or gravity of
the whole is decomposable into two—one perpendicular. and the
other parallel to the road. The former constitutes the pressure on
the road, the latter the additional work the engine has to per-
form. Universally this is the same part of the whole carriage and
its load together which the perpendicular ascent of the hill is of
iti length. With these principles, if we knew the bite of the
wheels on the road, we could at once subject the powers of Mr.
Gurney's carriage to calculation.
" Now, from one of the experiments made in the barrack-yard
at HoUrislow, I find we can approximate towards it. For in-
stance, with one wheel only fixed to the • carriers,' the carriage
drew itself and load of water and coke (about one ton); with three
men on it, and a waggon behind of 16 cwt. containing 27 soldiers.
This, at the rate of 14 cwt. to a man, in round numbers is
4 tons. Estimating the force of traction of opting carriages at a
twelfth of the total weight, it consequently gives a hold or bite on
the road of 142 of 4 tons, or 6 2-3rda cwt. per wheel, or 13
1-3rd cwt. for the two wheels. This is likewise the propelling
force of the carriage. Supposing, therefore, we were ascending a
hill of 1 foot rise in 8, which I am assured exceeds in steepness
any bill we have, we should be able to draw a load behind of
2 tons 2 cwt., or between 3 and 4 tons altogether. ...
•• On a good level road I think it not improbable it might
draw, instead of 7 tons which our experiment would give, Irons
10 tc 11, besides its own weight, or 100 ordinary men, exclusive
of .'or 5 tons for carriages ; said up one of our steepest hills,
3,10ns besides itself, or 25 men besides a ton for a carriage. This
it would do at a rate of 8,9, or 10 miles an hour. Fee it is a
singular feature in this carriage, and which was remarked by many
at the time, that it maintained very nearly the same speed with a
waggon and 27 men, that it did with the carriage and only five or
six persons. But there is a fact connected with this machine still
more extraordinary. For instance, every additional cwt. we shift
on the hind or working wheels, will Increase the power of traction
in our steepest hills upwards of 4 cwt. and on the level road half
a ton. Such, then, is the paradoxical nature of steam-carriages,
that the very circumstance which in animal exertion would weaken
and retard, will here multiply their strength and accelerate. This,
no doubt, Mr. Gurney's ingenuity will soon turn to profitable ac-
count.
•• It has often been asserted that carriages of this sort could not
go above six or seven miles an hour. I can see no reasonable ob-
jection to 20. The following fact, decided before a large company
in the barrack-yard, will best speak for itself :—At eighteen mi-
nutes after three I ascended the carriage with Mr. Gurney. After
we had gone about half way round, • Now,' said Mr. Gurney,
• I will show you her speed.' He did, and we completed seven
turns round the outside of the road by twenty-eight minutes
after three. If, therefore, as I was there assured, two and a half
turns measured one mile, we went Y.B mils% in ten minutes; that
is, at the rate of 16.8, or nearly 17 miles per hour. But as Mr.
Gurney slackened its motion once or twice In the course of trial,
to speak to some one and did not go at an equal rate all the way
round for fear of accident in the crowd, it is clear that sometimes
we must have proceeded at the rate of upwards of twenty miles
Engraving will furnish the reader with a correct' idea of
Mr. Gurney's improvements as are most interesting to the
The present arrangement is certainly very prefetab.e to
• h.gler and engine in immediate contact with tbe car-
is to convey goods and 'istieengers. Men of science
much divided on the practical economy of Using steam

an hoer.

Literary Gazette. Sept. 19, 1899.
propellers I am informed, are not abselutely discarded.
now sot filed. but movable. and reserved for extreme
emergencies, or for certain military purposes.

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