have proceeded to examine the several Matters to them referred, and have agreed to the following Report: killing the unfortunate passengers who have trusted themselves to that mode of conveyance. Within these few YOUR Committee having proceeded days the Croydon coach broke dowl, to consider the important subjects recommended to their attention, have thought it incumbent upon them to lose no time in reporting to the House some particulars given in evidence to them, which are not only connected with the preservation of the roads, but also in other respects interesting to the public. By an act passed in the year 1788 (28 Geo. 3. c. 57.) regulations were made for the purpose of limiting the number of persons permitted to travel on the outside of stage coaches or other carriages: and this law was afterwards altered, explained, and anended by an act passed in the year 1790, (30 Geo. 3. c. 34.) by which additional provisions were enacted. It appears to your committee that the salutary regulations provided by these acts have been by a variety of contrivances most grossly evaded, insomuch that instead of six (the number limited by the original act) twenty passengers and more are often carried on the outside of stage coaches. is not unusual to see ten on the roof, three on the box (besides the driver) four behind on what is called the gamon board, and six on the dicky or chair; in all, often above thrice the number intended to be allowed. It These evasions of the law are in several respects of great public disadvantage. 1. It cannot be doubted that machines convey ng such a number of persons and their luggage must be extremely destructive to the Roads: the wheels are narrow, and the weight great; and as these carriages are not liable to the regulations regarding weighing engines, the weight they carry has no limit. 2. From the enormous weight, and the injudicious manner in which such numbers of passengers and their luggage are SO frequently conveyed, namely on the roof (which renders the carriage top heavy, and apt to be overturned) accidents are perpetually happening in one part of the kingdom or another; and indeed scarce a week passes without some of those carriages breaking down, and often from its being overloaded, in consequence of which two persons lost their lives, and several others were severely bruised. For a variety of other instances of the same so.t, your Committee beg leave to refer to the Appendix. Your Committee are persuaded that it is unnecessary for them to dwel any longer upon a subject which they humbly conceive is well entitied to the immediate attention of parliament, by whose authority such disgraceful and dangerous practices can alone be prevented. Second Report of the Committee on Acts relating to Broad Wheels, &c. * YOUR Committee have already communicated to the House some information regarding the subject which they were instructed to consider, namely, "The Regulations as to the Number of Outside Passengers to be conveyed in Stage Coaches;"-They now beg leave to report on the two other points recommended to their attention, namely, 1. The System that ought to be adopted for the greater Ease of Draught in Carriages; and, 2. The best means of preserving the Turnpike Roads and Highways of the Kagdom. From the late period of the session at which your Committee was appointed, they find it impossible to do that justice which they could wish to these important investigations; at the same time they trust, that the information they have collected, and which they how beg leave to submit to the consideration of the house, contains some useful suggestions, which, aided by further inquiries in the course of some future session, will enable parliament to form such a system regarding the public roads, as may be of the most material service in promoting the general interests of the kingdom. 1. Observations respecting Ease of Draught in the Conveyance of Goods. Ease of draught, independent of the state of the roads, which will be afterwards considered, must principally * Published in July 1806. 3 depend on two circumstances: 1. The general nature of the carriage made use of; and, 2.1 he construction of the wheels. 1. Carriages. A variety of carriages have been adopted in different countries, from the sledge to the waggon, with wheels, rolling a surface of sixteen inches each, dragged by from eight to ten, and even twelve horses, and conveying, according to the laws now in force, eight tons in weight. Waggons upon the largest scale may certainly be economical to the proprietor, more especially where the wages of men are high, as one trusty person, with an assistant at inferior wages, can manage a number of horses, and convey, with the like number of horses and attendants, greater burdens, in proportion to the expense, than can be carried on the public roads in any other manner (single horse carts, where two or three can be conducted by one person, as is practised in Scotland, alone excepted) and, if there were no objections to the use of waggons, on account of the destruction which they occasion to the roads (the reparation of which is attended with so heavy an expense to the public) the use of them would be deserving of encouragement, more especially in a commercial country, where it is important that goods should be conveyed at as mode. rate an expense as possible. But your committee are led to believe, from the information which they have acquired, that there are scarcely any materials of which our roads are formed, that can bear the pressure of such enormous weights as these waggons are now allowed by law to carry; in addition to which it may be stated, that the form of their wheels or rollers, whose fellies are sixteen inches broad, and, as now constructed, of a conical shape, is particularly injurious to the roads, as will be more fully explained hereafter. Mr. Russel, of Exeter, one of the most considerable carriers in the kingdom, who is in the habit of using no less a number than two hundred and twenty-four horses, in waggons with wheels having fellies nine inches in * Appendix, No. i. breadth, having endeavoured to improve the construction of his waggons as much as possible: an engraving of one of those waggons, with an account of the dimensions thereof, is annexed.* Machines with two wheels, for conveying goods and other articles, are known under the general name of carts or cars. Of these, single horse carts are in many cases to be preferred; for, though they cannot be adopted with equal advantage where roads are crowded with carriages, and each cart must have a distinct person to attend it, yet where one person can take the charge of two or three single horse carts, which is the case in some parts of the united kingdom, there are no means by which a great quantity of goods can be conveyed at so small an expense. Carts with two horses abreast have been tried in some counties; but those in use are said to be injurious to the roads, from the enormous weights they convey on narrow wheels. It has also been suggested, that carts with three horses abreast might be advantageous. If they were restricted to wheels whose tire was of a breadth proportionate to the weights they were allowed to carry, and of a cylindrical form, the value of this species of cart would be particularly felt in hilly countries, not only as all the horses could be more easily managed by the driver, so as to oblige them to act with all their force together in dragging the machine up-hill, but they would also be equally employed in resisting the weight of the carriage in the descent.† This kind of machine, if it answers the expectation formed of it, might be of considerable service in his Majesty's ordnance and military departments. On the whole, the proper form of carriages for the conveyance of goods, in different circumstances, is a subject which still requires further investiga tion, and accurate experiments, before the principles thereof can be fully ascertained. 2. Wheels. This extensive subject may he considered under the following general heads: 1. The form of the rim or felly: 2. The nature and position of the spokes: 3. The breadth of the wheels: 4. Their height, and the line of draught: 5. The position of the axle: 6. The weights allowed to be carried; and, 7. The experiments necessary to be tried, for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the wheels, and the construction of carriages best calculated for ease of draught in dif ferent circumstances. Cases 1. Form of the rim and felly. The rims of all wheels that have an equal bearing on their whole breadth must either be of a cylindrical or conical form. Some are rather rounded; and in some the law is evaded by a single strake being raised above the general surface of the tire; by which means wheels of a considerable breadth, having but a narrow bearing on the road, operate as injuriously on them as narrow wheels. Your committee understanding that Mr. Cumming, of Pentonville, has long paid particular attention to this branch of the subject, and that he had contrived machinery, by which the effects of cylindrical and conical wheels, both in regard to the preservation of the roads, and the labour of the cattle, were ascertained, they requested his attendance. It appears from the information with which he furnished your committee, that in the acts which have been passed for proportioning the breadth of cart and waggon wheels to the weight of the loaded carriage, it was a condition, that the wheel should be flat on the sole, so as to have an equal bearing on its whole breadth; and this description has for very many years been thought sufficient to secure all the advantage that could be gained by increasing the breadth of the wheel. But it appears that this description applies equally to wheels whose rims are of a cylmdrical or of a conical shape, although the effects of those different shapes on the roads, and on the labour of the cattle, are not only different, but very contrary to each other: and it has unfortunately so happened, that the most unfavourable has been universally adopted. Mr. Cumming, in an essay on that subject, has compared and contrasted the properties of the cylinder and of the cone, and from them has demonstrated the effect which broad wheels, of the conical and of the cylindrical shape, must have on the roads, and on the labour of cattle; that wheels of a conical shape have a constant tendency to impair, and those of a cylindrical shape to im prove them. By a most ingenious and well adapted apparatus, he has exhibited to us experiments (an account of which will be found in the Appendix) from which the following facts may be deduced. That there is a resistance from the partial dragging at the periphery of every wheel that is of a conical shape; that it grinds the hardest materials, and leaves the surface of the roads in a state to imbibe water, and adds considerably to the labour of the cattle; and that this resistance, so injurious to the roads, and to the cattle, is increased, by increasing the breadth of the conical wheel. That wheels that are cylindrical have no such dragging at their circumference, no such grinding or deranging of the materials; and that the cylindrical wheel, by its progressive dead pressure, consolidates and unites the materials, and leaves the surface smooth, close, and impenetrable to water; and that on a regular, wellformed, clean read, the resistance to the progress of the cylindrical wheel is not increased by increasing the breadth; and that the cylindrical shape is the best possible, it being the only form of the rim that can have an equal velocity of all the parts of its periphery. Mr. Cumming, in his essay, has enu:nerated nine resistances which occasionally obstruct the progress of a carriage; but that of the dragging of the conical rim being the only one that is constant, and the least attended to, it is herein exclusively. considered. With deep snow, deep sludge, and in general with deep roads, the resistance to the front of the wheel increases with its breadth; and for this reason it may be proper to recommend for the present no greater breadth than from 9 to 12 inches; and as many broad wheels are now made, that are rounded on the sole or periphery, and they are neither a part of a perfect cylinder or cone, their properties must be estimated according to their affinity to the one or the other. But as all these have not an equal bearing on their whole breadth, they must partake in a proportional degree of the disadvantages of narrow wheels; they form the surface of the roads into ruts or flutes, and, by constantly shifting the materials, they keep the surface in a state ready to admit water, and this increases the bad effects of hard frosts. The various circumstances that are stated by Mr. Cumming, in his essay, of the comparative merits of conical and cylindrical wheels, appear to be well warranted by the experiments which have been repeatedly performed before your Committee, and lead to the following conclusions: 1. That when wheels are very narrow, there is little difference in the power required to draw the same load, whether they be conical or cylindrical: 2. That in conical wheels, the power required to draw the same load (on the best and smoothest roads) is considerably increased, by increasing the breadth of the wheels, and that all the increase of labour of the cattle is applied to the destruction of the road: 3. That on the cylindrical wheels, the same power draws the carriage upon smooth roads with equal ease, whether the wheels be broad narrow; but by the use of such broad wheels, the roads, instead of being destroyed, are consolidated and im proved: 4. That great fluctuations take place in the power necessary to draw the same load on conical wheels, according to the circumstances of the wheel bearing on the narrow parts of its rim, on its whole rim, or on the extremities of its rim: 5. And that no such difference of resistance cappens, under the same circumstances, with the cylindrical bread wheels: 6. And that or from every circumstance, the cylindrical wheel is preferable to the conical, in every state of the roads; and in whatever state they may be, the cylindrical improves, and the conical impairs them: 7. That the general conclusion, from all the experiments that have been exhibited before your Committee, is, that so far as regards the preservation, of the roads, and the labour of the cattle, the cylindrical shape of a wheel is preferable to any other possible shape, it being the only one that has the same velocity at every part of its rim, and that has no dragging or rubbing, nor any tendency to grind or derange the materials, nor to leave the surface of the road in a condition to imbibe or to admit water. These conclusions appear to your Committee to be fully warranted by the reasonings offered in support of them, and fully supported by the experiments which we have seen; and although we are of opinion that it will be advisable to make accurate experiments with carriages of full size, to determine the quantum of the difference between the effects of conical and cylindrical wheels in practice, the evidence already before the Committee leaves no room to doubt that much advantage must be gained in the gra dual improvement of the roads, and in saving the labour of cattle by the gradual introduction of cylindrical wheels of moderate breadth, which may be increased as the roads are improved, and as prejudice against them subsides. From the illustrations which Mr. Cumming has produced, of the contrary effects which wheels of a cylindrical and conical shape must have on the roads, and on the labour of cattle, and the very satisfactory experiments by which every conclusion was supported, it may be presumed, that much benefit might be gained by his investigating general principles for constructing wheel carriages, and by illustrating the principles by experiments in the manner which he has already adopted. But it cannot be expected that any individual, possessed of but a moderate income, and having a family to maintain, can devote his attention almost exclusively to so intricate and extensive a subject, without a remuneration ade quate to his labour, and the advantages which the public must necessarily derive from his zeal and services. It having been thus proved, that the cylindrical shape of the rim is the most advantageous (a discussion on this subject will be found in the appendix) the disposition of the spokes claim the next attention. 2. The Spokes. These are the radii of the wheel, and connect the nave with the rim or fellies. Their position may be perpendicular to the axle; 2. oblique, or dished; or, 3. double dished. When the spokes stand square, or at right angles, to the axis, they derive no other advantage from that position than the actual strength of the timber of which they are made, and are calculated only to bear a perpendicular pressure. When the spokes stand oblique, it gives the wheel a concave appearance on the side that is the furthest from the carriage, which is called dishing; and the dishing gives to the wheel, in some positions, much additional strength, from the affinity which it has to an arch. It is possible, that the dishing of the wheel was a consequence of the bending of the axis; and it being found that the dishing of wheels was attended with other advantages besides strength, they have been universally preferred. When the obliquity of the spokes is adapted to the bending of the axis, those that are immediately below the axis stand perpendicular to the surface of the road, in which position they are the best able to resist the perpendicular pressure of the load, but are the less able to resist lateral jolts. But if the dished wheel be applied to a straight axis, the spokes will more advantageously resist the oblique pressure on a sloping road, or any accidental lateral jolt. Spokes that consist of two rows, and that are dished in opposite directions, have of late years been occasionally used in low wheels, where much strength is required; as each row of these spokes have all the advantages of the single dishing, and as they are directed towards the opposite sides of the wheel, it must be much stronger than the single row, and much better adapted to resist lateral shocks in both directions. calculated for wheels whose considerable breadth, as t may be so applied as to giv support to the rim or fellies stability against lateral jerks 3. Breadth of the Wh It has been proved, by ments made by Mr. Cumn your Committee, that whe of a wheel is made truly so as to have an equal be whole breadth, that the re its progress on a smooth face is not increased by in breadth; and the advan broad bearing of a wheel are too obvious to be doub deep snow, deep sludge, or must obstruct the progress wheel more than the narrow, and local circumstances mus determine the breadth of general use. But it sho held in remembrance, that er the rim, the more dam the roads; and if cylin broader it is, consistently circumstances, the more them. It seems deserving tion, whether the whee coaches, &c. ought not t broader than at present, the very great weights wh quently carry. 4. The Height of W The opinions regarding of wheels are various, inen of science, some es advantages of high whe greater facility with whic mount fixed obstacles, a nution of friction on the fixed obstacles are rem turnpike roads and highw consideration is no longe tance; and the friction o only reduced to one-half of twice the height. But weight of the high whee up hill be compared with tion of the friction on th be found on a general a ceed out of all compa which consideration, it that wheels of a moderate to be preferred, unless wh circumstances may higher wheel. rec |
