An Old Coachman's Chatter, with Some Practical Remarks on Driving

by Edward Corbett

This also met with a cold reception, and no doubt appeared at the time to be simply speculative, yet the light of time compels us to take a different view, and to recognize in it the germs of a great invention.

Mr. James Rondeen, of Lambeth, on June 3rd, 1823, submitted a scheme to convey the mails by engines consuming their own smoke, of four or six-horse power, which would cost from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds each, and impel a coach at the rate of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour. He estimated that there were two hundred and eighty coaches running daily from London and on the cross roads, the work of which, if his scheme was adopted, would be performed by eighty-two engines. This scheme was considered an extraordinary one, but the condition of its acceptance imposed by the inventor could not be complied with.

I should gather from what is said here, that Mr. Rondeen's plan was of the nature of a traction engine to run upon the existing turnpike roads, and, if I am right, the Postmaster-General of that day had a better opinion of that mode of progression than of the system of rails. No doubt, several descriptions of traction engines were tried, but none succeeded, and I have heard of surveyors of turnpike roads laying such extra thick coverings of stone on the roads as to clog the engine wheels; but however this may be, experience has proved that they are not capable of much pace, however useful they may be found for slow traffic.

A Mr. Knight, in January, 1822, suggested an elevated road or railway. The carriage was to be slung from the road on rails above, and two men, suspended in it at the bottom, would turn machinery to propel it along the groove or railway. After the idea had been talked over by Mr. Knight with the head of the mail coach department, the latter was satisfied that it would be of no use to the Post-office.

A Mr. Elmes of Regent Street, in October, 1823, offered to convey the mails to any part of the United Kingdom at the rate of from fifteen to seventeen miles an hour, by means of a mechanical carriage, which could be worked by horses or not. He stated that his contrivance would reduce the cost of conveyance to about a quarter of that then incurred. It need hardly be said that this proposal was too indefinite to be entertained.

On the 25th of November, 1826, a Mr. Thorold, of Great Milton, Norfolk, suggested the application of steam to mail coaches for propelling them on turnpike roads. This plan appears to have been considered feasible, as it is recorded that the plan was not adopted, as it was considered best to wait until the idea was seen in practice.

On April 27, 1826, a Mr. Cadogan Williams submitted a plan for the rapid conveyance of mails by means of tubes. The outline of his plan was this: That a square of cast-iron or brick be laid from one stage to another, with its extremities communicating with vaults of sufficient magnitude for the purpose; one vault having an air-evaporating apparatus, and the other a condensing, such as is used to blow iron furnaces worked by steam power. At the neck of the tube joining the condensing apparatus should be two stoppers, on the principle of those that are used in beer cocks. Between the stoppers should be a door for putting in the box of letters. On closing it the stoppers should be turned, and the condensed air would exert itself in the box and produce its rapid movement. This was certainly very ingenious, if somewhat complicated. At any rate, he was informed that his plan was not applicable to the purposes of the department.

And now comes a really wonderful proposal. A Mr. Slade, on May 14, 1827, offered to convey the mails at the rate of a mile a minute; but he appears not to have been of a very communicative disposition, as he did not state by what means this very high rate of speed was to be obtained, but he estimated the cost for carrying out his plan at two thousand pounds a mile. As may be supposed, this was considered too visionary and costly to be enquired into further.

And now I have got what I think will raise a smile. It will hardly be believed, but so it was, that a Royal Engineer—an officer, I suppose—suggested that the mails should be conveyed by means of shells and cannon. His idea was to enclose the letters in shells and then fire them to the next stage, three miles distant, and then to the next stage, and so on to the end of the journey. He said a good bombardier could drop the shell within a few feet of the spot where the next one was stationed.

As early as the year 1811 a trial was made of a drag, or break, apparently a good deal resembling the breaks now so generally applied to wheels. In that year a drag, as it was then called, was introduced by a Mr. Simpson to the Post-office authorities, and was tried on the Brighton and Worcester mails; but the advantages claimed for it by the patentee were not borne out in practice. The advantages claimed were that in case of the reins or pole breaking, or horses running away, the drag could be at once applied by the guard without leaving his seat, as it was put in action by a lever or shaft affixed to the body of the coach, and worked by hand. It does not appear, however, to have possessed sufficient attractions for it to be brought into general use, as nothing more is heard of it. In the year 1811 I don't suppose there was much to be feared from horses running away!