[35] The chains were used in the construction of the Saltash bridge.
[36] Speech of the Chairman, the late Captain Mark Huish, at the first general meeting, August 2, 1861.
[37] Some re-arrangement of Mr. Brunel’s design was rendered necessary in order to adapt the Hungerford bridge chains to the Clifton bridge, and there are three chains instead of two, as in Mr. Brunel’s design. The platform is stiffened by wrought-iron girders instead of by timber trussing, and the whole bridge is stiffened transversely by the wrought-iron girders at the sides, which are connected throughout by diagonal bracing. The clear width of the bridge is 30 feet, 5 feet less than originally intended. It should be added, that no attempt has been made to complete the towers according to Mr. Brunel’s architectural designs.
[38] A graphic account of this famous parliamentary contest will be found in the third volume of Mr. Smiles’ Lives of the Engineers, chapter xi.
[39] See Mr. Smiles’ Life of George Stephenson, p. 325.
[40] See Mr. Smiles’ Lives of the Engineers, vol. iii. chap. xv.
[41] By means of the railway (it was said) goods would be conveyed with ease from London to Reading in three or four hours, and from Bath to Bristol in one hour.
[42] During Mr. Stephenson’s cross-examination, several questions were put to him as to the dangerous consequences which might be expected to result from travelling through a tunnel a thousand yards long. At length he lost all patience at the ignorance displayed by the questions put to him by counsel, and the following passage of arms took place:—
‘Mr. Stephenson. I wish you had a little engineering knowledge—you would not talk to me so.
Counsel. I feel the disadvantage.