[14e] Curate.
[18] This word “cylinder” means the tunnel.
[20] That is, between three and four hundred thousand gallons.
[22a] That is, 11.3 feet in diameter.
[22b] In the best of the large stationary engines now made, a bushel of coal will do the work of 44 horses for an hour. Therefore to make a current of air which should be capable of conveying 10,000 tons 100 miles in an hour, would require 43 bushels of coal: which is not twice so much as some steam vessels burn in the same time.
[26] The proposed London and Birmingham Railway is to be sixty feet wide in the narrowest places; notwithstanding that it is to have only the same number of lines of rails which you must have; while, in some parts, it will be between two and three hundred feet wide. The average width of its whole line will be 92 feet.
[29a] An idea of the amount of these cuttings and embankments may be given by the following statement. Every one remembers what our school days taught us, relative to the “Great Pyramid:” the many years it was in building: the multitudes of workmen employed: and the vast sums expended to supply those workmen with merely “garlic and onions.” The excavations of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, would, if put in one lump, have formed a mass larger than that of the “Great Pyramid:” its cubical contents being only 2,983,263 yards; while the excavations for that railway amount (according to its treasurer’s statement) to 3,405,000 cubic yards: or 11,386,899 cubic feet more than the whole mass of the “Great Pyramid.”
[29b] “A locomotive engine of ten-horses power will draw 120 tons at the rate a draught-house generally travels; or 50 tons at the rate of six miles an hour. I may here remark that the rate of travelling may be increased to surpass that of mail coaches; and that the locomotive engine will as readily convey 25 tons (including its own weight) at the rate of twelve miles an hour, as double the weight in twice the time.”—Mr. Jessop’s Second Report to the Committee of the Proposed Railway from Cromford to the Peak Forest Canal, at Whaley Bridge. Dated 29th November, 1824.
“An engine of four horses’ power, employed by Mr. Blenkinsop, impelled a carriage, lightly loaded, at the rate of ten miles an hour; and when connected with 30 coal waggons, each weighing more than three tons, it went at about one-third of that pace.”—Observations on a General Iron Railway, by Thomas Gray. 1825.
“They saw two locomotive engines, for drawing along these roads; but they were not at work. The boilers of these engines were eight feet long, and four feet diameter: and they usually took down fourteen waggons, carrying 53 cwt. of coals each, at about four miles an hour. The engineer said that he once took nine loaded waggons, one mile in five minutes and a half, which is equal to eleven miles an hour.”—Report of a number of gentlemen, who were deputed to inspect the rail-roads in the north of England, relative to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. 1824.
“The Company are also fully persuaded, that by means of the same power, they will be enabled to convey passengers with perfect security, and at a speed of at least twelve miles an hour.”—Report relative to the Liverpool and Birmingham Railway given in Cumming’s “Illustrations of the Origin and Progress of Rail and Tram Roads, and Steam-Carriages.” 1824.
“It is estimated, that on a level railway, a well-constructed locomotive engine of ten horse power will, without difficulty, convey fifty tons of goods at the rate of five miles an hour, and lighter weights at a proportioned increase of speed. A powerful engine will work goods over an elevation of one-eighth of an inch in the yard. Nor is there the least doubt but carriages for the conveyance of passengers, or light packages, may, with perfect ease and security, be propelled at the rate of twelve miles an hour.”—Cummings’ Illustrations of the Origin and Progress of Railways. 1824.
“By the locomotive engine, fifty tons of goods may be conveyed by a ten-horse-power engine, on a level-road, at the rate of six miles an hour; and lighter weights at a proportioned increase of speed. Carriages for the conveyance of passengers, at the rate of twelve or fourteen miles an hour.”—Courier’s preliminary remarks to the “Memorial of the Subscribers to the projected Railway between Liverpool and Manchester:” dated 1st June, 1824.
“One of the railway companies at present contemplates a speed of only eight miles an hour; but another, in its prospectus, speaks of conveying passengers at twice the speed of the present stage-coaches; and we look forward, pretty confidently to the attainment, in a few years, of a velocity of 20 miles an hour. Several millions sterling are already subscribed for accomplishing these great projects.”—Leeds Mercury, 24th December, 1824.
[30] “The railway a little beyond Wavertree-lane is carried through a deep marle cutting, under several massive stone archways, thrown across the excavation to form the requisite communications between the roads and farms on the opposite sides of the railway. Beyond the marle cutting is the great rock excavation through Olive Mount, about half a mile to the north of the village of Wavertree. Here the traveller passes through a deep and narrow ravine, 70 feet below the surface of the ground, little more space being opened out than sufficient for two trains of carriages to pass each other; and the road winding gently round towards the south-east, the prospect is bounded by the perpendicular rock on either side, with the blue vault above, relieved at intervals by a bridge high over head, connecting the opposite precipices. At night, when the natural gloom of the place is further deepened, the scene from the bridges above will readily be imagined to be novel and striking. The light of the moon illuminating about half the depth, and casting a darker shade on the area below—the general silence interrupted at intervals by a noise like distant thunder—presently a train of carriages, led on by an engine of fire and steam, with her lamps like two furnaces, throwing their light onward in dazzling signal of their approach—with the strength and speed of a war-horse the engine moves forward with its glorious cavalcade of merchandize from all countries and passengers of all nations. But the spectacle is transient as striking; in a moment the pageant is gone—the meteor is passed; the flaring of the lamps is only seen in the distance, and the observer, looking down from the battlement above, perceives that all again is still, and dark, and solitary.
“Emerging from the Olive Mount cutting, you approach the great Roby embankment, formed of the materials dug out of the excavation we have described. This embankment stretches across the valley for about two miles, varying in height from 15 to 45 feet, and in breadth at the base from 60 to 135 feet. Here the traveller finds himself affected by sensations the very reverse of what he felt a few minutes before. Mounted above the tops of the trees, he looks around him over a wide expanse of country, in the full enjoyment of the fresh breeze, from whatever quarter it may blow.
“This vast embankment strikingly exhibits how much may be accomplished when our efforts are concentrated on one grand object. There is a feeling of satisfaction by no means common-place, in thus overcoming obstacles and surmounting difficulties, in making the high places low and the rough places plain, and advancing in one straight and direct course to the end in view; while the pleasure afforded by the contemplation of this great work is further enhanced, when considered in contrast with ordinary and every-day impressions.” p. 50–52.
“A few miles beyond Newton is the great Kenyon excavation, from which about 800,000 cubic yards of clay and sand have been dug out, part being carried to form the line of embankment to the east and west of the cutting; and the remainder, deposited as spoil banks, may be seen heaped up, like Pelion upon Ossa, towering over the adjacent land.” p. 55.
“Beyond Chat Moss we traverse the Barton embankment, crossing the low lands for about a mile between the Moss and the Worsley Canal, over which the railway is carried by a neat stone bridge.” p. 57.
[32] In evidence that the observations which will be found in the course of this letter, relative to the effects of momentum, are not of such recent origin in my mind, as Mr. Badnall states his idea relative to this “undulating railway” to have been in his, I beg to direct attention to the testimony given by the Appendix.
[33] I give this latter doubling to “excite the energies” of a renowned steam-coach proprietor; who, in answer to the question, “If your steam-coach has, as you say, gone at the rate of between thirty and forty miles an hour over common roads, how fast would it run on a rail-road?” replied, “At least 250 miles an hour.”