[34a] By heading their prospectus, “Capital, 3,000,000l.”
[34b] There is one manifestation of “skill and experience” [34c] in the manner in which the Committee have been induced to lend their sanction to statements in their Report, which merits observation. The paragraph immediately preceding the abstract of the estimate, states that “The locomotive engines will, in no part of the line, have to surmount an inclination greater than 1 in 340; and for the first 50 miles out of London, none greater than 1 in 528. This degree of approach to a level, will render the locomotive engines much more effective, and subject them to less wear and tear than they are on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, part of which has an inclination of 1 in 98.”
At page 60 of Mr. Treasurer Booth’s “Account of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway,” is given a “Section of the line of Railway, from Liverpool to Manchester,” which states that for 5-9ths of a mile (from Liverpool) it is “level;” that for the next 5⅛ miles it has a fall of 1 in 1092; for the next 1½ mile, a rise of 1 in 96, &c. &c. according to the following table:—
| MILES. | |
| 5/9 | Level. |
| 5⅛ | Fall, 1 in 1092; or 1 foot in about l-5th of a mile. |
| 1½ | Rise, 1 in 96; or 1 foot in 96 feet. |
| 1⅞ | Level. |
| 1½ | Fall, 1 in 96. |
| 2½ | Fall, 1 in 2640; or 1 foot in half a mile. |
| 6½ | Fall, 1 in 880; or 1 foot in 1-6th of a mile. |
| 4½ | Rise, 1 in 1200; or, 1 foot in about ¼ of a mile. |
| 4½ | Level. |
Now as it appears from this, that, with the exception of the mile and half which rises at the rate of 1 in 96 (up from l-6th to l-3rd of which their momentum carries them) the part of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway over which the locomotive engines work, has no rise that is half so sharp as the 1 in 340, nor any which is near so sharp as the 1 in 528, adverted to on the Bristol line, it surpasses my comprehension to conceive what there can possibly be to “render the locomotive engines much more effective, and subject them to less wear and tear than they are on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway”; while I am beyond measure surprised, that the confidence of gentlemen could be so misled, as to expose them to a refutation so palpable, as the statement they have thus been betrayed into admits of.
[34c] “Confound that word! my unfortunate pen
Had well nigh prefixed to it i and n.”
[38a] “Extraordinary Performance by Steam Power.—On the occasion of a scientific gentleman lately visiting the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, some very extraordinary performances were effected. On two occasions, a load amounting to 100 tons, was drawn by one engine from Liverpool to Manchester, a distance of above 30 miles in an hour and a half; being at the average rate of 20 miles an hour. It is said no former performance effected on the rail-road has come near this result.”—Liverpool Advertiser.—Times, 25th June, 1832.
[38b] The tunnel which I constructed at Brighton, was strong enough to bear the pressure thrown on it by one-third of a vacuum. One-fourth of a vacuum would move above 4000 tons in a tunnel 8 feet in diameter, while any tunnel I might now lay down, would be ten times stronger than that I laid down at Brighton.
[40] Dr. Hutton, at the end of a table of resistances to bodies moving through still air, at rates varying from two to thirteen miles an hour, says, “The resistance to the same surface is nearly as the square of the velocity; but gradually increasing more and more above that proportion as the velocity increases.”
[41] A hint on this point. The engine with which Watt first proved his principle was not equal to a dog’s power. There is one now in Cornwall said to be of 1000 horses power.