dear that the owner of a rood of ground will expect 201. per annum for this leave. The manner of the carriage is, by laying rails of timber from the colliery down to the river exactly straight and parallel, and bulky carts are made with four rowlets fitting these rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse will draw down some four or five chaldron of coals, and is an immense benefit to the coal merchants."*

A century later (in 1770-1772) the same roads were found in general use by Arthur Young. The roadway was little improved, but the works on which the road was formed were sometimes of a formidable character. Speaking of the waggon roads near Newcastle, Mr. Young observes:-"The coal-waggon roads, from the pits to the water, are great works, carried over all sorts of inequalities of ground, so far as the distance of nine or ten miles. The tracks of the wheels are marked with pieces of wood let into the road for the wheels of the waggons to run on, by which means one horse is enabled to draw, and that with ease, fifty or sixty bushels of coals." t

An intelligent French traveller, named Saint-Fond, who visited Newcastle in 1791, speaks in terms of high admiration of the colliery waggon ways, as superior to everything of the kind that he had seen. He describes the wooden rails as formed with a rounded upper surface, like a projecting moulding, and the waggon wheels as being "made of castiron, and hollowed in the manner of a metal pulley," that they might fit the rounded surface of the rails. The economy with which the coal was thus hauled to the shipping places was strongly urged upon his own countrymen, as an inducement to them to adopt a similar mode of transit. ‡

* Roger North's Life of Lord Keeper Guildford, A.D. 1676.

† Six Months' Tour, vol. iii. p. 9.

Travels in England, Scotland, and the Hebrides, translated from the French, vol i. pp. 142-6.

Similar waggon roads were laid down in the colliery districts of Scotland at a comparatively early period. At the time of the Scotch rebellion, in 1745, a railway existed between the Tranent coal pits and the small harbour of Cockenzie in East Lothian; and a portion of the line had the honour of being selected as a position for General Cope's cannon at the battle of Prestonpans.

In these rude wooden tracks we find the germ of the modern railroad. Improvements were gradually made in them. Thus, at some collieries, thin plates of iron were nailed upon their upper surface, for the purpose of protecting the parts most exposed to friction. Cast-iron rails were also tried, the wooden rails having been found liable to rot. The first iron rails are supposed to have been laid down at Whitehaven as early as 1738. This cast-iron road was denominated a "plate-way," from the plate-like form in which the rails were cast. In 1767, as appears from the books of the Coalbrookdale Iron Works, in Shropshire, five or six tons of rails were cast, as an experiment, on the suggestion of Mr. Reynolds, one of the partners; and they were shortly after laid down to form a road. In 1776, a cast-iron railway, nailed to wooden sleepers, was laid down at the Duke of Norfolk's colliery near Sheffield. The person who designed and constructed this coal line was Mr. John Curr, whose son has erroneously claimed for him the invention of the cast-iron railway. He certainly adopted it early, and thereby met the fate of men before their age; for his plan was opposed by the labouring people of the colliery, who got up a riot in which they tore up the road and burnt the coal staith, whilst Mr. Curr fled into a neighbouring wood for concealment, and lay there perdu for three days and nights, to escape the fury of the populace.*

Railway Locomotion and Steam Navigation, their principles and practice. By John Curr, of New South Walcs. London, Williams and Co., 1847. The

In 1789, Mr. Wm. Jessop constructed a railway at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, and there introduced the cast-iron edge-rail, with flanches cast upon the tire of the waggon wheels to keep them on the track, instead of having the margin or flanch cast upon the rail itself; and this plan was shortly after adopted in other places. In 1800, Mr. Benjamin Outram, of Little Eaton, in Derbyshire, used stone props instead of timber for supporting the ends and joinings of the rails. As this plan was pretty generally adopted, the roads became known as "Outram roads," and subsequently, for brevity's sake, "tram-roads." From this time the use of tram-roads rapidly extended, until at length they were generally adopted in the mining districts.

The progress of railways was, indeed, such that the canal interests became somewhat uneasy respecting them. The Duke of Bridgewater, when congratulated by Lord Kenyon on the successful issue of his scheme, made answer, with farsighted shrewdness,-"Yes, we shall do well enough if we can keep clear of these d-d tram-roads-there's mischief in them!" It will be observed, however, that the improvements thus far effected had been confined almost entirely to the road. The railway waggons still continued to be drawn by horses. The gradual improvements made in the rail, by improving the firmness and smoothness of the track, had, indeed, effected considerable economy in horse-power; but that was all. What was further wanted was, the adoption of some mechanical agency applicable to the purpose of railway traction. Unless some such agency could be invented, it was clear that railway improvement had almost reached its limits. Inventors and projectors, however, presented themselves in

author of this book was son of the John Curr of Sheffield, who laid down the above railway, and who also wrote a book, which was printed in 1797, entitled "The Coal Viewer and Engine Builder's Practical Companion."

numbers, and various schemes were proposed. One suggested the adoption of sails, supposing that the waggons might be impelled along the tram-ways like ships before the wind. But the most favourite scheme was the application of steam power on the high-pressure principle, for the purpose of railway traction.

Solomon de Caus, who was shut up for his supposed madness in the Bicêtre at Paris, seems to have been the first to conceive the idea of employing steam for moving carriages on land as well as ships at sea. Marion de Lorme, in a letter to the Marquis de Cinq-Mars, dated Paris, February, 1641, thus describes a visit paid to this celebrated madhouse in the company of the English Marquis of Worcester:"We were crossing the court, and I, more dead than alive with fright, kept close to my companion's side, when a frightful face appeared behind some immense bars, and a hoarse voice exclaimed, I am not mad! I am not mad! I have made a discovery that would enrich the country that adopted it.' 'What has he discovered?' asked our guide. 'Oh!' answered the keeper, shrugging his shoulders, something trifling enough: you would never guess it; it is the use of the steam of boiling water.' I began to laugh. This man,' continued the keeper, is named Solomon de Caus; he came from Normandy four years ago, to present to the King a statement of the wonderful effects that might be produced from his invention. To listen to him, you would imagine that

* “Upon a long extent of iron railway, in an open country, carriages properly constructed might make profitable voyages from time to time with sails instead of horses; for though a constant or regular intercourse could not be thus carried on, yet goods of a certain sort, that are saleable at any time, might be staid till wind and weather were favourable."-Memoirs of R. L. Edgeworth, vol. i. p. 153. Mr. Edgeworth made several experiments with a sailing carriage of his invention on Hare Hatch Common, but the experiments were abandoned in consequence of the dangerous results which threatened to attend them.

with steam you could navigate ships, move carriages; in fact, there is no end to the miracles which, he insists upon Cardinal sent the madman Solomon de Caus, far from Cardinal wherever he went

it, could be performed. The away without listening to him. being discouraged, followed the with the most determined perseverance, who, tired of finding him for ever in his path, and annoyed at his folly, shut him up in the Bicêtre. He has even written a book about it, which I have here."" It appears that the Marquis of Worcester was greatly struck by the appearance of De Caus, and afterwards studied his book, portions of which he embodied in his " Century of Inventions." The Marquis is also said to have entertained the idea of moving carriages by steam power, but never embodied it in any practical form.

Savery, the Cornish miner and engineer, who did so much to develope the powers of the high-pressure engine, also proposed it as a method of propelling carriages along ordinary roads. But he took no practical measures with the view of carrying out his suggestion. The subject was shortly after, in 1759, introduced to the powerful mind of James Watt, by Dr. Robison, then a young man studying at Glasgow College. "He threw out," says Watt," the idea of applying the power of the steam-engine to the moving of wheelcarriages, and to other purposes; but the scheme was not matured, and was soon abandoned, on his going abroad." ↑ Watt, however, afterwards, in the specification of his patent of 1769, gave a description of an engine of the kind suggested by his friend Robison, in which the expansive force of steam

The book is entitled "Les Raisons des Forces Mouvantes, avec diverses machines tant utiles que puissantes." Paris, 1615.

† Narrative of James Watt's Invention, in Robison's Mechanical Philosophy, vol. ii. art. Steam Engine.

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