, or
25 men besides a ton for a carriage. This it would do at a rate of 8,
9, or 10 miles an hour. For it is a singular feature in this carriage,
and which was remarked by many at the time, that it maintained very
nearly the same speed with a wagon and 27 men, that it did with the
carriage and only 5 or 6 persons. But there is a fact connected with
this machine still more extraordinary. For instance, every additional
cwt. we shift on the hind or working wheels, will increase the power
of traction in our steepest hills upwards of 4 cwt., and on the
level road half a ton. Such, then, is the paradoxical nature of
steam-carriages, that the very circumstance which in animal exertion
would weaken and retard, will here multiply their strength and
accelerate. This, no doubt, Mr. Gurney's ingenuity will soon turn to
profitable account.

"It has often been asserted that carriages of this sort could not
go above 6 or 7 miles an hour. I can see no reasonable objection
to 20. The following fact, decided before a large company in the
barrack-yard, will best speak for itself:--At eighteen minutes after
three I ascended the carriage with Mr. Gurney. After we had gone about
half way round, 'Now,' said Mr. Gurney, 'I will show you her speed.'
He did, and we completed seven turns round the outside of the road
by twenty-eight minutes after three. If, therefore, as I was there
assured, two and a half turns measured one mile, we went 2.8 miles
in ten minutes; that is, at the rate of 16.8, or nearly 17 miles per
hour. But as Mr. Gurney slackened its motion once or twice in the
course of trial, to speak to some one, and did not go at an equal rate
all the way round for fear of accident in the crowd, it is clear that
sometimes we must have proceeded at the rate of upwards of twenty
miles an hour."

The Engraving will furnish the reader with a correct idea of such of
Mr. Gurney's improvements as are most interesting to the public. The
present arrangement is certainly very preferable to placing the boiler
and engine in immediate contact with the carriage, which is to convey
goods and passengers. Men of science are still much divided on the
practical economy of using steam instead of horses as a travelling
agent; but we hope, like all great contemporaries they may whet and
cultivate each other till the desired object is attained. One of them,
a writer in the _Atlas_, observes, that "if ultimately found capable
of being brought into public use,