A line of railway on this principle was erected, in 1825, at Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, chiefly for conveying bricks from that town, across the marshes, for shipment in the river Lea. The posts which support the rails are about ten feet apart, and vary in their height from two to five feet, according to the undu lations of the surface, and so as to preserve a continuous horizontal line to the rail. The posts were made of sound pieces of old oak, ship timber, and in a, the slot or cleft at the upper ends of the posts, are fixed deal planks twelve inches by three, set in edgeways, and covering with a thin bar of iron, about four inches wide, flat on its under side. and very slightly rounded on its upper side; the true plane of the rail being regulated or preserved by the action of counter wedges between the bottom of the mortices, and that of the planks. By this rail, on the level, one horse seemed to be capable of drawing at the usual pace about fourteen tons, including the carriages.
The late Mr. Tredgold, whose opinion in matters of this nature will ever be entitled to attentive consideration, expressed himself very favourably to this invention in his Treatise on Railroads and Carriages: —" We expect (he observes) that this single railroad will be found far superior to any other for the conveyance of the mails and those light carriages of which speed is the principal object ; because we are satisfied that a road for such carriages must be raised so as to be free from the interruptions and crossings of an ordinary way." It has generally been considered a defect in Mr. Palmer's arrangement, flat in order to make turns in the road, it is necessary that a portion of the rail should be made to turn with the carriages upon it. This defect, Mr.T. Chap man, of Royal-row. Lambeth, proposed to remedy, by so constructing the carriage, as to enable it to turn itself upon a fixed suspension rail, whether curved or straight, or from one angle to another. IV. 1 on the preceding page exhibits an end view of the carriage, and Fig. 2 a side view of the same, partly in section. a a is the rail, b b two wheels on the rail ; these carry the turning plates c c, each having four friction-rollers e e, upper plates ; ff, the vertical axis of the wheel-frames or turn-plates c c ; they pass through the plates d and e, from which the boxes g g are suspended, by the lateral arms A A and i Now as the wheels and frames b c can turn freely on their axis ff, they each require four guiding rollers j j j j to keep them in a right line with the rail, and to cause them to turn as the rail turtle. These carriages should not be further asunder than is absolutely necessary for the required curve of the rail. The bottom of the carriage has a joint at one third of its length, and is held up at this by the hooks k k; by renaming these, the contents may be let out : the fixed portion of the bottom is meek eloping. so that it may be readily emptied.
About thirteen years ago it occurred to the editor of this work, that the force of the wind might be beneficially employed as an auxiliary power for propulsion on railways; and considering that the suspension principle, which had just then been promulgated by Mr. Palmer, was better adapted to that object than any other, he wrote a short paper on the subject, which was inserted in the eighth number of the Register #. Arts, for January, 1824, under the signature of " L. H." The plan also embraced a proposition for enabling boats from the sea, a river, or canal, to pass out of the water, at once upon the rail,"and thereon be propelled precisely in the same manner as the receptacles provided by the inventor are, and from which they scarcely need to differ in shape. Both of
these propositions have been treated with abundance of ridicule, by persons who were either incapable or indisposed to reason. But one of them having, accord ing to the newspapers, been recently carried into actual practice at Sunderland, and under less favourable circumstances, (i. e. on the common ground rail,) the writer need not dilate upon its feasibility. And as respects the other proposi tions, he will only observe, that believing it to contain the germ of something that may hereafter prove of public benefit, he hesitates not to place it before thejudgment of the_ reader. The following are extracts from the paper alluded "The inhabitants of small islands, and of the sea-coast gene rally, subsist chiefly upon fish ; and as they are remarkable for robust constitutions, it follows that their food must be strengthening and whole some. I propose, therefore, a railway, on Palmer's principle, from London to the nearest seaport town or fishing-place, that shall give to the inhabitants of this city the advantages of a plentiful supply of the cheap and wholesome food enjoyed by tnose in maritime situations. In the drawing which accompananies this, the scene sketched is entirely imaginary, and is intended, Int, to represent a railway leading to a sea-port, with the carriages being propelled, according to the modes projected by Mr. Palmer ; the first train of carriages being drawn along the rail by a locomotive steam-engine, the second, more in the perspec• tive, is supposed to be drawn by a horse. Brighton is perhaps the most eligible situation for such an undertaking. By a railroad from that place, the London market might be supplied with a prodigious quantity of fish within three or four hours after their being taken from the sea, at the most trifling expense of car liege ; and if the wind were to be employed as an auxiliary propelling force, which I propose, the rapidity with which the fish might generally be brought to our markets would give us all the advantage of a sea-port town in the pur chase of it. If the Hollanders have found it practicable (as is well known) to sail over land in four-wheeled carriages, how much more practicable and advert-. tageous would it be to bring into use the admirable facilities furnished by Mr. Palmer in his new suspension railway, in which the resistance to the motion of the carriages is reduced to one-twentieth part ; or in other words, wherein the facilities are twenty times greater. As objections will of course be raised, on the score of the variableness of the wind, I must repeat, that I only propose it as an auxiliary power. It would rarely happen that the wind would not be favourable in going or returning ; and it is well known that S.W. winds prevail more than any other in our quarter, which would be favourable for the principal traffic; that is, to London. In the absence of a steam-engine. a horse should always be in attendance; so that when employed in drawing a train of carriages, if a favourable breeze should spring up, the sails might be spread, and the horse be put into one of the receptacles, where, over his bag of corn, he might regale and invigorate himself for fresh exertions, should the wind fall off.