A successful attempt to employ kites, acted upon by the force of the wind, to move carriages, was made by Messrs. Viney and Pocock, in 1826, when those gentlemen proceeded from Bristol to London in a light kind of phifeton, pro pelled in that manner ; and for which invention they obtained letters patent, dated the 18th October, 1826. The details of this invention are given under the head CARRIAGES, at page 323 c• the first volume of this work. Several modes of employing atmospheric air, by condensing its natural volume, and causing its subsequent expansion in a cylinder to move a piston, and thereby give the propulsive effect to a carriage, have been proposed, which we a II hereafter briefly describe.
In 1828, Mr. Samuel Brown applied his gas-vacuum engine to the propul sion of a carriage, which we are informed was effectively worked along the public roads; and that it even ascended the very steep acclivity of Shooter's Hill, in Ken; to the astonishment of numerous spectators. The expense of working this machine is, however, said far to exceed that of steam ; and con sequently this circumstance will form a barrier to its introduction, until its ingenious inventor shall succeed in removing it by devising a more economical mode of operating.
An arrangement for a locomotive carriage was patented in December 1826, by Mr. Frederick Andrews, of Stamford Rivers, in Essex ; the peculiarities in which consist, first, in employing a single steering wheel in front of the car riage, the axis of which revolves in two lateral bars of a framing that connects it to the axletree of the fore wheels, and thereby turns the latter with it. To give effect to this steering wheel, the framing is designed to carry luggage, or other sufficiently heavy article. Another arrangement of the inventor's, con sisted in employing a pair of engines working upon pivots or trunnions, so that by their vibrations the piston rods might be directly connected to the throws of the crank, and adapt their inclinations to the varied motion of the latter. The other arrangements will be easiest understood by reference to the, annexed out. a shows a vertical section of a cylindrical boiler; c is the fur nace, the heated matters from which pass longitudinally un der the boiler, and then return to the front through a central flue b, before it enters the chimney, not shown. Trans versely through the centre of the boiler there is a tubular passage, open at each end, through which the axis of the wheels gg passes, sufficient space being made in that tube for the cranked of the axis also to pass through.
The piston rods being con nected to the throws of the crank, it of course causes them to revolve, and with them the wheels by which the carriage is propelled. The boiler is suspended by stout iron arms to a frame above, which forms a part of the general frame, and is supported upon springs; the fiirnace c is sit. pended to the boiler by straps, the sides of which are lined by a series of hori zontal tubes, in connexion with the boiler, which serve the double purpose of intercepting lateral radiation, and of assisting in the generation of vapour. Although some of these arrangements may be without practical advantage, they mark a considerable degree of ingenuity in a gentleman residing in a retired part of the country. It will be observed that it was not until after the sealing of this patent that Mr. Gurney fell upon using his pilot wheels and trunnion engines.
Amongst those individuals who were taught to believe that the adhesion of plain wheels to the surface of the common road, was insufficient to propel a locomotive carriage, was Mr. James Neville, an engineer of Shad es, London, who took out a patent on the 15th January, 1827, for a "new-invented improved carriage," to be worked by steam; the chief object of which appears to have been to provide wheels adapted to take a firm hold of the ground. He proposed to make each of the spokes of the wheels by means of two rods of iron, coming nearly together at the nave, but diverging considerably apart to their other ends, where they were fastened to an iron felly-ring of the breadth of the tire; and this tire was to be so provided with numerous pointed etude, about half an inch long, as to stick it into the ground to prevent tfie wheel from slipping round. A second method devised by the patentees, of preventing this effect, has, we believe, been patented more than once. This is to fasten upon the tire a series of flat springing plates, each of them forming a tangent to the circumference: so that, as the wheels roll forward, each plate shall be bent against the tire, and recover its tangential position as it leaves the ground in its revolution. By this arrangement it was considered, that if there was any disposition to slip, the increased bearing surface of the plate, and the resistance of its farthest edge, would infallibly prevent it. Mr. Neville does not explain how he would prevent the road-stuff from getting between the plates and the tire, and forcing them off the latter, or at the least bending them so as to change the circular periphery into an irregular polygon.