The wheel tires are 31 inches wide. The diameter of hind wheels, 4 feet. The width of tire is not considered by the patentee to be so objectionable in practice as it might be considered. This he accounts for, by the variable nature of the roads; " a broad wheel on gravel is considered to be an advantage ; it is however a great disadvantage on a road between wet and dry ; but in those latter cases we have always an overplus of power (steam) blowing off at the safety-valve." Blowing off steam, either from the safety-valve or from the engines, creates no nuisance, because it is injected " into the fire in every direction," and so destroyed. The carriage can be turned in little more than ten feet, and stopped in much shorter space than any horse-coach. A metallic band, pressing upon the outer part of the wheel, is applied as a drag or brake when descending hills. In slippery roads, or steep hills, both hind wheels are connected with the engine, in order to increase the adhesion to the road ; but in general one driving wheel is found to be sufficient.
" In October, 1832, Mr. Hancock determined to make a trip to Brighton. On Wednesday, October 31, this steam carriage came from Stratford, through the streets of the city, at the different speeds necessary to keep its place behind or before other carriages as occasion required, and took up its quarters on Blackfriars Road, to prepare for the following day's trial. Accompanied by a scientific friend, a distinguished officer in the navy, I joined Mr. Hancock's friends on the next morning, making eleven passengers in all. We started at the rate of nine miles an hour, and kept this speed until we arrived at Redhill, (where all the coaches at this season require six horses,) which we ascended at the speed of between five and six miles an hour. The bane of the journey was an insufficient supply of coke and water ; the water, indeed, we were obliged to suck up with one of Hancock's flexible hose pipes, at such ponds and streams as we could find. These difficulties delayed the completion of the journey (subsequently performed by steam in less than five hours) till next day ; but on our return our speed was much increased, and one mile was accomplished up hill, at the speed of seventeen miles per hour."—Elemental Locomotion, p. 111.
" Ravening to the history of my carriages," observes Mr. Hancock, " I may remark that the Infant was the first steam carriage that ran on a common road for hire, which it commenced in February,1831, between Stratford and London, and on which duty it continued several weeks in regular performance ; but as I had not at this early period practised any person in steering,, and my presence being required at home, I was under the necessity of taking' it oft' the road. This carriage was also the first one that steamed through the public streets of the city of Loudon.
" My time was now engaged in building a powerful carriage, the Era, which has only worked on proof on the roads in the neighbourhood, and been once to Windsor, in 1832, the parties for whom it was built not having yet come to any determination upon it.
"A steam carriage company, ' The London and Paddington,' being now formed, I entered into agreement to build three carriages for them; the first of which, to have been titled the Demonstration, afterwards altered to Enterprise, was put to work between the City and Paddington, in April, 1833. It ran for sixteen succeeding days, and performed more than was stipulated for ; but some disagreement led to the dissolution of this company, and the Enterprise became mine again by purchase, on the company winding up its affairs, which was nearly two years after the carriage was delivered to them ; during all which time it stood in an open yard, belonging to the company's engineer, serving the office of a model for him to build another carriage by." These untoward circumstances, however, only served to renew the energies of Mr. Hancock, who busied himself in completing a new carriage for his own use, which he significantly denominated the Autopsy; it was brought upon the road in the same year (1833), and commenced running for hire between the city and Islington, in October, which it continued till the end of November. An engraved representation of this carriage is given on the adjoining page ; but as it may be remarked that the introduction, in this place, of a carriage built in 1833, does not accord with our intended chronological arrangement, it is proper we should explain, that this carriage contains nothing essentially diftrent from the Infant, and that it can only be regarded as a second and more splendid edition of that carriage. All Mr. Hancock's subsequent carriages are built upon the same model in an engineering point of view ; therefore, to keep the history of Mr. Hancock's locomotive career in a connected state, we shall here insert his brief account of all his carriages.
" During the winter I built the Era (now the Erin). This carriage com menced running for hire on the Paddington road, in August, 1834, on which duty it continued daily in company with the Autopsy, for upwards of three months, when I took them off in order to repaint and embellish the Era with appropriate devices, and alter its title to Erin, ready to fulfil an invitation that I had received from some gentlemen at Dublin, who were desirous of seeing its performances in their city. In the summer of this year (1834) I built a drag for a gentleman at Vienna, for which place it was shipped in July, after having stood satisfactory teals by taking it on different roads, with a loaded carriage attached.