"At the front sits the steersman, who governs the way and speed of the car riage; behind him is the body or open seats of the carriage, whichever may be its build; at the back of the body, and with a goird screen or partition between it and the passengers, is the engine room, containing a pair of inverted engines, working direct upon the crank shaft, from which motion is communi cated to the axle of the hind or working wheels, by endless chains and pulleys ; adjoining the engine room, in the rear, is the boiler, with the fireplace under it. A lad stands behind to feed the fire as the carriage procebds ; and a man competent to judge of the working of the engines and machinery, and also to keep them oiled, is always in the engine room, whilst the carriage is working. The coke is contained in iron boxes at the back of the boiler, and the water for supplying the boiler is contained in tanks under the seats of the carriage. The fire is urged by a revolving blower under the flooring or body of the car riage.
" In conclusion, I will give a list of the carriages I have built, with the number of passengers they are each calculated to accommodate ; not what they will and actually have carried, for this has sometimes, on particular occasions, been an increase of 50 per cent.; as an instance, the Autopsy, when first running to Islington, in 1833, carried, on two or three trips, 21 or 22 passen gers, though its complement is but 12.
In 1833 Mr. Hancock took out a patent for improvements in the con struction of furnaces to boilers, which will be found described in its proper place.
A second patent was enrolled by Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney, in April 1828, "for improvements in locomotive engines," of which the following is a correct account :— "The coachman, or conductor, occupies the front seat over the fore boot of the carriage, the lower seat being removed. The fowr chimneys of the former carriage are substituted for a single one of great width. The water-tank, instead of being above the perch, and extending the whole length of the car riage, is now placed below the perch, and lies between the fore and hind wheels. The propellers are removed entirely.' A blowing machine is introduced, for maintaining a sharp draught in the furnace, which is worked by a separate cylinder from those employed in propelling the carriage. A mode of heating the water before it is admitted into the boiler, and an additional force-pump unconnected with the engine, to be worked by hand, to throw in an increased supply of water into the boiler, whenever needed; are also adopted.
" The coach, in its form and accommodation, bears a close resemblance to the stage coaches at present in use. It has a fore and hind boot, on which are seats for the passengers, and a box in front for the coachman, with room for a pas senger beside him. The body of the carriage is supported upon three parallel
perches, its whole length ; the hinder part hangs upon springs, fixed upon the perches, immediately over the axis of the hind wheels, and the fore part is placed upon iron supports on the perches. The carriage runs upon six wheels, a small pair, called the pilot wheels, 'being placed in front for guiding the vehicle ; these are connected to the ordinary fore wheels of the carriage by a small curved perch, which admits the axle of the former being placed oblique to the latter, by turning of a lever, fitted on to the upper extremity of an upright spindle, which is attached to the axletree. The hinder extremity of this small perch is attached to an iron frame supported upon springs, that are fixed on the axletree of the fore wheels ; a little before the axletree, a strong pin passes through the small perch and the centre main perch, which serves as a centre of motion to the small perch, so that the pilot-wheels being placed obliquely, the perch turns upon the pin, and the fore wheels of the carnage with it. When not acted upon by the steering lever, the pilot-wheels are maintained at right angles to the perch by means of springs.
"The blowing machine is placed, as before mentioned, in the fore boot; it con sists of a fly of five vanes, that revolve on a vertical spindle, similar to a win nowing machine, but in a reversed position ; this apparatus is worked by a small horizontal steam cylinder placed beneath, on the frame of the carriage. The piston rod of this cylinder is connected to a crank on the axis of a fly-wheel, revolving in a horizontal direction above ; and to the same crank is attached, by an intermediate rod, the plunger of the force-pump, which injects the water into the boiler. The steam-engine thus drives the blowing machine and the force-pump, the fly-wheel serving to equalise the motions of both. The con nexion between the blowing machine and this steam cylinder is thus arranged: on the vertical axis of the fly-wheel are fixed small band-wheels or pulleys, of different diameters, and on the vertical spindle of the blowing machine are fixed other pulleys, which being connected to the former by an endless band, are driven round with them ; the varied sizes of the pulleys enabling the engineer to force the air through the machine with any required rapidity. The air enters the blowing machine at the bottom of the circular box, wherein the vanes revolve, and is forced out at the side into a broad flat tube, called the ' air passage,' which leads under the body of the coach into the ash-pit of the rnace.