It. appears that as far hack as 1780 attempts were made by William Symington, in Scotland, and Oliver Evans, in Philadelphia, to introduce steam carriages, or waggons, on common roads ; and Mr. Murdoch, the well-known associate of Beaker' and Watt, is said in 1782, or 1792, to have made a shnilar attempt. In 1802, Trevethick and Vivian pro duced an engine for the same purpose of much greater value than those previously made. After their trial, some years elapsed before other parties took up tho question, and it was not until 1821 that Griffith patented his steam-carriage. In 1822 David Gordon began his public essays on the subject, and in the succeeding years he took out several laterite connected with it. He was, in 1824, followed by many other Inventors, such as llancock, Summers and Ogle, Dr. Church, Sir J. Anderson, Sir C. Dance, Mr, .1. Scott Russell, &e. The success of these experiments was, as might have been expected, of a varied character ; but they seem to have roused a singular amount of local opposition, which finally assumed so violent a character as to lead to the nomination of a select committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the "present state and future prospects of land carriage by means of wheeled vehicles propelled by steam or gas on common roads." The report of this committee was published iii October 1831. Although this report was favourable to the new application of steam power, and although Br. Hancock in 1831 produced a steam-carriage which, like the one proposed about the same time by Mr. Goldsworthy G urney, answered to a great extent the anticipationsad their inventors, the difficulties attending this mode of locomotion were considered to be so great, that about 1832 the conviction in the minds of practical engineers had become almost universal that "every attempt then made to render steam-carriages the means of economical and regular inland communication had totally and absolutely failed." The success of the railway system, then first applied on a la7 scale, served likewise to turn public attention from the avowedly inferior system of steam locomotion on common roads; and it was not until the recent application of steam machinery to agricultural purposes had rendered it desirable to intro duce some mechanical traction-engines of great power, that engineers were again induced to study this particular problem. In the Great Exhibition for 1851 there was only oue plan of a locomotive for common roads ; but between 1858 and the end of 1860 as many as nine varieties of those engines were submitted to the public, of sufficient importance to merit the attention of the professional journals and occasionally of the various departments of the government Of these, Boydell's, Clayton's, Burrell's, Bray's, Mica's, and Stirling's traction-engines, Lord Caithness's steam-canaage, Aveling's self-pro pelling agricultural engines, and the engine made by Mr. Creswell for
the English and Continental Traction-Engine Company, have attracted the greatest amount of notice, and some of them have actually per formed good work. Bray's traction-engine, for instance, has been usefully employed in our dockyards. Lord Caithness reports that with his-carriage, having' cylinders of 3 inches diameter and 7 inches stroke, he was able to attain on he level a speed of 19 miles an hour, and to ascend inclines of 1 in 7, working at an average expense of from a halfpenny to a penny per mile; the weight, with water for a run of 12 miles, and coals for 20 miles, is only two tons ; but time carriage only conveys (in the form represented in the Engineer' for Oct. 19, 1860) three passengers. Creswell's engine is said on one occasion to have drawn two waggons containing 10 tons of earth each up Pentonville Hill, a long incline of about 1 in 70; but on a repetition of the experi ment it broke down. There seems, therefore, to be some reason for the belief so confidently expressed by Lord Caithness, that cre long steam may be substituted for horse-power on common roads ; and as the prejudice against its use has, since 1831, been considerably diminished, tho most bitter source of opposition has disappeared. The application of the expansion gear, and the introduction of street railways, must however be considered to have effected the greatest service towards the introduction of steam locomotion without the construction of special roadways. With all their modern improve ments, steam-carriages are nevertheless still but imperfect substitutes for railway travelling, and it may almost be a subject for regret to witness the amount of energy, skill, and money expended upon them.
The best information on the construction of steam-carriages is to be found in Gordon's Treatise upon Elemental Motion ; ' Hancock's Narrative ; ' the 'Mechanics' Magazine ; ' the 'Engineer;' and the Reports of the Select Committees of the House of Commons in 1831, and 1834 and 1835, upon Steam-Carriages and upon Goldsworthy Gurney's claims.