Steam Road Carriages of the 1830s: Why Did They Fail?

NOTES AND REFERENCES

• A valuable account is given by T.R.Nicholson, The Birth of the British Motor Car; Vold, A New Machine, 1769–1842. (Macmillan, 1982). It should be especially consulted for further detail about turn-pike road tolls, and the various parliamentary committees which looked into the question. Anthony Bird, Roads and Vehicles, (Longmans, 1969), has a very perceptive chapter on the steam carriages. There is a good long introductory section on Walter Hancock's life and work in: Francis James, Walter Hancock and his Common Road Steam Coaches, (including Hancock's Narrative of Twelve Years' Experiments), Lawrence Oxley, 1975. A good life of Gurney, with chapters on his steam carriage ca-reer, is: Dale H. Porter, The Life and Times of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, (London: Associated University Presses, 1998.) Philip S. Bagwell, The Transport Revolution from 1770, (Batsford, 1974) is a very good general history of transport, though weak on carriages. W. Fletcher, Steam on Common Roads, 1891 has been reprinted by David and Charles, 1972. It is useful, but caution is needed since Fletcher himself was not critical: he was one of the later steam road engineers. Contemporary works, some of them reprinted, appear later in the end-notes. The present author wrote an article on Roads, Railways and Canals which appeared in Technology and Culture, 1981. It was an attempt at a compari-son of systems of transport technically. Steam road carrriages were treated in a simple context, and the present paper tries to reach a more chronological perspective of their story (see end-note 5.)
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• Repertory of Arts, Manufactures and Agriculture, Vol. 36 ( 2nd series), J. L. Macadam On the Making and Repairing of Roads, 1820, p. 41. Macadam's roads were cheaper than Telford's because they did not need a foundation of heavy stones.
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• T. C. Barker and C. I. Savage An Economic History of Transport in Britain, (Hutchinson, 1974), p. 52.
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• Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, 1811, chapter 4.
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• Information from Dr Hugh Torrens, see E T. Evans, 'Roads, Railways and Canals: Technical Choices in 19th Century Britain,' Technology and Culture, vol. 22, No. 1, January 1981, pp. 1–34. ( Reprinted in Technology and the West, ed. T. S. Reynolds and S. H. Cunliffe, Chicago University Press, 1997.) The author regrets that there are some errors in that paper: Russell's carriage was driven by gears not chains; the Heatons' likewise; W. H. James did not complete his advanced design of carriage.
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• Philip S. Bagwell, The Transport Revolution from 1770, ( Batsford, 1974), p. 39.
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• William Fletcher provides a useful list. Leaving out many names whose achievements were shadowy, some real effort seems to have been made before 1830 by: James Saddler, Thomas Allen, Richard Trevithick, David Gordon, Julius Griffiths, Samuel Brown, Burstall and Hill, W. H. James, E Andrews, James Nasmyth, Dr. Harland (Scarborough), the Heaton brothers, Goldsworthy Gurney and Walter Hancock.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. 3, no. 70, January 1825, p. 238. Dr Ron Fitzgerald has informed me that he believes the article was written by Tom Grainger.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, idem, p. 237. T. Gray, Observations on a General Iron Railway, (London, 1821) and William James, (E. M. S. Paine, The Two James's and the Two Stephensons, 1861, reprinted 1961) were also prophets of the railway.
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• Some members may remember the Rupert Bear Stories. In the 1942 Annual Rupert follows a strange inventor to his underground workshop, where he is building a full-size clockwork car. Scientifically it was nonsense—but try telling that to a six-year-old.
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• W. Bridges Adams, English Pleasure Carriages, 1837. Reprinted 1971, Adams and Dart, ed. Jack Simmons, p. 196–7.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. 12, no. 325, Oct. 311829, p. 163.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. 12, no. 327, Nov. 14 1829, p. 194.
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• Quoted by L. T. C. Rolt, George and Robert Stephenson, (Penguin, 1978), p. 147.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. 12, no. 325, Oct. 31 1829, p. 163.
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• Alexander Gordon, pp. 76–78.
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• Letter to Sir Charles Dance, quoted by Gordon, p. 146.
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• ibid. 116.
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• W. Bridges Adams, English Pleasure Carriages, 1837: ( reprinted 1971), Adams and Dart, introduction Jack Simmons, p. 198.
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• Gordon p. 73 check
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• T. R. Nicholson, The Birth of the British Motor Car; Vol. 1, A New Machine, 1769–1842. ( Macmillan, 1982). Dale H. Porter, The Life and Times of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, (London: Associated University Presses, 1998).
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• Little attention was paid to Hancock running a brief service earlier in February 1831. Hancock was more interested in gaining operating experience than publicity. Francis James, Walter Hancock and his Common Road Steam Coaches, (including Hancock's Narrative of Twelve Years' Experiments), (Lawrence Oxley, 1975), p. 33
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• Nicholson looks in some detail into the question of increased tolls, and concludes that while there is some substance in Gurney 's claims, the situation improved fairly rapidly. Furthermore, there were many major routes where tolls were not a problem.
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• Quoted in Anthony Bird Roads and Vehicles (Longmans, 1969), p. 176
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• F. T. Evans (1981) vide supra, p. 29.
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• Gordon, 69–90.
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• T. R. Nicholson, The Birth of the British Motor Car, 1769–1897, Volume 1. The question of tolls is dis-cussed at length. Nicholson shows clearly that, though there were punitive tolls around 1831, the prob-lem diminished within a few years.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. XXI, no. 556, April 15 1834, p. 15.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. 35, no. 950, Oct. 23 1841, pp. 329–30.
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• Gordon, p. 121; Mechanics' Magazine, XIX, No. 527, September 14 1833, pp. 417–419.
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• Mechanics Magazine, vol. 36, no. 974, April 9 1842, p. 279.
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• Anthony Bird Roads and Vehicles (Longmans, 1969), pp. 189–190 and Plate 26.
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• Birmingham General Steam Carriage Co. Minute Book. Transcribed by Mr. Phil Brown. Dr. J. Andrew of the Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry drew my attention to this document.
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• Nicholson, p. 132.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. 31, no. 837, August 17, 1839. p. 384.
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. 31, no. 839, Sep. 7 1839, page 420
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• Mechanics' Magazine, vol. 33, Jul. 1840, p. 204
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• Nicholson, p. 142.
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