t supporter of steam-driven road vehicles as against railways, wrote in “An Historical and Practical Treatise upon Elemental Locomotion by means of
Steam Carriages on Common Roads” (1832):—
“It will be found that, with the exception of the Liverpool and Manchester line, and of those lines formed solely for the purpose of conveying heavy materials on a descending road, railways are, at least, of very questionable advantage where there is the possibility of having a good turnpike road and steam carriages…. Rail-roads have a very formidable rival in steam communication 杭州水疗会所全套 upon the common road, and the latter is of vastly greater advantage than the former.”
Opposition, however, to steam-driven road coaches was hardly less vigorous than the opposition offered to the rail locomotive itself. Not only were obstructions constantly placed on the roads to prevent the steam-coaches from passing, but country squires, horse-coach proprietors, post-horse owners and representatives of
the turnpike road interests combined to show the most active hostility to the new form of locomotion. The turnpike road trustees sought to make the running 杭州养生按摩网 of the steam-coaches impossible by imposing prohibitive tolls on them. It was shown in evidence before a Parliamentary Committee that where on the road between Liverpool and Prescot horse-coaches would pay a 4s. toll, the steam-coach was charged ￡2 8s., while on other roads the tolls 杭州桑拿按摩论坛网址 in the case of the latter were equally extortionate.
There were pioneers in those days who devoted time, toil and fortune to attempts to establish steam locomotion on the roads, only, one after the other, to retire from the contest discomfited and impoverished.
Among them was Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, who laboured for five years and expended ￡30,000 on his attempts to bring steam-carriages into practical and permanent use. Finding, at last, that the turnpike trustees controlled the situation, Gurney and other steam-carriage builders petitioned Parliament 杭州spa足本纪正规么 to investigate the subject of the opposition shown to them, and a select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed for this purpose in 1831. It reported in favour of {475}steam road-carriages, and recommended a repeal of the old turnpike Acts. A Bill to this effect was passed 杭州丝袜上门保健 in the Commons but thrown out in the Lords. Disheartened by his losses, Gurney ceased to build and to run coaches on his own account and tried to form a company. He failed in the attempt, and he then appealed to Parliament to make him some recompense for all he had done in the interests of the public. A proposed grant of ￡10,000 was objected to, however, by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Gurney got nothing. Concluding that it was useless to continue his attempts in the face of so much discouragement, he sold off his stock-in-trade and retired from 杭州龙凤楼论坛 the business.
By 1835 nearly all the steam-carriages had been taken off the road, and by 1840 the considerable industry which had been developed was engaged almost exclusively—so far as it survived at all—in the production of traction engines, only spasmodic attemp
