THOMPSON'S ROAD STEAMER

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 801, 4 July 1870, Page 3

THOMPSON'S ROAD STEAMER

[»A.tW TOUTSEEW OBOBB.J

CouNTitr settlers need no longer com* plain of the impossibility of getting their produce to market. Bad or distance from a portage, need no longer appal the struggling farmer, for scientific invention has come to the rescue, and a species of traction engine by Mr R. W. Thompson, of Edinburgh, which will draw from & to 25tons over the softest roads at from 3 to 12 miles an hour, run over grass fields, turn in less space than horses, and carry its own fuel and water. For £SOO an engine can be purchased which will draw 8 tons at the rate of 2§ to 6 miles an hour; while for double that sum, a 35-horse-power engine may be obtained, capable of drawing a weight of 25 tons up the same gradient and at the same speed. The great drawback in all previous traction eagines has been their extreme weight and liability to breakage. In running on soft roads the ordinary traction engine has constantly become " b°£g e( V or has moved along so laboriously as to render it of no practical advantage over horses; while on hard roads the weight of the engine itself, and the shocks experienced by the machinery caused frequent breakages, and cut up the roads fearfully. But in Mr Thompson's engine these effects are entirely absent. It runs with equal ease over hard and paved streets without jolting, over soft roads without sinkiug, over moddy roads without slipping, and over ploughed fields, upon ice and frozen snow, and through loose sand. It is small and tight and easily manageable. Indeed in Paris one of these engines ran for weeks with one of the great Versailles omnibuses attached to it, carrying 50 passengers. It went up a paved street beside the "Trocadere," where the gradients are 1 in 9; crossed jhe Round Point at hours when it was thronged with vehicles and equestrians, and in the beautifully level Paris streets easily attained a speed of 12 miles an hour. Another road steamer was us d on the sea sands at Portobello, where it ran at the rate of 10 miles an hour, in the midst of a torrent of rain, and at Aberdeen, a fiveton road engine dragged out a 20-ton load, climbing a gradient of 1 in 20, with single gear. But the test of all others which proved the adaptability of Thompson's road engine was made at Edinburgh on the 17th September ia last year. At the steam ploughing matches of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society, it ran down a long grass hill, with a gradient of 1 in 4 J, filled its tanks, and returned up the hill again; and afterwards, two of Fowler's double-furrow ploughs were attached to it; on it went, making four deep furrows perfectly straight, and even without a hand being put to the ploughs. Arrived at the end of the field, it turned with far greater ease than even horses could do, and ploughed its way back again up a hill with an incline of 1 in 12. While three horses were painfully struggling along with one double furrowed plough through the exceedingly hard, dry, stiff soil, it was drawing its two doublefurrow ploughs with such ease that it was evident there was an immense supply of power to spare. The road steamer, too, is quite free from the accidents to which horses are liable by becoming entangled in the chains, and when it accelerated its speed too much a single *' woa" would bring it to a stand. The engine can be employed equally well in ploughing, carrying manure, reaping, mowing, or taking produce to market. But we will give a few more instances of the extraordinary powers of Thompson's Road En* gine. At Edinburgh a 6-ton engine was attached to four huge wagons filled with pig-iron, weighing together 34 tons, which it drew with the greatest ease from the top to the foot of Granton Road, with inclines of 1 in 18 to 1 in 25. Arrived at the top, it turned with its train in the road itself, and ran back again. Another road steamer conveyed a party of gentleman from Granton Leith, a distance of 2£ miles, in 21J minutes. Another 6-ton road steamer is employed regularly between Aberdeen and the Ket* tock flour-mills, its duty being to car* ry a load of 10 tons along a narrow, crooked, and greasy road, up and down inclines of 1 in 9 to 1 in 7|v The engine makes four trips daily f

sod |the whole consumption of coal: #B&h day is barely half-a-toji, Thel have given extensive Orders for these engines to be used |n the conveyance of troops arid stores <on jthe grand Trunk Road. In Ceylon, shey are likely to be much in demand #a the coffee plantations, the estimate feeing that a saving of £,§o is effected: |u the conveyance of 10 tons of coffee $ distance of 125 miles by the engine fqsjead of the ordinary bullock-drays The Onger Company calculate upon a saving of as much as $5,468 a year, pr 60 per cent, on the expenditure for by the use of Thompson's roa4 ecgiue. The Thompson road engine owes all its facilities, and its ex eruption from the disabilities of other fraction engines, to one device, as as simple as it is efficacious. The wheels, which are of great width, are surrounded by tires of vulcanised fndia-rubber. These thick bands of India-rubber enable the road steamer % o float over the surface of the ground without the slightest damage, while they likewise protect the machinery from all concussion. The intervention of the elastic tires between the wheel and the road acts in fact the same way on the roadway as if the engine were running over a tramway of india-rub-ber. To prove bow small is the crushing power between the surface of the road and the outer edge of the Wheels, bits of coal, potatoes, carrots, /&c, were placed in the path of the engine, and after it has passed over them ihey have been picked up uncrushed. The road steamer is exceedingly £rm and compact, It runs on three Wheels, two large ones, and a smaller pile in front. The india-rubber tires for the three wheels of a 10 horse power engine weigh 14cwt., and the sjres are guarded by flexible shields, formed of open steel bars, which give an excellent bite or hold upon the jground; and while they do not in any way interfere with the elastic play of the india-rubber, they afford such pro Section to it as to render it virtually indestructible. The shields, which are removable, aie not used for driving over snow, as on such surfaces iron will not bite; and here the indiarubber is of immense advantage, as it runs over them with perfect ease, and Without slipping. In running through sand also, as in Egypt, the shields are dispensed with. In the foregoing we have compiled, from a number of circulars kindly sent jto us for the purpose, a detailed description of the capabilities of the gine, and we may now pass on to give some figures showing the cost of the different varieties. It is calculated jthat when running on an average road %h& consumption will be under two pounds of coal per mile for each ton of gross load, and the consumption oi water is about seven pounds to each pound of coal. When wood is used instead of coal the consumption will be three times that of coal. An eight ton road steamer carries 250 gallons of water and 6cwt. of coal, the water lasting half-a-day, and the coals a whole day. Trains of wagons to carry from four to five tons each are sup plied at from JESS to S7O, aud the axles, wheels, springs, and necessary iron works .may be supplied to the Colonies without the bodies. These would cost from $35 to $55. One man and youth are required to work the road steamer and train. An 8Jiorse power road steamer suitable for ploughing and agricultural purposes costs .£520, and patent ploughs adapted to the engine cost from $56 to SIOO. A road engine of 3 horse power, having a covered carriage mounted on the wheels with seats for four passengers inside, and with seats for servants, posts SSOO. It will run at a speed of eight to ten miles an hour. It is mounted on springs and one man can steer and attend to the fire. A road steamer capable of drawing a patent pmnibus, with 65 passengers, costs $550; apd a road steamer capable ol carrying 105 passengers, or two omnibuses carrying 50 each over billy roads at the rate of seven miles an hour, costs $650. The road steamer pan be turned with the utmost facility pn the most crooked roads of ordinary width, and the goods wagons and pmnibuses, when in tow, follow its track rouufl corners and through gateways with the utmost precision. Mr Thompson's patent omnibuses on in (pa/rubber wheel tires to parry 40 paseost MW>\ an omnibus \q

carry 65 passengers, $370 ; to carry 105 passengers, $450. road steamers are manufactured by Messrs T. M. Tennent & Co., Leith; and Mr R. W. Thompson, CJS., Edinburgh, is the patentee. The circular specifies that for foreign orders onethird of the amount must be paid in cash, the balance on delivery at the works after trial, unless the orders go through an English broker or mer chant. We have gone thus fully into a de- ! scription of the road steamer, because it is obviously exactly the sort of thing that would be of immense value in this country, especially in some of the country districts. The high price ought not to be a difficulty, for one engine might be made to do the work of almost a whole district, and it might therefore be purchased on the cooperative system. To show its adaptability for bad roads, we may mention what occurred recently in England, when a number of military engineers were watching the performances of one of these road steamers. It was driven round in a field saturated with melted snow. The road steamer left the merest trace on the slushy ground, while the wheels of the vehicle behind cut it into deep ruts. But as the engine passed over these ruts when retracing the circle it effaced them ; and by-and-by being detached and allowed to run over the ground alone, it repaired the surface, and made it perfectly smooth aud even,