Abstract
By the end of 1826 only one ingredient — speed — was still lacking from the brew of circumstances favouring the commercial road steamer and its final progeny, the first motor car. Within a year, adequate speed, and the steam coach as competition for the stage coach, were being spoken of in almost the same breath. It cannot have been coincidence — without the first, the second could never have happened.
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Notes
A German Prince [Ludwig von Puckler-Muskau], Tour in England, Ireland and France, letter (16 Jan. 1828).
William Bridges Adams, English Pleasure Carriages (1837) 191. The expense of carrying the Liverpool and Manchester Railway across Chat Moss caused widespread dismay at the time. Railways could costs £30,000–£40,000 a mile to build.
B.P.P., Select Committee (1834–5) 11. Ross knew Gurney through their mutual interest in steam propulsion for ships.
B.P.P., Select Committee (1831) 69–73. Ogle and Summers had been working on steamers since 1829.
J.E. Bradfield, The Public Carriages of Great Britain (1855) 20f The first cost of the horses was higher than the value given here.
John Cary, Cary’s New Itinerary (1828); Stanley Harris, The Coaching Age, 141. By 1836, the number had risen to 30.
B.P.P., Select Committee (1836) 21, 64. These figures must relate to the most heavily used roads: the average expenditure per mile on turnpike roads countrywide was only about £33. See B.P.P., Abstracts, Income and Expenditure of Turnpike Trusts (1834).
A claim that a bushel of coke could last two miles was probably a slight exaggeration. Neither had water consumption improved; 10 gallons a mile was admitted. See B.P.P., Select Committee (1831) 18.
12s 6d per horsepower later charged him 7s 6d, having estimated his carriage’s output to be 3 h.p. Ogle believed the man should have demanded £6 5s Od. Whether this was true or not, Ogle felt that he had got the better of the trust. It may be that some gatekeepers simply looked at a steamer and guessed how many horses would be needed to draw it. See B.P.P., Report, Select Committee on Turnpike Trusts, (1839).
J.K. Glynn, The Private M.P. 1833–68, University of London Ph.D. thesis (1949) 30ff.
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© 1982 T.R. Nicholson
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Nicholson, T.R. (1982). Hope Deferred: the Rise and Fall of Goldsworthy Gurney, 1827–32. In: The Birth of the British Motor Car 1769–1897. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03792-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03792-6_2
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