OF RAIL-ROADS.

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carriage down steep hills. The contrivances,to effect the requisite motions of the variousparts of this machine, are extremely ingenious ;and, considering it as the first which directedpublic attention to the subject, is entitled togreat commendation.

The many objections to its application,upon public turnpike-roads, may, I presume,have operated in preventing the patentees fromcarrying it into practice in the manner de-scribed in their specification; they, therefore,very properly, directed their attention to its useupon Hail-roads.

Two years after the date of this patent, wefind that Mr. Trevithick made an engine inSouth Wales, which was tried upon the Mer*tliyn Tydvil Rail-road. The engine is stated tohave had an eight-inch cylinder, with a four-feet six-inches stroke, and “ drew after it uponthe Rail-road as many carriages as carried tentons of bar-iron, from a distance of nine miles,which it performed without any supply of waterto that contained in the boiler at the time ofsetting out; travelling at the rate of five milesan hour.”

As there is no account given of the inclina-tion of the road, we cannot judge of the realperformance of the engine. It had, it appears,