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Synopsis
Book by Beasley, David
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From the Back Cover
AUTOMOBILE HISTORY, ECONOMIC HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY, RAILWAYS, BANKING, TECHNOLOGY The automobile was perfected in 1829 and ran well on English roads. Who prevented its development? Was it the railway entrepreneurs? Was it the landed interests? Was it the free-traders? The same interests prevented its development in Europe and in America. Beasley takes you from the beginning through these various factions into the railway and banking conflicts to the 1890s when the automobile is allowed to develop in France. Why was it developed as the petroleum car and why was the steam car discouraged? Beasley gives the answer and along the way demonstrates a unique economic theory of invention. A reviewer, Charles W. Bishop, wrote: "As a long-time student of that activity, I cannot but be impressed with the thoroughness of Beasley's research, and envious of some of the contacts he made in the course of his work, listed in his excellent bibliography.... Only automobile enthusiasts whose interests begin after World War II will not find this an engrossing book. It is excellent." "Where the book departs from the theoretical literature is in the explanation of how an inferior technology comes to win.... It seems clear that "noneconomic" forces were very important in the early history of the automobile."--Journal of Economic Literature
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In the dead of night on July 27, 1829, Gurney drove the carriage to Cranford Bridge Inn on the western limits of London. Shortly after four the next morning an excited party began the great experiment. To avoid crowds, Gurney made no announcement of his journey and planned to stop at those inns which were outside towns along the route. Goldsworthy Gurney, ;James Stone, and another engineer, ;Tom Bailey, who stoked the fuel, rode the steam carriage, which was about 30 hundredweight (cwt) when loaded with sufficient coke and water to carry them for six to eight miles. Attached behind was a carriage carrying Thomas Gurney, ;Colonel James Viney, ;Captain William Augustus Dobbyn, and two engineers from Gurney's manufactory who perched on the dickey. Accompanying this self-propelled group were two horse drawn vehicles. The first, a phaeton drawn by two horses, carried William Hanning, Sir Charles Dance, and Dance's monied friends, William Bulnois and Davis; the second, a post carriage carrying coke lest fuel not be found at some ;of the way stations, was driven by two post-boys with David Dady, Gurney's factory manager, and ;Thomas Martin, an assistant engineer. At first the phaeton preceded the steam carriage, but at a speed of 14 mph on the level road the steam carriage left it far behind. As for the post carriage, its horses were in a lather trying to keep up, and it had to be pulled by two pairs of horses after they left Maidenhead, the first stop for coke and water. The party continued rapidly until at Longford it encountered a narrow wooden bridge erected temporarily while the regular bridge was being rebuilt. Because the road leading up to the bridge was piled high with bricks, Gurney failed to see the mail coach from Bristol racing along the bridge until he was at the foot of it. Dance, who was in the phaeton in advance of the steam carriage, cried out to the coach driver to pull up, but he was ignored. The carriages became entangled, the mail coach's lead horses bolted and broke their mail traces, and Gurney veered the steam carriage into a pile of bricks as he had no time to stop. The mail passed but pulled up down the road, and the coachman, the guard, and some passengers returned to offer their help. Gurney, however, reversed the engine and brought the carriage back onto the road. Only one of the driving irons attached to a rear wheel was broken. The steam carriage continued with the driving power of one wheel to Reading, where the party waited impatiently for the iron to be mended. Leaving orders for the post-carriage to bring the iron onto the next station, the party pushed ahead at half-past ten (though not without grave concern at encountering the loose gravel and hills near Marlborough Forest) with power in only one wheel. On a steep hill beyond Newbury the carriage wheel slipped round on the ground. One of the men was about to fetch a horse to pull it, when two of the engineers by putting their shoulders to the carriage gave it the impetus to reach the top of the hill. From then on they were confident in the bite of just one wheel. Today the road leading out of the woods into Marlborough plummets between high hedges, and no doubt it was as steeply narrow in 1829. The engineers apprehensively prepared a drag chain to be thrown over the side of the carriage and an extra hand drag on the wheels to be worked by the driver. To their delight and surprise, when they cut off the steam, the friction of the engine alone was found to be sufficient to slow their descent. From here the rolling land sweeps the mechanized traveler southward to the town of Devizes. In the first lap of the journey from Cranford to Reading, Dance counted the vehicles they overtook on the road: "21 carts, 7 wagons, 2 post-chaises, 4 mail-coaches, 7 stage-coaches, 1 dray with 2 horses, a drove of cart horses, 3 gigs and 6 horses." Immensely pleased by their achievement, the men in the carriages took the dogleg through Devizes as the sun sank behind the horizon, and they continued on to Melksham, a town of gray stone houses only eight miles from Bath. One drawback was that at certain places the party, for lack of coke, had to buy coal which gave off smoke. At Devizes the coke was so bad it would not burn. Consequently, Gurney used coal, and sparks flew up the chimney giving "the appearance of a beautiful firework" in the darkening evening. Melksham, a center for rubber, rope, flour, and dairy industries with a large weaving industry in neighboring Trowbridge, was in a festive mood from the second day of a fair attended by thousands. The steam carriage stopped at the Canal Bridge at the eastern end of town to take on water. It was 8:00 P.M. as Gurney slowly guided the steam carriage onto the main street through the heavy crowds of agricultural laborers and "manufacturers" in the district. As it reached the height of the slight ascent opposite the George pub, the carriage came under attack. A mob shouting insults brought the carriage to a standstill. Unemployed and impoverished in the depression following the financial crisis of 1826, the men of Melksham took out their frustrations on the mechanical apparatus: "Down with machinery! Knock it to pieces!" They threw rocks and flints at the gentlemen who had come out of their carriages to form files on either side of the steam carriage to prevent people from climbing onto it. Gurney was cut on the head, the stoker, Bailey, was knocked senseless into the road, and Martin was severely hurt. Picking up steam, the carriage dashed out of town followed by a stone throwing group for a mile and a half to the village of Shaw where Gurney steered the carriage into the high-walled stone yard of the local brewer. The wounded Bailey was immediately taken to Bath for medical treatment. Two constables guarded the carriage during the night and accompanied it to Bath the following day.
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Who Really Invented the Automobile?
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