with a broken axle had run off the rails, the experiment was so far conclusive. I believe that if the brasses had been in good order, or if the axle had been cut away at the back of both the wheels, and removed altogether, the engine would not have gone off the road; for the tendency of the longer section of the axle was to throw the wheel to which it was attached out of its vertical position, and to bring the flanch in close and continuous contact with the rail, thus greatly increasing the probabilities of the wheel mounting the rail on meeting with any obstruction, however small. I am, &c. &c. (Signed) ROBERT B. DOCKRAY. We said last week that "the next thing of course would be to dispense with axles altogether." We have been accused of levity in so speaking, but our readers will see that the "Man Friday" who here backs his master in such capital style, is, with all the earnestness in the world, quite of our opinion. The only accident which happened to the carriage with its broken axle was the running off the rails, and "Man Friday" says, "I believe if the brasses had been in good order, or if the axle had been cut away at the back of both the wheels, and removed altogether, the engine would not have gone off the road." The experiment, therefore, was faultless in all but the single particular of the axle not being "removed altogether." Had it been only removed altogether, there would have been no running off the rail -no axle, no accident! How idle then to entertain any fear of breaking axles! All who are troubled with such fears have only to break them before starting, or still better, have none to break. The jester's well-known remedy for burglary is nothing to this. "Leave your doors open," quoth the jester. "Have none at all," is the maxim of our modern jester, "Robert B. Dockray." Logicians allow that there is such a thing as proving too much, and common sense people intend something to the same effect when they say that "you may have too much of a good thing;" but at railway head-quarters there is something. a vast deal better than either logic or common sense-there is that "stubborn thing" called "fact," which "dings a' and may not be despised." No axles and no accidents against all the logic and common sense in the world! The English sailor who made a summerset from the mast-head and did not break his skull, bade the envious Dutchmen" do the like if they could." And even so it is with Mr. Bury's Man Friday -having miraculously survived his ride in the broken axle carriage, he bids all heavy a-xled engineers learn wisdom from his example, and bother themselves with axles no more! The wonderful success of these wonderful experiments may furnish a useful hint to others besides railway engineers. When that respectable and enterprising class of mariners yclept "free traders” are hard pressed-running before the wind with every sail set-it is a common practice with them to knock away the wedge-pins from the masts, in order that they may have freer play, and if that does not suffice, then to saw through a number of the timber heads (it would almost seem from this as if Mr. Bury had stolen a leaf out of their log). But by the same rule that an axle cut through is as good as a whole one, and no axle at all better than either, it follows that the surest way to escape would be to cut away the masts by the board, and remove the timber heads "altogether." If this be not good, sound, practical reasoning, it will at all events do to "tell to the marines." The running off the rails was an gly incident to be sure; had it been on a high embankment, or in a deep tunnel for example, it would have knocked the Man Friday into Saturday at least. But Friday shows clearly enough that it was all owing to his master's grand and original ideas on the subject not being carried out to their full extent. Had the axle been "removed altogether," nothing of this untoward sort would have occurred. The danger to be apprehended is not so much from breaking axles as from not breaking them enough. Broken into two pieces they are admitted to be a little dangerous, but broken into a million, they exhibit the very perfection of safety. Mr. Bury's beau-ideal of an axle is an axle of sawdust! Worthy of all admiration is the bold manner in which Mr. Bury has, in this particular, made head against the vulgar outcry. Some persons, of the weak stuff of which ordinary men are made, would have assented to the danger to be appre hended from the breaking of axles, and BLAXLAND'S PROPELLER AND CAMBRIAN STEAM-ENGINE. have sought to soothe the public mind by much talk of providing against it. Not so Mr. Bury; he stoutly denies the danger "altogether," and at the risk merely of making mincemeat of his Man Friday, and another helper or two, he proves to you, beyond the possibility of dispute, that all your fears are vain. So, long life to the bold Mr. Bury! And long may his four-wheeled Juggernaut manufactory endure and flourish.* САМ BLAXLAND'S PROPELLER AND THE In these remarks, Sir, I have particularly in my eye the Cambrian engine, invented by • We have seen a business circular of Mr. Bury's respectable firm which shows that, after all, he and they have a shrewd suspicion that the days of the four wheelers are numbered. After stating what they consider to be the advantages of the four-wheeled engines, they wind up with these remarkable words, In justice to ourselves we have thought it right to lay these remarks before the public, at the same time that we are quite ready to construct engines upon six, or any other number of wheels, freeing ourselves from the responsibility of the consequence of any other plan than our own, and only requesting that such of our friends and the public as may entrust their orders to us, will permit us at least, for the safety of travellers and our own credit, to adhere to inside framing. BURY, CURTIS, AND KENNEDY." 487 the ingenious Mr. Jones, of Smethwick, and me, 66 one of the best From the manner in which the postscript account of the experiment with Mr. Blaxland's little Jane on the river Lea is given at the close of your report of the trial on board of the Swiftsure in the Mechanics' Magazine of the 4th inst., I infer that though present at the latter, you were not so at the former; and this inference ex. cludes a suspicion which I might otherwise have been disposed to entertain of your impartiality. For by another account of the river Lea experiment which I have before (that of the Hertford and Bedford Reformer of May 28,) I find that the applicability of the Cambrian engine to canal and river navigation, from the direct nature of its action, was brought almost as prominently under the notice of the gentlemen present as the merits of the Blaxland propeller itself-though your notice is perfectly silent on this point. The Hertford Reformer's account mentions, among those who were present on the occasion, "Mr. Crosley, the patentee of the new Cambrian engine," (one of the proprietors of the patent, would have been the more correct designation,) and it quotes Mr. Crosley as giving the following account of the engine: "The patent engines suitable for barges of 50 to 60 tons, should be of about six-horse power, either of high pressure, or high pressure expansive and condensing, about the same space being required for either, namely, 3 feet in length, 18 inches breadth, and 2 feet in height-the weight, about 12 to 15 cwts., without boiler, which would also be of small size, calculating the weight altogether at about 1 ton. The consumption of fuel is less than that required for engines of the same denomination of the usual construction; and a still less consumption, if engines of high pressure, expansive and condensing, were employed. The cost of the latter would be about a half more. But the great advantage possessed by our engine is, that it can be connected direct, and without gearing or intermediate motions, to the shaft of the propeller, the speed of which will be the same as that of the steam engine, which is variable at pleasure." The words of this extract, which I have marked in italics, may perhaps serve to explain why all about the Cambrian engine, and its direct action, was so studiously omitted in the account with which you were furnished of the river Lea experiment. However, it is not by such small manoeuvres as this that the merits of the Cambrian engine are to be kept in the shade. Since the river Lea experiment, a deputation from the body of canal proprietors has paid a special visit to Mr. Jones's factory at Smethwick, to inspect some engines which he has completed on his plan, and from the satisfaction they expressed with them, there is little doubt of their soon having a trial on THE FOREST OF DEAN COAL AND IRON MINES. the central opening, I believe the following description may also be acceptable to many of your readers. Fig. 1 is a vertical section, and fig. 2 a horizontal section of the central parts. The division pieces da, da, da, da,which form the four arms, or water-spaces, do not run inwards so far as the central opening, but they terminate in sharp ends at a a a a; and the whole of the space bb bb, which is inside of the inner ends of the division pieces is so proportioned, that the speed of the water passing through it will be uniform, or nearly so, at each point of its passage, for the purpose of allowing the water to enter the arms without any shock, when the machine is in motion. This is a very excellent plan where there is always a sufficiency of water to supply the whole of the arms; but when a machine is made for a situation, where occasionally there is water not for the whole of the arms but sometimes only for three, two, or one arm, Mr. W. proposes to put plates, curved in the manner shown by the lines marked c c c, in fig. 2, into the space bbbb, (see also fig. 1,) and thus each space betwixt a pair of plates will conduct the water into an arm. When the space, bbbb has certain dimensions, it may be found necessary to skew or twist the plates c c c, in order to allow the water to enter the machine when in motion, without interruption. These plates may require to be twisted from other causes. The smaller dotted circle shown in fig. 2, gives the size of the central opening; and the inner ends of the arms, when the plates marked c c c are not used, terminate at the large dotted circle, in the same figure. The plates, marked c c c may not run inwards so far as the centre of the machine, and their inner ends may run from the edge of the central opening upwards and towards the centre; or the innermost points of these plates may meet at e. At and near to the central opening, the water may be allowed to flow somewhat quicker than it does at the other points of its passage through the space b b b b, to allow for the change of its motion from the perpendicular to the horizontal direction, and for other causes. I am, Sir, yours, &c. Glasgow, May 27, 1842. J. C. 489 THE FOREST OF DEAN COAL AND IRON ERS. The Forest of Dean comprehends an irregular area of about thirty miles in circuit, lying between the rivers Severn and Wye; covered for the most part with timber, in various stages of growth; and famous for its mines of coal and iron. From time immemorial, all male persons born in the hundred of St. Briavels, in which the Forest is included, have enjoyed the right of working these mines, subject only to the leave or licence of the gaveller, or deputy gaveller of the Forest being first obtained, and to the payment of an annual galeage rent, or duty to the Crown. In default of, or in lieu of such payment, the Crown was entitled to put in a fifth man for a share with other four men (free miners), after the coal or iron had been won by means of a shaft or level, in the working of which the Crown's fifth man was not required to assist. In ancient times the practices of the free miners, as regards the opening and working of mines, and the carrying of coal or iron ore, were regulated by a court or jury of free miners, who met at what was appropriately called The Speech House, in the centre of the Forest, and adjudicated on all such matters. records of this Court of Free Miners, extending over a period of eighty-six years, from 1688 to 1754, are still preserved in the office of Woods and Forests; but from these records it appears that the Court was never at any time adequate to the purposes of its institution, and eventually it became extinct. For more than half a century afterwards the free miners appear to have done very much as they pleased amongst themselves; for though the old customs were always referred to, as furnishing the rules by which the agents of the Crown and the free miners were to be guided, yet these customs had constantly to be modified to suit new circumstances, and were wholly inapplicable to the deep coal mines worked by the aid of modern machinery. The perplexity of this state of things was much Some The Award of the Dean Forest Mining Commissiouers, (under the 1 and 2 Viet. c. 43,) as to the Coal and Iron Mines in her Majesty's Forest of Dean, and the Rules and Regulations for working the same, &c. By Thomas Sopwith, F.G.S., the Commissioner appointed on behalf of the Crown. With Map. 210 pp. 8vo. Weale, London. increased by a new practice of the free miners, which appears to have been very rarely, if at all, practised during the period of the Mine Law Courts; this was the practice of free miners selling or assigning, for long terms of years, gales, to persons not being free miners, and who were generally known in the Forest by the term foreigners." Among these "foreigners," the well-known names of Crawshay, Protheroe, and Mushet, stand conspicuous. It is certain, however, that but for the intrusion of these "foreigners"-but for each adventurer of that class consolidating in his person the individual rights of a number of the native miners, and but for the large capital which they introduced into the Forest-the deep mines, which are the richest, would never have been reached and worked at all. According to ancient custom, no gale could be granted within 1,000 yards, either in advance of the level, or on the land side of an existing work, or within a circle of 12 yards radius to a water pit; but these restrictions allowed of twenty, forty, or even a hundred gales being granted within the scope of a tract of deep coal, large enough to justify the expenditure of from 5,000l. to 10,000l. in the sinking of a shaft to reach it. Besides, shafts could only be sunk, and engines and machinery erected with the consent of the Crown, as the owner of the soil; and in granting that consent, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests claimed a right to exercise a reasonable discretion without any reference to the old custom of galing. To work all the gales separately, would have been useless and ruinous, and many existed in such isolated situations as to be for all practical purposes utterly valueless. Again, according to the common acceptation of the privileges conferred on free miners, or their assigns, by a gale, it was understood that the workings of a coal or iron mine, might be carried to an indefinite extent, (that is underground,) unless interrupted by another work; so that where a free miner or a foreigner once penetrated to a deep coal vein, he virtually obtained the monopoly of a very large tract of coal, by the power which he possessed of extending his work, before any rival pit could be sunk. With custom and legal title thus at variance, it became at length absolutely necessary that the legislature should interfere to adjust and determine the rights of the various parties interested. An Act of Parliament was accordingly passed, 1 & 2 Vict. c. 43, by which Thomas Sopwith, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, (on the part of the Crown); John Probyn, of Gloucester (on the part of the miners); and John Buddle, of Wallsend (as umpire); were appointed Commissioners "to ascertain what persons were, at the passing of the Act, in possession of, or entitled to, gales, for coals or iron mines within the hundred of St. Briavels, or stone quarries within the said Forest, or of any pits, levels, or other works, made by virtue of gales, for the purpose of working the coal and iron mines of the said hundred," as also "to set forth general rules, orders, and regulations for working the same" in future. The Commission was opened at Coleford, on the 5th September, 1838, and finally closed at the same place on the 26th of July, 1841; and the Award of the Commissioners has now, by order of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, been printed under the superintendence of Mr. Sopwith, for the benefit of all concerned. The labour of the Commissioners has been prodigious; and, as far as we are competent to judge, it has been executed with great ability, discrimination, and fairness. The number of free miners registered (1 Nov. 1841) is 829, and that, we presume, may be taken as an index to the least number of claims adjudicated upon. Of the general views by which the Commissioners were guided in the execution of their task, Mr. Sopwith gives the following satisfactory exposition: "From these various considerations, it will be seen that the peculiarities of the Dean Forest customs were such as to preclude the application of any remedy, save that of discretionary powers based on the plain principles of common justice to the owners of the several properties, and of reasonable compensation in every case of inevitable loss or injury. Mining is, under all circumstances, a very speculative subject, as regards prospective valuations; and the peculiar and irregular practices in Dean Forest rendered it most difficult to define express rules. In most mining districts, the customs are tolerably well agreed upon; and there are, in addition, grants or leases which afford a guide in a legal point of view; the ownership is usually clear and undisputed; the financial matters are also usually well defined; the cost of sinking and work |