ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAYS Report from the select committee on atmospheric railways; together with the minutes of evidence, appendix and index. (Communicated by the Commons to the Lords.) London, 6th May 1845
Large 4to. viii + 195 + (1) + 33 + (1)pp. Quarter calf. Not in Ottley. By 1845, Clegg and Samuda's atmospheric system was installed on three short stretches of line and various schemes for using it on longer lines were before the Board of Trade. In order to hasten the acceptance of the atmospheric system as viable and to expedite the construction of a major railway to prove it, Clegg and Samuda successfully petitioned Parliament to appoint a Select Committee to look into the subject. An impressive array of witnesses passed before the them. Brunel, Cubitt and Vignoles, the engineers of the three existing lines, were in favour of the system, as were Samuda, Joshua Field of Maudslay, Sons & Field (who supplied the engines for the Croyden line) and Thomas Bergin (Secretary of the Dublin & Kingstown) while Robert Stephenson, Bidder and Locke all opposed it. The resulting report with its minutes of evidence is the most substantial source of information on this whole chapter of railway history and “its conclusions represent the high-water mark of the atmospheric achievement” (Hadfield, “Atmospheric railways”) for the Committee came down, albeit rather cautiously, on the side of the atmospheric party.
£650
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