---
title: "Goldsworthy Gurney"
chunk: 3/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsworthy_Gurney"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:06:20.803004+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Gurney later said that his first prototype weighed four tons and that he worked to reduce this to 2 tons for his steam coach, the vehicle for which he is best known. This took the form of a large stage coach with 6 passengers inside and 12 (he later claimed 15) outside, plus the guide, who doubled as the engine-man/stoker. The body of the vehicle was 15' long, or 20' including the front pole and a pair of steered pilot wheels.     
The print "The New Steam Carriage" at the top of this section is an 1828 reprint of an earlier print by George Morton. It shows the coach in front of a pub with propellers in front of the rear wheels. The caption states "It has been constructed..." and "The rate of travelling is intended to be from 8 to 10 miles per hour". This dates it to mid-1827. The "London and Bath" livery was perhaps an inducement to get Major Dobbyn to invest: in September 1827 he paid Gurney £6,000 for the franchise for the London, Bath and Bristol road, for which Gurney would build him eight coaches.     
In tests, Gurney found that the propellers didn't work well and added a cranked drive to the rear axle with clutches to each wheel. At the end of the driven axle were "crotches" (i.e. two metal fingers) which acted on metal blocks fixed to the nave of the wheel. A handle fixed to the hub of the wheel could be wound in to engage the metal blocks with the crotches, thereby driving the wheel. The propellers were retained for use on hills, when the wheels were expected to slip.     
On 8 September 1827 Gurney's steam coach was demonstrated on "Old Highgate Hill" (now Highgate West Hill), reaching its highest point "opposite Holly Terrace" (where the road steepens from 1:14 to 1:8). On its return, the coach ran away, went into a gutter outside Holly Lodge and a wheel broke. The machine had to be recovered to the works by a horse. In testimony to a Parliamentary inquiry in 1831, Gurney blamed workmen who "neglected to lock the wheel", i.e. to engage the clutch on the second rear wheel, so that engine braking would be applied through both rear wheels.     
After this setback, the vehicle didn't return to public view until December 1827. Meanwhile, G.J.Scharf drew it in October 1827 and made a lithograph of it "running in Regent's Park on 6th November 1827". This does not mean that it was being demonstrated publicly: Gurney's factory was in the Regent's Park area of London, as was Regent's Park Barracks. The lithograph shows accurate detail which cross-checks with technical drawings in Alexander Gordon's Treatise on Elemental Locomotion (1834).       

Further demonstrations in Regent's Park followed in December 1827, when many reports appeared and prints proliferated. Morton's was reissued with a tree, pub sign and outbuilding added to the background scene. Many others showed numbered parts, together with descriptions (see image). Scharf's lithograph in November had shown two chimneys rather than four, but these prints echoed Morton's image with four. The coach appeared either on its own or in a variety of scenes remote from Regent's Park.  
Some, such as this print, included a rear view as well as a side view. These views and the accompanying reports are so similar to one another that they can be inferred to be derived from a "handout" issued by Gurney, which included such points as that he proposed to pay the turnpikes half the toll which stage coaches did (as steam coaches weren't listed on the toll board, they were legally exempt).

On 14 January 1828, Gurney's steam coach was demonstrated on another "Highgate Hill" (now Archway Road), with a maximum gradient of 1:22. A contemporary print shows the guide controlling the coach from the front bench for outside passengers and that, apart from him there were only 10 outside passengers. This is also shown on Cruikshank's 1829 cartoon, "The horses - going to the dogs".

On 16 January 1828 Prince Pückler-Muskau reported that he had travelled on the coach:The new steam-carriage is completed, and goes five miles in half an hour on trial in Regent's Park. But there was something to repair every moment.     

=== Projected Improvements ===

On 11 October 1827 (i.e. before the public demonstrations), Gurney filed patent drawings for an improved steam coach. A simplified version of this was subsequently published together with an explanation of the parts (see image).       
The patent drawing shows where Gurney saw the need for change. The propellers are abandoned. The boiler is substantially larger. A blower is added in the fore boot and the four chimneys are replaced by a single wide one between the two separators. The transmission was simplified with clutches in which the two surfaces were either bolted together or left free to rotate independently. 

The only revision shown in the 1827 patent which has been documented to have been made (in the print of the ascent of Archway Road) was the guide's move to the front bench on top of the fore boot.  The patent drawings have been used to build models such as that at The Castle, Bude and a working scale model at The Science Museum, London