---
title: "Goldsworthy Gurney"
chunk: 5/8
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"
---

The remains of the Lord of the Isles (which exploded) rests in Glasgow Riverside Museum.    This vehicle confirms a detail reported by Gordon. The rear axle, just inboard of where the wheel would sit, has flats which form a hexagon. Gordon's plan shows what Gurney called a carrier, an iron bar forming a diameter of the wheel which transfers torque from the axle to the felloes of the wheel, thereby allowing lighter spokes to be used. 
In his evidence to the 1831 Select Committee, Gurney was asked about the drive to the wheels:
In general, were the wheels connected together, or had they an independent motion?    Always one was attached to the axle; they had no independent motion; this will be seen by reference to No. 5 on the arm or carrier of the wheel (which is a part of the axle,) and can be attached to the wheel at pleasure by a bolt, making the wheel also in that case part of the axle. Gordon describes it differently:[the carrier,] being pressed up by the engine against the bolt which is shown above it, must force the wheel in that direction, and thus propel the carriageGordon's mechanism would allow the carriage to go round shallow bends with the clutches on both rear wheels engaged (although only the wheel on the inside of the bend would be turned directly by the engine), echoing a similar mechanism used by Hancock.
Gurney built three steam drags for William Hanning, his largest financial backer: he paid Gurney some £10,000, with more to come, for a planned eight drags for use on routes to Exeter and Plymouth from London and Bristol. These first three vehicles were tested on the road to Finchley via what is now Archway Road. Hanning pulled out in 1831 in the wake of the collapse of Sir Charles Dances' service and reports of the explosion in Glasgow.

=== Sir Charles Dance's steam omnibus services ===
During 1830, Sir Charles Dance bought from Colonel Viney his interest in the Gloucester - Cheltenham road and from Gurney the franchises for the London - Birmingham, Birmingham - Bristol and London - Holyhead roads.. He commissioned from Gurney three identical steam carriages for the Cheltenham - Gloucester road. These were to carry passengers as well as tow an omnibus; together with the omnibus, each carriage could carry 38 passengers.

The vehicles were a hybrid of Gurney's light steam drag and his patent design for an improved steam coach. The wheelbase was longer than the light steam drag and the boiler was moved to the rear, attended to by an engine-man in a seat placed behind the drag. It was given a conventional chimney, rather than the triangular-section hood with a transverse slit. This was the first of Gurney's vehicles which is known to have used steam blast to the fire. It led to complaints about the noise frightening horses, which could see the obvious chimney. 
At the local weighbridge, one of the steam carriages was found to weigh 3 tons, rather than the 2 tons which Gurney had claimed. He attributed this to its having been built "principally under the superintendence of another person". When challenged about its frightening horses, Gurney disclaimed responsibility for design of the bodywork. In this he appears to have been correct: it was very different from Gurney's light drags, its form having been dictated by Dance. 
One feature of this drag was its brake, shown behind the rear wheel on the image. When released, it dug into the surface of the road like a drag anchor. Gurney's steam coach used a shoe brake on the rear wheels to supplement the use of the throttle to control the supply of steam to the engine. Another mechanism which Gurney claimed could be used was the lever to reverse the engine, but this imposed enormous stresses on the machinery. When tried in 1833 on one of these vehicles, it broke a connecting-rod. 
On 1 February 1831 Sir Charles Dance started trials of his new vehicles on the 9-mile journey between Cheltenham and Gloucester. A service running twice a day in each direction, 6 days a week, began on 21 February. Over the next four months, the three carriages and their omnibuses made 396 journeys (95% of those planned), averaging 55 minutes for a journey which the horse-coaches did in 60.    
The service was brought to a halt after four months by opposition, particularly from the turnpike trustees (i.e. landowners and other local worthies). Dance contributed to this by not paying any tolls as steam coaches were not listed in the schedules to the turnpike acts for the road. Hostility culminated in the laying of eighteen inches of fresh stone in a hollow on the road, causing one of the cranks on the rear axle to break. Other factors leading to Dance's cessation of the service were:   

it was losing money heavily: the introduction of his service had resulted in overcapacity and a price war, with fares falling from 2s (2-horse coach) or 2s 6d (4-horse coach) to 1s;
a revised turnpike act would impose a toll on each of Dance's services twice that which applied to 4-horse coaches.

== Bankruptcy and parliamentary inquiry ==
In 1831, Goldsworthy gave evidence to a House of Commons select committee, on the use of Steam carriages, and related tolls.
A charge of £2 was levied on each steam carriage journey, whilst the toll for a horsedrawn carriage was 2 shillings (one-twentieth of the amount). This may be contrasted with a contemporary exchequer loan to the railway developers of £100,000. Maceroni continues: