---
title: "Goldsworthy Gurney"
chunk: 6/8
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"
---

In addition to this flagrant outrage against justice and utility, the worthy squires and magistrates of the Cheltenham district, suddenly, without any necessity, covered a long tract of the road with a layer of loose gravel, a foot deep, which, adding to the above-mentioned difficulties and impediments, put an entire stop to the undertaking.
At the same time, press coverage of an accident befalling a Glasgow steam drag adversely affected the reputation of the vehicles. Gurney was bankrupted with debts of £232,000.
Sufficient was the concern about Gurney's bankruptcy, and sufficient were his contacts, that a further select committee was convened from 1831 to 1835, on Mr.Goldsworthy Gurney's Case. Its final report stated:

Mr Goldsworthy Gurney was the first person to successfully operate steam carriages on common roads, and he took out patents for his invention in 1825 and 1826–27. In 1830 Mr Gurney entered into contracts with various individuals for the commercial exploitation of his invention, carrying passengers at a lower fare than horse carriages. In 1831 more than 50 private bills were passed by Parliament imposing prohibitive tolls on steam carriages (two pounds or more, while horse carriages might pay six shillings or less), and the contractors suspended their operations, pending a petition to Parliament. A select Committee was appointed, and concluded that steam carriages were safe, quick, cheap, and less damaging to roads than horse carriages, that they would be a benefit to the public and the prohibitive tolls should be removed. A bill to this effect was passed by the Commons but rejected by the Lords.
Mr. Gurney, having kept open his factory until this point was forced to close it and sell off his materials and tools at a loss. The contractors withdrew from the business.
The effect of the Acts passed by Parliament have been to make an otherwise profitable business no longer viable. Mr Gurney's losses included the costs of keeping his workshop open for six years, loss of contracts, loss of mileage duty on the various routes and the costs of patents. He also lost the advantage of being the first to develop a working steam carriage, as others used the intervening period to develop their own machines, and lost his advantage over the railways. The total loss can be calculated at over £200,000. This left him unable to either build and operate steam carriages, or to protect his patents.

Sections of those Acts imposing prohibitory tolls on steam carriages should be immediately repealed, and such tolls should be replaced by those for which horse carriages are liable. Mr Gurney's patent should be extended at public expense for a period of fourteen years beyond the date of its expiry, or a sum of not less than £5000 should be offered to Mr Gurney in lieu of such extension. Other parties have an interest in Mr. Gurney's patent, and half of the money or benefits should be kept aside for Mr. Gurney exclusively.

=== Coda: Dance's Activities in 1833 ===
In 1833 Dance came to London with his steam-carriage, and had it overhauled by Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field, a leading firm of steam and mechanical engineers. The work undertaken led to patent No. 6465 by Sir Charles Dance and Joshua Field for improvements to the boiler.
The result was the rebodied steam carriage seen in a print of it setting off across Waterloo Bridge on the service to Greenwich. This ran for a fortnight from 12 October 1833 as a demonstration of the capabilities of steam transport on the road.

== Perspectives on Gurney's steam carriages ==
In sum, Gurney produced:

one steam coach
patent drawings for a second (or revisions to the original)
a prototype steam drag, which made the journey to Bath and back in 1829
at least six light steam drags: one sold to William Crawshay II for use at Hirwain; two for John Ward which were sent to Scotland; and three for William Hanning which were tested on the road to Finchley;
three steam carriages for, and to the specification of, Sir Charles Dance. These were described as drags but carried passengers as well as towing an omnibus..
Gurney was undoubtedly the highest-flying entrepreneur of steam carriages in Britain, raising and spending large sums of money before his bankruptcy in 1832. Many of those who bought franchises for routes and prepaid for steam carriages received little or nothing in return. 

Writing in 1831, before Gurney's bankruptcy, Luke Hebert, editor of The Register of Arts and Patent Inventions lamented how much money had been poured into Gurney's activities for (as he saw it) so few and such small improvements in technology:Mr Walter Hancock has, with plans more original and single-handed, far surpassed Mr Gurney, and at a thirtieth part of the expenditure.
In 1840, Dionysius Lardner declared:First and most prominent in the history of the application of steam to the propelling of carriages on turnpike roads stands the name of Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney ...in his Automobile Biographies,  Lyman Horace Weeks comments thatby writers of the period Gurney received a great deal of credit and an abundance of advertising for his work. He was especially conspicuous in the Parliamentary investigations regarding steam carriages. On the whole, however, it is generally considered that he was proclaimed far beyond his merits, especially in comparison with other rivals such as Hancock, Maceroni and others.

== Other work ==