It is scarcely thirty years since a committee of the House of Commons doubted the possibility of travelling at the rate of even fifteen miles an hour. Winsor, too, was laughed at when he proposed to light street lamps with coal gas ; Dr. Lardner endeavoured to prove the impossibility of a steam-ship ever crossing to America ; Professor Wheatstone was treated as a clever enthusiast when he first promulgated his ideas of the electric telegraph ; yet all these things have been brought into successful operation. One or two of the principal railway companies have lately entered into an arrangement with Mr. Shepard, who has patented an invention for the decomposition of water, and negotiations are pending with some steam-boat and gas companies for the application of this patent to propel steam-boats, locomotives, and other engines, by which the cost of working machinery and generating gas is likely to be greatly reduced.-

SG & SGTL Page 211 - 19 Jul 1851

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