Richard Lovell Edgeworth | Page 6

its motion. A young lad got into it, his
companions launched it on a path which led gently down hill towards a
very steep chalk-pit. This pit was at such a distance as to be out of their
thoughts when they set the wheel in motion. On it ran. The lad
withinside plied his legs with all his might. The spectators who at first
stood still to behold the operation were soon alarmed by the shouts of
their companion, who perceived his danger. The vehicle became quite
ungovernable; the velocity increased as it ran down hill. Fortunately,
the boy contrived to jump from his rolling prison before it reached the
chalk-pit; but the wheel went on with such velocity as to outstrip its
pursuers, and, rolling over the edge of the precipice, it was dashed to
pieces.
'The next day, when I came to look for my machine, intending to try it
upon some planks, which had been laid for it, I found, to my no small
disappointment, that the object of all my labours and my hopes was
lying at the bottom of a chalk-pit, broken into a thousand pieces. I
could not at that time afford to construct another wheel of that sort, and
I cannot therefore determine what might have been the success of my
scheme.'
He goes on to say: 'I shall mention a sailing carriage that I tried on this
common. The carriage was light, steady, and ran with amazing velocity
One day, when I was preparing for a sail in it with my friend and
schoolfellow, Mr. William Foster, my wheel-boat escaped from its
moorings just as we were going to step on board. With the utmost
difficulty we overtook it; and as I saw three or four stage-coaches on
the road, and feared that this sailing chariot might frighten their horses,
I, at the hazard of my life, got into my carriage while it was under full
sail, and then, at a favourable part of the road, I used the means I had of
guiding it easily out of the way. But the sense of the mischief which
must have ensued if I had not succeeded in getting into the machine at

the proper place, and stopping it at the right moment, was so strong, as
to deter me from trying any more experiments on this carriage in such a
dangerous place.'
I have already given the changed use of the word perambulator. As an
example of the different use of a word in the last century, I may
mention telegraph, by which he means signalling either by moving
wooden arms or by showing lights. This mode of conveying a message
he first applied in order to win a wager: 'A famous match was at that
time pending at Newmarket between two horses that were in every
respect as nearly equal as possible. Lord March, one evening at
Ranelagh, expressed his regret to Sir Francis Delaval that he was not
able to attend Newmarket at the next meeting. "I am obliged," said he,
"to stay in London; I shall, however, be at the Turf Coffee-house; I
shall station fleet horses on the road to bring me the earliest intelligence
of the event of the race, and I shall manage my bets accordingly."
'I asked at what time in the evening he expected to know who was
winner. He said about nine in the evening. I asserted that I should be
able to name the winning horse at four o'clock in the afternoon. Lord
March heard my assertion with so much incredulity, as to urge me to
defend myself; and at length I offered to lay five hundred pounds that I
would in London name the winning horse at Newmarket at five o'clock
in the evening of the day when the great match in question was to be
run.'
The wager was however given up when Edgeworth told Lord March
that he did not depend upon the fleetness or strength of horses to carry
the desired intelligence.
His friend, Sir Francis Delaval, immediately put up under his directions
an apparatus between his house and part of Piccadilly. He adds: 'I also
set up a night telegraph between a house which Sir Francis Delaval
occupied at Hampstead, and one to which I had access in Great Russell
Street, Bloomsbury. This nocturnal telegraph answered well, but was
too expensive for common use.' Later on he writes to Dr. Darwin:
'I have been employed for two months in experiments upon a telegraph

of my own invention. By day, at eighteen or twenty miles distance, I
show, by four pointers, isosceles triangles, twenty feet high, on four
imaginary circles, eight imaginary points, which correspond with the
figures 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, so that seven thousand different