In the early days of mining in Great Britain, the coal or the ore was carried from the mine to the vessel in which it was to be embarked in sacks on the backs of horses. Later, the miners laid out wagon-roads, and used carts and wagons drawn by horses, and the roads were paved with stone along the lines traversed by the wheels of the vehicles. Still later (about 1630), heavy planks or squared timber took the place of the stone, and were introduced into the north of England by a gentleman of the name of Beaumont, who had transferred his property there from the south. A half century later, the system had become generally introduced. By the end of the eighteenth century the construction of these "tram-ways" had become well-understood, and the economy which justified the expenditure of considerable amounts of money in making cuts and in filling, to bring the road to a uniform grade, had become well-recognized. Arthur Young, writing at this time, says the coal wagon-roads were "great works, carried over all sorts of inequalities of ground, so far as the distance of nine or ten miles," and that, on these tram-ways of timber, "one horse is able to draw, and that with ease, fifty or sixty bushels of coals." The wagon-wheels were of cast-iron, and made with grooved rims, which fitted the rounded tops of the wooden rails. But these wooden rails were found subject to rapid decay, and at Whitehaven, in 1738, they were protected from wear by cast-iron plates laid upon them, and this improvement rapidly became known and adopted. A tram-road, laid down at Sheffield for the Duke of Norfolk, in 1776, was made by laying angle-bars of cast-iron on longitudinal sleepers of timber; another, built by William Jessup in Leicestershire, in 1789, had an edge-rail, and the wheels were made with flanges, like those used to-day. The coned "tread" of the wheel, which prevents wear of flanges and reduces resistance, was the invention of James Wright, of Columbia, Pa., 40 years later. The modern railroad was simply the result of this gradual improvement of the permanent way, and the adaptation of the steam-engine to the propulsion of its wagons. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, therefore, the steam-engine had been given a form which permitted its use, and the railroad had been so far perfected that there were no difficulties to be anticipated in the construction of the permanent way, and inventors were gradually preparing, as has been seen, to combine these two principal elements into one system. Railroads had been introduced in all parts of Great Britain, some of them of considerable length, and involving the interests of so many private individuals that they were necessarily constructed under the authorization of legal enactments. In the year 1805 the Merstham Railway was opened to traffic, and it is stated that on that occasion one horse drew a train of 12 wagons, carrying 38 tons of stone, on a "down gradient" of 1 in 120, at the rate of 6 miles per hour.