The Directors of the Liverpool and Manchester railroad, when that work was advanced towards its completion, employed, in the spring of the year 1829, Messrs. _Stephenson_ and _Lock_ and Messrs. _Walker_ and _Rastrick_, experienced engineers, to visit the different railways where practical information respecting the comparative effects of stationary and locomotive engines was likely to be obtained; and from these gentlemen they received reports on the relative merits, according to their judgment, of the two methods. The particulars of their calculations are given at large in the valuable work of Mr. _Nicholas Wood_ on railways; to which we refer the reader, not only on this, but on many other subjects connected with the locomotive steam engine into which it would be foreign to our subject to enter. The result of the comparison of the two systems was, that the capital necessary to be advanced to establish a line of stationary engines was considerably greater than that which was necessary to establish an equivalent power in locomotive engines; that the annual expense by the stationary engines was likewise greater; and that, consequently, the expense of transport by the latter was greater, in a like proportion. The subjoined table exhibits the results numerically:-- +------------------------+------------+-------------+------------------+ | | | Annual | Expense of | | | Capital. | Expense. | taking a Ton of | | | | | Goods One Mile. | +------------------------+------------+-------------+------------------+ | | £ s. d.| £ s. d.| | | Locomotive Engines | 58,000 0 0 | 25,517 8 2 | 0·164 of a penny.| | Stationary Engines |121,496 7 0 | 42,031 16 5 | 0·269 | | +------------+-------------+------------------+ | Locomotive System--less| 63,496 7 0 | 16,514 8 3 | 0·105 | +------------------------+------------+-------------+------------------+