(105.) 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, a medical gentleman and scientific chemist, of Cornwall. In 1822, Mr. _Gurney_ succeeded Dr. Thompson as lecturer on chemistry at the Surrey Institution; and, in consequence of the results of some experiments on heat, his attention was directed to the project of working steam carriages on common roads; and since 1825 he has devoted his exertions in perfecting a steam engine capable of attaining the end he had in view. Numerous other projectors, as might have been expected, have followed in his wake. Whether they, or any of them, by better fortune, greater public support, or more powerful genius, may outstrip him in the career on which he has ventured, it would not, perhaps, at present, be easy to predict. But whatever be the event, to Mr. _Gurney_ is due, and will be paid, the honour of first proving the practicability of the project; and in the history of the adaptation of the locomotive engine to common roads, his name will stand before all others in point of time, and the success of his attempts will be recorded as the origin and cause of the success of others in the same race. The incredulity, opposition, and even ridicule, with which the project of Mr. _Gurney_ was met, are very remarkable. His views were from the first opposed by engineers, without one exception. The contracted habit of mind, sometimes produced by an education chiefly, if not exclusively, directed to a merely practical object, subsequently confirmed by exclusively practical pursuits, may, perhaps, in some degree, account for this. But, I confess, it has not been without surprise that I have observed, during the last ten years, the utter incredulity which has prevailed among men of general science on this subject,--an incredulity which the most unequivocal practical proof has scarcely yet dispelled. "Among scientific men," says Mr. _Gurney_, "my opinion had not a single supporter, with the exception of the late Dr. _Wollaston_."