But the road was not monopolized by horseflesh. Steam was asserting itself, and many were the trials of steam carriages on the turnpike roads. In 1821 Mr. Julius Griffith invented, and Messrs. Bramah manufactured, a carriage, on which the engineer sat in front, and two directors or steersmen behind, in vehicles separated from the carriage, which swung easily on a variety of springs fastened into a strong connecting frame. The error of this invention lay in the boiler, which consisted of 114 tubes. These, unfortunately, would not always contain the water; and, when empty, they became so heated, that no force-pump could inject the water. In 1822, 1824, and 1825, Mr. David Gordon tried his hand on steam carriages and failed. In 1829 Sir James Anderson and Mr. James constructed one, under the patents obtained by the latter gentleman in 1824 and 1825, and are said to have worked the engine at a pressure of two hundred pounds each square inch of the piston. In 1827 Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney patented one, as did also Messrs. Hill and Burstall in 1828. There was one running in August, 1830, belonging to Messrs. Summers and Co., which began its journey by bursting a pipe. This repaired, it utterly demoralized itself by running into a turnpike gatepost at Turnham Green, and had to be taken home. Anyhow they must have become fairly common, for we read in the _Times_, May 12, 1831-- "STEAM CARRIAGES ON COMMON ROADS. "Some of the advantages to the public from the use of steam on the turnpike roads already begin to show themselves. Previous to the starting of the steam coach between Gloucester and Cheltenham, the fares were four shillings each person--now the public are taken by all the coaches at one shilling per head. On Tuesday morning the steam coach took thirty-three passengers from Cheltenham to Gloucester in fifty minutes." Again, _Times_, June 7, 1831, quoting the _Glasgow Chronicle_, says-- "Mr. Gurney's[22] steam carriage was, on Wednesday night, blown to pieces by an explosion of the boiler. The catastrophe occurred in the square of the cavalry barracks, where the carriage was exhibiting. It had gone round the square several times, and stopped at one corner of it, where some people got out. Two boys, sons of Mr. Maclure, of the Port Eglinton Inn, at that time entered, and were about to be followed by two gentlemen, when the boiler burst with a tremendous explosion, and shattered the vehicle into numberless pieces. The two boys were very seriously injured in the face and other parts of the body, and they now lie in very precarious circumstances." [Footnote 22: Tom Hood notices this steam carriage in his poem of "Conveyancing"-- "Instead of _journeys_, people now May go upon a _Gurney_, With steam to do the horses' work, By _powers of attorney_;