Genre:

Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Illustrators:

[George L P B Du Maurier] *

Subjects:

Railways, Transport, Engineering, Invention, Aeronautics

    Responding to Fowler's proposal for a railway across the English Channel, this shows two ludicrously impractical solutions to the problem of spanning this stretch of water with a railway. The first shows a steam locomotive and carriages supported on either side by huge canvas wings that appear to be able to flap and thus allow the invention to fly across the channel. The second invention shows a steam locomotive and carriages ploughing away from a coast, closely following the waves, suggesting a railroad built on the sea. Parodying engineering language, the caption asks why a train should not be 'made to run so fast that by mere virtue of its acquired impetus acting on the squared of the distance, multiplied by the hypotenuse of the inclined plane, &c, &c, &c'.