| Confederate States Commission |
| London, April 30, 1863 |
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| Hon. J. P. Benjamin |
| Secretary of State |
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| Sir,
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| Under the license and instructions given
me by the State Department to communicate to the Government
inventions I might find here of value to the country; and in the
hope of rendering service especially to its military arm, I send out
by the conveyance which bears this a box containing the model of a
railroad with its appropriate car, which I think will be found of
value, and I enclose herewith all the explanatory papers connected
with it, which I hope will make its structure and use sufficiently
intelligible.
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| Its recommendations are--
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| First. That no iron is used in its
construction.
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| Second. As represented by the inventor,
that no grading is necessary to adapt it to use, it being alleged
that the cars, rolling on wood instead of iron, retain a sufficient
hold on the surface to overcome the tendency to descend on an
inclined plane.
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| Third. Its great cheapness, and the speed with
which it can be constructed where timber is available or near at
hand. Nothing further is required to lay down the road ready for use
than to level the surface for its site.
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| If it be found to fulfill all these
conditions, I am sure you will agree with me, that besides its
immediate value for military purposes, its usefulness will be
extended generally throughout the country. The model with the
drawings and explanations will be sufficient, I hope, to make the
structure perfectly understood, and susceptible of being brought at
once into practice if approved. The use of wooden rails, I am aware,
has been utterly discarded where there was occasion for sufficient
strength to withstand the pressure of the centrifugal force in
curvature, etc., at great speed with heavy weights. In this
invention it is alleged all this is dispensed with by the simple
introduction of the two small wheels (called guiding wheels) which
work in a peculiar manner, sustain no part of the weight, and whose
only office is to keep the car on the track, and this office they
would seem to perform in a perfect manner. Au reste, I refer for its
explanation to the model and the accompanying papers.
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| This invention was brought to my notice
not long since, not by the inventor but by a gentleman here even
unacquainted with him, who knew of it, and who brought it to my
notice as a thing that might be peculiarly useful to our country,
and at my request he sent the inventor to me. The name of the latter
is William Prosser. He is a very intelligent man, and seems
thoroughly versed in mechanics.
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| His history of the invention (which at
last is pretty much confined to the guiding wheels of the engine and
car) is briefly this:
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| He had studied it out years ago and
expended some six or seven thousand pounds in building a track with
cars, etc., large enough to carry and sustain the ordinary railroad
burden on Wimbledon Common. It was there exhibited and worked, under
the inspection of competent men and of officers deputed for the
purpose by the Government for a long time, and so far back as 1846;
the part of the common occupied being distorted into mounds,
valleys, etc., for the purpose of testing its adaptation, and, as
alleged by the inventor, it worked to the entire satisfaction and
conviction of all deputed to examine it.
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| Subsequently the inventor obtained an
act of Parliament empowering him to construct a road a few miles
long upon a site intended as a feeder, or contributor, to one of the
large thoroughfare railroads then in course of construction--I think
the Great western--the success of the invention being considered un
fait accompli, and he went to work accordingly. After he had
proceeded far enough to show that he was in earnest, his neighbor
and larger railroad, after some negotiation, bought him off by the
payment of £20,000. He says the sum was so large that he could not
resist the temptation.
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| A year or two afterwards he made
arrangements to build a road some 30 or 40 miles long on his plan in
Ireland; had the necessary capital secured; the timber purchased and
again, with difficulty, an act of Parliament to sanction it. At this
stage of the work he was again approached by rival interests and was
bought off there by a new payment of £20,000 more, the interveners
taking the timber off his hands at a cost of some £6,000.
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| This is his narrative to show why his
road has never been introduced here. His papers certainly establish
that he received the £40,000. His theory is that the success of his
road being an established fact on Wimbledon Common, he was bought
off by the great iron interests of England. I mention all this to
show that prima facie, at least, it is no humbug and worth a trial.
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| I send this dispatch with the documents
and models to you (the latter in a box of moderate size): their
appropriate destination I presume will be the War Department. A
moderate sum of money to construct a short road, with appropriate
rolling stock, will be sufficient to test its value, if the work be
committed to competent and unprejudiced hands, really disposed to
give it a fair trial without condemning it in advance on some
preconceived theory.
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| The cost of the model and car, which
will be small, I will defray from the contingent fund and transmit
by a special voucher.
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| *****
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| I have the honor, etc.,
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| J. M. Mason
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