"I have your favour of the 4th instant, informing me that you had sent my letter respecting propelling ships by steam to the Navy Board; and also requesting a drawing and statement of the thrashing engine to be sent to the President of the Board of Agriculture, which shall be forwarded immediately.
"I beg to trouble you with a few wild ideas of mine, which perhaps may some future day benefit the public, but at this time remain buried, for want of encouragement to carry it into execution.
"The average consumption of coals in large steam-engines is about 84 lbs. (or one bushel), to lift 10,000 tons of water or earth 1 foot high.
"The average cost of this coal in the kingdom is sixpence. The average of a horse's labour for one day is about 4000 tons lifted 1 foot high, costing about 5_s._
"A man's labour for one day is about 500 tons lifted 1 foot high, costing 3_s._ 6_d._
"I have had repeated trials of the water lifted by coals, horses, and men, proving that where a bushel of coal can be purchased for sixpence, that sixpence is equal to 20_s._ of horse labour, and to 3_l._ 10_s._ of men's labour.
"If you calculate a man to lift 500 tons 1 foot high, it is equal to 100 tons lifted 5 feet high; a very hard task for a man to perform in a day's work.
"This calculation proves the great advantage of elemental power over animal power, which latter I believe can in a great part be dispensed with if properly attended to, especially as we have an inexhaustible quantity of coals.
"To prove to you that my ideas are not _mere_ ideas, in general my wild ideas lead to theory, and theory leads to practice, and then follows the result, which sometimes proves of essential service to the public.
"About six years ago I turned my thoughts to this subject, and made a travelling steam-engine at my own expense to try the experiment.
"I chained four waggons to the engine, each loaded with 2-1/2 tons of iron, besides seventy men riding on the waggons, making altogether about 25 tons, and drew it on the road from Merthyr to the Quaker's-yard (in South Wales), a distance of 9-3/4 miles, at the rate of four miles per hour, without the assistance of either man or beast, and then, without the load, drove the engine on the road sixteen miles per hour.