The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-02-22
Political revolutions with their battles

- '
Political revolutions, with their battles of opn
ion and of blood, make greater impress upon
history and the imaginations of succeeding gene
rations, than physical changes, however great. We
are accustomed to regard the war of the Revolu.
ton, as the one great fact in our career, which
those who took part in it, and lived through it.
must look back upon, as a new birth and new
baptism, by which old things passed away and all
things became new. Yet we doubt whether it was
felt by our fathers, as it seems to U.S. The great
business of the masses was then as now, private
and personal. In the midst of what we regard as
prolonged CONFUSION, involving the whole body
of society in terror and excitement, the large ma
Jorlty were quietly pursuing their daily avocatons
taking more thought about the morrow, in con.
nection with what to eat, and wherewithal to be
clothed than with respect to the political result:
depending upon it. And when the great end was
achieved, and we had passed from the form Of
British colonies to that of independent States we
doubt whether there was in the general conscious
ness any marked or apparent change. A weight
was removed from the spirit and cloud from the
sky, but mems principal duties hopes, fears, tolls,
and sorrows, were the same, after as before. The
seven years of the Revolution were to the men of
the day, but seven years of life-more picturesque
perhaps and more exciting than others, but they
were years in which they plowed and sowed and
gathered; were married and given in marriage;
were sick of fevers and died as now many more
in bed than on the field of battle. We scarcely
suppose the men of the Revolution realized that
hoy bpl Suc n o,ilf fnol f,
us from our pre-locomotive period. The great re-
bellion against nature through which, for the last
twenty years, we have been struggling, at q cost
of treasure, if not of blood, to which that of all
our wars combined is but small, and whereby we
have overturned the tremendous tyranny of noun
tains, and levelled to democratic equality all oo-
structons in the path of free intercourse is revo-
luton which will be found to have left deeper ira
ces not only on the face of the country but also on
the thoughts of men, than any change merely polit-
cal could possibly produce. We have thereby at
tanned consciousness of present, and vision of flu
ture power, which no development merely social
could effect. How ridiculousl y-childishly weaand
helpless to ourselves to have BEEN before the
song Of the locomotive was heard in all the land
How short the period since, to have seen Niagara
TO have sailed on the great lakes and to have drunk
Of the Mississippi, were events which men made
books of, to be read by such as now read LIv-
NGsToNE and BARTH. How significant of the
change wrought in mems feelings when
the word ''slo,o" is becoming the synonym of stu
pid and dull just as ''viain" remained the word to
characterize the base, when vlleins ceased to exist
as political class.
Eiobt bnpd IF oil -,
Railroads IN the UNITED STATES, present stupen-
dous financial view of this revolution, and when
it is further understood that this vast investment is
practically unproducve at least in the sense which
asks for an immediate per centage on the capital
employed and that other hundreds of millions
will have to follow those already spent, to render
perfect what we have begun-the true proportions
of the "deed we have dared' begin to break in
upon u.s. 1t is, therefore, a matter of the deepest
moment, to weigh every suggestion which human
genius, or human experience, may throw out for
the more perfect development of railroad enter
prise in the UNITED STATES. The laws of gravita-
tlon-the natural obstacles of mountains, rocks
and streams-the conditions of heat and cold, of
moisture and of drouth-are we'll understood and
will not be changed The resources at our dis
posal have been sufficiently explored to enable us
to say, with good deal of neutrality-suspicious.,
absolute certainty-that the best means of transit
for ponderabe bodies, on dry land, are machines,
rotating on metal track. There is rs yet no
indication that gravitation will be so investigated
and understood-that its force can be counter
acted, and, by some sort of insulation, matter
may be deprived of weight, and passed through
fhan OH fro,n n,,,t %,
therefore, may confne itself to perfecting the loco
motive, the car and the track; and, within the
limits thus assigned, is field which cannot be
easily exhausted. Hitherto, we think, the efforts
of engineers and machinists, have been too much
kept to the consideration of the locomotive and
the car-while the track has been comparatively
overlooked. Yet, it is to the track we must turn
to discover the causes that counteract the pros
perity of railroads. In fact, the leading idea of
the railroads.&c. great point of invention, dis
covery, application, or what you will-was the
level iron track. The locomotive was q mere
adaptation of principles already well understood,
and completely successful in steam navigation,
to doing upon the land, that which was impossible
before the suggestion of the iron way. 1t is with
this however, as with our common roads, We
spare no pains, expense or ingenuity, in getting
up our carriages and wagons-and seem perfectly
content TO rush, at two-forty pace, in these
slight and elegant vehicles, over the toughest and
most dangerous roads and pavements. Just so,
we get up the tleetest and most powerful engines
and the most expensive and strongly-built passen-
ger cars and send them forth to a violent contest
with difficulties existing in the track-probably,
wholly unnecessary.
We have been led into this view by the perusal
of q pamphlet, put forth by S. A. BEERS, civil
engineer with view to introducing new plan
of track. On the merits of this plan-whch we
cannot describe, without occupying too much of
our space with technical language-we express no
further opinion, than that it to be suggested
by very clear understanding of the defects
in existing tracks. The mode now universally
adopted, of laying down wooden stills on the sur
face of the road and spiking thereon iron rails of
greater less weight, is open to the most serious
objections. The track being light and springy,
receives an unduatory motion from the passage
of train, which, when the speed is great changes
its movement, from regular and equable rota-
ton to series of leaps from the crown of one
upward curve to another, converting the locomo-
tive into what is happily termed "fying trip
''hammer' equally destructive to the road and to
itself. To overcome the resistance, offered by the
continual recurrence of ascending grades in this
process of nndulation, increased weight has been
found necessary in the engine, and to guard the
wheels OF the whole train from the effects of this
trp-nammer force, increased strength and ponder
business must be provided. All the original
difficulties are thus aggravated track which
could not resist the shock of the lighter gives way
still more hopelessly before the heavier train: and
the slight exoliation of the rail, manifested under
the passage of the ten ton engine is developed into
its complete Elimination and crushing together
by the resstless blows of one of thirty tons.
The different sizes of the crossties and the various
qualities of the surface which they rest give them
an unequal bearing. The large ones have &C
quired, perhaps, firm and unyielding foundation,
while the smaller have been driven by the passage
of frequent trains below the right line and, as may
be frequently seen, are hanging to the rail by their
spike heads. Elevations in the line of the two
rails seldom occur at points precisely opposite each
other-the practical effect of which ia to raise one