Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-07-15
WIRE RAILWAYS.
A New Invention-Freigh Conveyed
Over Wires.

80 "A railway without cuttings, embank-
ments, tunnels, viaducts, or bridges, no
matter how billy the country to be traver-
sed'-such is the definition given by Hera-
paths Journal of an invention now in use
in Leicestershire, and working model of
which may be seen in Gresham street, F..
G.. The wire tramway provides a simple
and cheap substitute for line of rails, and
is of great service where, from the scarcity
or intermittent character of the traffic, or
the engineering difficulties of the ground
to be got over, it is either not expedient or
impossible to go through the expensive
process of forming local railway. For the
wire spans over and evades obstacles in
place of burrowing under or levelling them,
aud will perform its task as easily along a
rugged tract of country as on the smooth
est road. The experiment being now pro-
secuted with complete S, cess between
some Leicestershire stone quarries and a
railway station three miles distant consists
of an endless wire rope, supported on
series of pullies carried by substantial
posts, which are ordinarily about $50 feet
apart, but the interval between which may
be greatly extended, rs is shown in one
case where the span from post to post is
600 feet One of the eDds of this rope pas
ses round a Fowler's clip-drum, worked by
aportable steam engine, and this drives the
rope at a speed of six miles an hour. Boxes
are hung on the rope at the loading end
ingeniously arranged to preserve perfect
equilibrium, and at the same time to pass
without hindrance over the supports.
Each of these boxes carries 100 weight of
stone, and the delivery is at the rate of 200
boxes or ten tons per hour for the three
mile distance.
ALREADY wire tramways on the Leices-
tershire model are in course of erection in
France, Italy and Spain. Negotiations are
on foot, too, between the Turkish Govern
ment and the engineer here, and it is not
improbable that this generation may see
goods carried by wire as commonly as mes
sages> The tramway is, indeed, not unlike
an exceedingly stout electric telegraph;
and there is something almost droll in the
sight of regiment of well-laden trucks or
boxes passing gravely along it at stated
intervals, and at regular pace, much as if
they were at aerial drill. The most i'm
portant point in MIR. Hodgson's invention
is his method of passing the points of sup
port, which consists in so curving the frame
OF the truck or box as to make the centre
of gravity come under the rope. So admir-
ably is this managed that some of our lead
ing engineer have been discussing quite re-
Gently the possibility of constructing stout
wire tramway between Dover and Calais,
which should be supported from line of
pillars sunk in mid-ocean and along which
passengers could be conveyed The cost
weuld be comparatively small, and suspen-
sorry train could, it is argued be despatched
acress the Channel without difficulty or
danger.
'1t should be stated that where heavy
loads must necessarily be carried, pair of
stationary supporting ropes, with an end
less running rope for the motive power,
are employed, and that by these means as
many as thousand tons per day can be
easily conveyed The cost of erecting these
tramways in England, and of supplying mo-
tive power and rolling stock, is from e250
a mile for carrying so tons a day, in boxes
holding half a 100-weight each, to 81, 500
mile for one of the double-rope lines, to
carry 1000 tons day, in boxes or trucks
holding 6O0-weight each. For all districts
where there is traffic, but where it would
not pay to construct railway, the wire
tramway is particularly applicable. and, as
will be readily understood, wherever there
is standing-room for posts, there a line can
be erected. A recent application from
traders in copper for putting one up for
them, which should run through an African
forest, and over an African Jungle down
to the coast, illustrates the varied circum-
stances under which the new system of
NAV ha anpl.ad