Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1869-07-21
Wire Railways.

"A railway without cuttings, embank-
ments, tunnels, viadUcts or bridges, no
matter how hilly the country to be trav-
Crsed,'-sUch is the definition given by
Herapath's Journal of an invention now
in use in LeicestCTshiTe, and a working
model of which may be seen in Gres-
ham street, E. 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 engineer
ing difficulties of the ground to be got
over, it is either not eXpedient or impOs-
sible to go through the expensive pro-
cess of forming a local railway. For the
wire spans oveI and evades obstacles in
place of burrOWing under or leVeling
them, and will perform its task as easily
along a rugged tract of country as on
the smOothest road. The experiment
being now prosecuted with complete
success between some LeicesterShire
stone QUarries and n railway station
three miles distant consists of an endless
wire rope, supported on a series of pull
lCys carried by substantial posts, which
are ordinarily about one hundred and
fifty feet apart, but the interval between
which may be greatly extended, as is
shown in one case WhCTG,they span from
post to post is six hundred feet. One of
the ends of this rope passes round a
FOWler's clip drum, worked by n port
able steam engine, and this drives the
rope at the loading end near the quar-
ries by a pendant which is ingeniOusly
arranged to preserve q perfect eqUili-
brium, and at the same time to pass
without hindTancc over the supports
Each eff these boxes carries one hundred
weight of stone, and the delivery is at
N To Of two 1,Try,IraI hry-pg ar tom
tuns per hour for three miles distance.
Already wire tramways of the Leices-
tershire model are in course of erection
in France, Italy and Spain. NegOtia-
tiOns are on foot, too, between the Turk
ish Government and the engineers here,
and it is not improbable that this gGnCr-
alton may see goods carried by wire as
commonly as messages. 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 gravcly along it at stated inter
walls, and at regular pace, much as If
they were at aerial drill. The most i'm
pOrtant point in Mr.. HOdgsOn's inven-
ton is his method of passing the points
of support, which consists in so CurVing
the frame of the truck or box as to make
the center of gravity come under the
rope. SO admirably is this managed
that some of our leading engineers have
been discussing quite recently the pOsSi-
bility of constructing q stout wire tram
way between Dover and Calais, which
should be supported by a line of pillars
snnlI in mid-Ocean, and along which pas
engers could be conveyed. The cost would
be comparatively small, and suspensOTy
trains could, it is argued, be dispatched
across 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
endless running rope for the motive pow
er, are employed, and that by these
means as many as q thousand tuns per
day can be easily conveyed. The cost
of erecting these tTamways in England,
and of supplying motive power and roll
ing motive power and rolling stock, is
from G250 mile for carrying fifty tuns
Il day, i'm boxes holding half a hundred
weight each, to el 500 mile for one of
the dOublc-rOpe lines, to carry 600 tUus
q day, i'm boxes or trucks holding six
hundred weight each For all districts
where there is traffic, but where it would
not pay to construct n railway, the wire
tramway is particularly applicable, and
as will be readily understood, wherever
there is standing room for posts, there n
line can be erected. A recent applica-
ton from traders i'm copper for putting
up one of them which should run
through an African forest, and over an
African jungle down to the cost, illus
tratcs the varied circumstances under
which the new system of transportation
may be applied.