Connecticut western news., 1873-05-16
Effect, of Oscillation.

Oscillation has wonderful effect upon even powerful bodies, if not ire quently broken in the vibration. We have frequently seen notices placed at tho end of large suspension bridges, that processions must break step ill crossing; this has to be done to ensure safety.
 It is stated, in illustration of the eff feet of the phenomenon in question, that when the first suspension bridge was building in England, @ fiddler of- fered to fiddle it away. Striking one note after another, he eventually hit it's vibrating note, or fundamental tone, and threw it into such extraordinary vii brations that the bridge builders had to beg him to desist. Only recently, q bridge went down under the tread of infantry, in France, who had not broken step, and three hundred persons were drowned. The experiment. is well known of tumbler or small glass ves- sel, being broken by the frequent repe- tition of some particular note of the hu- man voice.
 A correspondent of the Railroad Ga- zette notes the following curious facts, for which he asks an explanation: Four hundred and fifteen miles of track, on a road running north and south, were laid between 1850 and 1861 with the fish bar joint fastening, similar to that now in general use. The difference in eleva- tions of the north and south ends of the track does not exceed 150 feet-the southern end being the lowest-and the grades undulate :; but at no point is a greater elevation attained than 200 feet above or 125 below the southern end On about one-half the distance the track was laid with both rail joints on the same tie, and the balance with "broken joints." The rails were not "slotted," /" neither were any " stop chairs used to prevent the track from creeping" " The track has been in use from eleven to twenty years, and the creeping of both rails has been southward, and the western rail has crept much faster than theeastern. In places were the grade does not exceed five to eight feet per mile, for twenty to thirty miles, the joints of the western are now opposite to the cen ter of the eastern rails, while the latter have also moved southward. On the heaviest grades descending northward, there is little or no tendency to move down hill or northward. Perhaps some of our readers can explain why the western rails crept faster than the east ern.
 Having seen the above paragrah cop ] jed into several of our technical jour- nals, without any answer to the query propounded, we will venture the appli- cation to the "creeping of rails on roads running north and south, the same theory that is given as cause for the more rapid wearing away of the western banks of rivers, which run south or north, viz: the rotation of the eorth on its aris. This movement, be- ing from west to east, has tendency tC throw the waters of rivers running par allel with the earth's axis against theil western banks and hence the more rapid wearing away on that side.
 So of railroad train, the eastward motion of the earth, in it's daily revolu, tion, presses the fanges of the wheel against the west rail, and causes it tc move either north or south, according as the excess of transportation is in the one direction or the other, or as the north or south end of the road is more or less elevated than the opposite ex treme In the case cited, the southern end of tie road being some 150 feet lower than the northern, the rails very naturally move doWn hiW. The fac that this motion in railroads, can be ac curately determined, may be considered not only as positive proof on the sup banks, but also of the truth of the theory generally accepted as its cause -Sam Francisco Scientifc Press.