The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1873-05-15

Di1os Disssser-Whss CIieaas i. .ve.aor. ssy
ofM-FrsviSr.sisi Ksespe /. 1855.
From the Ipter-Oeean.
Mt. L. E. Treua6irll was the inventor Of the
Truesaiell brlge. He lived at Springfield Mass.
at the time he secured his patent, and put in
carriage use. The only railway bridge he is
known to have built, is one over the Chicopce
river four miles north of the Springfield, for the
Connecticut River railway. He was desrous of
introducing his invention in the West, and wrote
several times to Chicago asking contracts. The
attention of Mr.. J. X. Thompson, now a member
Of the board Of public works. was called to the
ventiOn. He was superintendent of the board at
the time, and as an experiment, short span was
tried oil the Wells street viaduct. Mr.. Thon,p-
son says: There was toO little iron in it; it
WAS pretty bridge, but the engineers, after ex-
amuining it little while after it Was put up,
pronounced il unsafe, and we had to put up ad-
ditional stays. Truesdell's principle tn lock-
joint all his supPOrts. He elamped them with
cast iron. wonld rather trust bolts" Truesdell,
after some correspondence with western parties
concluded to remove to Chicago. and came here
with his invention. He was anxious to dispose
of it, and exhibited his models to
MIR. BOOMER,
of the American bridge company and others. Mr.
Boomer examined Truestells model, hut "tOok
ne stock" in it. He asked Truesdell, (Which side
up does the thing got" and the invertor put his
model under his arm and walked ont. ii. built
several bridges here, however, mostly small car
riage or foot bridges. He and his brother moved
to Belvidere, aud after the breakdown of their
bridge at Elgin, are said to have moved to Iowa.
The Truesdell bridge is not recognized in vass's
bridge builders manual, OF in any standard works
on bridge engineering.
MR.. n. s. BOrTON,
of the firm of n. 8. BoutOn & Co., iron founders
and bridge builders, was visited by a reporter.
He said the Truesdell patent was q thoroug fail
ure. Truesdell got his patent on the lsck-j"ints
in his bars. Each of them had n crook in the CEN
tire, and they locked together, and then the joint
was covered with q east iron shoe. He used light
iron and too mnch cast iron, and the lock JOINT
arrangement 40 weakened the iron that he lost q
good deal Of the strength which might otherwise
have been secured from what iron he ased.
MR.. HERMANN,
a bridge builder of this city, says in relation to
the Trues,lel bridge, that it is built altogether
on a wrong principle. The iron is spread over
too much ground, and the bracing is very deftc-
tive. In the Truesdell bridge there five tiers Of
cord, which are, indeed, braeed. but the bracDg
material is bent at each intersection, that the
angles weaken the wire and render the structure
very liable to break when pressed by an unusual
weight. The middle tier is perfectly useless. Not
bridge of this kind has even been built that did
not sag within a year. Truesalcll bridges have
bad record. The bridge at Elsin gave nut and 80
completely destroyed all confidence in Trucs.lell's
patent that he could secure more contracts.
The viaduct bridge at North Wells street, before
the fire. got badly ont of shape that the city EN-
gineer had to truss it up.
ANOTHER ENGINEER
said that in the Truesdell bridge the braces and
whereas they should gradually Increase in size
from the centre to the ends. The failure of the
b. idge is attributable either to the weakness of
the end braces or of the centre of the cord.