The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1880-12-18
WIRE TRAMWAYs.

The transport of cane from the field to the mill
is, on some of our plantations, a troublesome and
expensive process. Sites suitable for the cultiva-
ton of sugarcane and for mill purposes cannot
always be found in close proximity to one
-another-indeed such proximity is the exception
rather than the rule. Where the distance over
which cane has to be carried is considerable, and
the intervening country is broken in character, a
common expedient is to construct water-races
and huming in which the cane ia loated down to
the mill. In those cases in which the supply of
water thus brought down by the fumes is re-
quired as a motive power or for irrigation pur-
poses in the immediate neighborhood of the mill
it is probable that this method may prove an
economical one. At Onomea, for instance,
where the cane is carried, no less than five miles
in this manner, the water which transports the
cane subsequently, yields the power to grind il. la
places where the race would not be wanted except
for it's use in bringing cane forward TO the mill,
it must, unless the nature Of the country be very
favorable, prove an expensive part OF the sugar
growers plant. In such cases there is little
doubt that the wire tram ways, now coming SO
much into vogue in other countries for this and
similar purposes, would prove much less expen-
sive, both in the matter Of first cost and in that
of maintenance.
Chambers Journal for September last contains
an article on the subject Of wire tramways, in
which occur the following remarks =" The car
riage of field and farm produce offers another
OD0Ql0R LOT tue use U II WIZ LThIuWdJo. IN Nldu-
ritius they are employed to convey sugarcane
from the fields where it grows to che s%ugar-mills
for crushing. In Jamaica the wires bring down,
at an incline of one to three, cane that grows near
hill-tops TO mills situated in the valleys beneath.
In Martinique and st. Kits the same plan is
adopted, delivering the cane in uniform quaint
ties on the carriers, and in some instances carry
ing the plucked canes right over another field in
which sugar is growing. In many countries
wire tramway are employed for carrying the
crops from large beetroot farms to a railway or
port of shipment. In mining countries, wire
tramways are found very advantageous in con-
veyiDg mine rails and ores from mines situated
high up the slopes of mountains down to a valley,
river, or seaport and in conveying workmen
and stores of all kinds in the reverse direction.
Cne such line is at Lebu, in Chile, where the
suspended wire spans no less a sweep than seven
hundred and thirty feet. Another is at the
Somorrostro Iron Ore Mines, near Bilbas, in
Spain. A third is at Manaino, in British Colum-
bia coal is carried down from a considerable
eleva tion on a mountain side to a seaport, a dis
lance of over three miles, some of the posts
that support the wire being no less than 80 feet
high. At the Mayo Salt Mines, in the Pupjab,
is a wire tramway ten miles in length which con-
veys salt not only down to but across the wide
river Jhelum."
For the benefit of those who have never seen a
wire tramway, some description of the invention
may prove useful. The use of an endless wire
rope az a means of drawing a train of cars is
almost as old as the railroad itself. In what is
technically known as a wire tramway, the rope
not only draws the trucks or cars, but serves as
the track itself. The ropes are suspended upon
poles in the manner used for telegraph wires,
with the necessary exception that the poles and
their projecting arms are of great strength.
Each arm carries a pulley over which the rope
runs. The load hangs below the wire, but
clips the rope from above, as in all other
= -AsA - ..o-1 49,
ton. This lie accomplished by means of a sharp
curve or crook in the iron bar by which the car
is suspended. These wire tramways are carried
over hills and valleys, forming suspension bridges
over the latter. They are usually worked, like
the wire cables used on some of the street rail-
roads in San Francisco and elsewhere, by a
stationary engine, the return rope being also
made available for traffic. In exceptional cases
where the course of the tramway is wholly
down bill, the rope can be worked by gravitation
alone. Various ingenious contrivances for con-
Meeting and disconnecting the cars at start and
arrival have been patented. Loaded cars can
follow one another at short intervals, care being
taken to regulate the diameter, and consequent
strength, of the cable to the work required of it.
The first cost of such tramways varies so greatly
with the character of the work required of them,
that any estimate We might give could only suit
q special case. We hear of one recently con-
structed for coal traffic, the buckets or cars of
which carried 500 lbs each. some ten or twelve of
them being always on the rope together when
work was going on. This, without engine, cost at
the rate Of about $500 per mile.