The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1884-07-03
gsleeteD Story.
4 HOT CHASE.
DY AN EX-ENGINEER.

A locomotive engineer and civ
il engineer are two very different
persons, for one has charge Of a
locomotive engine, and the other
has charge of, andrc0ntrols. a avarie
ty of instruments. First is the tran.
sit, then the level, the leyelling-rod
the flag, chains, axes and stakes,
all in charge Of competent men.
An engineering party, to do good
work quickly, should consist Of at
least ten persons.
The chief Of the party usually
goes ahead and picks out the route
the others are to follow. and often
takes fag-polc along with him
Sticking this into the ground, he
waves his hand for the others to
''come ahead" and the transitman
sets his instrumentin that direction
and causes the vertical cross hair in
the telescope to cut the pole, opti-
cally, in two.
But am afraid some readers
may not know what cross-ha;rs are.
Most of you know the principle of
q telescope; an ohject-glass collects
a large number Of rays Of light and
concentrates them, and a lens, or
a series of lenses, magnifes them.
That is the simple principle, and in
q transit, or level, just where the
object-glass forms the image and
eye-piece magnifes it, there are two
cobwebs, so fine that the unaided
eye can hardly see them, stretched
across q round brass ring, at right
angles with each other, one per-
fectly vertical and one horizontal.
The point where they cross each
other is the exact center Of the lens.
These are the cross-hairs, and
they are on the optical axis of the
instrument. With their aid a
straight line can be prolonged any
distance, or in a level, the difference
in elevation. between two points
can be determined to the thousandth
part of foot, provided the opera,
tor and instrumer: be in good order
and if the roGnan, who holds q
jointed pole graduated to one one
thousandth of q foot, understands
his business.
To explain the working Of an en-.
gincering party would be tedious
and unintcresting to many, and as
that has nothing to do with my
story, l will not do so.
Instead of that, imagine me and
nv rodman running q line Of levels
from a stream of water to a new
railroad, to see whether there was
elevation enough to force it into
the tank, and the rest of the ''par'
ty' miles away, busy at something
That was the very thing I was do
ing one day on the Northern Paci
fic Railroad lit was not that rail
road. but it is q handy one to use
on this occasion).
The stream Of water was two
miles away from the new track, and
that morning we had ridden from
our boarding place, ten miles east,on
little hand-car. The grade there
was q descending one, westward
for long distance, and all we had
to do, when going in that direction
was to sit still and fly along over
the new rails.
About FIVE miles further west 9
large gang of men were working
laying track; and the smoke of the
engine on the ''constuction train
was plainly visible across the un
dulating prairies.
George and l, therefore. did not
feel lost or alone, and we worked
hard all the morning and ate oul
lunch in the cool shade Of the tank
house, just finished. AS we had
nothing more to do that day, l de
termind to put the truck on the
track, after we were done eating
ride down to the track.layers, and