The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-29
RAIL AND CaOsSTIR.

ne NUMBER OF passengers carried Dy hll
the railroads in the world averages 6 $780,
900 day.
The leading railroads Of Europe will
adopt a system of standard time, the same
In principle as that used in this country.
"Snohomish, Skykomish and Spokane"
is the name of new railway in Washing
ton. What splendid title for exercising
| advertising abilities of the passenger
agent!
Once more it is announced that the
Chinese government Is about to commence
railway construction. II is stated that the
work has been intrusted to Herr Brandt of
Cologne, well-known German engineer
and builder, and that the contract pro-
vides that only German labor and material
shall be employed.
The Railroad Gazette has a statement of
the railroads built in the United States in
the first half Of 1891. The total miles of
main line srack laid is ,639 For the same
period in 1880 it was 2,Q55, in 1890, 1,4S1,
! and in 1888, 1900 If the average for the
first half Of 1891 is maintained the total for
the year will be little less than 5000
miles.
The Pennsylvania management are about
to add to its rolling stock a photographers
car with all necessary appliances The
, work to be done by this car will be pho
Geographic survey Of the country along the
line OF road, and while picturesque scenes
will principally be taken the work will also
be OF such character as to be serviceable
| to the engineering and road departments.
One California company operating road
twenty-eignt miles long reports to the rail-
read commission that its earnings last year
we're $4,000 and its operating expenses
S52, 2SO It's expenses being therefore about
ll3 per cent. OF lis earnings it is probable
that the com mission will not feel that the
road is preyIug on the community TO an
extent sufficient to require any restrictive
Legislation.
That the air brake is now recognized as a
necessity in railway operations is illustrated
by the notification recently issued by the
Southern Pacific company that it will re-
fuse to handle cars not equipped with auto
matte air brakes, owing to the danger TO
life incurred in running over its heavy
mountain grades without them. This order
is by company representing nearly 1000
miles Of railway.
A German news item says the locomotive
OF a freight train was struck by lightning
near Oberglocabau last week, and the fire.
man and engineer we're killed The con-
ductor first realized something was wrong
when he noticed that the train dashed along
without any regard for signal@ He crawled
along the outside of the cars TO the engine
aud got his hand on the throttle Just in
time to avert collision.
Maj. w. f. Shellmsn, representing the
traffic department Of the Central railroad;
G. d. Ovens, traffic manager of the Plant
system; F. B. Pappy, general freight ageut
! of the Savannah, Florida and Western
| and Thos. Warwick, his chief clerk J. H.
McDufie, general passenger agent of the
brunswick and Western railroad and j. 2.
| Beckwith, general freight agent of the
jacksonville, Tampa and Key West, left
for Atlanta last night TO attend meeting
Of the rate committee Of the Southern Rail-
way and Steamship Association.
At the late convention of the National
! Association of Railway Surgeons one Of the
speakers, ia referring to the Importance of
ventllating passenger cars. asserted that
"15, 100000 people are moving on cars every
twenty-four hours in the United States"
Another speaker challenged this statement,
saying that it could not possibly he true
that one quarter of our population was on
railway cars every twenty-four hours. To
this the maker of the original statement
replied that his authority was civil en-
gineer who was employed by the Chilean
government to look up the statistics of the
number of people who travel on railway
cars, street cars, ferry boats aud vessels of
various kinds in this country, and that his
report showed that In New York city alone
500, 600 people move to and fro daily on
wheels, and that 100000 in the United
States travel every twenty four hours on
the conveyances described.
A curious invention has been made by an
engineer in Russia named A. Clausen, says
the RdillOdy Register. 1t is asmoke-burner
which is claimed to consume every particle
of coal. even the worst soft coal, and it is
based on principle which is the direct op-
| position of the one that has been held for
| years to be the only one by which a COM
plete smOke-consumer could be constructed.
! 1t has been held that the cause why so much
carbon escaped in the ordinary furnace in
the form OF smoke, causing at once au enor-
nous waste of material and a pollution of
the atmosphere, was that an insufficient
| supply Of air was admitted, 80 that there
| was not enough oxygen to burn all the car
| bon. Smoke-burners have been constructed
| with view of admitting as much air as
! possible and passing it through the
fuel, where it would come in
contact with the coal IL this wav
| smoke-consumers have been constructed
that cid their work tolerably we'll Mr..
| Clausen however, started to solve the prob
lem by first Analysing the matter that
escaped through the smoke stack, and
claims to have found that large part of il
| consisted Of free oxygen. He concluded
that the fault lay not with a lack of air,
| but, on the contrary, with too large a sup
| ply OF it. He reduced the amount of air
| admitted to the furnace until he came to q
| point where he admitted air only through
two little holes of the diameter of an ordi-
nary lead pencil. When he attained this
he claims the combustion of coal was COM
pleIe. Reports come from Paris and Lon
don indicating that experiments on a small
scale have been made with the new inven-
haNvA l.