The Saint Paul globe., 1897-05-30

crOWulng. Should China Waken from
her lethargy, her people may follow the
japanese into the southern portion Of
| this continent, where indolent peoples
neglect the resources with which their
| countries are SO richly endowed.
RECENT RAILWAY ECONOMIES.
The year book for. 1897 of the Society
of Engineers of the University of Min
nesota contains q. paper under the
| above caption, Sby Mr.. E. E. Woodman,
Of the Omaha road, which, while ad-
| dressed to professional engineers, con-
tains very interesting information that
the non-professional mind is capable of
extracting and benefting by. 1t re-
lates to the economies in railway op-
GRAFTON, which have kept pace in re-
| cent years with those other improve
ments 50 exhaustively treated by Mr..
Wells in his famous work on Recent
Economic Changes" Readers of that
treatise will recall the prominence given
by the author to the Introduction in
the merchant marine service Of the
compound engine, with it's immense in
crease in power and decrease in coal
| consumption: an economy illustrated by
the quotation from Sir Lionel Playfair
that "a small cake Of coal, which would
pass through ring the size of shil-
ling, when burned in the compound en-
gine of a modern steamship, would
drive ton of food and it's proportion
of the ship two miles on it's way from
a foreign port. .s.4. 49,.
The difficulties in the way Of apply
ing the som qlm pound principle to l1ocome-s
tives were finally overcome, and from
another source, "a table IN the Railway
Age. comparing the results with simple
engines, an economy is shown in the ca.
pacity of the former, with 32x24-19x24
cylinders, to run 1884 miles on one ton
of coal to an average of 1S.42 miles for
the latter. The compound used 3.5
pounds Of coal in hauling a loaded car
by the simple engines The economy
produced. described in Mr.. Woodmans S
paper, was by the use of larger cylin-
ders 19x2f instead Of II or 18 by a.
the largest showing a saving Of As per
cent over the smallest in the consump-
ton Of fuel per ton mile. In the pas
senger servicecof the Omaha the new
engines moved a ton one mile by the
consumption of 19-100 of pound, or
three ounces of coal, the. card time be-
ing thirty-one miles an hour, and the
speed often being forty to fifty miles
an hour between stations. And yet but
about per cent of the potential energy
in the coal was utilized In useful work
In this fact lies the possibility of the
development of future economies, and
Jacques, Edison and Others are trying
to solve the problem OF the conversion
of the energy in the coal into produc-
tive force without such great waste
Prof. Jacques claims to be able to uti-
lie IS per cent=by his method Of con-
verting caloric force directly into cleo
trical energy.
Other economies have come from the
increase in the weight of engines, with
greater traction, enabling them to haul
heavier loads. The invention of Bes-
semer, changing iron into steel rails,
and, by greatly cheapening the cost, al
lowing heavier rails to be used to meet
the increase in weight Of the loads
they bore, is a change not so recent, but
whose effects in lower rates Of freight
are not yet realized. Too many rail-
ways carry a capitalization based on.
rails costing $16O a ton to permit of the
reductions possible when rails cost but
$40. With the increase in engine weight
and rails came increase in the carry
ing capacity of the cars from the stand
ard 20, 900 pounds of only few years
ago to the 10000 to $4,000 pounds now
common. But the relative weight of
car to load has. Il through improved
methods of construction, decreased
from the O,OOo pounds for the old 10000
pound load to $4,000 for the 10000 and
$4,000 for the $4,000 bound load. The
substitution Of steel for wood in car
building IS oneisofI the coming econo-
mics that will di9ainish, the dead weight.
allowing a proportioHate increase of
live weight Future economies lie, in
Mr. woodman's bopinion. in rail Of
greater durability and in the increased
use of the rail bS1lighsser more frequent
and faster train service, similar to that
given by electric street railways.
One of the reiihafkable facts Of rail-
way operation "is the constancy of the
ratio Of operating expenses to income"
which, for twenty-five years on the
Michigan Southern, has been IS per
cent. and on the Omaha 64 per cent for
fifteen years. This, Mr.. Woodman sug-
gests, shows, first, that the proper
tional cost of operating particular
road is remarkably constant under all
circumstances; and, second. that all