The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-27
THEY DROVE SPIKES
Mayor Ross and Bankers
JObeS and Davidson
START THE WORK WITH VIM
Something About the Big
Rails and Electric. Current.

Yesterday morning gang OF sixty
men commenced to lay track on Nam
street from Douglas north. In order that
the occasion might be properly commem-
Grated the management OF the street
car compay enlisted .in their cause the
services of ]. o. Davidson, president Of
the Kansas National bank, and A c.
Jolbes, president of the National Bank Of
Commerce, and these two gentlemen
drove drove the first two spikes. They
did not drive any highly ornamental
spikes into soft wood ties for the mere
sake of ceremony, but the spikes they
used were the regulation articles and
were driven in to stay.
Mayor Ross was present and watched
the two gentlemen handle their hammers,
and the way in which they handled them
did not suit his taste and he proceeded to
show them andthe rest of the crowd how
to swing a hammer. The two bankers
had not swung their hammers over their
heads just in the right manner, so the
mayor got a spike started It, and then
swung the hammer over his head in the
most approved fashion and-missed the
spike Nothing daunted, he tried again
with the same result. In fact that rail
and that tie will always De evidence Of
the mighty swings Of Mayor Ross ham
mer.
There are many interesting facts in
connection with the building Of a new
railway. Take, for instance the big rails
that are being used on the pavement
They are sixty feet long, seven inches
high. weight seventy pounds to the yard,
or 400 pounds to the rail. These rails
are rolled at Steelton, Pa, and each one
of them costs the company $3.50 laid
down in Wichita. The object in having
these rails seven inches high is not so
much to make a very rigid track as to
leave room enough to lay the paving
stone over the ties. The old track which
is being torn up was built with stringers-
that IS the ties were put in and then
stringers We're laid down and the rails
spiked to these stringers. The stringers
were very small timber and soon decayed,
leaving no visible means of support for
the rails, the bottoms of which We're four
inches above the tops of the ties. That's
what's the matter with the old track
now.
In laying the track for the trolley line
4 way must be provided for the return
curront Of electricity to get from one rail
into the next. This is necessary in order
TO forn a complete circuit. The current
leaves the generators in the power house
ana is carried along by the trolley wire.
It is taken from the wire 10y the trolley
pole and passes down through the con-
trolling stand and through the motors
and on down through the truck wheels
into the rail and through them back to
the power house. OF course if there is
any breaks in the circuit through the
rails the current passes through the
ground and naturally goes to iron water
or gas mains, as they ofter less resist
ance than the earth. Whenever electrici-
~ is made to pass from one conductor to
another. which has the slightest break
between them, it has tendency to cor
ode the substance it passes from. This Is
electrolisis. To provide against this dan
ger bonds are used. The ones being used
here are made Of two strands of copper
wire bent into what closely resembles a
figure IS" The ends of the two strands
which come at the top and the bottom of
the "S'' are held in an end piece com
posed Of soft copper. These end pieces
have a projection on one side which fits
into a hole in the rail There is alsoN
hole through the end piece which ex-
tends through the part that fits into the
rail In putting these bonds on, the
holes in the rails are first fled enough to
free them OF al rust; the bonds are then
put in place and a tapered steel wedge
IS driven intothe holes in the end pieces.
This holds them tightly IN place. The
bonds are made in this peculiar shape so
that the sight motion there IS in the
joints every time a car passes over them
VIII not work the contract at the ends
losoe. If this should happen the current
would soon corode the steel and render
the bonds perfectly useless as only a
small percent of the current would pass
through a rusted contact.
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
Are grand. but skin eruptions rob life OF