The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1903-03-13
Fine GrayeLTM-
lC15D :.

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Sbeingi hat there are slight ridges along
THE outside edges Of the wearing. sur
face, which tend to keep the wagon
l svfeels, In the track. The rails came
in 40-foot lengths and were riveted to-
gether by means of three splice plates,
one On the under side of the main web
Of the channel, having, three rivets for
each rail, countersunk on the top sur
face. The other two plates connect
the fanges, each with two rivets to
fiange. The rails are spaced 51s feet
apart, center to center, and every 1872
feet longitudinally they are tied to-
gether with q inch rods, bolted.
through the outside fanges. The
foundation, for the rails is e12 inches
of broken interesting on the old paw
ing blocks replaced by the rails. The
under surfaces of the rails were coated
with tar andt the rails then bedded on
thin layer, of fine gravel.
In addition to this roadway in Muir
ray street, which will be subjected to
the heaviest kind of traffic, it is pro-
posed to lay another stretch of the
steel road on Seventh avenue, in the
neighborhood of -hundred-a
twentieth street. There the pavementis
an old macadam, and there will neces-
sarily be notifications of the founda-
ton and the methods of construction
to suit the locality. A trial will also
be made on some dirt road, for the
advantages of the steel rail are con-
sidered to be as great for country
road as for city streets. -
At the, present price of steel it is
stated that the rails can be furnished
for $4,000 per mile. The cost of CON
struction would, of course, vary! with
local conditions, and as the work so
far done is experimental and work
men had to be taught how best to per-
form the various operations of laying
the track, no reliable estimate has
been made as to the. total cost of lay
ing this roadway. 49,.
A thorough series! of traction tests
are to be carried on in connection with
the roadway in Murray street, and the
other places where the rails are laid.
A dynamometer will be used and the
tractive force necessary to draw a
truck over the granite paving will be
compared with that necessary to draw
.italong the steel roadway. In addition
ito this test, records have been made
showing the amount and weight ..of,
traffic on the street previous to the
improvement, and further observa-
tions will be taken from time to time.
5to see whether there is any increase
in the traffic passing up this street. -.
Gen. Stone has made very exhaus-,
tive study of steel highways, and has
had several patents issued to him in
regard to constructive details, These
he states are to be entirely free to the
city of New York to make useaof
should the experiments prove as sue
cessful as is hoped. In rolling rails for
further experiments it is proposed to
make use of a special roll having slight
projections on its surface, perhaps an,
inch square. The last time the rail
goes through the rolls this will be put
on and will leave corresponding de-.
pressions in the finished rail- The OBJ
ject of this it to reduce to minimum
3the danger from horses slipping, and
is an important consideration. How
ever, it is claimed that the use of steel
rails will so reduce the amount of
: tractive force required that under
ordinary conditions there will not be
much danger from that source. An
other proposed modification is to have
the bead along the outer edges of the
tread f1uted so as to prevent wheels
from skidding as they leave the track.
In some cases it might also. be advan-
tageous to have the fianges of the rail
faring outward from the web. on both
sides, thus preventing wider base.
There have been few experiments
on small scale in this country with
steel trackways, conducted by the