Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-09
ELEPHANTS JOB GONE
American Wire RopeWays Now
Used in India.
RUN UP MOUNTAIN SIDES
Great Logs of Teak Swing Through
the Air.
CROSS THE Widest COUNTRY
Cable Runs Over Gorges and Valleys
impossible for the Pachyderm
Laborers of Other Days.

This is essentially a mechanical age. and
all the more picturesque features of indus
trial life must necessarily give place to
more mechanical methods. This is well
eNemplifed in the matter of the famous
working elephants of India and Burma
says the New York Times. Only a few
years ago thousands of these intelligent
creatures were at work in the teak forests
of India and Burma hauling logs from their
jungle habitat to the nearest stream, where
the timber fioated down to towns like
Rangoon and Moulmein. there to be receiv-
ed by other gangs of working elephants.
who carried the huge logs to the saw mills
and afterward stacked them in great piles.
waiting shipment.
Now, however. trained elephant laborers
are cheap in the great peninsula. and the
Indian government is no longer worried by
poachers on their big game preserves who
may want to trap an elephant worth pos
sibly $500. The cause of this slump is the
Introduction of American wire ropeways,
which are perhaps seen at their best in the
Anamalais or Elephant mountains of
southern India.
This is a region of forest-ciad hills not
yet penetrated by any railroad, so that for
ages the dense jungles of valuable mahog-
any and teak have been undsturbed save
by wild elephants and tigers. Ten years
ago. however. certain concessions were
granted from Calcutta and gangs of tamd
working elephants were imported to haul
the logs. in Burma. But the question OF
roads or rather tracks proved grave
difIfcu1ty Moreover il was all but inn
possible for white men to work in these
hills, owing to the prevalence of malaria.
Build Wire Ropeways.
Draft bullocks were tried, but the tor
| rental downpours made the mountain tracki
impossible. Now, however, there are aerial
wire ropeways running from the crest OF
the hills and entirely DISPENSING with the
old ghaut road, which was built at great
expense. The pioneer ropeWay was pun
~ .lle Retro VI o,.e ,,i,nI - &c rarban,
W0 Yards long and quite simple in princi-
pie. ioaded carriage travels down the
main fixed rope by gravitation and hauls
up an empty carriage on the same rope.
The two meet in the center. and there arc
transferred by a very ingenious arrange
ment invented by a ST. Louis firm.
From one end to the other there is fall
of nearly 1900 feet, and the aerial tracks
cross two main valleys and many deep
gorges. Any kind of a road would be quite
impossible in country so wild and rocky.
Thereare twelve main spans. the smallest one
of 800 feet and the greatest 1915 feet The
fixed rope is 27s inches in circumference. oil
six strands, and with a hempen core; each
strand contains seven wires of the finest
steel
The carriage consists of two curved
wrought iron hangers and loads OF nearly
1900 pounds be sent down in great
numbers both swiftly and surely. The I'M
stallation of this aerial ropeway through
the dense forest was a tiresome matter
Anchorages had to be prepared for the sup.
ports; and since there was no natural rock
in the right place. fifteen-ton boulders were
dragged up and down. by elephants and
dropped into position at each end of the
line. Holes were then drilled In the boul-
ders for the legs of the iron bars. after
which the rope was unreeled. The big reels
or bobbns, of which there ware two'
weighed four tons each.
E,enbants nrao Roma Tn
o
1t was proposed TO carry thls steer rope
up the hills on the shoulders of aboriginal
trihasmep but the wild and broken nature
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" Sie 49, It -, . III % .ha 80
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vs. to ''> WIN
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III eisnt ~ ~ $50 -, "' .pt,,'l II y.
lwo upI ENC ,tlu otout u Ii ~
the country that in one place the rope is
nearly 11o ieet rom ne ~, ~ JUN o,,a 49,