34 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



merce, both in shortening the distance between the Atlantic cities 

 and the gulf, and in saving many lives and much property annu- 

 ally lost on the dangerous coast of Florida. 



NINE-INCH RAIL. 



To the Rhenish Railway Company is due the credit of first in- 

 troducing a rail 9 inches high, with the design of doing away 

 entirely with sleepers, which in Europe forms quite an item in 

 railroad repairs. The 9-iuch rail rests upon a bed of plates 

 which are covered with 5 inches of gravel, and on top is a 2- 

 inch layer of earth well stamped down so that the top of the rail 

 projects only an inch above the surface. The two lines of rails 

 are connected every 3 feet, so that the track resembles a lad- 

 der lying on the ground and half buried in it. 



STEEP GRADIENTS , AND SHARP CURVES. 



The report of Mr. Ashburner, on the practicability of building a 

 railway over the Hoosac Mountain, alludes to the adoption of 

 some exceptionally severe grades and curves on several success- 

 ful lines of railway, not as an argument in favor of adopting 

 these objectionable features, but to show their practicability for 

 avoiding an unreasonable expenditure, and for expediting the 

 opening of an important route that otherwise might be delayed 

 for many years for want of funds for executing a more perfect 

 system. The Baltimore and Ohio Railway, going west, ascends 

 11 miles on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies at an average of 

 116 feet to the mile ; the summit level is 2,626 feet above tide. On 

 the Virginia Central Railway, at Rock-Fish Gap, the average 

 gradient on the east side was 257.4 feet per mile for a distance of 

 2.37 miles, the maximum 295.68 feet per mile, half a mile long ; 

 sharpest radius 234 feet, the grade on this curve being reduced to 

 237.6 feet per mile : on the west side thefHverage was 223.1 feet per 

 mile, for 2.02 miles ; maximum 279.34 feet per mile ; ruling curves 

 300 feet radius, on which the grade was reduced to 237 feet per 

 mile. 



The Pennsylvania Railway, across the Alleghanies, rises to an 

 elevation of 2,176 feet above tide ; the maximum grade extends for 

 a distance of 9| miles, and is 96 feet per mile on straight lines ; 

 this grade is eased on curves ; one curve is on a radius of 636 feet, 

 and extends^yver 190 degrees. In Chili, South America, on the 

 Santiago and Valparaiso Railway, occurs an incline of 12 miles, 

 rising at an average of 113J feet per mile to a height above the sea 

 of 2,640 feet; the maximum is 118.6 feet per mile for 3 miles, 

 and on it there are 16 curves of 604 feet radius each. 



In the passage of the Soemmering Mountain, in Germany, on 

 the Vienna and Trieste Railway, the height attained is 2,887 feet 

 above the sea; the length. of the incline 13^ miles, and the aver- 

 age rise 112.3 feet per mile ; the sharpest curve 625 feet radius; 

 the greatest inclination 132 feet per mile, and for a distance of 

 2.53 miles. The Giovi incline, passing over the Apennines on the 

 Turin and Genoa line, risus for 6 miles to an average of 146.6 



