MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 41 



by substantial posts which are ordinarily about 200 feet apart. 

 This rope passes at one end of the line round a drum, driven by 

 either steam, water, or even horse power in small farming oper- 

 ations, at a speed of from 4 to 8 miles per hour. The boxes in 

 which the load is carried are hung on the rope at the loading; end 

 by a wooden V-shaped saddle, about 14 inches long, linecf witli 

 leather, and having 4 small wheels, with a curved pendant, which 

 maintains the box in perfect equilibrium while travelling, and 

 most ingeniously, but simply, enables it to pass the supporting 

 posts and pulleys. By a sliding-ring arrangement the boxes or 

 buckets are easily emptied by tilting, without unshipping the 

 saddle from the rope. The boxes can be made to carry from 1 

 cwt. to 10 cwt., and the proportions of the line and the" loading 

 and discharging arrangements can be varied to suit any particular 

 requirement, ranging from 10 tons to 1,000 tons per diem. At 

 each end of the line are rails placed to catch the small wheels 

 attached to the saddles of the boxes, by which means the weight, 

 having acquired momentum, is lifted from the rope, and, thus 

 suspended from a fixed rail or platform, can be run to any point 

 for loading or emptying, and again run on to the rope for trans- 

 port, the succession being continuous, and the rope never requir- 

 ing to be stopped for loading and unloading. 



Curves of sharp radius are easily passed, as well as steep 

 inclines, and its applicability to cross rivers, streams, and moun- 

 tains, or hilly districts, will be apparent at a glance, as the cost 

 of construction increases but little under such circumstances, 

 whilst that of a road or railroad is, perhaps, increased tenfold, 

 and the daily working cost doubled or trebled. The rope being 

 continuous, no power is lost on undulating ground, as the 

 descending loads help those ascending. 



In the case of lines for heavv traffic, where a series of loads, 



V 



necessarily not less than 5 cwt. to 10 cwt. each, must be carried, 

 a pair of stationary supporting ropes, with an endless running 

 rope for the motive power, will be employed, but the method of 

 supporting, and the peculiar advantage of crossing almost any 

 nature of country with a goods line without much more engineer- 

 ing work or space than is necessary for fixing an electric tele- 

 graph, without bridges, without embankments, and without 

 masonry, exists equally in both branches of the system. 



In the minor applications, such as short transport from mines 

 to railways, the landing or shipping of goods in harbors and 

 roadsteads, and the carriage of agricultural produce on farms, 

 some peculiar features of the system render it specially advan- 

 tageous. Amongst these are the facility with which power can 

 be transmitted by the rope and taken off at any required point 

 for mining or other purposes. In lines terminating on the sea- 

 board, or on great rivers, a manifest advantage is secured in the 

 facility lor taking goods direct to or from ships in harbor or road- 

 stead without transhipment into lighters. 



Seen from a distance, the posts which carry the tramway wires 

 at Brighton might be mistaken for telegraph poles ; but a nearer 

 inspection reveals a second line of wires on the same level, and 



