MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 53 



FACTS IX KAILEOAD MANAGEMENT. 



The following facts regarding eight of the principal railroads of Massachu- 

 setts are developed by the recent reports to the Legislature of that State : 



1. The cost of passenger transportation is 1.062 cents per passenger per 

 mile. 



2. The cost of merchandise transportation is 3.095 cents per ton per mile. 



3. In passenger transportation $41 98 per cent, of the receipts therefrom 

 are absorbed in expenses. 



4. In merchandise transportation $89 52 per cent, of the receipts therefrom 

 are absorbed hi expenses. 



5. The expenses of railroads are almost invariably determined by the 

 weight carried over the rails. For instance ; The Eastern road, upon which 

 passenger traffic predominates, is operated at an expense of $3,670 per mile 

 of the length of the road ; whilst the Lowell, upon which merchandise tr affic 

 predominates, is operated at an expense of $12,478. 



6. The cost of renewal of iron upon railroads is an infallible index of the 

 magnitude of expenses. For the preceding reasons, the cost of that item on 

 the Eastern road is but $390 per mile of the length of the road, while upon 

 the Western it 'is $1,390. 



7. Of the expenses of railroads, thirty per cent, is absorbed in mainte- 

 nance of way, or road bed ; twenty per cent, in fuel and oil ; twenty per 

 cent, in repair of engines, tenders and cars ; ten per cent, in special freight 

 expenses, and the remainder in passenger, incidental and miscellaneous 

 expenses. 



8. The weight of the engines, tenders and cars upon passenger trains is 

 nine-fold greater than the weight of the passengers. 



9. The weight of the engines, tenders and cars upon freight trams, is 

 scarcely one-fold greater than the weight of the merchandise. 



10. For cheapness, railroads cannot compete with canals, in transportation 

 of heavy descriptions of merchandise ; the cost of carrying merchandise upon 

 the Erie canal ranges from two to sixteen mills per ton per mile ; whilst 

 upon several of the principal railways of New York and Massachusetts the 

 cost of carrying merchandise ranges from thirteen to sixty-five mills per ton 

 per mile. 



COAL BURNING LOCOMOTIVES. 



Mr. D. K. Clark, author of the valuable treatise on locomotives known as 

 " Clark's Railway Machinery," states, as the result of recent experiments on 

 English railways, that the perfect combustion of coal and the consequent pre- 

 vention of smoke in locomotives can be secured by the adoption of very 

 simple means of equalizing the temperature. He employed fire bricks, which 

 serve to absorb the heat when in excess, and give it out when, by reason of 



a fresh supply of fuel or otherwise, the temperature of the smoke was too 

 low. A pile of fire bricks through which the products of combustion must 



pass was deposited in a combustion chamber joining the fire box and the 

 tubes, and the hind compartment of the fire box was also arched over with 



