MECHANICS AND USKFTL ARTS. 55 



it is short -lived becoming dead or crushed down to an inelastic mass in a 

 little over a year ; it is liable to accident from cracking or bursting open, and 

 it freezes stiff when it is needed most, when the track is rigid with frost, and 

 when the rails, wheels, and axles are brittle as pipe stems. The single 

 elliptic spring, steadily used in England, and the double elliptic, frequently 

 used in our own country, are free from most of these objections, but are more 

 expensive, and occupy more space, as they require to be of considerable 

 length. The friction of the plates of steel upon each other prevents the 

 occurrence of the repeated boundings observed with the gummy supports ; 

 and. although slightly stiffer and brittler in severe cold weather, the difference 

 in this respect is not practically appreciable. The volute spring recently 

 patented and introduced by Mr. F. M. Ray, of New York, appears to com- 

 bine all the qualities desired in a very high degree being a stout steel ribbon 

 coiled up into as compact a form as a rubber spring, and possessing the fric- 

 tional qualities desired in the very best degree. The pressure comes upon 

 the centre of the coil, and tends to push it through an action which not only 

 brings into play to a proper degree all the elasticity of the metal, but, by a 

 happy coincidence, tends to bind the coils of steel together, so that the fric- 

 tion increases with the load. This action, also, by constantly tending to coil 

 the steel tighter when the strain is applied, humors the nature of the metal, 

 which, having its particles compressed, or " upset," on the inner side of each 

 coil in the act of manufacturing the spring, would be soon broken by any 

 force tending to straighten the same. A form of volute spring has also been 

 used to a limited extent for some time in Great Britain ; but the American 

 form is understood to be far superior in the form of the ribbon, which is 

 swelled in the middle, instead of flat, before winding up, and in the provision 

 for equalizing its action by allowing it a partial support under its base as 

 the load is increased, so that its action is pretty nearly the same under all 

 loads. 



Improved Railway Apparatus fur Ascending Grades. A gentleman of the 

 name of Henfrey has taken out a patent, in Piedmont, for a very ingenious 

 method of carrying railway trains over Mont Cenis, or any other similar 

 mountain pass. A rah 1 way, of the usual description, wiU be laid down in a 

 direct line from the bottom to the top of the ascent. The acclivity in the 

 case of Mont Cenis, will be from one in ten to one in twelve. Between these 

 two rails a canal is to be dug, three feet nine inches in width, and about 

 thirty inches in depth, which is to be lined and made completely water-tight 

 with iron plates of the description called by engineers 4i boiler plate." The 

 motive power to be employed is a stream of water, about a foot deep, flowing 

 or rather rushing down this canal. It is clear, therefore, that an abun- 

 dant supply of water on the summit to be reached is a necessary condition of 

 the scheme. Mont Cenis, however, affords every facility in this respect. On 

 the outside of the railway another cogged rail will be laid down on either 

 side. On the arrival of the train at the bottom of the hill, the steam engine, 

 which has so far brought it on its journey, will be exchanged for a machine 

 of a very simple and -far from costly construction. In the middle of a frame, 

 about the size of an ordinary steam engine without its tender, a water wheel. 



