56 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVEKY. 



adapted to the above-described canal, will be fixed, having- a diameter of 

 twelve feet. On 1 the same axis will be fixed two cogged wheels, to work in 

 the cogged rails, of six feet diameter. "With this apparatus it seems clear 

 that the descending stream must force the water wheel to make revolutions 

 towards the top of the hill, and to carry round with it the cogged wheels in 

 the same direction. As the diameter of these is to be hah' that of the water- 

 wheel, the rate of ascent will, of course, be half that at which the diameter 

 of the water wheel moves. It is calculated that the latter speed will be ten 

 miles an hour, and the former therefore five. It is further calculated, that a 

 machine of these dimensions will carry up the proposed acclivity a weight of 

 from fifteen to twenty tons, or say from sixty to eighty passengers. Should 

 it be required to transport a greater weight, as many other such engines may 

 follow each other, at intervals of 150 feet, as may be required. Reckoning 

 the ordinary present rate of travelling up the mountain at two miles and a 

 half an hour, and considering that the direct rail will, between the bottom and 

 the top, traverse a space not more than half the length of the winding post 

 road, it will be seen that the ascent will be achieved in one quarter of the 

 time now occupied. For the descent, the water wheel, moving through and 

 against the stream, will act as a restraining force to moderate and regulate the 

 speed. 



Improvement in the Manufacture of Eailroad Rails. Mr. "W. Bayton, of 

 Staffordshire, England, has patented a highly important improvement in the 

 manufacture of T rails, by which it is claimed that the base, or flange, of the 

 rail may be made at once from ordinary puddle iron, instead of from re-heated, 

 as at present ; or by using the same quality of iron as is now employed, the 

 rail may be made with a much deeper web and wider flange than is now 

 attainable, while the loss from cutting up rails with torn flanges, patching, &c., 

 is wholly avoided. For this purpose differently shaped grooves are employed 

 in the rolls, both roughing and finishing. The pile, in passing through the 

 rolls on its flat, is made to present on both its upper and lower surfaces 

 (which are subsequently to become the head and flange of the rail) a hollow 

 and concave, instead of a plane and straight surface ; which hollow concavity 

 is filled up by the iron displaced from the throat of the rail in finishing it on 

 its edge. A much more regular draught is thus obtained, and all danger of 

 ripping the flange avoided. 



Railway Wlieels. S. Sudbrook, of London, has recently obtained a patent 

 for an invention which consists in forming the periphery or outside edge of 

 railway wheels with wood, forced and pressed into and between suitable 

 plates and chambers in such a manner as to form a very hard and compact 

 surface, with the end of the wood so placed as to run on the rail ; it is the 

 same application of wood to the tread of railway wheels that has been applied 

 to the bearing boxes of shafts. 



Iron Block Railway Chair. Mr. Stephen Reed, of England, Las directed 

 his attention to the construction of iron railway chairs and sleepers, to be 

 substituted for wood. In lieu of only a 4-inch bearing of the ordinary rail 

 upon the sleeper, the bearing is increased to 21 inches, with permanent sta- 

 bility so insured at the joints, that three chairs are enabled to be fixed instead 



