MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 31 



means, or too unwise when they have the means, to institute the funda- 

 mental remedy, the compromise is generally a low rail, which, for the very 

 reason of its shallowness, cannot be spliced at its signally vulnerable point, 

 the joint. So the difficulty engendered by a low rail is almost as serious as 

 that sought to be avoided by the low rail the disconnected joints soon 

 wear and hammer themselves and the machinery to pieces. Now, several 

 hundred rail-joints have been invented, some of which really preserve, to a 

 considerable extent, the continuity of the rails as if they were a continuous 

 bar; but those that do so run into two obstacles, which are nearly fatal: 1. 

 The cost of thoroughly jointing a low rail is too enormous, in the eyes of 

 those who will use low rails, at all to warrant its adoption. 2. The neces- 

 sary weight and rigidity of a good joint are so great as to destroy the very 

 effect sought in the low rail continuous elasticity. Now, the continuous 

 rail is the compromise between these almost irreconcilable elements. It is a 

 continuous splice, not, indeed, preserving the full strength of the bar at the 

 joint, but preventing much deflection, and equalizing what there is; that is, 

 bringing down both rail ends alike. This it does without adding rigidity, 

 for the weight is the same at all parts. The cost of the continuous rail is 

 five dollars a ton over that of the solid rail of equal weight. This makes 

 the joints cost about a dollar each; and we know of no other joint, costing 

 a dollar, which so securely fastens the ends of low rails, for the lower the 

 rail the greater the difficulty in jointing it. New York Times. 



DO RAILWAY RAILS EVER WEAR OUT ? 



Mr. Herapath, editor of Herapath's Railway Journal (England), states, on 

 the authority of some of the most practical and experienced railway men of 

 Great Britain, that railway rails, unless at stations and places where there is 

 sliding, do not sensibly wear out. This statement, however, applies to rails 

 made of good iron, not inferior iron tinned over, as it were, with good, 

 and to rails on the middle of a line, over Avhich trains are run in the ordi- 

 nary way. Experiments have been made by taking up and carefully weigh- 

 ing rails in this position after twelve months, wear, or more, which Avere 

 found not sensibly to have lost any weight during that time, thereby proving 

 that there could have been no sensible wear. 



THE BISSEL LOCOMOTIVE TRUCK. 



The common locomotive truck consists of a frame, holding the four front 

 Avheels, and turning on a pivot, or king-bolt, like the fore axletrec of a 

 wagon. Although such a truck moves round a curve more easily than if it 

 were rigidly parallel to other shafts and did not turn on its king-bolt, yet its 

 action is "hard, like that of a car whose wheels are nearer together on one 

 side than on the other when moving on a straight track. With the Bissel 

 improvement, the truck does not turn on its own centre, or pivot, but slides 

 sidewise under the engines, being held by a radius-arm extending back under 

 the engine, and fastened to a pin half-way between the centre of the truck 

 and the forward driving-shaft. Thus all the axles of the engine are more 

 nearly radial to whatever curve the train strikes; the wheels are less likely to 

 run off, and move with less friction; shorter curves may be passed, and the 

 flanges wear less. The chief improvement is, however, that one pair of 

 wheels may be used instead of two pairs, which are necessary in the old 



