TELPHERAGE IN PRACTICAL USE. 385 



on the other side are kept up to the proper tension. The compen- 

 sation gear consists of a chain attached to the end of a rod, which 

 here is not bolted to the saddle, and running down to a lever 

 and weight beneath the track. These gears keep the tension of 

 the rods uniform in spite of varying loads and temperature ; on 

 the line at Glynde the tension is two and a quarter tons. While 

 this line was being constructed, Prof. Perry discovered that the 

 tension of a rod could be determined very simply, by setting it to 

 vibrating, and counting the vibrations in a quarter of a minute. 



A train on the Glynde line consists of an electric locomotive 

 and either five or ten skeps, in the latter case the locomotive be- 

 ing in the middle of the train. The skeps, are spaced- evenly and 

 somewhat widely apart, being connected by poles fourteen feet 

 long, in order to distribute the weight of the loaded train over a 

 considerable length of the rail, which allows the track to be light 

 and correspondingly cheap, and in order also to have the train of 

 the proper length to make the necessary electrical connections as 

 it passes from span to span. The poles are attached to the buck- 

 ets by a hook-and-eye coupling, easily detached. Each skep 

 weighs one hundred and one pounds, and holds about two hun- 

 dred and fifty pounds of dry clay. The cross-piece connecting 

 the two wheels is of wood, so that the bucket, being suspended 

 from this by a hanger, is insulated from the line, and may be 

 handled without any shock being felt. An empty train at Glynde 

 will travel to the clay-field where the track slopes down so as to 

 bring the skeps nearly to the level of the ground. A laborer 

 touches a key and stops the train, the skeps are then filled, the 

 key is touched again, and the train starts off. 



At the railway siding the train does not stop. The buckets 

 pass above the middle of the cars, into which the clay is dumped 

 automatically by the handle at the bottom of each bucket strik- 

 ing an arm projecting from a post. Any kind of a load, such as 

 bags of grain or logs, may be hung from the hangers by replacing 

 the buckets by bands, or a seat holding two passengers may be 

 substituted for the bucket, which would allow of twenty passen- 

 gers being drawn by one locomotive. For passenger lines, how- 

 ever, Prof. Perry says that it would be found probably more 

 convenient to use a stiff rail rather than the flexible rod. A 

 single-ivheeled skep, suggested by Mr. Horace Darwin, has been 

 given practical form by Mr. Gordon Wigan. A train of these 

 skeps moves with less friction and is more flexible, so that it goes 

 round curves more readily than a train of the two-wheeled skeps. 

 Mr. Wigan has also designed a one-wheeled locomotive. 



An end view of the " tandem locomotive," which is the form 

 used at Glynde, is shown in Fig. 3. 



This consists of a Reckenzaun motor, with the necessary gear- 



