L. MECHANICS AND ENGINEERING. 443 



system in question is presented, although without the aid 

 of drawings a description must necessarily be unsatisfac- 

 tory: 



The railway is constructed on the plan of a single rail, 

 supplemented by two guide-rails parallel to it, the centre 

 rail supporting the car. The road is designed to be elevated 

 about fourteen feet above ground-level, and the advantages 

 claimed for it are that the guide-wheels, which maintain the 

 equilibrium of the car, being connected with the bearing- 

 wheels, maintain a constant position with relation to the bot- 

 tom rails, however much the car may rise and fall on its 

 springs. The short axles of the bearing-wheels, with a slight 

 flexibility on the bearings, enable them to adjust themselves 

 to any curve independent of the car and of each other, thus 

 avoiding the danger of mounting the rails, and permitting 

 very short curves to be employed. The roadway is support- 

 ed on Phoenix columns placed about fifty feet apart. The 

 engine is likewise of peculiar construction. The results ob- 

 tained at the trial were pronounced to be quite satisfactory. 

 Without the least irregularity of motion on the curve, a speed 

 of forty miles an hour was maintained, with a car weighing 

 11,000 lbs., and an engine weighing 8000 lbs. 20 D.Oct. 14, 

 1875,11. 



A NEW KAIL FOR STREET RAILWAYS. 



The common form of street rail possesses several disad- 

 vantageous features. Of these the most obvious and objec- 

 tionable are: First, the battering down of the rail end by the 

 sudden impact of the car wheels; and, second, the loosening 

 of the permanent way by the gradual drawing of the spikes, 

 due to the lever-like action of the wheels on the ends. A 

 recent invention, which is termed a compound street rail, is 

 claimed to have obviated these disadvantages, and to give 

 to the road additionally greater rigidity and wearing quali- 

 ties. The compound rail has its chief claim to novelty in 

 the fact that it consists of tw^o parts the head and foot, or 

 flange. A section of the rail, with the two pieces in position, 

 would resemble that of a common street rail divided horizon- 

 tally into an upper and lower piece. These pieces are so 

 laid down that the joints or ends of each of the upper pieces 

 or heads shall fall at the centres of the flano-es. In thus 



