INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1875. ccxxxix 



not shift points during the passage of a train and so send the 

 rear cars off the track, nor can he easily signal a line clear 

 until such is the case. The characteristic feature of the Sax- 

 by & Farmer system is its absolute positiveness." For the 

 Toucey & Buchanan system merits no less positive are 

 claimed. 



The past year lias witnessed, likewise, a considerable ex- 

 tension of the employment of continuous power-brakes. On 

 both sides of the Atlantic an unusual decree of interest was 

 manifested upon this point ; in England, indeed, the govern- 

 ment, with commendable appreciation, has referred the prob- 

 lem to a Royal Commission for exhaustive examination and 

 report. The conclusions of this body have not yet transpired. 

 In this connection we may note that the hydraulic system, 

 as distinguished from the atmospheric, appears to be stead- 

 ily gaining ground. With the several forms of atmospheric 

 brakes in use, despite their great merits, the great complex- 

 ity of the apparatus, and its liability to become deranged in 

 consequence, are serious objections, which in the hydraulic 

 system certainly in the best representatives of this class 

 are largely obviated. It is of interest, therefore, to remark 

 that the record made during the past year by the Henderson 

 Hydraulic brake the pioneer in this field, to which we made 

 brief allusion in our last volume was as satisfactory as the 

 warmest advocates of the system could have desired. As- 

 suming this particular brake to be the representative of its 

 class, it may be safely affirmed that it has demonstrated the 

 hydraulic system to be prompt in action, reliable, requiring 

 little care and no skilled attention, advantages which can 

 not fail ultimately to tell strongly in its favor. 



Steel and steel-tired car-wheels found some favor durinsr the 

 past year as substitutes for the prevailing chilled cast-iron ones. 

 There was evident some reaction against the use of steel for 

 locomotive fire-boxes. The tendency to use heavier locomo- 

 tives on railroads with heavy traffic has continued. The use of 

 separate tracks for freight on the New York Central and Hud- 

 son River Railroad has made a material savins: in the move- 

 ment of freight, though the traffic has not been sufficient to 

 crowd the old tracks. The New York railroads carried more 

 than ever before of the grain between Lake Erie and tide- 

 water, though canal rates were never before so low. 



