the proper size, and are in one entire piece, being 
welded together from bars 12 ft. long. There are 
eight of them, 5 x %-ins., one on either side of each 
piece of boiler iron, and fastened to it with %j-in. iron 
rivets 6 ins. distant from each other. There are but 
four top chords, and of the same size of the bottom, 
two on each truss near the top, the timber for the rail 
making up the deficiency for compression, and 
answering the purpose of chords. This bridge was 
built at the time Messers. STEPHENSON and BRUNEL 
were making their experiments with cylindrical 
tubes preparatory to constructing the Menai bridge; 
the cylindrical tubes failing, they adopted this plan of 
bridge. 
The entire weight of the bridge is 14 gross tons, and 
cost $2,200; but as the same kind of iron of which the 
bridge is composed can be had for at least 15 per cent. 
less now, than it cost at the time, it would be but fair 
to estimate the cost of the bridge at $1,870, without 
any reference to the labor that is misapplied in all new 
structures of the kind, making the cost of a bridge 55 
ft. long, $34 per ft. And I have no doubt where there 
would be a large quantity of iron required for such 
purposes, that it could be had at such prices as to 
bring down the cost of bridges of 55 ft. length to $30 
per ft. 
Very respectfully yours, 
JAMES MILLHOLLAND. 
II 
[From Philadelphia and Reading annual report for 
1859, pp. 55-61.) 
Reapine, Dec. 13th, 1859. 
R. D. Cutten; Esq., President Philada. and Reading 
Railroad Co. 
Dear Sir: I have your letter of the 7th inst., and 
most cheerfully comply with your request mentioned 
therein. 
We have been burning anthracite coal in some cf 
our locomotives for the past twelve years, and for five 
years in all the engines employed in coal transporta- 
tion, hauling with them trains of 500 tons, exclusive 
of the weight of cars, and are now burning anthracite 
coal in all the locomotives on passenger, freight, and 
coal trains, employed on the main line of the road, 
and in all the engines employed on the lateral roads, 
except the two passenger engines on Lebanon Valley 
PAPER 69: JAMES MILLHOLLAND AND EARLY RAILROAD ENGINEERING 33: 

815-S84— 68 4 
Branch, and one running the Reading Accommoda- 
tion Train, and one on the Chester Valley Railroad, 
burning wood. 
There are now on the road, 
4 First class Anthracite coal burning Passenger Locomotives. 
l Second a7 ras ce c 
88 First — “ fe Coal and Freight 
3 Second ‘ w ce oa 
These engines are much easier managed than wood- 
burners, and a much more uniform pressure of steam 
can be kept on them, as they are all provided with 
variable exhausts, under the control of the engineer, 
who can increase or diminish the draft at pleasure. 
To fire these engines requires much less labor than 
wood-burners, as it is not necessary to fire oftener than 
at intervals of forty minutes, and sometimes double 
that time may elapse without further attention than 
occasionally to clean out the cinder and ashes between 
the grate-bars. The best fireboxes for burning 
anthracite coal are those with the largest grate area. 
The first four large engines for burning this fuel, built 
by Ross Winans, Esq., of Baltimore, and placed on 
the road in 1847, had fireboxes six feet three inches 
long, by two feet ten inches wide, giving a grate area 
of 17-68 square feet; these engines did not make 
steam freely, and had to be run with a small exhaust, 
and in consequence produced a very strong draft, and 
threw a great deal of coal out of the chimney. The 
next five engines built by Mr. Winans for this Com- 
pany, were placed upon the road in 1850 and 1851, 
and were different from the four built by him in 1847; 
they are what is commonly called the “Camel” 
engine, having a large dome and house on top of the 
boiler for the engineer, their fireboxes being five feet 
two inches long, by three feet six inches wide, giving 
a grate area of a little over eighteen square feet; they 
were also deficient in making steam, but gave much 
better results than the first four. The engines that 
have been placed on the road within the past seven 
years, also built by Mr. Winans, have fireboxes seven 
feet long and three and a half feet wide, making a 
grate area of 24.5 square feet, and perform very 
satisfactorily. One of the difficulties we have had to 
contend with in the use of anthracite coal as a fuel for 
locomotives has been the necessity of using an inferior 
quality of coal for the purpose of preventing the cast 
iron grate-bars from melting, as it makes a great deal 
of cinder and ashes, which, when once formed on the 
grate-bars, protects them from the immediate action 
of the fire, and the firemen have to be very careful 
