6 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [nOV. 3, 



The invention of Bessemer &t< el, a quarter of a century since, 

 its Use for steel rails, other improvements and competition, have 

 reduced the rates of transportation so low that the present charge 

 on a barrel of flour from Chicago to New York is less than an 

 expressman would charge to move it across the city. 



How to make these low rates of the past few years meet the 

 necessary outlay is a problem of very difficult practical solution, 

 and it is not strange that there exists great difference of opinion 

 as to the best methods of operation, the selection of material and 

 the best plan of construction. 



Conditions on different roads are so dissimilar that in many 

 respects the best plan for one is not necessarily the best for 

 another. The first idea of all railway managers is safety and 

 certainty of movement of trains, and the marvellous success 

 already attained is as wonderful as it is satisfactory. To main- 

 tain this with the constantly increasing business and the reduc- 

 tion of rates, will furnish problems of investigation as long as 

 railroads exist. What we consider good to-day, will, in many 

 cases, be found susceptible of improvement by the light of 

 to-morrow. The thousands of young men who have been edu- 

 cated in our colleges the past few years, guided by practical 

 experience on our railroads, are not accepting, without test, 

 opinions and traditions. The struggles of railroads for business 

 is stimulating research in every department, to see whether in 

 some way the cost of the service cannot be at the same time 

 lessened and improved ; observations and experiments must be 

 made and the facts ascertained for future guidance. 



The desire to know the truth or fallacy of many theories, 

 upon which depended the expenditure of large sums of money 

 under my control as a Civil Engineer, led to the invention and use 

 of the instruments I shall descril )e and show illustrations and re- 

 sults of their work. 



The recording apparatus, shown in Figs. I. and II., is the 

 third one in size which I have made to put on more indications 

 of additional data as the investigations have progressed. The 

 first instrument used paper eleven inches wide, the second one 

 twenty inches wide, and the third, the one here illustrated, uses 

 paper twenty or thirty inches wide, as may be desired. 



The apparatus is put in a car specially constructed for its use. 

 The recording apparatus shown in Figs. I. and II. is placed 

 upon the fioor of the car over a special six wheel truck having 



