122 REPORT—1852. 
that they should be sunk separately at considerable distances apart. Mr. Bakewell 
exhibited a contrivance for still further facilitating Mr. Morse’s plan for transmitting 
symbols by making dots and strokes on chemically prepared paper ; and stated that in 
his Copying Telegraph—which has the great advantage of transmitting at once coun- 
terparts of the actual handwriting of parties, so that secrecy as well as the authen- 
ticity of the messages is secured—he has effected improvements which increase the 
rapidity of transmission to three hundred letters per minute. 

Mechanical Proof of the Composition of Rotatory Forces. 
By Joun Barker, MB. 
This was an apparatus constructed for the purpose of exhibition and demonstration 
of these powers. 


On the Permanent Way of Railways. 
By James Barron, CLE. 
After a brief review of the steps by which from the first wooden rail about the year 
1676 at Newcastle, the railroad advanced; next to tram-plates, and lately to the pre- 
sent forms of wrought-iron rail secured to wooden sleepers, which are now in com- 
mon use, the paper proceeded to consider what the defects were in the present 
system, being generally describable under two heads, the imperfect joint, and the tem- 
porary nature of the wooden substructure. 
To remedy-these evils, those whose professional duties had brought this subject 
prominently before them, had devised various improvements, and several patents were 
taken out; amongst which, four were described; the first, that of Sir John Macneill, 
which consists of a cast-iron sleeper upon which the bridge form of rail beds evenly, 
and to which it is riveted, the proper gauge and bevil being secured by cross-bars set 
on edge, and upon which two opposite sleepers are cast. The second isa cast-iron 
sleeper applicabie to the edge rail, as patented by Mr. Peter Barlow, and in which 
each sleeper consists of two parts, which when bolted together by a horizontal bolt 
requires no key or other fastening. The third consists of an improvement for the joint 
of the edge rail on ordinary timber roads, and is a fishing of the joint by bars laid in 
the hollow of the edge rail and riveted through its vertical web: this is a patent of 
Mr. Samuel’s. The fourth is a patent of Mr. William Henry Barlow, and consists of 
a wrought-iron rail forming its own sleeper, being rolled wide enough to be its own 
base; it is of the bridge form, and eleven, twelve, or thirteen inches wide, according 
to weight; the connections are formed by a chair of wrought iron, the external form 
of which exactly coincides with the inside of the rail, to which as a joint cover both 
are riveted, the cross-ties being angle irons, bent to give the bevil for the carriage 
wheels to the rail, and secured by the same rivets which hold the chair. 
The author has laid some of each of these kinds of permanent way, except Mr. 
Samuel’s, and tried a number of experiments thereon, both as to strength, smooth- 
ness, and cost of maintenance; and the experimental lengths of each kind have been 
under the regular traffic of the Belfast Junction Railway for the last year and a half. 
Of the first kind, Sir J. Macneill’s, the Drogheda Railway Company have taken some, 
their rails being still quite sound but their wooden sleepers decayed; the second, Mr. 
Peter Barlow’s, has been largely laid in England on the South-Eastern, and Ashford 
and Hastings; and in Ireland, on the Londonderry and Enniskillen. The last de- 
scribed, that of Mr. W. H. Barlow, is now being extensively adopted by Mr. Brunel 
in England, and Mr. Hemans in Ireland; and the author has laid seyen miles, and 
ordered materials for twelve more; this being the total at present required on the 
Belfast Junction Railway. The result of the experiments was the adoption of this rail 
as the best when the rails are not already purchased ; it was found by far the strongest 
and considerably the cheapest. The cost of the different kinds are given in the an- 
nexed table, the estimates being either from the author’s own knowledge, or when 
they refer to maintenance for a term of years, are taken from actual tenders made to 
him for the work. This rail thus gives a first cost saving of £360 per double mile, and 
an annual saving of £56; the cast-iron sleepers show an increased cost at first of about 
£160, but an annual saying of about £50, 

