TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 97 



On Wooden Railways. By W. Bridges. 



This was an account of Mr. Prosser's system, now about to be tried on a branch 

 line from Woking to Guildford. The author explained that Mr. Prosser's railway 

 diflfers from the old wooden railway, in having the wood indurated by the injection 

 of an alkaline and metallic salt, and the employment of guide-wheels, fixed at an 

 oblique angle before and behind each carriage. 



On the Advantages to be obtained by turning Canals, in certain situations and 

 of certain forms, into Raihvays, especially as applicable to the circumstances 

 of the Royal Canal lying betiveen the City of Dublin and the River Shan- 

 non. By T. Birmingham. 



Mr. Birmingham suggested, that a cheap, expeditious, safe and easy mode of con- 

 veyance could be formed along these great lines of canals. At the present moment, 

 subsoil draining was fortunately occupying the attention of agriculturists. He, there- 

 fore, proposed so to construct the railways as at the same time to make what was 

 formerly a canal into a drain for the waters of the country, instead of as now, in many 

 places, especially in the case of the canal under consideration, acting as back-water 

 upon the land : the bottom of the canal, he said, should be levelled to a reasonable 

 incline at the various locks ; that one of the present proposed systems of railways 

 should be adopted; and that the waters which found their way into the canal should 

 be made use of as the power, or in aid of the power, by which it should be determined 

 that the trains should be propelled upon the railway. 



On t/ie Causes of the great Versailles Railway Accident. By J. Gray. 



From various facts and circumstances connected with the accident of the 8th of 

 May, 1842, on the Left Bank Paris and Versailles Railway, Mr. Gray became convinced 

 that nothing but a failure in the front axle of the Matthew Murray engine could have 

 been the first cause of her right-hand front wheel first slipping within the rail; and having 

 the inquiry thus far concentrated, he proceeded with an examination of that axle, 

 and of the facts and incidents connected with its failure ; and he came to the conclu- 

 sion, that with good materials and proportions, and the axles in a state of repose as 

 received from the forge, or, in other words, perfectly free from the effects of cold 

 swaging or hammer-hardening, an axle in such a state, and of ample dimensions for 

 its intended work, will effectually resist fracture for any period the wear of the journals 

 may enable it to run ; but if the dimensions be deficient, the iron will be taxed be- 

 yond its permanent cohesive power and elasticity ; and, however slight the excess of 

 exertion and fatigue may be, a gradual and inevitable dissolution of particles must 

 result ; but beyond this he had not met with anything, either in print, in observation, 

 or in the course of experience, that would at all warrant a belief in iron necessai'ily 

 changing its quality, or becoming crystallized by forces within the range of its perma- 

 nent cohesive force anu elasticity. 



On Steam Navigation in America. By the Rev. Dr. Scoresby. 



Dr. Scoresby observed, that the extent of navigable waters in North America, in- 

 cluding the coast lines and the waters of the British possessions, might be roughly esti- 

 mated at 25,000 to 30,000 miles. He then alluded to the introduction of the steam- 

 boat by Mr. Fulton, in 1807, and the rapid progress that had been made, and directed 

 attention to the peculiarities of so '" ^he boats, the construction of the cabins on 

 deck, and the application of tlie Y /essel entirely to cargo, the working of the 



rudder at the ^"''-^partof the vgssel „> means of communicating rods, the use of a distinct 

 boiler and r y to each paddle, &c. With regard to speed, he observed that it 



was much 1 ,a that of our steam-boats, from the circumstance of the Americans 

 adopting the high-pressure principle, whereby, the weight of machinery being greatly 

 reduced, the boats could run at a very light draught of water, and because also of 

 the great length of their fast-boats in comparison of the breadth. Whilst our boats 

 were worked at a pressure of perhaps 5 lbs. to the square inch, they thought nothing 

 of 100 lbs. or 150 lbs. pressure. The most extraordinary performance of American 

 ISM. H 



