ENGINEERING. 



309 



tank is of wrought-iron. The plates at the 

 lowest coarse are i inch thick, and are laid 

 double, so as to give If inch thickness of 

 metal. The plates are arranged to break 

 joints. Where two plates abut, a strap of 

 iron with six rows of rivets is carried over 

 the joint. For each of these butt joints 

 there is one strap, either inside or outside 

 the tank, according to the locality of the 

 joint. As the sides rise they diminish in 

 thickness. The tank is 192 feet in diam- 

 eter and 42 feet 9 inches deep. A box 

 girder is carried round the top of the 

 tank, and upon this rest the 24 stand- 

 ards that serve as guides for the holders. 

 These are made of channel bars, and are 

 tied together with lattice girders in sev- 

 eral courses. The holder is in three 

 sections, each about 41 feet high, and 

 the general construction is similar to 

 that ordinarily followed in similar work. 

 The frame-work rises about 150 feet 

 above the street-level, and the capacity 

 of the holder is 3,250,000 cubic feet. 

 The inlet and outlet pipes are 30 

 inches in diameter. 



The Transtaspian Railway. To 

 American engineers the length of 

 time consumed in constructing this 

 line of railway seems excessive in 

 view of recent achievements on 

 the Western Continent, but the 

 East moves more slowly than 

 the \Vest, and very probably the 

 obstacles to more rapid con- 

 struction were insurmount- 

 able. At all events, it has 

 taken about seven and a half 

 years to complete the 

 900 miles destined 

 primarily to facili- 

 tate Russian mili- 

 tary commun'cation 

 with the Central 

 Asian provinces, and, 

 secondarily, to open 

 up those regions to 

 commerce. The 

 construction has 

 been almost 

 wholly under 

 the super- 

 vision of 

 General 



laid in three years, some of the secrets of 

 rapid track-laying having been learned in 

 the mean time. When the line is in com- 

 plete working order, the estimated sched- 

 ule time is ten days from St. Petersburg 

 to Samarcand. Through passengers to 

 Central Asia will travel by rail as far 

 as the foot of the Caucasus mountains, 

 thence cross the range by carriage road, 

 over 150 miles, thence by rail to Baku 

 on the western shore of the Caspian 

 Sea. Ouzoun Ada, the western ter- 

 minus of the Transcaspian Railway, is 

 reached by steamer, and thence the 

 line runs direct to Samarcand. The 

 engineering difficulties were compara- 

 tively trifling. Three rivers had to 

 be bridged, namely, the Tejend. the 

 Murghab, and the Oxus or Amoo 

 Darya. The bridge across the last 

 named stream is of considerable size. 

 Some difficulty was experienced 

 with the shifting sands of the des- 

 ert, but a preventive and restrict- 

 ive agent was found in the shrub 

 ' saxaul," which flourishes with 

 nothing better than sand to grow 

 upon, and eventually forms an 

 effectual barrier. Certain parts 

 of the route, it was found, were 

 liable to sudden floods, but a 

 system of conduits was con- 

 structed, which proved effect- 

 ual. For the rest, the way 

 was for the most part a dead 

 level, and called for none 

 of the ingenuity wherein 

 engineers delight. 

 The line has been con- 

 structed at a very 

 low cost, owing 

 to the cheapness 

 of native labor 

 about $14,000 a 

 mile. General 

 Annenkoff had 

 special two- 

 storied living- 

 car construct- 

 ed, containing 

 all the equip- 

 ment nec- 

 essary to 

 corufort- 



Fio. 11. TRE EIFFEL TOWER. 



Annenkoff. The line passes through some able existence, and in this he and his staff 



of the most inhospitable desert regions of the kept constantly near the track-layers. It is 



earth. The progress of the work was com- not probable that the line will prove attractive 



paratively slow at tirst, and the major part of to tourists, since the scenery is monotonous in 



the line "eastward from Kizil Arvat has been the extreme, and the romance of Eastern travel 



