722 



WIRE TRAMWAYS. 



system known as the wire tramway is an at- 

 tempt to convey goods over natural obstacles 

 at so moderate an expense as to render it pos- 

 sible to profitably work collieries, mines, quar- 

 ries, etc., situated in wild or mountainous 

 places. The invention is already in actual 

 practical operation, a line of three miles being 

 successfully worked in Leicestershire at this 

 time. It runs from some granite quarries 

 the property of Messrs. Ellis & Everard at 

 Markfield to Bardon, a station on a branch of 

 the Midland Railway. The line is conveying 

 stone from the quarries to a powerful crushing- 

 machine at Bardon, to be broken for road- 

 metal. The line has been constructed to carry 

 100 tons a day, but has never as yet been 

 worked to its full powers. It is actuated by a 

 double-cylinder portable engine of sixteen- 

 horse power, but which, like the tramway, is 

 not nearly fully worked. To suspend a weight 

 from a rope supported by a post at either end 

 would seem simple enough ; to move the rope 

 with such load would likewise appear easy to 

 accomplish ; but to cause the load to pass the 

 post is another matter, but yet one that a little 

 reflection will show can be managed without 

 difiiculty. The rope passes twice over the 

 ground in one of the modes of arrangement, 

 being, in fact, an endless belt passing at one 

 end of the line round a Fowler's clip-drum, 

 and at the other round a large pulley, or wheel, 

 with a deep groove in the rim. The rope be.- 

 tween the termini is supported on posts of any 

 reasonable height, resting at these points on 

 small wheels grooved in the rims, to prevent 

 the rope slipping from them. On motion being 

 communicated to the clip-drum, the rope moves 

 also at the same speed as the periphery of the 

 drum, of course. Any weight hung on the rope 

 will move with it, and supposing the weight to 

 be able to clear the posts it will move from 

 end to end of the line, and, were it not for the 

 drums at the ends, would move continuously ; 

 indeed, by proper arrangement and formation 

 of the hooks, they woald pass round these, and 

 then the load would move continuously if re- 

 quired. The posts which support the rope are 

 placed midway between the up and the down 

 line of rope, and have at their upper ex- 

 tremities cross-bars, at whose ends the grooved 

 wheels are placed at such distance from the 

 upright as to bring them in a line with the 

 rope ; these wheels act as friction-rollers, and 

 rotate as the rope moves. 



The rolling-stock consists of a number of 

 boxes, each of which is provided with two 

 iron hooks, lined, where they rest on the rope, 

 with wood ; the shape of these hooks is the 

 method whereby the boxes pass the posts. At 

 the place where they hang on the rope they 

 are simply hooks ; a little below the rope, how- 

 ever, they spring back with a curve, similar to 

 that of the bar which suspends the flat pan or 

 plate used for weighing butter, etc., by cheese- 

 mongers. This curve leads the hook, or hanger, 

 clear of the wheel supporting the rope, and, 



when quite below, it bends in horizontally, 

 and supports the box which thus hangs below 

 the wheel, its centre of gravity coinciding with 

 the centre of the rope. When the rope moves 

 the box moves, and the depth of the groove in 

 the supporting wheel being but little in excess 

 of the diameter of the rope, and the wood 

 liners of the hooks being suitably curved, they 

 pass gently up on the edge of the wheel and 

 down the other side to the rope again, without 

 perceptible jerk of any kind. So long as the 

 supports and rope are of sufficient strength to 

 sustain the load and the hauling power ade- 

 quate, any given load may be transported from 

 place to place without difficulty. The boxes 

 will hang true, irrespective of the shape of the 

 hangers connecting them with the rope, so long 

 as the centre of gravity is kept in a proper line. 

 The plan for curves is a series of wheels set with 

 their axes at an angle both with the horizon 

 and also with each other, so that they would, 

 if produced, meet in one common point, whose 

 distance from the wheels would be propor- 

 tionate to the rapidity of the curve. The 

 number of wheels varies with the amount of 

 alteration of the direction of the rope that is 

 found necessary. The arrangement at the un- 

 loading end of the Bardon line is simply a light 

 angle-iron, curved round the same centre as 

 that of the clip-drum, save that it is farther 

 away from the latter, in the opposite direction 

 to the line of rope. This angle runs parallel 

 with the rope for two or three feet, and at the 

 incoming side curves gently up higher for a 

 short distance, and then inclines all round to 

 its other extremity, which is a little below the 

 rope-level. The hangers of the boxes are each 

 fitted with a little grooved trunnion, and, as 

 each box comes to the angle-iron, these trun- 

 nions pass on to it, and the impetus of the box 

 causes it to run the trunnions up the angle- 

 iron, thereby lifting the hooks from the rope, 

 and it then has the falling incline, down which 

 it runs to an attendant, who upsets the box 

 over a railway truck standing beneath, and 

 when empty allows it to pursue its course 

 along the angle-iron till it rolls gently on to 

 the rope, to pursue its way back to the quarry 

 at Markfield, where a somewhat similar ar- 

 rangement is provided, the boxes being there 

 shunted by hand to be loaded. 



The general dimensions of the details of the 

 Bardon line are as follow : The posts are from 

 10 ft. to 12 ft. high; the carrying-wheels are 

 15 inches diameter on the bottom of the 

 groove ; the posts are about 150 ft. apart, with 

 one exception, where it was found necessary 

 to place them 600 ft. apart ; the two supports 

 here are about 12 ft. in height. The clip-drum 

 is 4 ft. 6 inches diameter ; the distance be- 

 tween the up and the down line being also 4 

 ft. 6 inches. The rope is a wire one, If inches 

 in circumference. The speed of the boxes is 

 about four miles an hour, though this may be 

 considerably exceeded. The boxes carry about 

 1 cwt. of stone, when loaded. 



