RAILWAY SPINE 



6474 



RAINFALL 



act ,011 the cog shafts, and come 

 into* action automatically if the 

 speed exceeds a certain limit. 

 Where electric power is available, 

 it is now preferred to steam. 



A notable rack rly. from Kleine 

 Scheidegg, in Switzerland, to the 

 Jungfrau-joch is on a gradient of 

 1 in 4, and runs for most of its 

 length in a tunnel cut through hard 

 limestone, attaining a final eleva- 

 tion of 11,139 ft The Nilghiri 

 Hills line, in 8. India, is a good 

 example of a combined rack and 

 adhesion rly. The locomotives 

 have two cylinders to drive the 

 adhesion wheels and two for tho 

 rack pinions. 



LIGHT RAILWAYS. Many coun- 

 tries have encouraged the con- 

 struction of secondary or light rail- 

 ways, to serve the needs of sparse- 

 ly inhabited agricultural areas, and 

 to act as feeders to the main trunk 

 lines. In France, for example, 

 there are the Chemina de fer d't'n- 

 leret local, and in Germany the 

 Kleinbahnen, while in Belgium the 

 Societ^ Nationale des Chemina de 

 Fer Vicinaux has, since 1885, done 

 much for the development of 

 transport in country districts. 



These light railways are often, 

 though not necessarily, of narrow 

 gauge, and efforts are made to 

 render them as cheap as possible 

 both in first cost and in operation. 

 Thus, to reduce the expense of the 

 civil engineering works, steep gra- 

 dients and sharp curves may be 

 permitted, and sometimes the 

 lines run along the public roads. 

 The permanent way may be of com- 

 paratively rough construction, the 

 rails light, the speeds limited, and 

 the signals of the simplest kind, if 

 not non-existent. The British 

 Light Railway Act of 1896 sought 

 also to save the high costs of pro- 

 moting a bill in Parliament, by 

 simplifying the procedure under 

 which such lines were authorised. 



Bibliography. Railways of Eng 

 land, W. M. Acworth, 1900 ; History 

 of Inland Transport and Communi- 

 cation in England, E. A. Pratt, 1912; 

 The Elements of Railroad Engineer- 

 ing, W. G. Raymond, 3rd ed. 1917 ; 

 The Practice of Railway Surveying 

 and Permanent Way Work, S. W. 

 Perrott and F. E. G. Badger, 1920 ; 

 Permanent Way Material, Plate- 

 laying, and Points and Crossings, 

 G. R. Hearn, 8th ed. 1920; Per- 

 manent Way Material, W. H. Cole, 

 1920; Earthwork in Railway En- 

 gineering, J. W. P. Gardner, 1921 ; 

 Electric Traction on Railways, P. 

 Dawson, 1909; Electric Traction, 

 A. T. Dover, 1919; The Railway 

 Gazette (weekly) ; The Railway 

 Engineer (monthly). 



Railway Spine. Nervous die- 

 order or neurosis which may follow 

 any physical shock. It has been 

 observed most frequently in rail- 



way accidents, as in these the in- 

 dividual rarely gets any warning 

 of the approaching shock. Sleep- 

 lessness, mental distress, pain in 

 the back, paralysis of various 

 limbs, and loss of control of the 

 bladder may follow. The outlook 

 for recovery is good, as the con- 

 dition is hysterical in character. 



Raimondi, MARC ANTONIO (6. 

 1475-1534). Italian engraver, also 

 called Marcantonio. Born at 

 Bologna, he 

 studied under 

 F r a n c i a and 

 later under 

 Raphael at 

 Rome. While 

 in Venice, 

 1508-10, he 

 copied on cop- 

 per many of 

 Marc Raimondi, Durer's wood- 

 Italian engraver cuts> which he 

 After Raphael signed with the 

 latter's mark ; Durer, however, 

 obtained a prohibition against the 

 continuance of this practice. Marc- 

 antonio's most famous plate is the 

 engraving after Michael Angelo's 

 The Climbers ; he also engraved 

 after Raphael, Giulio Romano, and 

 Baccio Bandinelli. After the sack 

 of Rome in 1527 he fled to Bologna, 

 where it is presumed that he died. 

 Rain. Condensed water vapour 

 of the atmosphere falling in drops. 

 If a mass of air containing water 

 vapour is cooled, some of the 

 vapour may condense into tiny 

 drops of moisture so light that the 

 air can support them. In this 

 manner fog, clouds, and mists are 

 formed. If condensation proceeds 

 further, the tiny drops amalgamate 

 and form larger drops, which are 

 too heavy to be held in suspension, 



and a fall of rain ensues. See 

 Humidity; Precipitation; Rainfall; 

 Weather. 



Rainbow. Name given to the 

 phenomenon caused by the inter- 

 nal reflection and refraction of 

 rays of light in the spherical 

 globules of rain drops. A rainbow 

 is always seen in the part of the 

 sky away from the sun, its height 

 varying inversely as that of the 

 sun, i.e. the higher the position of 

 the sun, the lower the rainbow. The 

 colours of the rainbow are those of 

 the spectrum in the same order, 

 red being outside. Occasionally a 

 second concentric and fainter bow 

 is observed with the colours in the 

 reverse order. The intensity of the 

 colours of a rain bow depends largely 

 on the size of the rain drops. On 

 mountain tops, or from an aero- 

 plane, completely circular rainbows 

 may be seen under favourable 

 conditions. Rainbows at night are 

 usually precursors of fine weather 

 the following day, and in the morn- 

 ing of wet weather during the day. 

 See Clouds ; Light ; Spectroscopy. 



Rainfall. General term used to 

 signify the aqueous precipitation 

 from the atmosphere, whether in 

 the form of rain, hail, or snow. The 

 study of rainfall is concerned with 

 the reasons why precipitation 

 occurs in particular areas, with 

 the quantity which falls annually, 

 and with the distribution from 

 month to month, or from season to 

 season. From the point of view of 

 the observers, scattered throughout 

 the world in many thousands, who 

 measure rainfall daily, the subject 

 is a branch of meteorology ; from 

 that of the scientist it pertains to 

 climatology ; while in relation to 

 the control over human activities 



Rainbow. 



Landscape painting by John Constable, showing Salisbury Cathedral 

 in the arc of a rainbow 



