308 



THE CIVIL EXGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



LOCTOBEB, 



be operated on at once. The principal feature consists in the 

 reduction of the native sulphuret of zinc (blende), and of the 

 carbonates, oxides, and silicates of zinc, and sulphurets and oxides 

 of lead, by the action of the reducing g-'ses of a blast-furnace, by 

 which tlie scoria, or slag-, is fused, and the zinc volatilised ; the 

 vapours are then condensed, and conducted into a reservoir, 

 situated over the mouth of the furnace, and heated by the gases 

 therefrom. The furnace having been heated to the required tem- 

 perature by the combustion of fuel alone, a charge of any kind 

 of the above zinc ores, mixed with a suitable flux, is introduced 

 into the charging aperture, and, by means of a cover above, and a 

 sliding i)late below, none of the gases are allowed to escape. The 

 cliarge thus falls upon a layer of incandescent fuel ; a layer of 

 fuel is then poured upon the ore ; then another charge of ore, 

 until the furnace is full, and it is to be replenished as the charge 

 sinks below a certain depth. The zinc is thus volatilised by the 

 heat, and the scoria falls into the lower part of the furnace ; 

 the gases and volatilised zinc pass through proper openings 

 through a hydraulic main, and there deposit any zinc carried 

 with them. 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



Reports read at the Meeting held at Swansea, August, 1848. 

 Railway Statistics. 

 " Facts bearing on the Progress of the Railway System." By Mr. W. 

 Harding. 



The modern railway system of Europe may be said to date from 1830, 

 when the construction, by Mr. G. Stephenson, of the Liverpool and Man- 

 chester Railway, with its locomotive engines, was completed. After that 

 date we heard no more of such prophecies as the following (from the Quar- 

 terly Review, in 1825), which it is not useless to record as a lesson of caution 

 to us fur the future : — " As to those persons who speculate on making rail- 

 ways generally throughout the kingdom, and superseding all the canals, all 

 the wagons, mails, and stage-coaches, post-chaises, and, in short, every other 

 mode of conveyance by land and hy water, we deem them and their visionary 

 schemes unworthy of notice. What, for instance, can be more palpably 

 absurd and ridiculous than the following paragraph," — in which a prospect 

 is held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stage-coaches. " We 

 should as soon," adds the reviewer, *' expect the people of Woolwich to suffer 

 themselves to be fired oti" upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, as trust 

 themselves to the mercy of such a machine, going at such a rate." The 

 modern railway system has, however, not only done this, but it has given 

 rise to new habits in the present generation, and has proved to be the great 

 mechanical invention of the nineteenth century, as the steam-engine was of 

 the eighteenth. As it is still in its infancy, it is especially the province of 

 statistical inquiry to watch its growth, so that on the one hand timely 

 remedies may be applied to its defects, and on the other free scope may be 

 given to its beneficial tendencies. Valuable papers have been contributed by 

 Messrs. Laing, Porter, Graham, and others, analysing the traffic on railways 

 during the infancy of the system to the year 1843. Shortly before that 

 period there had been a pause in railways. During two years, only five miles 

 had been sanctioned, but the period which has since elapsed comprises the 

 roeMorable mania years of 1845 and 1846. Under this excitement intelli- 

 gence and emulation have been stimulated among the managers of railways 

 to the utmost, and the system has rapidly advanced. The consolidation of 

 lines under a few great companies, by the process styled amalgamation, has 

 proceeded ; — the atmospheric, an entirely new system of traction, has been 

 brought forward ; — the electric telegraph, conveying intelligence at the rate 

 of 280,000 miles a second, has been widely introduced ; — express trains, 

 travelling at nearly the highest attainable speeds, have been established, — 

 and the length of railways in operation has been doubled. It therefore 

 becomes a matter of interest to inquire to what the results of so active a 

 period point. Have low fares answered ? — Has the third-class traffic, the 

 most important to the bulk of the people, been encouraged, and has it been 

 found wise, not only for the users but for the owners of railways, to encour- 

 age it or the reverse ? — Has the increase of speed been successful, and are 

 we likely to travel faster or slower hereafter ? — How have the receipts kept 

 up while the length of railway has been doubled .' — Did the first 2,000 miles 

 get the cream of the traffic, as has often been thought, and has the average 

 receipt per mile consequently fallen oB ? — Should the experience of the past, 

 in short, give us confidence in urging on the system at the extraordinary rate 

 at which we are now doing it, or not.' In the following investigation and 

 collection of facts it has been attempted to throw some light upon these 

 points ; — the recent pubhcation of the official railway returns for 1846 and 

 1847 affording peculiar faculties for the purpose. The following paper refers 

 to English, Scotch, and Welsh lines only, — the Irish lines are excluded, the 

 economical condition of Ireland being different from that of this country, 

 and there being but few railways open in that country : — 

 Comparative Lengths of Railway open in 1843 Hf 1847 and Receipts thereon. 

 The lengths of English, Scotch, and Welsh railways open June 1843 were 1,990 



Ditto, open at the commencement of 1H4H ,. .. '■i,b\i7 



The gross receipts returned for the year ld42 were .. .. ^4,740,000 



Ditto, for the year ending June W, 11*47 .. .. b,3(i6,772 



After making the necessary corrections in the above figures, the average 

 receipts per inde of railways' in 1842 were 2,489/.; in 1847, 2,596/. We 

 therefore arrive at the important fact that, although the mileage of our linea 

 has been doubled, the receipts have been more than doubled. This must be 

 regarded as a favourable general feature in the state of railways. There was 

 much reason to fear that, as the first railways ran between the great towns 

 or traversed the manufacturing districts, the railways which were nest 

 opened would show a great falling ott' in receipts. Hitherto, then, we find 

 that this is not so, — a fact which may give us confidence as regards the great 

 length of railway which has been sanctioned hy parliament but which is not 

 yet open. 



Lines sanctioned but not open. — The length of railway sanctioned hy par- 

 liament at the commencement of 1848, but not then open, was 7,150 miles. 

 A considerable portion of this is in progress, more or less rapid. On the 1st 

 of May 1847, 5,209 miles were returned as in progress, on which 218,792 

 persons were employed, or 42 per mile.* These new radways are principally 

 designed for the accommodation of the agricultural parts of the country. 

 We wdl presently refer to the prospects of railways in such districts. When 

 the railways now in contemplation are completed, and it is probable that the 

 greater portion will be so in the course of the next five years, we shall have 

 upwards of 10,000 miles of railway open, — on which, judging from the num- 

 bers employed on lines now open, (viz., 14 per mile), 140,000 persons wdl 

 be permanently employed, at good wages, — representing, at five to a family, 

 three quarters of a million of the gross population. The importance of this 

 addition to our internal communications will he appreciated when it is 

 remembered that there are only about 4,000 miles of inland navigation and 

 30,000 miles of turnpike road open for traffic in the country. 



Analysis of Traffic. — General Features. — The gross traffic for the year 

 ending June 30, 1847, was, as we have seen, 8,366,000/. There were con- 

 veyed during that year, from the returns of the Board of Trade,t in round 

 numbers, 7,000,000 tons of merchandise and goods, 8,000,000 tons of coal, 

 500,000 horned cattle, 1,500,000 sheep, and 100,000 horses. 



Of the gross sum, 8..iG6,000/., the passenger receipts were .. ^5,024,000 



The receipts from all other sources— goods, cattle, carriages, parcels, 



mails, &c. .. .. .. .. 3,342,0110 



Total .. £»,366,000 

 In every 100/. of receipts, the passenger traffic therefore forms 60 per cent., 

 the traffic receipt from other sources 40. In 1842 these proportions were 

 as 64 to 36. The proportions of traffic receipts from other sources than 

 passengers (being principally goods and cattle traffic) have thus increased 

 since 1842 as 40 to 36, or 11 per cent. The total numlier of passengers 

 carried in the year (ending June 30) 1847 was 47,484,134, as compared with, 

 in 1842, 22,403,478. The average distance travelled by each passenger was, 

 in 1842, 13 miles j in 1847 it was IG miles. The numbers and proportions 

 of classes were 



In 1847. In 1842. 

 First-class .. .. ..14 2 20-2 



SecoDd-ciasa .. .. .. 3»-3 46-4 



Third-class .. .. .. 47'5 34'4 



Thus, the third-class passengers (which have increased in number since 1842, 

 from 6,000,000 annually to 21,000,000,; now form nearly half of the whole 

 number travelling, whereas in 1842 they formed only about one-third. Only 

 one-third of the third-class passengers have availed themselves of the parha- 

 mentary trains, arbitrarily (and, as it appears to me, unfairly) imposed upon 

 railway companies in 1844. The following table, comparing the fares of the 

 metropolitan railways in the year ending June 1843, with those in the year 

 ending June 1847, shows the great reduction which has taken place in lares 

 during the last four years. To make the comparison more appreciable, the 

 fares are taken as for 100 miles in pence. 



This reduction in fares, coupled with the increase in the number of trains, 



and the speed of travelling, must be regarded as the principal cause ol the 

 great increase of the number of passengers since 18-13. 



We have already seen that the numbers in 1847 and 1843 are as 47,484,134 

 to 22,403,4;8. If we take into account ilie number of miles opened at those 

 dates respectively, the annual number per mile was, in 1842, 11,772, and in 

 1847, 14,806. 



* In this return the nnmberof miles returned as in progress are more than those really 

 in construction, the number ol men employed per mile is less than the truth. 



t These reiurns are not complwte, and they require some corrKCtion, in respect of the 

 same uriicles being soraBtimes conveyed over several diffeient lines, and lh«relure counted 

 uver more than once. 



