1S1.9."1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



53 



tion applied to a case where the rail and the wheel are not of per- 

 fectly hard, impenetrable substances. 



Lensnn 2. To what circumstance are we to ascribe the great 

 amount of tractive force required in dragging a wagon along a 

 soft or sandy road ? 



Answer. To the penetrability or softness of the road. 

 Demonstration. Let aaa represent a wjieel rolling along a sandy 



or penetrable soft road, into 

 which the wheel sinks from D 

 to D. In moving forward the 

 axle, f, of such a wheel, we 

 shall find, that as the wheel is, 

 as it were, in the act of mount- 

 ing an everlasting hill, whose 

 declivity is represented by a 

 tangent to the circle at the 

 point C, as great an expendi- 

 ture of force will be required 

 to move such a wheel along a 

 le\'el plain of such a degree of 

 softness or penetrability, as 

 would be required to roll the same wheel up a perfectly hard in- 

 clined plane of the declivity represented by the line /A. 



Now, let us examine in what respect the preceding demonstra- 

 tion has reference to railways in general, and the action of heavy 

 engines in particular. 



Hardness or impenetrability is a relative term. A rail which is 

 not sensibly penetrable to the action of the wheel of an empty 

 wagon, is quite penetrable to that of a monster locomotive, wliose 

 dri\'ing-wlieels are loaded with some eight tons. 



In the case of the action of the wheel of an empty wagon, the 

 contact of the tyre of the wheel with the rail is very nearly an 

 absolute point ; but load that wheel with eight tons, and we sliall 



find that we cause it to sinlv into 

 "the sandy road" condition of 

 things ; in other words, we cause 

 such a wheel and rail to mutually 

 compress or penetrate each other ; 

 and instead of the contact being a 

 point, it becomes a line, like the 

 side of a polygon, as here shown ; 

 and the force requisite to produce 

 motion will be equal to that which 

 would be required to roll such a 

 wheel and its load up a ])erfectly 

 hard incline equal in declivity to 

 the tangent of the circle of the 

 wheel, drawn from the point c, or 

 its parallel C. 



Hence the vast importance of departing as little as the nature of 

 things will permit from the absolute hard-surface-state of affairs, 

 as indicated in the first demonstration. The way to do this is so 

 to arrange our system of traffic on railways, as that no one engine 

 will ever be required with a load on any of its wheels of more than 

 four tons at the utmost. Were this carefully attended to, the 

 saving of coke expended in perpetually ascending the hill of iron 

 they create before them would be vast ; while the saving in wear 

 and tear, or more properly speaking, destruction of permanent 

 way, would pay many times over for the wages and capital ex- 

 pended in the increased number of engine-drivers, and of lighter 

 locomotives required to perform the same traffic duty, which in 

 every respect they would perform with more economy, as so much 

 of the apparent or ostensible power of the present monster engines 

 is actually absorbed in their own efforts to maintain motion, and 

 roll continuously up a self-created hill of iron. 



■If there be one subject more than another that calls for the most 

 careful and searching investigation, it is the commercial results, 

 for good or evil, which issue from the employment of lieavy en- 

 gines ; and when we have such startling facts a's that, on the' ave- 

 rage of some of our lines of best traffic, we employ upwards of 

 eighteen tons of rolling plant, in the form of engines and car- 

 riages, to convey one ton of passengers, it ought to prove to us 

 that we are on a very wrong system ; and %vhen we add to the ex- 

 travagance of so disproportionate an expenditure of means to the 

 end, the rapid and wholesale destruction of permanent way, which 

 inseparably attends the heavy-engine system, we shall do well to 

 look to that question as a most certain cause of decreased profit, 

 and in returning to the employment of light engines as more cer- 

 tain to bring back the days of good bona fide dividends, than all the 

 petty diplomacy in which the railway interest have squandered 

 their means and attention during the last three or four years. 



The system which Messrs. Adams and Samuel are bringing before 

 the public in the form of light passenger engines and carriages 

 comljined, in whicli they have so admirably united tlie minimum of 

 non-paying weight to the maximum of paying weight, contains 

 within it, so far as I am able to judge, tlie very salvation of di\ i- 

 dends, and the railway interest at large, together with the utmost 

 accommodation to tlie public. Besides the important results wliich 

 ai-e likely to attend the employment of the system of engiue just 

 alluded to, the influence they will have in converting our branch 

 lines from suckers into feeders, in the most substantial sense of 

 the term, is a subject that holds out the brightest hopes for the 

 profitable extension of the benefits of railway communication into 

 every corner of the land, and so diffusing happiness and wealtli 

 through tlie length and breadth of our beautiful country. 



Patricro/t, near Manchester, 

 Jan. 9, 184.9. 



James Nasmtth. 



RSGIST£:a OP NE^V PATENTS. 



GALVANIC BATTERIES AND MAGNETS. 



William Ebwards Staite, of Lombard-street, City, gentleman, 

 for '■^ improi^ements in the construction of ynlvanic batteries, in tlie ftrr- 

 mation of magnets, and in the application of electricity and tnaynetism 

 for the purpose of liyhting and siynaliziny ; as also a mode or modes of 

 employiny the said yalvanic batteries, or some of them, for the purpose 

 of obtaining chemical products." (Partly a communication.) — 

 Granted July 12, 1848; Enrolled January 12, 18-19. [Reported in 

 the Patent Journal.'] 



The great leading feature of this invention being the batteries, 

 they obviously form the first part of the specification; the system 

 pursued throughout being what he terms the ''perfluent" system, 

 in contradistinction to the percolating batteries — the unequal re- 

 duction of the plates by these (as well as every other kind of 

 battery) besides the constant attention required, rendering them 

 all more or less troublesome and expensive in their action. Now, 

 by the proposed system, the consumption of the metal is equalised, 

 and the exciting fluids may be regulated so as to efli'ect the neces- 

 sary change to ensure the continued action of the battery, without 

 other attention than may be periodically determined, and which 

 may be extended to a considerable time. These batteries are, in 

 their general arrangements, very similar to the ordinary acid 

 battery ; each separate cell is furnished with two openings at bot- 

 tom, at opposite ends of the cell, which communicate with short 

 longitudinal channels under the battery, which connect one cell 

 with that next it on one side, while the opening or channel at the 

 other end of the cell communicates with the adjoining cell on tlie 

 other side; and in this order the whole series are in communica- 

 tion. The under channels, leading to the end cells of the battery, 

 have a hose attached thereto, which are carried up to the level at 

 which the liquid is to stand in the battery, and terminate in two 

 funnel-heads — the one having a spout to run off the excess of the 

 liquid into a suitable receiver, while the other is being continually 

 replenished from the supply-cistern ; the height of this funnel 

 being sufficient to cause the liquid to flow through the battery, 

 passing first to the cell next that end in wliich it circulates, then 

 to the next in succession by channels before mentioned, and so on 

 through the whole series. Modifications of this battery are re- 

 presented, in which only one opening is made in the bottom of each 

 cell, and all communicating with one channel. A hose-pipe is at- 

 tached to this, the funnel-head of which is raised and lowered at 

 intervals of about 20 minutes, for the purpose of running oflF or 

 replenishing the liquid, which is thus equalised throughout the 

 whole number of cells. Instead of the cells being connected at 

 alternate ends, as first described, syphons may be employed for 

 passing the fluid from one to the other. In another arrangement 

 of the perfluent system is shown, in connection with a double or 

 porous cell battery (the inner cell being a porous jar) supported in 

 the centre of the outer cell on a pipe passing through the bottom 

 of the battery, and furnished witli washers of india-rubber, to pre- 

 vent the liquid escaping from one cell to the other ; or at the bot- 

 tom this pipe forms a communication with an under supply- 

 channel, in which the proper feed is maintained in a hose and 

 funnel-head, at the proper level ; and supposing the exciting liquid 

 to be a solution of sulphate of lead, it becomes specifically lighter 

 while it remains in the jar, and becomes a clear solution of dilute 

 sulphuric acid. This is allowed to flow over the edge of the 

 porous jar into the outer cell, or zinc compartment of the battery; 



