30 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



! [January 



allowed ; by this arraiigfment the rack, if meeting wilh any resistance sud- 

 denly m any of tlie pinions in passing them, (tlie momentum of the carnage 

 urging it on), would cause the rack to be pushed up these slots, and thereby 

 getting above the pinions, Cif made sufliciently efl'ective for this purpose) and 

 so enabling it to pass the obstruction without concussion to any part of the 

 apparatus outside the tube. 



The operation of this invention, or manuer of its working, is as follows. 

 A pipe or lube, as before described, of sufficient diameter, being laid along in 

 a hollow between the rails of a railway, and being exhausted of air by suit- 

 able means, as arc well known, and hiving the pinions arranged as described 

 at intervals throughout its length ; the piston «ilh its rack attached is placed 

 in this tube in the manner before explained at the farther end from where 

 the air has been, or is being exhausted or withdrawn, the piston rack being 

 in gear with the pinions i/iside the tube ; a railway carriage, having a carriage 

 rack attached to it, as described, being placed upon the rails, as shown in fig. 

 10, this carriage rack being also in gear correspondingly with the upper part 

 of' the same pinions, that is to say, the relative position of each rack being 

 the same, the piston rack being precisely under, and matching end to end 

 with the carriage rack, (unless, as in the latter plan, the piston rack being 

 longer than the other is a little in advance of it), the one rack cannot then 

 move backwards or forwards without turning the pinions, and these being 

 also in gear with the other rack, that must move also, and in the same direc- 

 tion. Therefore, if the vacuum has such an effect upon the piston that it 

 advances, then will the rack upon the carriage be aflectcd in the same way 

 by and through the medium of the pinions, and will advance also and keep 

 its relative situation e.'jactly with the other, the racks being long enough to 

 reach as described at least two pairs of pinions at one time, the next in ad- 

 vance is acted upon before the one acting has ceased, and therefore as long 

 as the power applied continues, and the piston advances, the carriage will do 

 the'same to the end of the tube, neither arriving before or after the other, 

 but together, as they cannot sepnrale, nor can one move vr slop without the 

 other. 



As it is necessary and important that the atmosphere sliould be admitted 

 as nearly behind the piston as possible, the pinions arc lifted up by the ad- 

 vance of thi- piston rack or the cariiage rack, and the air will enter through 

 the space alloweil by the lifting of the conical or Mat portion of the arbor or 

 axis of the pinion, as described ; thus would there always be at least two or 

 more such passages open, as the rack acts upon the one before it leaves the 

 other. After the rack has passed by, the pinions by their own weight fall 

 into their places, and thus make an air-tigbt tube ready for the next exhaus- 

 tion, when, if an air pump be set to work at ihc other end, and the direction 

 of the pislon and rack changed, and placed again as before into proper gear, 

 the carriage would return in like manner. 



Fig. 10 represents a perspective view of a portion of an atmospheric rail- 

 way of this description, crossed, on a leoel, by a roadway, and another line of 

 atmospheric railway, by which it will be seen that there is plenty of space 

 between the pairs of pinions for the crossing, and that the mains being sunk 

 beneath the surface of the ground, or under the sleepers of the rails, they 

 are entirely out of tlie way, the carriage rack passing on from one pinion to 

 another over such roads, without interfering— showing .also, that where it 

 may happen that two tubes arc re(juired to cross each other, one will pass 

 beneath the other, the upper one keeping its level course, the lower one 

 taking a gradual descent or dip under it, Ihc pinions keeping their necessary 

 level at the upper part by being lengthened, at such a locality, in the axes 

 and supports, as shown at a. The first or -[rack carriage," of a train, is 

 shown advancing upon this cross line as it would appear just previously to 

 its taking the pinionsatn. 



As there will not be on this plan, even in a single Hue of rails, any discon- 

 tinuance of the main tube but at a place arranged for trains to meet ^and 

 cross, which will always be at & station, (and for general purposes not less 

 than twenty miles apart) it will be only at such places that the main will re- 

 quire any kind of valve to close its open end. The end of the main would 

 simply re(|uirc a disc of iron or wood placed against the open end, with a 

 little composition to make an air-tight joint when the vacuum is to be made 

 by the air pump, the disc or valve h ill fall or be pushed aside when the pis- 

 ton arrives at tlie end, and will require no more attention, excepting being 

 replaced, or closed by the time this engine is again required to work. 



The pislon would, when it arrives here, cither partially or wholly leave the 

 tube, alter displacing the disc or door by its remaining mumenlum, and the 

 train with the " carriage rack" will pass on, and take one of the sidings and 

 be stopped by the attendants by breaks as usual ; but the operations of the 

 stopping would have been begun before arriving here, the train now only 

 moving slowly and with sufficient momentum to carry it to th place re- 

 quired, or middle of the siding. When the piston and rack reach the end of 

 the main, and are out or withdrawn, it is proposed that there shall be placed 

 at each of the tw o ends of the mains, a receptacle or trough mounted upon 

 four wheels or rollers, so that the piston coming on to it, could be imme- 

 diately removed for inspection, &c., and another pislon newly greased, &c„ 

 brought and placed with its head in the tube ready for the next leturning 



train. The trains having both arrived, each train would be urged on to the 

 commencement of the opposite " main," where the fresh pistons having been 

 already inserted, ami the vacuum formed, the carriage rack coming into gear 

 with the first pair of pinions, and the piston released, the train would start 

 on its journey. Thus the pistons would never leave the main, or enter another 

 but at a very slow pace, and at a place for stopping; and also that the same , 

 piston is not required to go on the whole journey, but a fresh one every 

 twenty miles, leaving the other to be examined. 



M'hen this mithod of propulsion is used upon common roads, the tube 

 will l)c sunk or buried along the side or centre of the road, and its operation 

 would be as betore described, there merely being the absence of the rails. 



When used as a means of propulsion upon rivers or canals, the tube may 

 be smaller, and laid either at the edge of lb* water, or upon piles or posts 

 along Its centre, the " rack " being affixed to the bows or side of the vessel to 

 be propelled, to which may be attached any others that are intended to be 

 drawh with it, thus making as it were a train of vessels : the general opera- 

 tion in other respects would be the fame as described for carriages upon 

 railways. 



RAILWAY AXLES. 



Edward Hill, of Harts Hill, Dudley, in the county of Worcester, iron- 

 master, for "Improvements in the mmuij'aclure of railway and other axles, shafts, 

 and 6orj."-Granted May 14 ; Enrolled Nov. H, ISii— Reported in the Lon- 

 don JmtrnaL 



The improvements consist in forming the central parts of such articles of 

 bars, which exhibit in their tranverse section the figure of a cross, as shown 

 in the annexed engraving, at fig. 1. The spaces a, «, are to be filled wilh 



other bars 6, i, fig. 2, if the shaft is to be cylindrical, or wilh the barsc, c. 

 fig. 3. if the shaft is to be square, and the whole is then welded together. 

 By using filling-pieces of various shapes, shafts of any desired form may be 

 produced ; and instead of ouly one filling-piece, two or more filling-pieces 

 (of .smaller dimensions) may be inserted into each space a. Instead of fiUing- 

 pieccs of iron, steel may be used, in combination with iron, either in forming 

 the centre bar or filling-pieces. It is not necessary that the bars b,r, should 

 fill lire spaces a, as they may be formed suitably for leaving the parts near 

 the centre hollow. In some cases, the shaft or axle may consist of the centre 

 bar alone, Ihe spaces a, being only filled in at those parts where the axle turns 

 in bearings ; or the centre bar may be made strung enough to admit of those 

 parts being turned which are to work in bearings, without any filllDg-pieces 

 being required. The palenlce does not claim the rolling of bars of angle iron, 

 each offering in its transverse section the form of a cross, that having been 

 done before, for other purposes. But he claims the mode of manufacturing 

 railway and other axles, shafts, and bars, by applying, as the central part 

 thereof, bars, each offering the figure of a cross in its transverse section, as 

 above described. 



ENGINE AND MACUINERT FOR DRAINING 



John Tavlor, of Duke Street, Adelphi, in the county of Middlesex, gentle- 

 man, for " certain new nurlianical combinations bi/ means of ivhich economy oj 

 power and of fuel are obtained in the use of the steam engine,'' — Granted May 

 26; Enrolled Nov. 2, 1844. (Being a communication.) 



These new mechanical combinations consist in the application of a double 

 acting steam engine, in combination with two or more " stoops," to the pur- 

 pose of draining or irrigating lands, or lor raising water for other purposes 

 from one elevation to another. The principal features in this invention cou- 

 Bist in the peculiar arrangement of the various parts of the machinery or ap- 

 paratus employed, viz- the beam of the steam engine is made of a triangular 

 form, the base of the triangle forming the beam, and at the top or apex of 

 the triangle there is a heavy counterbalance weight, which is situate above 

 and in centre of the beam and may be termed an inverted pendulum, the ob- 

 ject of this weight is said to be to counteract the inertia of the moving parts 

 of the engine and the other parts of Ihe machinery at the commencement of 

 the stroke, the engine in this case being worked with steam of very great 

 pressure, which is to be cut olf at an early part of the stroke and afterwards 

 worked expansively , the beam of this engine is provided with a connecting 

 rod as in those of ordinary construction; the lower end of which is attached 

 to the end of another beam similar to thatlaboyedescribed, and having an in- 



