72 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



KOLLM ANN'S RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS. 

 (Wilh an Engraving, Plate VI.) 

 Sir, — TIr' great importance which belongs to all subjects connected 

 with improvements in the construction or working of railways, induces 

 me to hope that the accompanying sketches and description of Mr. 

 Kollmann's railway improvements miiy prove acceptable to your 

 readers, at this time especially, as I do not remember to have seen any 

 notice of the subject in the pages of your useful publication. 



Whether or not the acknowledged defects in our present railway 

 system will be so completely remedied by the adoption of Mr. Koll- 

 mann's inventions as he anticipates, is a question which perhaps actual 

 experience will soon furnish the most satisfactory solution of — a bighlv 

 respectable and in6uential company having been formed, and a suffi- 

 cient capital raised for that purpose, and negociations entered into for 

 carrying out the system on a new line of railway of cousiderable im- 

 portance. 



The defects in the present system which Mr. Kollmann proposes to 

 remedy are — 1st. The inconvenience of having the line of centres 

 through the wheel axles rigidly maintained at right angles to the 

 engine or carriage framing. 2ijd. The necessity of coupling the 

 wheels so as to preclude tlieir running independently of each other 

 round curves. 3rd. The necessity uf using flanges to the wheels, pre- 

 cluding the use of cheaper materials for the rails if desirable. 4th. 

 The defective action of the coned wheels at present universally used. 

 5th. The want of the means of ascending steep inclines without the 

 use of assistant engines. Gth. The great danger of running off the 

 rails (from the causes named), at high speeds, and the difficulty of 

 bringing the centre of gravity low down. All these defects Mr. Koll- 

 mann conceives he has obviated in the plans, to describe which is the 

 object of the jiresent paper. 



1st and 2nd Defects. — It will be sufficiently obvious that when the 

 axles of the wheels are rigidly maintained at right angles to the car- 

 riage framing, that in passing round curves a sliding motion of the 

 wheels must be engendered, owing to the greater distance which the 

 outer wheels must travel as compare 1 'vith the inner wheels, resulting 

 in a loss of power (from tlie consequent friction), and causing injury 

 to the rails, wheels and machinery, and making additional strength 

 necessary ; and as this inconvenience .vill be the greater the sharper 

 the curve, great difficulty is often experienced in laying out a line of 

 railway, from the difficulty of avoiding particular localities. In Mr. 

 Kollmann's engine the wheels all run on separate axles, and each pair 

 of wheels is retained in a frame, {Ste Engraving, figs. 1 and 2, a a,) 

 working on the two pivots, //, or turnplates as a centre, these two 

 pivots are connected to the corresponding ones on the other frame 

 axle by the upper and lower perches G g. To the lower part of the 

 frame axles are attached, the bearing frames of the horizontal guide 

 wheels b b b b, which wheels, as the drawing sliews, work against a 

 middle guide rail, thus controlling the action of the beiiring wheels 

 and compelling their axles to work in a line radial to the centre of the 

 curve ; this arrangement also removes the 3rd Defect, admitting of the 

 use of flat peripheries to the wheels, which may obviously be run on 

 any material having a suitable surface, such as wood or stone. 



•1th Defect. — It cau be easily shewn that the use of coned wheels 

 occasions great loss uf power, wear and tear of machinery, and danger 

 at high speeds. If coned wlieels be used, the rails must be inclined 

 to give them an equal bearing, or the wheels will only have a bearing 

 at one point, which very soon destroys both wheels and rails; nearly 

 all engineers therefore now incline their rails, by which this inconve- 

 nience is produced, that as all the parts of the cone bearing on 

 the rails revolve at different velocities, only one point can have a 

 true rolling motion, all the rest must therefore have a constant rubbing 

 action, and occasion loss of power and uneasy motion, as is shewn by 

 Lecount, Treatise on Railways, Ency. Britt., who after demonstrating 

 the extent of loss of power from this cause, states that the more per- 

 fectly the principle is carried out the [nore friction will be caused ; 

 another fertile cause of wear to the machinery and uneasy motion is 

 the unavoidable variation in the levels of the opposite rails, occurring 

 from various causes, which destroys the equilibrium of the cones, and 

 causes a continued rolling motion from side to side, increasing with 

 the speed, and causing considerable friction. This is entirely obviated 

 by the use of horizontal guide wheels and flat bearing wheels, and 

 allov;ing them but little play. 



5th Defect. — By the use of the small driving wheel e, keyed to the 

 shaft of the driving wheel (f, and an additional side rail on inclines, 

 shewn by the dotted lines, fig. 2, the engine is enabled to ascend 

 steeper gradients, and yet to preserve its power of rapid motion along 

 levels and lesser gradients. 



Gth Defect. — It will be evident that by the peculiar arrangement of 

 the frame axles that the engines and carriages may be brought much 



lower down than on the present system, thereby diminishing the 

 chances of being thrown off the rails. 



Mr. Kollmann estimates that by the adoption of his system the 

 expenses of forming and maintaining a railway will be reduced at 

 least one half. 



Observer. 



ARCHITECTURAL GLOSSARIES. 



Sir, — I have lately seen the Glossary in Gwilt's Encyclopaedia, re- 

 commended tditonalhj as the best of the kind, an opinion to which I 

 strongly demur, since it appears to me to be very defective, and other- 

 wise not a little unsatisfactory. In proof of its defectiveness I may be 

 allowed to point out some of the terms which are omitted, although 

 they require explanation f.ir more than many which are introduced, 

 and if some of them are not in very frequent use, they are far more 

 likely to occur than a great many which are given by Mr. Gwilt, but 

 which are never used by English writers at all. Among the terms 

 omitted by hira are: — Antefixse ; Astylar; Bed-mouldings; Bird's- 

 beak moulding; Bird's-eye Maple (the names of other woods, Deal, 

 Mahogany, Oak, c&c., being given); Boudoir; Columniation ; Com- 

 pass-window; Dia\iering; Diocletian window; Fan-tracery; Flam- 

 boyant; Flange; Foliation, foliated; Half-timbered; Hood-mouldings; 

 Intonaco ; Loggia; Lombardic; Lucarne ; Pargetting; Polychromy ; 

 Raffle; Renaissance; Riser; Rosewood; String-course; Superco- 

 himniation; Terminus (of a Railway); Three-quarter (columns); 

 Tholobate; Velum; Veranda; Water-leaves; Walnut-tree wood; 

 Weather-mouldings. 



Now the very first term in this list accuses Mr. Gwilt of strange 

 negligence in passing it over, it being of very frequent occurrence, 

 and just the kind of word for which a glossary is likely to be con- 

 sulted by those who most need the assistance of one. The same re- 

 mark applies to the second one, perhaps to the third also; at any rate 

 if "bed-moulding" was thought sufficientiv to explain itself, it might 

 have been presumed that " bed-chamber" was not so cabalistic and 

 mystic a term as to stand in need of interpretation. Still, the last 

 was probably introduced for the purpose of tacking to it the highly 

 sapient or sappy remark, that " its finishings of course depend on the 

 rank of the party who is to occupv it" ! Of course, good Mr. Glos- 

 sarist; if people want a spare sleeping-room for '-a poor relation" 

 they are not likely to think of fitting it up like a state bed-chamber. 



Though he is no doubt to the full as well qualified, Mr. Gwilt is less 

 ambitious of displaying his erudition in etymology than Mr. Brittou 

 was, and so far shows greater discretion, because although he is never 

 quite so funny as was the latter gentleman in some of his derivations, 

 he is sometimes rather unlucky ; for instance, when he derives "Ce- 

 metery" (Ca;mc/er!u»i), from Kfiiuas "to He," instead of Koi^ou "to 

 sleep," which latter origin gives the term a most impressive signi- 

 fication, a cemetery being a place where mortals sleep the sleep of 

 death ! 



I do not, however, wish to send Mr. Gwilt thither. To say the 

 truth, we can't yet spare him ; he must live to revise and mature his 

 Glossary and Encyclopaidia, and to fill up all gaps and yawning chasms 

 in the latter will furnish him with labour for many years to come. In 

 the opinion of some his book may be a prize, but I am sure it is one 

 that has a great many blanks in it. Ni>t a syllable of information is 

 to be derived from it in regard to the architecture and architects of 

 Scotland, Ireland, and the United States. No doubt information of 

 the kind is not to be found accumulated in such heaps that it can be 

 readily transferred from one book to another without any trouble; it 

 must be looked for in holes and corners, a hundred volumes muH be 

 ransacked in order to get at the materials for a few pages. By such 

 means alone is it that the common stock of knowledge on any subject 

 can be enlarged from time to time by really fresh additions ; and it is 

 but natural to expect that any work calling itself an Encyclopjedia 

 should bring down information on the subject it treats of to the very 

 time of publication. At any rate, as a lexicographer, Mr. Gwilt ought 

 to have distinguished between the terms " Intercolumniation" and 

 " Intercoluniii," instead of which he discards the latter altogether. 

 I remain, &c., 



P. Hill. 



Continental Scientimc Mekting.— The ihirteenth meeting of the French 

 Scientific Congress is to be held at Rhcims, some time between the first and 

 tenth of September next, and to last, us usual, ten ilays. M. Gousset, arch- 

 bishop of Rhcims, and president of the academy in that city, is to be presi- 

 dent of the managing committee. 



