Popular Science Monthly 



435 



Building a Street Car Line Without 

 Stopping Work or Cars 



THERE are streets in con- 

 gested districts of some 

 of our cities where both 

 vehicular and car traffic is so 

 dense that even stone ballast 

 will not prevent the "work- 

 ing" of the railway ties, and 

 as a result the paving in 

 the railway area and adjacent 

 thereto is ruined. To avoid 

 this, the concrete should be 

 used under the ties. 



"How can the concrete be 

 put under the ties with the 

 least trouble, expense and in- 

 terruption to car traffic?" A 

 novel way of doing it has been 

 tried out and proved feasible: 

 First, the track work is 

 brought to the correct grade 

 and line, using the ordinary 

 crushed stone ballast under 

 the ties. Then, from a small 

 continuous mixer, placed just 

 far enough from the rail to 

 permit cars to pass, a thin cement grout is 

 conveyed in chutes to the ballast. The 

 grouting mixture is composed of one part 

 cement and two parts sand, at about the 

 consistency of thin cream. By the use of 

 a flexible chute in two sections the work 

 is carried on without the slightest interrup- 

 tion to car traffic. When a car comes 

 along, the first section of the chute is 

 thrown out of service and the second is 

 lowered to the ballast, and so on. 



o 



of the coal 

 ; into a recess 



A flexible chute in two sections is used so iii.it ir. 

 interrupted while the cement mixture is being 



A Meter for Registering Amounts of 

 Coal Used in Power Plants 



XE of the principal fac- 

 tors in the success of a 

 power-plant is the ability to 

 control the quantities of ma- 

 terial used in the production 

 of power. It is neces- 

 sary to know how 

 much water is evapo- 

 rated per pound of coal 

 and just how many 

 pounds of coal should 

 be used for each 

 horsepower. In order to get 

 such statistics, a coal meter 

 has been invented, which con- 

 sists of a recorder driven by 

 the passing of the coal in such 

 a way that its movement is 

 proportional to the rate of 

 flow of the coal. The recorder 

 can be made to register in any 

 units desired. 



The meter was designed 

 originally to check up the 

 boiler room performance of a 

 large railway plant in the hard coal fields 

 of Pennsylvania, but it performed its task 

 so satisfactorily that it was decided to 

 build it for general boiler-room use. To 

 install the meter, a rectangular slot or 

 window is cut in the chosen pipe as shown 

 in the illustration. The meter is then 

 inserted "ribbon end" first, and dropped 

 into place. No bolts, screws, rivets or 

 fastenings of any kind are required, as the 

 frame is made with a recess which grips 

 the pipe firmly and prevents 

 the meter from slipping out 

 of place. 



The face of the recorder is 

 conveniently located on the 

 outside of the pipe, so that it 

 may be easily read. Thus ac- 

 curate information may be 

 obtained as to how much coal 

 is required for a given amount 

 of energy, and statistics are 

 found that help in estimating 

 the upkeep of the plant. 



Other advantages of this 

 type of coal meter are the 

 durability of its construction 

 and the little attention which 

 it requires to keep it in perfect 

 working condition. There is 

 dii( IN n,,t nothing about it to get out 



deposited of order. 



