ENGINEERING. 



277 



Lima, in Peru, can be easily made, and maybe 

 accomplished within a period of three years. 



Two important railways are contemplated in 

 Buenos Ayres. Oiie is a transcontinental road, 

 for which Clark & Co. have obtained a conces- 

 sion from the Argentine Government. It will 

 start from some station on the Western Railway 

 of Buenos Ayres, pass Mercedes and San Juan, 

 and reach to Mendoza on the east side of the 

 Andes. The road is to have a gauge of 5 feet 

 7 inches ; its length will be about 700 miles. 

 To extend the road across the Andes to Valpa- 

 raiso will require vast engineering works, and 

 the difficulties to be overcome transcend those 

 of the Semmering route from Vienna to Trieste. 

 The other projected railway is a narrow-gauge 

 line, 500 miles long, to run from Bahia Blanca 

 to Salinas, and then along the Rio Colorado 

 toward Mendoza, terminating at the foot of the 

 Planchon Pass in the Andes. It would thus 

 traverse the rich La Plata region, which has 

 now no railroad communication with the At- 

 lantic. The cost of the road is estimated at 

 $25,000 per mile. The gauge is to be 3 feet 

 3 inches. 



A railroad is being built in Nubia, f rom Wadi 

 Haifa to Dongola, under the direction of M. 

 Jansen. Its first section has been opened to 

 traffic. A bridge will have to be thrown over 

 the Nile at Koye. The completion of this rail- 

 road, which is being constructed out of the sur- 

 plus revenues of Soodan, and is not affected by 

 Egyptian finances, will give an immense impe- 

 tus to commerce, which will even be felt in 

 Darfour and Wadai. 



The railways of India are being extended as 

 fast as the Treasury will allow. Better rail- 

 way connections for the rapid transport of 

 grain are considered one of the best precau- 

 tions against the reoccurrence of a great fam- 

 ine ; but there is a difference of opinion as to 

 whether they are a more important safeguard 

 than canals and reservoirs for irrigation, which 

 can serve for transportation as well as the fer- 

 tilization of the soil. The question of broad 

 and narrow gauge railroads has been hotly dis- 

 cussed in connection with the projected lines, 

 the most important of which are routes from 

 Ajmere to Indore, and from Ajmere to Ahme- 

 dabad. The latter road the Government has 

 authorized to be constructed with the metre- 

 gauge, in spite of the protests of the military 

 authorities, who insist, for strategical reasons, 

 on the retention of the 5-foot-8-inch gauge, on 

 which the Indian railways have all been built. 

 It is probable that, admonished by the fact that 

 the Indian roads have never proved remunera- 

 tive, the Indian Government will correct its 

 mistake, and build metre-gauge roads hereafter. 



The new Japanese railway, between Osaka 

 and the seaport Kobe, has been built very com- 

 pletely, under the direction of an English engi- 

 neer, John England. The first section is tun- 

 neled in three places, one bore being 365 feet 

 in length. The road passes over a vast num- 

 ber of water-courses and irrigation-canals. The 



numerous bridges are chiefly of wood, in the 

 portion of the road toward Osaka, some of 

 them being 80 feet in length, and some of the 

 spans 30 and even 40 feet, the wooden girders 

 resting on stone piers ; there are also bridges 

 and culverts of arched masonry. Toward the 

 other end of the road are 3 iron Warren gird- 

 er bridges, with spans of 70 feet, resting on 

 iron screw piles, of 2 feet 9 inches diameter, 

 with wrought-iron blades of 5 feet diameter 

 and 5 feet pitch. That over the Muko-gawa 

 River has 12 spans. Beyond this there are 6 

 flood openings, of from 100 to 180 feet, with 

 20-feet spans, built of granite backed with 

 brick. The next bridge, crossing the Kansaki- 

 gawa, has 17 spans. Passing over 5 more cul- 

 verts, the last one bridged by Warren girders 

 60 feet in length, the road crosses the last 

 bridge, stretching over the Jusho-gawa with 9 

 spans. The bends in the railway are frequent, 

 and some of them very sharp curves. The ter- 

 minal stations are very complete, that at Kobe 

 covering 64 acres, with 5 miles of side-tracks, 

 large freight-house, workshops, etc. A pier 

 built out into the sea is 450 feet long and 40 

 broad ; there is 20 feet of water next the dock. 

 The station at Osaka, covering 40 acres, has 

 likewise 5 miles of rail in sidings. The road 

 between Kobe and Osaka, together with the 

 Ajikawa extension, built later, is 22 miles in 

 length. In 1876 the road was extended to 

 Kioto, 27 miles additional. This road, with 

 the 18 miles of railroad between Yedo and 

 Yokohama, opened in 1872, makes 67 miles of 

 railway now finished in the Japanese Empire. 

 The Government is seriously considering the 

 construction of a route across the island from 

 Yedo to Kioto, and surveys have been made 

 by English engineers to determine the best 

 course. 



In the Prussian capital a city railroad is be- 

 ing built, which has 4 tracks 2 for the through 

 traffic of the railways, 6 in number, with which 

 it connects, and 2 for local traffic. It has a 

 length of 7 miles, extending from the terminus 

 of the Lower Silesian Railway to Charlotten- 

 burg. There will be 3 stations for each of the 

 railways and 6 for the city tracks. The esti- 

 mated cost is about 7J million dollars. A street- 

 railroad has recently been opened in Rome. It 

 runs from the Porta del Popolo to the Ponte 

 Molle, a distance of 2,740 metres. The cars 

 are first and second class, drawn by a single 

 horse, and running every 10 minutes. An un- 

 derground city railroad is to be built in Paris. 

 It will pass through two tunnels under the 

 Seine. 



The problem of the best pavement for city 

 streets is considered by Prof. Haupt, of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, to have been great- 

 ly simplified by the invention of a horseshoe 

 with a grooved bottom, into which a tarred 

 rope is fastened. The shoe is of iron, of the 

 ordinary shape, and is put on without heating. 

 Such shoes have been found to wear as well 

 and as long as those in general use. Rubber 



