Proceedings of the Polytechnic Association. ]033 



wliicli is by means of inclined planes. The carriage is raised from 

 tlie foot of one plane to the head of the next by means of stationary 

 power. A double track is supported by steel ropes over the tops of 

 a number of pillars, the tracks inclined in opposite directions. They 

 are elevated above the street twelve feet at the lowest point, and 

 each incline is to be a mile in length. The elevation of the highest 

 point is about thirty-three feet, giving a fall of twenty-one feet to the 

 mile. 



On the first 1,000 feet there is a fall of 8 feet. 



On the second 1,000 feet there is a fall of 5 feet. 



On the third 1,000 feet there is a fall of H feet. 



On the fourth 1,000 feet there is a fall of 2i feet. 



On the last 1.280 feet there is a fall of 2 feet. 



The pillars may be from 150 to 200 feet apart, and the Avhole can 

 be constructed for less than 8-15,000 a mile. A descent of twenty- 

 one feet to the mile will give, it is said, a speed of fifteen miles an 

 hour. By increasing the grade, the speed may be made as great as 

 desired. Air or hydraulic lifts, at the ends of the inclines, are to be 

 used to elevate the cars to the top of the next incline. This mode of 

 construction is stronger than the Greenwich street elevated railway. 

 The motive power to propel the cars is gravity. He proposed to run. 

 the cars on this line every half minute. The elevating apparatus can 

 be w^orked by the city water main. By this system passengers could 

 be carried from the City Hall to Harlem for one cent a passenger. 

 The average speed will be fifteen miles an hour, and the maximum, 

 twenty miles. 



Dr. Vanderweyde said there were many fine points in this plan of 

 railway. As to its practical working, w^e have many instances of it 

 both in this country and Europe. We have inclined railways at our 

 coal mines, and at the Mount Cenis tunnel. At Ilonesdale, Pa., 

 there is water power appliances *to raise the cars up, when they 

 descend a series of inclines and go all the way to Carbondale with no 

 other power but gravity. On some of these sections the speed is 

 twenty-five miles an hour, and that, too, with the brakes constantly 

 applied to prevent the train from running away. The track winds 

 around the Lackawanna river, because a straight line would be too 

 steep, which would be about 2,000 feet above Maunch Chunk. There 

 all the difiiculties spoken of here are overcome. The coal trains of 

 some 150 to 200 cars are run without any difticulty. A man sits on 

 abeam projecting some twenty feet in front of the train, and gives 



