April 29, 1909] 



NA TURE 



261 



id) Greater possible mileage per train per day, increas- 

 ing the earning capacity of any given quantity of rolling 

 stock, and increasing the loading and unloading capacity 

 of existing! platforms. 



The Southport branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire 

 Railway has proved to be a commercial success under 

 electric working. It consists of a coast line of i8i miles, 

 having fifteen stations. The total length of electrified line 

 in the district amounts to four miles of four tracks and 

 twenly-live miles of double tracks, making a total of 

 seventy miles of single trade, including sidings. It has 

 been found possible to run all the passenger traffic on 

 the double track on the section having four tracks, leaving 

 the other double track free for goods traffic, thus enabling 

 several stations on the goods track to be closed. The 

 line is considered to provide the fastest service of this 

 character in existence. Stopping trains run i8J miles, 

 stop fourteen times, and do the journey in thirty-seven 

 minutes. Express trains run the same distance in twenty- 

 five minutes. 



During the transition stage from steam to electrical 

 working there came a period when it was necessary to 

 run steam trains in between the electrical trains at the 

 same speed in order to keep them out of the way of the 

 latter. An opportunity was thus afforded of comparing 

 the coal consumption of the locomotives and the power 

 house, and it was found that the six-wheeled coupled tank 

 engines which did the work in 1904 consumed 80 lb. of 

 coal per train mile with express trains, and 100 lb. with 

 stopping trains. The consumption of coal at the power 

 station in iqo8 works out at 49 lb. per train mile for the 

 electrical trains. 



The time necessary for the conversion from steam 

 haulage to electric traction is of importance. In the case 

 of the line under discussion, the order for commencing the 

 work of electrification was given on October 22, 1902, 

 and tile work was finished and the steam trains entirely 

 withdrawn on May 13, 1904. 



.■\fter considering the questions of the wear in third and 

 fourth rails, Mr. Aspinall dealt with the important matter 

 of the excessive wear of track rails in electrical work- 

 ing. In his opinion, the special rails introduced by Sand- 

 berg were not the real cure. The real fault is one of 

 construction. The more or less modern motor truck has 

 all the defects of the older-fashioned locomotives on account 

 of the low position of the centre of gravity. The modern 

 steam locomotive with a high centre of gravity is a very 

 easy riding machine. A motor-car, with its four axles, 

 has a total weight of 12 tons, which is not carried by the 

 springs. Raising the centre of gravity so as to enable 

 this weight to be spring-borne would introduce additional 

 mechanism, and would also block up the passages from 

 car 10 car. The great advantages of direct drive would 

 be lost, and as the present gears run extremely well it 

 may be a more commercial method to wear out the cheap 

 rail instead of expensive mechanism. 



The cars on the Southport line are 60 feet long, and 

 have large side doors at each end. These doors are opened 

 or closed by the public themselves, who, by a bye-law sanc- 

 tioned by the Board of Trade, are required to enter the 

 car by the rear door and leave by the front door. This 

 system requires a smaller platform staff, but as the larger 

 number of electric trains requires more guards, the total 

 number of men employed remains the same. During the 

 rush hours the cars are emptied in fifty seconds at terminal 

 stations, while intermediate stops consume fifteen seconds 

 only. 



Mr. Aspinall favours overhead conductors wherever 

 possible. In the particular case of the high-tension line 

 connecting Aintree with Seaforth, the cost per mile of the 

 overhead equipment was 1300/., while the cost per mi'e 

 of the cable line was 2030Z. 



It was decided in 1905 to install battery plants; the 

 general idea was to provide for running the whole rail- 

 way for one hour in the event of any serious accident at 

 the central generating station. The battery substations 

 are placed at points intermediate to the rotarv substations, 

 and have had the effects of reducing the momentary peaks 

 in the load from a maximum of 7000 kw. to 4500 kw. , 

 .•md the hourly peak during the rush hours from 3800 kw\ 

 to 3100 kw., enabling the load to be carried during the 

 NO. 2061, VOL. 80] 



winter with 4500 kw. of plant, and during the summer 

 with 3750 kw. of plant. 



The total over-all efficiency was found in July, 1906, to 

 be Si per cent, from the alternating current bus bars to 

 the circuit breakers on the trains. The coal burned at the 

 power house per unit of direct current delivered to the 

 third rail, including all conversion losses, amounted to 

 3-28 lb. for the twelve months ending December 15, 1908. 



In 1907 the Aintree line was electrified, and has led to 

 the recovery of much of the traffic which had been taken 

 away by the Municipal Tramways, which run parallel to 

 the railway. On Grand National Day the race traffic on 

 this section amounts to 13,000 people in about 2% hours. 



Mr. Aspinall estimates that any railway company having 

 facilities for putting its own plant down In the country, 

 with opportunities of getting cheap coal and water, should 

 be able to produce current at the generating stations at 

 a " works cost " of 0-25 penny per B.T.U. A high-speed 

 service could then be worked at a cost of 9-5ii. per train 

 mile. No amount for depreciation, other than battery 

 depreciation, Is included In this, or for interest on outlay. 

 The figure does not include the maintenance of running 

 track and stations, costs of platform staff, or other items 

 common to both steam and electric lines. The great 

 economy to be hoped for in the future for electrical rail- 

 ways, where no water power is available, is in the pro- 

 duction of electricity in very large quantities ; the total 

 current-producing charges amount to the large proportion 

 of 4-52d- out of the above-mentioned 9-5^. Other possible 

 economies are in the direction of such Improved design in 

 the motors as will lend to less repairs and a very careful 

 consideration of the whole design of the motor truck. Items 

 which may be put down as giving no trouble whatever 

 are controllers, commutators, steel spur-gearing, and the 

 third rail. 



Mr. .Aspinall looks forward to the opportunity which he 

 hopes to afford members of the Institution during the 

 summer meeting at Liverpool of seeing the Liverpool and' 

 Southport line at work. The proceedings terminated with- 

 a heartv vote of thanks to the president for his interest- 

 ing and valuable address, moved by Sir Wm. White, 

 k!C.B., and supported by Mr. W. H. Maw. 



There are ten appendices, with curves and photographs, 

 giving minute information regarding the working of this 

 line of railway. 



SOME RECENT PAL^ONTOLOGICAL PAPERS. 



THE description of the fossil flora of Tegelen-sur-Meuse, 

 near Venloo, in Holland, by Clement Reid, F.R.S., 

 and Eleanor M. Reid {Vcrhaiidel. d. koii. Akad. van 

 Wctcnsclmppen te Amsterdam, September, 1907), is re- 

 markable as showing how skilfully devised methods of 

 observation will reap a rich harvest from " a box of clay 

 easily carried by a man." The specimens of seeds washed 

 or floated out of this Pliocene clay were temporarily pre- 

 served in formalin or salicylic acid ; they were then washed 

 in water, and each was placed, still wet, on a film of 

 paraffin wax on a glass slide. The plate was immediately 

 warmed from below, and the paraffin rose to take the 

 place of the water evaporated from the seed. The surface 

 could be cleaned with benzin=, and the seed was now so- 

 tough that It could be easily handled. The Tegelen flora 

 Indicates a stage just earlier than that of the Cromer 

 Forest bed. 



.'\n illustrated paper on historic fossil cycads, by G. R. 

 Wieland {American Journal of Science, vol. xxv., 1908, 

 p. 93), directs attention to new points in some of the 

 great cvcad stems and casts in the museums of Eiirope. 

 The tvpe Cycadeoidea etrusca in Bologna is a slllcified' 

 stem that was used as a sharpening stone in an Etruscan 

 citv some 4000 years ago, and it is claimed as " the most 

 anciently collected of all geological specimens." 



From Japan come two papers on fossil plants (Journal 

 of the College of Science, Tokyo, vol. xxiii., 1908, articles 

 8 and 9). In the former, M. Yokoyama describes spoils 

 of "war. In the form of Upper Carboniferous plants collected 

 during the recent campaign In Manchuria. In the latter, 

 H. Yabe, whose work on Fusulina has been previously 

 noticed in Nature, shows how the occurrence of Giganto- 



