640 REPORT—1883. 
In the case of the St. Paulo Railway it was necessary to solve the problem of 
rising a height of more than 2,500 feet in five miles; and as the cost of the 
construction of the line was strictly limited, this had to be done with due regard 
to the cost of the remainder of the line, and also to the proportion of cost of work- 
ing it in the total working expenses. I chose the stationary engine and wire-rope 
system as the best under the circumstances, and divided the ascent into four inclined 
planes, each with a gradient of 1 in 93 feet, and of an average length of about a mile 
anda quarter. At the top of each there is a bank-head, with an incline of 1 in 75 
feet downwards, where the stationary engine is placed. The inclines are worked 
by what is known in the North of England as ‘the tail-end system,’ and are thus 
partially self-acting, waggous being attached to each end of the rope, and being 
raised and lowered simultaneously. The arrangement of the rails is peculiar. 
On the lower half of each incline an ordinary single line is laid, and on the upper 
half, above the passing place, three rails are laid, forming a double road, with a 
-eentre rail common to both. Exactly halfway on each incline, the single line of 
the lower half and the three rails of the upper half, branch out into a double line 
-of way of sufficient length for the trains to pass each other. This arrangement 
allows of two lines of pulleys, for carrying the ascending and descending part of the 
rope, to be laid down above the passing place, while on the lower half a single 
line of pulleys only is required. ach incline has a winding engine of 150 horse- 
power. The ropes are of steel wire, and four inches in circumference. There are 
some special contrivances for keeping the rope in place, and for controlling the 
movements of the train; but I need only refer to the clip brake, which is supple- 
mentary to the ordinary brake. The clip brake grips the rails, and in an 
emergency, by its use, a train can be brought to a standstill in a few yards, Such 
an emergency has arisen owing to the breaking of the rope hauling a goods train. 
The application of the clip brake arrested the train ina distance of sixty-six feet, the 
rope was spliced, and in three hours the traffic was resumed. 
The central rail system was designed by Mr. Fell, and first carried out practically 
in the railway made over Mont Cenis, under my direction, before the opening of the 
great tunnel. The peculiarity of the system lies in the use of a deep rail laid on its 
side between the two ordinary rails; the centre rail is gripped by horizontal 
wheels, put in motion by the locomotive, the adhesion of which to the centre rail 
gives the locomotive the force necessary to draw up steep inclines, not only its own 
weight, but a considerable supplementary load. This is probably the most econo- 
mical mode of working very steep gradients under ordinary circumstances, and it 
has been found to answer very well wherever it has been efficiently carried out. 
In the early days of railways, the only means of tunnelling through hard rocks 
was by the slow and costly process of the jumper and blasting. A hole was drilled 
with a steel-pointed implement, and when it was worked to a sufficient depth to 
receive a charge of gunpowder the explosive was inserted, the hole was closed, and, 
by means of a slow fuse, the powder was ignited and a portion of rock was brought 
down. Many forms of machine drills have been invented by which this process 
was shortened—some actuated by hand, and others by steam, air, or water-power. 
What is called the ‘ Diamond Rock Drill’ was an improvement on the drill itself; 
the steel cutting-surface being superseded by coarse diamonds set ina ring of metal. 
Several of these drills were fixed on a frame, and, being actuated simultaneously, 
a corresponding number of holes were at once driven in the face of the rock. Besides 
the increase of speed in driving each hole, many holes being driven simultaneously, 
great additional speed in forming the tunnel was obtained. This has been ex- 
emplified in cutting the Mont Cenis and St. Gothard tunnels in Europe, and the 
Hoosac tunnel in Massachusetts, where the length of tunnel to be made through 
hard rock would have rendered the cutting impracticable by hand-labour within 
reasonable limits of time and expenditure. For cutting tunnels through the softer 
rocks, such as sandstone and chalk, machines which cut or scrape away the face 
have been invented and applied with considerable success. Mr. Brunton’s machine 
was employed experimentally for cutting a driftway in chalk for the Channel Tunnel 
Company in 1870, and it worked freely at the rate of about a yard an hour, 
excavating a heading of seven feet diameter. A machine of this kind has recently 
