TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 315 



On certain Economical Improvements in ohtaining Motive Power, 

 Bij Richard Eaton. 



Tlie paper recalled to mind tlie description given at Exeter of the Warsop aero- 

 steam-engine, and tlie promise to communicate results of further trials of the 

 system, which have now been made in several places. A well-lmowu Lancashire 

 firm had built one of the engines for use in their own works, and had found a fuel- 

 consumption of CO cwt. per week with the air, as against 86 cwt. per week when 

 the air was shut oft'. Without the air-injection an average pressure of 33i lbs. 

 was shown, whilst with it a pressure of 47 lbs. was kept up. An engine of the 

 best construction, built for himself in Loudon, showed, with the air-injection, a 

 gain of 24| per cent, in worlc done at ordinary speed, and of 33^ per cent, at a 

 higher speed. The consumption of ordinary Welsh engine-coal was, with steam 

 only, 5'88 lbs. per actual horse-power per hour ; with steam and air 4-72 lbs., or a 

 gain of 1'16 lb. per horse-power per hour — a ^'ery valualjle economy. Experiments 

 with locomotive-engines were referred to, and experiments with condensing-engines, 

 made at the suggestion of Professor liankine, showed the vacuum to be very 

 slightly interfered with, contrary to expectation, a7id that the extra steam generated 

 counterbalanced the loss of vacuum, while the fuel-consumption was alike under 

 the two principles. The inventor has improved and simplified the coudensing- 

 englne proper to an extent that will prove an invaluable boon to all OAvners of 

 steam-vessels. 



Repeated and varied experiments proved that the air-injection prevented scaling 

 in stationary and locomotive-boilers, and saline incrustation in marine boilers, and 

 thus added to their durability and diminished the risk of explosion, whilst priming 

 was prevented in all cases. 



On the Gauge for Eailwcti/s of the Future. By R. P. Fairlie, CLE. 



The object of this paper was to advance a new argument in favour of the use of 

 a narrow gauge in the construction of railwa3^s, founded upon a comparison of 

 the amount of weight hauled for the same amount of paying traffic over a railway 

 of 3-ft. gaiige and a railway of the English " narrow " or 4-ft. 83-in. gauge. 

 Although maintaining that the principle of his argument applied to passenger-tratfic, 

 and that the cost of working a railway, or, in other words, the proportion of 

 non-paj'ing to paying weight (as far as this is independant of management), is 

 increased exactly in proportion as the rails are fiurther apart, because a ton of 

 materials disposed upon a narrow gauge is stronger as regards its carrjdng-power 

 than the same weight when spread over a wider basis, the author on the present 

 occasion went into detail only with regard to the conveyance of goods ; and he 

 selected the London and North- Western Railway as his illustration of the ettects 

 of the 4-ft. 85-in. gauge, on the ground tliat its management is so good that the 

 defects in its working must be wholly traceable to its construction. He undertook 

 to show that this line, if made on a o-ft. gauge, would accommodate the whole of 

 its present goods-traffic as well as at present, and would do so at half the present 

 cost with half the present tonnage and motive power, and with half the present 

 wear and tear of rails, so that the expense now being incuiTcd for the construction 

 of a third line would be rendered unnecessary. Assuming that the present goods- 

 traffic, independently of minerals, amounts to ten millions of tons per annimi, and 

 that the non-paying weight of trucks by which these goods are liaulcd amounts to 

 the low estimate of 40 millions of tons more (70 millions being nearer the truth), 

 there results a total gross weight hauled by the locomotives of 50 millions of 

 tons, at an average speed of 25 miles an hour. The earnings for the goods-traffic 

 on this line are 6s. 2>d. per train mile, which, at an average rate all round of \\d. 

 per ton per mile, would give about 50 tons as the paying weight, and 250 tons as 

 the gross weight hauled per train mile ; dividing this 250 tons into the 50 millions 

 gives 200,000 trains, which, being divided over the 313 working days of a year, 

 gives 630 merchandize trains over all parts of the North- Western Railway in the 

 24 hours. The Company's balance-sheet shows that each net ton produces about 

 4s. 8d, which, at lh,d. per ton per mile, makes the a,verage distance by each ton 



