144 REPORT — 1866. 



cost being £300,000. The tolls were high, being double those charged on an 

 ordinary railway. Locomotive power for conveying passengers and goods over 

 the mountain cost Is. Ad. per passenger, and 4s. 8d. for each ton of goods. The 

 total revenue was estimated to amount to £100,000 per annimi. Assuming the 

 traffic to increase at the rate of 10 per cent., the whole of the capital woiild be 

 repaid within fom- years. The cost of this line would he-only one-third that of a 

 tunnel line. The working expenses would amount to 2 per cent, of the ordinary 

 expenses. There would be no probability that the line would be choked with 

 snow. About eight or nine miles of the line would be constructed in galleries 

 some of masonrv and some of wood. 



An Invention for the Purpose of attaining greater Adhesion between the driv- 

 ing-wheel and the Rail. By W. D. Gainsfoed. 



The proposed plan consists merely in adding a second flange to the di'iving- 

 wheel. The two flanges being closer together at the base than the middle of the 

 rail, thus causing the weight of the wheels to be carried by the flanges pressing 

 upon the sides of the rail instead of the face of the tire. The tractive power 

 obtained by this means is 1|- to 1^ times the imposed weight. 



As the flange is flat, and the rail, an ordinary double headed one, is round in 

 section at the point where the tire touches it, the contact is little more than a 



Eoint, and consequently there is no grinding between the flange and the rail, both 

 ecoming as bright and smooth as the face of an ordinary rail. 



In passing round cm-ves, the inner rail is laid with a nan-ower head, so that it 

 falls to the bottom of the groove in the wlieel, rendering the latter of a smaller 

 diameter, and allowing it, if necessary, to slip, as in the ordinary railway wheel. 



A locomotive was constructed upon this principle to rum upon a colliery rail- 

 way. Its weight was 20 cwt. loaded ; 12 cwt. were borne by the driving-wheels, 

 and 8 by the leading -nheels. 



The gradients experimented upon were 1 in 14 and 1 in 7. Less a gradient of 

 1 in 14 the engine di-ew a load, including wagons of 5 tons, at a speed of 3 miles 

 per hour. 



Less the gradient of 1 in 7 the engine drew a load of 35 cwt. at about the same 

 speed. 



The dimensions of the engine were : cylinder 35 inches diameter, 10 inches 

 Btroke ; driving-wheels 12 inches diameter ; highest steam pressure 120 lbs. to 



the inch. 



Description of a Newly -invented System of Ordnaiiee. By W. D. Gatnsfoed. 



The projectile thrown by the proposed gun is a sharp-edged disk, formed by the 

 jimction, at the basis of the frusta, of two equal and similar cones. Each frustum 

 IS half the height of the original cone, and each cone is one-third its base dia- 

 meter in height. Consequently, the major is three times the minor axis. The 

 disk is fixed in an upright direction, and the rotation is upon the minor axis. To 

 propel this projectile a gun is used, which internally consists of two parts, a 

 chamber for the powder and the barrel or receptacle for the shot. The barrel is 

 very short, so that when loaded the front of the disk is level with the mouth of 

 the gun. Direction is given by the close fitting of the sides of the ban'el to the 

 disk, rotation by a pin passed through the barrel in a hoiizontal direction, in its 

 lower part, so as to take hold in a notch cut in the edge of the disk. It is thus 

 evident that the disk, on leaving the gun, will acquire a rotation equal in speed at 

 the mouth to the speed of the disk itself where it last touches the catch. By 

 putting the catch nearly vmder the centre of the disk, a speed of rotation of the 

 peripheiy nearly equal to the initial velocity of the projectile would be obtained. 

 As, nowever, much less than this wiU suflice to keep the axis of the disk at right 

 angles to its line of motion, the catch is placed further back, and ofiers but little 

 resistance to the exit of the projectile. Thus an efficient rotation is obtained 

 without friction ; and fi-om the absence of friction great initial velocitj^ is obtained ; 

 and the recoil being small, from the same reason, large charges of powder may be 

 used. A long maintenance of the A'elocity is ensm-ed by the shape and rotation 

 of the disk, which is more adapted for retaining its velocity than a conical or bolt- 



