TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 175 



railway can be dealt with to most effect, in a summary manner, with little time and 

 small means. Taking it, then, as a question rather of dismantling than of destroying, 

 the first measure would be the taking up and destroying of the rails. This would 

 be easy enough to a party of railway navvies provided with their apparatus ; but 

 what we require is, some instructions and practice given to soldiers how to do as 

 much as possible with the smallest means. Thus, instead of being, as at present, 

 from ignorance, perfectly helpless, they might be taught, under previous instruction, 

 that even a few stray articles for implements, such as might be found in an adjoin- 

 ing house, as might be described, coidd, on an emergency, be made available to 

 some extent. Possibly it could be shown that, after a first rail was removed, the 

 very article itself, with the sleepers, &c, might be used to extend the damage. 

 Another question would be, having in view the possibility of obtaining a temporary 

 power over a railway which is of service to the enemy, what very small and most 

 portable assortment of implements might be carried with any detachment, beino- 

 accompanied, if possible, by a few Sappers that would aid such a proceeding, and 

 what would be the most effective process ; and if the implements could be such as 

 enter into the assortment forming part of the engineer field-equipment, required for 

 other purposes, all the better. The rails being raised, the best disposition of them 

 would be clearly to carry them away altogether ; but it is very improbable that 

 there would be available means of conveyance to render that practicable. The next 

 most easy resource would be to scatter, hide, or bury them ; but if it could be shown 

 how they could be broken or rendered unserviceable, the effect would be still 

 greater. The destruction of the sleepers would be much more easy, but the effect 

 would be less, and the removal of the chairs, from their portability, would be easy, 

 and also valuable for the object. With regard to the reinstatement of a damaged 

 line, it would be instructing to know whether any temporary expedients could be 

 adopted for the passage of locomotives and carriages, or even of the carriages onlv, 

 across the places where the rails may have been removed, till new rails can be pro- 

 cured ; and, if so, what those expedients may be, and how to be applied. One re- 

 source might be available in double lines, namely, to dismantle one of the double 

 rows, from the nearest part untouched, to make good a thorough communication 

 for at least one single line. It will be very desirable to obtain from railway engi- 

 neers a consideration of all these matters, and special instructions drawn up on all 

 expedients that can be suggested, in which the troops, but more particularly the 

 engineer soldiers, might be subsequently practised ; nothing of the kind, it is be- 

 lieved, having yet been imdertaken. 



On a Pneumatic Hammer. By G. Burt. 



This hammer does not approach the power of a steam-hammer of the same total 

 weight', nor would it take the place of the steam-hammer for general smith's work. 

 The advantages claimed for it were that it was very simple, especially in its single- 

 acting form, as shown by a model ; that there were no valves in constant motion 

 and wear ; that the momentum of the driving parts connected with the crank- 

 shaft was very small, on account of their small extent of motion (a throw of 1 inch 

 only being given to the 10-inch piston) ; that the wear on these parts was con- 

 sequently very slight, also owing to the elastic nature of the medium between the 

 driving and driven pistons ; that there was an absence of all dropping of condensed 

 steam, such as would invariably be caused by the use of a steam-hammer. 



On Torbite (a new Preparation of Peat) and its Uses. By D. K. Clark. 



The object of the paper was to describe the system pursued at Horwich, near 

 Bolton, for the manufacture of torbite and charcoal from peat. The obstacles 

 hitherto to treating peat for the manufacture of fuel were shown to consist chiefly 

 in the difficulty of separating, at a moderate cost, the excessive proportion of 

 water held in suspension by peat in its natural condition, in consequence of the 

 uncertainty of the climate and the great amount of hand-labour employed, and in 

 the impossibility of efficiently condensing and solidifying peat by mechanical com- 

 pression, which has been the agency relied on for that object. The author then 

 explained that, according to the Horwich system of treatment, compression by 



