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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 189 
On London Sreet Tramways. By H. Brieur. 
The author said the London omnibuses were notoriously mismanaged; and when 
it was remembered that there were 600 of these vehicles in London, each capable 
of carrying, on au average, twenty-three passengers, the question became an im- 
portant one. There could be little doubt that a judicious system of street tram- 
ways, or horse railways, would supply a great and rapidly growing demand, which 
could not be met by steam locomotion on the ordinary railway, where the trains 
could not work like omnibuses, taking up passengers at every moment when re- 
quired, but must run through from station to station. Street tramways had proved 
a success wherever they had been judiciously tried, andwould doubtless yield an 
enormous profit if laid down in London and other large towns. They were ex- 
tensively used in America and Canada, and had been adopted at Copenhagen and 
the suburbs of Paris; while it was proposed to apply them to Berlin, Brussels, and 
Vienna. The objection which might be urged against the interference of tramways 
with the ordinary traffic would be met by taking the many good and available 
lines afforded by back streets, taking care to bring the line at certain points into 
close proximity to the main traffic. The system he proposed to adopt was some- 
what similar to that which was at present in use in Manchester and Geneva, the 
vehicle being kept on the track by means of a wheel, which the driver could at plea- 
sure drop into or lift up from a grooved rail in the centre of the track. The forma- 
tion of the lines for the carriage-wheels was peculiar, there being a slope with a 
depression of only one inch for each wheel, which would he so made as to fit the 
wheel-ways, while the depression will be so slight that it could not obstruct the 
progress of any ordinary vehicle. The vehicle would be enabled to turn the 
sharpest curves, and would carry forty-eight passengers, exclusive of the driver 
and conductor. It was proposed, by an efficient system of breaks, with a carefully 
devised scheme of compensation for the horses, to enable the driver to stop the 
yehicle at any moment. 
On the substitution of Hand- for Shoulder-guns, illustrated by an explanatory 
exhibition of an Elevator Hand-gun made on the Breech-loading Principle. 
By E. Cuarrtesworte, 7.G.S. 
On the Advisability of obtaining a Uniform Wire- Gauge. 
By Laroer Crark, CL. 
This was in continuation of a paper on the same subject last year. The writer 
showed that there were many different gauges now in use, and that it had become 
almost a usual thing for each manufacturer to set up his own gauge. The evils of 
this system were obvious, and were much felt by wire-drawers, as well as by en- 
gineers. If a gauge were authorized by the British Association, he believed it 
would be universally adopted by engineers, manufacturers, and wire-drawers. 
The gauge proposed by the writer differed very little from that now in use, and 
lnown as the Birmingham gauge; and he suggested that the question was one 
upon which the Association might appoint a Committee. 
An Improvement in Watering Roads. By W. J. Coopzr. 
Improvements in the Packing of Boats, Lifeboats, and Pontoons. 
By G. Fawcuvs, 
This was a continuation of a paper read on a former occasion, specially showing 
how the author’s system of packing and stowing of boats was applicable, not only 
to ordinary ship’s boats, but to lifeboats and to pontoons, 
