10 Kail Road and Chute. 



lying even with the floor, and which by revolving lioiizontally on a 

 pendicular axis, instantly brings the wagon into the proper position, 

 from which they are laimched upon the inclined plane, and then they 

 descend by gravity ; the rapidity of their progress is checked by the 

 weight of the ascending empty wagon, which being fastened to the 

 other end of the rope, and moving on a parallel rail way, but on the 

 same plane, necessarily runs up hill as rapidly as the loaded wagon 

 runs down, and when it arrives at the top, it is transferred to the up- 

 per rail way by turning the circular platform in the manner that has 

 been described. Accidents have been rare in this descent, but the 

 wagons have sometimes deviated or broken loose, and one man has 

 been killed. They are now guarded against by a very simple, yet 

 ingenious contrivance. The rail way is double until the most rapid 

 part of the descent is passed, when both vt^ays curve and unite in one. 

 Should a wagon then break loose, its momentum will be so great as 

 to prevent its following the curve and as soon as it reaches this spot 

 it is thrown out, overturned and lodged on a clay bank formed for 

 this purpose below. Farther down, a bulwark is constructed, over- 

 arching the rail way, in order to intercept the loose coal as it flies 

 from the wagon. A key at the proper place makes each wagon take 

 its own road on leaving the common one. The delivery of the coal 

 into the arks is effected by a contrivance, at once very simple, ingenious 

 and effectual. The ark, which is a large flat bottomed boat or scow, 

 lies in the river, at the foot of the inclined plane, and the wagon, on ar- 

 riving at this point, makes a sudden pitch into a downward curve in 

 the rail way, and a projecting bar that secures the lower end of the 

 wagon, which, for this purpose, is hung on a horizontal axis, knocks 

 it open, and the coal slides down a steep wooden funnel, into the 

 ark ; the impulse given to the latter by the falling coal, causes the 

 flat boat to recede rapidly from the shore, and thus the coal is, with- 

 out manual labor, spread evenly over the bottom of the ark. The arks 

 contain each about twelve or thirteen tons ; there is, at present, a loss 

 upon them at the rate of a dollar a ton, and they will be discarded 

 this summer, as soon as the canal along the Delaware is finished, and 

 regular canal boats will be substituted. 



The arks are composed chiefly of pine boards, put together in 

 cross courses, with straight and smooth edges, and joining surfaces, 

 and secured by nails. They are made very rapidly, usually the 

 same day that they are filled with coal. As they depend chiefly 

 for the tightness of these vessels upon the accuracy of the joints, 

 there is an ingenious contrivance used here, by which a long joiner's 



