SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 22. 



d.f some of these safety- appliances, rendered 

 iiocessar_y bj* the increased number of trains, 

 and the fact that the thicker and moi'e numer- 

 ous popuhition now demands both safer and 

 fa,ster travelling. The real gain of time to a 

 business-man, obtained by a difference of a few 

 miles an hour in the speed of a long-journej' 

 train, is best illustrated hy an actual case, — 

 a man in New York who wishes to do a day's 

 work in Chicago. He takes one of the fastest 

 and best appointed trains he can find, — the 

 Chicago limited. It leaves New York at 

 nine a.m., and lands him at Chicago at eleven 

 the next morning, having accomplished nine 

 hundred and eleven miles in twenly-six hours 

 fifty-five minutes, allowing for the diff'erence in 

 time between the two cities. This makes an 

 average speed of 33.8 miles per hour, includ- 

 ing all stoppages. But assume, what is surely 

 not extra^•agant, that as high a speed can be 

 attained on the Pennsylvania or any other 

 first-class American road as on an English 

 main line, and what shape does the problem 

 assume? On one English road, the Great 

 northern, the distance between Leeds and 

 London (a hundred and eightj-'Six miles and 

 three-quarters) is done in three hours forty- 

 five minutes, including five stoppages ; on 

 another, the Great western, the hundred and 

 twenty-nine miles and three-quarters between 

 Birmingham and London is run in two hours 

 forty-five minutes, including two stoppages ; 

 and as neither of these routes is particu- 

 larlj' level or straight, and both pass through 

 numerous junctions with a perfect maze of 

 switches and frogs, they gi^'c a fair idea of 

 what is possible in speed on the railroads 

 of this countrj-. These figures give, respec- 

 tively-, speeds of 49.8 and 47.2 miles per 

 Lour. Taking as a fair average forty-eight 

 miles an hour, including stoppages, the journey 

 from New York to Chicago should be done 

 in eighteen hours fifly-nine minutes, or, say, 

 nineteen hours, — a saving of seven hours 

 fifty-five minutes on the present time ; so 

 that, if the train were arranged to leave at 

 fifty-five minutes past four in the afternoon 

 instead of nine o'clock in the forenoon, the 

 whole of this time would be saved in the busy- 

 part of the day, effectually adding a day to 

 our imaginary traveller's business and dollar- 

 making life. 



It may be thought that such a deduction is 

 unfair, as the EngUsh st3ie of car is so much 

 lighter than the American ; but, as a matter of 

 fact, the average English express-train is con- • 

 siderably heavier than the Chicago limited, and 

 conveys about three times the number of pas- 



sengers ; and, as trucks and oil-lubricated axle- 

 boxes are not yet universal there, the tractive 

 resistance per ton is pi'obably higher. It cer- 

 tainly, therefore, seems not only possible, but 

 feasible, to attain these high speeds in this 

 country, where, owing to the long distances to 

 be tra^■elled, they are more valuable than in 

 England ; and the great step towards attaining 

 that end is the adoption of proper and efficient 

 signalling arrangements. All the other steps 

 are achieved : the American passenger locomo- 

 tive of the present daj' is perfectly competent 

 to drag a hea^y train at a speed of over sixty 

 miles an hour ; the cars, as now constructed, 

 can travel safely and smoothly at that speed-; 

 and the steel rail, the well-ballasled tie and per- 

 fect workmanship of the modern iron bridge, 

 can well support the thundering concussion of 

 an express-train at full speed. But this speed 

 can only be maintained for a few miles at a 

 time if the engineer who guides this train be 

 doubtful whether that dimly-seen signal imply 

 safetj^ or danger, or if the laws of the state 

 bring him to a full stand where his road is 

 crossed by a small corporation with a high- 

 sounding title, which owns one locomotive 

 with a split tube sheet and two cars down a 

 ditch. 



To run a fast train, a clear, uninterrupted 

 road is absolutely necessarj- ; and the reason is 

 not far to seek. To move a body from a state 

 of rest to a velocit3- of sixty miles per hour 

 or eighty-eight feet per second, an amount of 

 work must be performed equivalent to lifting 

 that bod^- a hundred and twenty-one feet. 

 Now, it is apparent to the simplest capacity 

 that it requires a pretty powerful engine to 

 overcome the resistance of a train running at 

 sixty miles per hour without every few miles 

 putting on brakes to destroy this velocity, and 

 then to lift it a hundred and twenty-one feet 

 again to attain speed ; the resistance of the air, 

 and the friction of bearings on journals and of 

 fianges against rails, going on all the time. As 

 a mfttter of fact, showing what severe work this 

 is on an engine, the Zulu express on the Great 

 western railway of England, which is the fast- 

 est train in the world, has been repeatedly 

 carefully timed ; and it is found, that, though 

 running over an almost absolutely level and 

 stiaight road, it takes a distance of twenty- 

 six to twenty-eight miles to attain its full 

 speed, about fifty-eight miles and a half an 

 hour. 



The adoption of a safe and thorough system 

 of signals, efficiently warning the engineer of 

 a train of any danger in his path, whether 

 from a misplaced switch, au open draw, or a 



