SCIENCE.-SUPPLEMENT. 



FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1886. 



CABLE STREET-RAILWAYS. 



It is proposed to 'gridiron ' New York City with 

 cable street-railways. The network, as projected, 

 embraces about seventy miles of double-track 

 road, consisting of a number of distinct routes, 

 with branches, all connected together so as to form 

 one comprehensive system. Of this, fifteen miles 

 will be elevated, the rest surface roads, but aU 



number of cable-railways in the city and suburbs, 

 before many years, to enable the general public to 

 judge of their merits. 



The history of cable traction as applied to street- 

 railways dates back only a few years, though 

 cables moved by stationary engines had been used 

 on tramways in the principal collieries of Eng- 

 land and Germany long before the advent of the 

 locomotive. In 1830 a railway between Liverpool 

 and Manchester, in England, — the second of the 

 kind constructed, — was approaching completion, 



Fig. 1. 



operated by cable traction. That this comprehen- 

 sive scheme will be carried through to completion 

 is not yet certain. There is much opposition to 

 it, not only from property-owners along the pro- 

 posed routes, but also from railroad companies 

 with whose interests it would conflict. Cable-rail- 

 ways have been in use ia San Francisco for thir- 

 teen years, giving better satisfaction for street 



purposes than either horse or steam railways. 

 Many other cities, in both Europe and America, 

 Tiave given cable traction a fair trial, and with 

 results satisfactory to the travelling public as well 

 as to the owners of the roads. There are already 

 several miles of cable-road completed and running 

 in the northern part of this city ; and, even if the 

 contemplated network throughout the city should 

 never be constructed, there will be a sufficient 



and George Stephenson, the eminent engineer, was 

 one of four commissioners appointed to decide 

 whether the road should be worked by stationary 

 engines and wire cables, or by locomotives. It 



Fig. 3. 



was decided to use locomotives, though two of 

 the commissioners strongly favored the cable sys- 

 tem, as the locomotive was still in its infancy. In 

 his report to the officers of the road, Mr. Stephen- 

 son said, " Fixed engines with ropes are most suit- 



