416 



8cmNG:E, 



[Vol. Vm., No. 196 



able for hilly countries, where the gravity of the 

 horse as well as of the locomotive engine becomes 

 a material part of their whole power." The use 

 of wire cables for haulage purposes on inclined 

 planes, especially in mining regions, had steadily 

 increased as necessity demanded, but no special 

 adaptation of the cable system to street-car trac- 



eable system to street-cars, on a grade too steep 

 for the economical use of either horses or locomo- 

 tives, was in accordance with the views advanced 

 by Stephenson thirty-three years before ; but so 

 many and so obvious are the advantages of cable 

 traction, as demonstrated by the Clay Street and 

 other roads, that it is rapidly taking the place of 

 horses on level streets ; and it is even being urged 

 as a substitute for the locomotive on the London 

 underground railways, as well as in other places 

 where the smoke, noise, and gases of the" locomo- 

 tive are objectionable. Among the advantages of 

 the system are, its applicability to steep grades as 

 well as to levels, the ease and gentleness with 



Fig. 4. 



tion was made until 1873, In that year what may 

 be termed the ' modern ' cable-railway was intro- 

 duced, the first application of it being made on 

 the Clay Street hill road in San Francisco, Cal, 

 This road was about half a mile long, on a narrow 

 street, with grades of one foot in five and a half 

 feet. That road has been in continuous operation 

 ever since. 



It will be seen that this first application of the 



Fig. 5. 



which cars may be stopped and started, the uni- 

 formity of speed, its comparative noiselessness, its 

 almost unlimited capability as regards increase of 

 carrying capacity, and the absence of the unclean- 

 liness, unavoidable, both on the streets and at the 

 stables, wherever horses are used. Although the 

 use of horses for many purposes in cities can 

 never be entirely dispensed with, — iinless in such 

 a place as Venice, — the more general use of a 

 mechanical motive pow^er for street-railways 

 would greatly lessen their number. 



The cable system consists of an endless steel or 

 iron wire rope, moving continuously in a slotted 

 tube placed beneath the surface of the street and 

 between the rails. The rope is supported at in- 

 tervals by pulleys, depressed by smaller pulleys at 



