THE KANSAS CITY CABLE RAILWAY. 545 



over this distance, which amounts to forty feet, by momentum acquired from the 

 cable before reaching the vault. This occurs on the south track only. 



The cable is one and one- quarter inches in diameter, made from Swedish 

 iron wire. It is capable of resisting a strain of thirty tons. There is a total length 

 in both cables of forty-four thousand feet. It is expected that this cable will have 

 to be replaced within eighteen months from the opening of the road. 



Many people have been at a loss to know how the cable is prevented from 

 impinging against the upper side of the tube or tunnel below the street in the 

 depressions along the line, and at points where grades change from a level to a 

 comparatively steep grade. It must be remembered that the cable is very much 

 heavier than a string, its weight being two and a half pounds per lineal foot. 

 When the ordinary tension is on the cable and an average number of grips with 

 their loaded cars attached are being propelled by it, the deflection between the 

 carrying-pulleys, which are thirty-five feet apart, is about two inches. It would 

 be impossible with any power to cause the cable to assume a straight line from 

 one hill to the other, and before \\it sag or deflection could be gotten out, it 

 would break in two. The cable leaves the engine-house with a strain of about 

 one ton and returns to it with about five tons (approximately), doing its maximum 

 work, and the total weight of one cable is about twenty-eight tons. Where it is 

 necessary at the depressions referred to depression-pulleys are placed which hold 

 the cable down, and when the grip passes the cable is pressed down six inches 

 below these pulleys; thus the grip avoids contact with them. 



The maximum grades on various roads are as follows : 



Clay Street, San Francisco 16 feet in 100 feet. 



California St., " 18 " 100 " 



Suter St., " 8.7 '' 100 " 



Geary St., " 9.8 '•' 100 " 



Ninth St, Kansas City ...... 18.3 " • 100 " 



Chicago City, State St (about level.) 



The power developed in operating cable railways is usually proportioned as 

 follows : 



For moving cable 51 percent. 



For moving cars . 46 " 



For moving passengers 3 " 



The power-station or engine-house is located at the corner of 9th and Wash- 

 ington Streets, and has a frontage on the latter street of ninety feet and on the 

 former of 144 feet, two stories and basement. The east room is the boiler-room, 

 and is separated from the engine-room by a brick partition wall; the floor is thir- 

 ty-two feet below the street grade. One battery of boilers, after the Ferminicle 

 patent, twenty feet in height, occupying a floor space of twelve feet by twenty 

 feet, have their fire fronts facing 9th Street. The boiler settings are especially 

 attractive, being laid up with Philadelphia pressed brick, with a bold projecting 



