468 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
The next road built on the cable principle was the California Street Road 
which traverses the steepest street in San Francisco, the grade being 500 feet in 
12,000. This has given easy access to property which previously was of little 
•value, but is also the site of the palatial residences of ex-Governor Leland Stan- 
ford, Mrs. Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker, costing $1,000,000 each. The 
■next street supplied with the cable system was Geary Street, a comparatively 
level thoroughfare, but one of the most populous in the city. Its length is 13,- 
200 feet, and it possesses two elevations of 350 and 280 feet respectively. The 
Presidio and Ferries Cable Road has a five-foot gauge, and 10,000 feet of double 
track ascending one hill 246 feet above its starting point in a distance of 5,000 
feet, one portion being an up-grade 78 feet in 412, or i in 5 3-10. The grip is 
the same used on Clay Street, but made heavier. A road has been built under 
these patents in the City of Dupedin, New Zealand, 3,500 feet long, which ascends 
500 feet in that distance. It has a single track line, with two turnouts or sidings, 
both parts of the rope running in opposite directions in one tube except at turn- 
outs. It has two curves of 215 feet radius forming an 8. 
The Chicago City Railroad Company's cable line in State Street is 47-10 
miles long, with double track five-foot gauge, and runs on a very busy street, 
almost level. The president of the road says, in reply to the question how the 
system worked last winter during cold weather and snows : " We have run 
smoothly and without the loss of a single trip during the entire winter, although 
the frost, by actual measurement, penetrated the ground five feet six inches, with 
heavy snows and hard rains, the mercury dropping to' 29° below zero." 
THE KANSAS CITY CABLE RAILWAY. 
This road will be the first duplicate cable railway built and operated in the 
world. All cable roads that have been built are operated by a single cable, 
which, if through accident, becomes broken or unsafe, causes a cessation of travel 
until the damage is repaired. The breaking of cables through carelessness in 
.grip-men unacquainted with exact manipulations of the grip, in Chicago during 
the first year of its operation, caused many vexatious delays, and until the cable 
was again repaired travel was entirely stopped. These delays cannot occur with 
duplicate cables, as there is a duplication of machinery throughout the entire length 
of the road. One cable remains idle while the other is in motion propelling the 
cars; if this cable becomes fractured or damaged it is stopped and the other 
cable is put in motion, which in turn propels the cars, until the damage is repaired 
or as long as may be desired. The cost too, is very much greater than that of 
single cable roads. 
This road has also another peculiar feature, the westerly portion being an 
elevated structure built entirely of wrought iron. At or near the Union Depot 
over Union Avenue an elevated station or waiting-room is to be built, similar in de- 
sign and construction to to those of the elevated roads in New York City. From 
