iSyi.] Engineering. 547 



British Association. After tracing the history of the Festiniog Railway, and 

 the labours of the Commission which came over from Russia last year to 

 investigate the subject of communications in this country, Mr. Fairlie pro- 

 ceeded to consider the false economy of the present system of railway traffic 

 management. " I think," he says, " no more striking illustration of the error 

 of our present system can be conceived than is afforded by the daily practice 

 of a magnificent company like the London and North Western Railway, who, 

 at the present moment, be it remembered, have commenced to double the 

 width of their road through press of business, yet who are sending out daily, 

 and daily receiving, at Euston Square, some 4400 passengers in carriages 

 which contain sitting accommodation for 13,500, and who carry their 

 enormous freight in increments, averaging less than one ton, in waggons 

 having six times that capacity." Taking into consideration the real require- 

 ments of traffic, Mr. Fairlie comes to the conclusion that " the conditions 

 under which a railway should be laid out to meet these requirements are 

 clearly not those which rule the present system ; ample experience proves the 

 contrary, showing that no line, however full of business, can be worked to its 

 full capacity. We are led, then, unmistakably to a narrow gauge, to the 

 adoption of passenger-carriages which shall be filled, of waggons which shall 

 be almost fully loaded, and of weight which shall bear a reasonable proportion 

 to their capacity, and we are led to the adoption of very long trains and 

 powerful engines." 



Traction Engines. — The adoption of traction engines for farm purposes, and 

 of road steamers for short traffic purposes on our high roads, is gaining con- 

 siderably in favour, and each year adds to the purposes for which these engines 

 prove their capacity. At the recent show of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 at Wolverhampton, competitive trials took place between engines construded 

 by different makers, and the various forms of wheel-tyres — -elastic and non- 

 elastic — were amongst the most interesting features connected with them. 

 A paper on the subject of " Road Steamers " was read by Mr. R. W. Thomson, 

 before Section G of the British Association, in which the trials at Wolver- 

 hampton were referred to, besides other evidences of the uses to which these 

 engines are now applied with advantage. The question of traction engines or 

 steam locomotives to work on common roads is of much more ancient date 

 than railways ; the difficulties that had to be overcome, however, proved at 

 that date too great, and they were for the time set on one side in favour of 

 railways. These latter, however, failed to supply certain local requirements, 

 and engineers again set to work to produce a suitable road engine. At one 

 time it was found that the rough road broke the machinery, and the engine 

 was then made so heavy that it destroyed the road ; and when it was found 

 that the surface of the ground would offer no hold to the wheels, the wheels in 

 revenge, as it were, were provided with claws which gripped the ground, but 

 tore it woefully. Mr. Boydell then followed with his endless rails, which, 

 though a scientific solution of the difficulty, failed in practice. Mr. Thomson 

 then adopted elastic tyres, and by surrounding the wheels with solid india- 

 rubber, 4 inches or 5 inches in depth, succeeded in overcoming in some 

 degree the evils attending inequalities of road-surface, and making it a 

 matter almost of indifference whether the road be hard or soft ; the only 

 kinds of soil on which the india-rubber tyres cannot work being ground so soft 

 as to flow away from under the wheel, or wet clay, which has a tendency to 

 ball upon the wheels, and so impede the action of the india-rubber. When 

 used for farm purposes the width of the tyre is an important consideration ; 

 it has been found that an engine weighing nearly 7 tons, mounted on tyres 

 9 inches wide, could not move itself over a damp, heavy clay field ; whilst an 

 engine weighing 6| tons, but mounted on tyres 12 inches wide, was not only 

 able to travel itself with ease over this field, but was also able to haul the 

 engine with narrow tyres and a 3-furrow plough, which was attached to the 

 narrow-tyred engine in such a way that it could not be easily removed. 



VOL. VIII. (O-S.) — VOL. I, (N.S.) 4 B 



