130 Description of improved Tram- Plates 



like a beautiful stream, the course of which mav be easily 

 followed when it has acquired a certain regularity, but if we 

 wish to ascend to its source, we shall find it in no parti- 

 cular spot, because it is diffused everywhere; it is spread 

 in some measure over the whole surface of the earth : in the 

 same way if we wish to ascend to the origin of the sciences, 

 we find nothing but obscurity, vague ideas, and vitiated 

 circles ; and we are lost in primary ideas. 



JHf== r __^ = . - ,, ■ . 



XXI T. Description of improved Tram-Plates for Carriages 

 071, Rail Roads. By Mr. Charles Le Caan, ofLlanelly, 



J J ales*. 



J. have forwarded to the Society of Arts, &c. a specimen of 

 my new method of laying rails, or tram-plates, on such a 

 plan as has met the entire approbation of those who have 

 seen it, and are acquainted with the principle on which such 

 roads should be formed. Rail roads are daily increasing, 

 from the great advantage they afford to those manufactories 

 connected with mines and minerals, particularly to collieries. 

 They also promote agriculture, by occasioning lime to be 

 procured from places almost inaccessible by any other means, 

 or, from whence it could be otherwise brought on moderate 

 terms. 



I have also sent a drawing of my method of laying the 

 tram-plates, with an estimate of the saving that will arise to 

 the public by adopting the said method, with necessary re- 

 marks on the principle on which it is founded. The lead- 

 ing rail or tram- plate has neither tenon nor mortise over the 

 plug. The stop-plate terminates the specimen, which stop- 

 plate should go in with some degree of tightness when laid 

 for actual use, but in the present case that force is not ne- 

 cessary, as the wooden blocks, by a carriage of upwards of 

 200 miles, may in some small degree be misplaced. I hope 



* From Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts t Manvfac- 

 tare*, and Commerce, for 1807. TweHty guineas were voted for this com- 

 munication. 



1 any 



