526 



SCIENCE. 



ELECTRIC RAILROADS IN PARIS. 



The visitors at the Electrical Exhibition can see a very 

 fine model in bronze, surmounted by very beautiful de- 

 signs, which represents an electric elevated railroad. This 

 model is placed in the large aisle very near the pavilion of 

 the City of Paris. It is in miniature a part of the new system 

 of railroads which should be constructed over all the great 

 streets of the capital in order to lessen the nnmber of en- 

 cumbrances and to supply the want of locomotive means 

 of which the whole city justly complains. M. J. 

 Chretien, the inventor of the new system, proposes its im- 

 mediate application to all the great boulevards. 



Electricity has indisputable advantages over other 

 methods of locomotion. It is an economic method which 

 can produce very slow as well as very rapid motion, which 

 causes no noise or smoke, and which only allows the use 

 of light vehicles and, consequently, the laying of unob- 

 structive tracks. The building of electric railroads in 

 places where business is most active, will have the 

 double result of freeing the public roads of obstructions 

 and of giving to the public sufficient means of trans- 

 portation. 



The following details we borrow from a pamphlet 

 published by M. J. Chretien entitled " Chemin de fer 

 electrique des boulevards." The electric road is a double- 

 railed viaduct supported 

 by a row of columns 

 spaced about forty or 

 fifty metres from each 

 other, and placed in the 

 middle of the road. A 

 central hollow beam 

 rests on the columns and 

 carries all the load ; it 

 runs the whole length of 

 the boulevard, at a height 

 varying from five to 

 seven metres above the 

 earth in order to com- 

 pensate for the irregu- 

 larities of the ground. 

 On each side of the beam 

 the rails are placed, rest- 

 ing on a metallic plat- 

 form, so that there is one 

 on the right and another 

 on the left. 



The stations, twelve in 

 number.are placed about 

 500 metres from each 



Fig. 3.— Section of 



other, and we can ascend by a very convenient staircase, 

 placed either over the sidewalk or over the pavement. 

 For the station most elevated above the ground, electric 

 elevators are provided for the use of those who wish to 

 ascend. It can even be said that it is easier to take the 

 electric road than to ride in an omnibus. 



Two works for the supply of the motive force are 

 placed under the ground. Each of these works consists 

 of steam engines to furnish the motive force and Gramme 

 dynamo-electric machines to produce the electric cur- 

 rents, when they are set in motion by the steam engines. 



The electricity thus produced is transmitted through 

 the whole length of the road by conducting wires, and 

 distributed to the various carriages. These are put in 

 motion by means of electric machines, which each of them 

 carries, and which receive, through the conducting wires, 

 the electricity necessary to attain the speed required. 



Thanks to very simple means, applications of electricity, 

 there can be no collisions, no accidents of any kind ; the 

 motions are easier than in the ordinary railroad, and the 

 carriages can regulate their speed with remarkable pre- 

 cision. 



The speed is about 350 to 400 metres a minute, that is 

 to say, the speed of a good trotting horse; with this speed, 

 and reckoning a half minute for the mean time of stop- 



page at station, the whole length of the road, which is 

 4500 metres, can be traversed in about 17 or 18 minutes. 

 This is half the time of an ordinary omnibus. 



According to the ideas which we draw from the pamph- 

 let spoken of, the capacity for transportation of the elec- 

 tric road is so great, that we with some difficulty accept 

 the given figures, while it is easy to try the exactness of 

 them. Thus, every minute a carriage, with places for 50, 

 passes each station ; so that, if the carriages are always 

 full, there will be 100 persons carried each minute in the 

 two directions, and if we take account of the additions dur- 

 ing the journey, we will have about twice as much ; that 

 is about 200 persons every minute, or 12000 per hour. But 

 it is possible to still increase the carrying capacity, and to 

 reach the maximum corresponding to the trip of two car- 

 riages joined together, at intervals of a minute. We will 

 arrive, in this case, to the colossal figure of 24000 persons 

 an hour. Although these figures appear more than suffi- 

 cient, it is certain, for those who know the activity at cer- 

 tain times upon the boulevards, that there are times when 

 everybody cannot find room without waiting. 



From the given estimate, the total expense necessary 

 for the construction of the road, will only be from eight to 

 ten millions, according to the greater or less magnificence 

 necessary to construct a work of this importance in the 



centre of such a city as 

 Paris. 



Assuming an expense 

 of eight millions, it is 

 calculated that the price 

 of a seat can be fixed at 

 ten centimes, to realize 

 profits large enough to 

 pay the city an annual 

 revenue of a million or a 

 million and a half, with- 

 out asking any subsidy 

 whatever. The electric 

 road has then as its sev- 

 eral results, the furnish- 

 ing the means of an agree- 

 able, easy and economic 

 locomotion, the satisfying 

 the demands of a great 

 traffic, which is growing- 

 day by day, and the sup- 

 plying of an important 

 revenue to the city, while 

 still the price of a seat is 

 the Proposed Road. kept at ten cen times. 



In regard to the appearance of the road, which has a 

 great importance in such a city as Paris, where art has 

 never been too much sacrificed, it will certainly be seen, 

 after a careful examination of the given designs and the 

 engravings, that it is possible to give an artistic char- 

 acter to this work. Such as it is represented, the 

 elevated road lacks neither strength nor magnificence ; it 

 is in the modern style, which alone is becoming to a work 

 which our ancestors never dreamed of. It has been sug- 

 gested besides, that, in order to fully satisfy the artistic 

 demands, a competition should be opened to all architects 

 and artists; and this would certainly lead to excellent results. 



The utility and advantage of the electric road cannot be 

 disputed ; that it should exist is obvious, and the proposed 

 work leaves nothing to be desired. This splendid work 

 will certainly be accomplished, but perseverance and labor 

 are necessary in order to vanquish all resistance, routine, 

 and inertia, against which it would otherwise be fatally in- 

 jured. — Translated from La Nature. 



Chloral Hydrate in Toothache.— Dr. Spbrer 

 recommends that three to four lumps of hydrate of chlo- 

 ral (0.03-0.06 gram), should be inserted into the hollow 

 and painful tooth, the chloral being allowed to dissolve. — 

 St. Petersburg, Med. Wochenschrift. 



