•April 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL 
INTERESTING NEW TROPICAL PLANTS. 
The new orchid, Loelio-Cattleya, called after 
the Empress of Russia, is a hybrid between 
the Cattleya Mendeli and Loelia Digbyana. 
A single plant sold in England for £200. It 
is the result of skilled experiments by Maron, 
and attracted much attention at tlae Paris 
Exhibition. 
Another new plant is the red banana with 
purple foliage, discovered at the Catholic 
Mission of Brazzaville, and found elsewhere 
in the French Congo. The fruit is long, with- 
out seed, and good for making fritters. The 
plant is highly ornamental, and is likely to 
figure in European gardens or conservatories. 
Of new flowering shrubs the Rhododendron 
Halopeanum, a hybrid with rosy white hlos 
soms, is notable, but requires a mild climate 
like that of South or Central France. The 
Dahlia " President Viewer," produced at the 
Lyons Botanical Garden, is likely to found 
a new race. — Globe, March 1. 
THE ^RIAL STEEL ROPE TRAMWAY. 
ON THE KAN AN DEVAN HILLS. 
{Communicated. ) 
So many enquiries have been made about the 
Ropeway recently erected from the Plains to the 
KananDevan Hills Produce Company's property in 
North Travancore chat the following note.s are pen- 
ned in che hope they will interest your readers and 
answer the enquiries that have been made from 
time to time. 
The first Ropeway line surveyed was about .'si.'c 
miles long and the country was very difficult, 
added to which one span was about 2.700 feet 
which, as any one acquainted with Ropeways 
knows, greatly lessens a rope's efficiency because 
the weight of the rope itself between the sto.nd- 
ards, 2,700 feet apart, would have been nearly 
1^ ton, whereas with the present longest span be- 
tween of 1,400 feet, the weight of the rope between 
the standards is about f of a ton and the difference 
(f of a ton) can be carried in line load (i.e., goods; 
instead of the strength of the installation being 
expended carrying its own weight. Another dis- 
advantage of this line was that part of it was 
very flat and part very steep so tiiat there would 
have been a continual variation of the load on 
the driving motors when heavy load.s left the 
flatter portions and got on to tHe Rtee|)er ones. 
The apparent difficulties of this line decided me 
to try a new trace and it was laid in following 
pretty closely an old cooly track with tlie result 
that we got a line 2'6 miles long at a com]"!.Tra- 
tively even gradient touching a point at the foot 
of the ghaut to which a railway could conveniently 
he brought and a point near the top of the ghisut 
to which a cart road or tramway could be brought 
and we had then got the .'skeleton of a complete 
scheme which has gradually been fiiled in. 
From the end of the old cart road on the plains, 
a railway trace was laid — 10 miles long, 4^ of 
which ran over the plains and 51 ran into a 
narrow valley with grades from one in 80 to one 
in 25 for the last three miles and curves of I'.iO 
feet radiu.s. The bridges are all steel structures 
running up to 60 feet long and safely capable 
of carrying narrow-gauge engines tind the con- 
cession granted by the Indian Government to a 
AGfilJtL'tUrJST. 701 
Madras Firm (Messrs. Wilson & Co.), for the 
eonstruction of a narrow gauge railway from 
Aiyanayakannur toUtamapalium includes a branch 
to the foot of the Ropeway. From the top 
terminus of the Ropevvay some 40 miles of cart 
road and tramways have been cut stretching to 
Muqiiar and in various directions therefrom, tap- 
pinij the Company's e-tates and factories. 
These tramways and roads, the former especially, 
a Ewing's one-rail tram, may form the subject of a 
separate monograph ; but for the pre.sent we will 
'return to our muttons' and deal with 
THF ROPEWAY ALONE. 
The distance between the upper and lower 
Termini is 2*6 miles, the difference in elevation 
4,000 feet; the steep country is naturally \>ery rough 
and the lower half a very deadly climate. 
The first thing we did was to cut a 5-feet 
bridle patli approximately along the Eope line to 
transportthe material for the Ropeway construction 
along. Estimates were called for from the most emi- 
nent English and local Ropeway Engineers, but not 
one would undertake its erection in this deadly 
gliaui (which showed their wisdom, as events 
proved) and an otter was made to the Directors to 
desian, construct and erect the Ropeway locally 
if they would not hold the worker responsible 
for any failure, and if they would not protect 
themselves by engaging a competent Consulting 
Engineer, and to this they agreed, and the work 
was placed in the hands of Mr. W Kemlo, whose 
great ability and training under Lord Kelvin 
marked him out for the task. One of first diffi- 
culties was how to drive the horse-power 
to be provided (and in this connection the differ- 
ence in horse-power considered necessary by two 
great Ropeway Firms was very striking). An- 
other point to be decided was the form of Ropeway, 
whether of the fixed Rope type, or a moving 
rope carrying its own loads. After great con- 
sideration it was decided that the latter form 
would be the more anxt^hle, provided (/rips could 
be desiiyned which would be effective on su?h a 
steep Ropeway. Believing that we could design 
what was wanted the plans were prepared. 
In order to keep the driving station in as healthy 
a point as practicable we put it half way up 
the rope, and divided the Ropeway into two 
halves at this point, the reasons for the latter being: 
(1) that if a breakdown occured at any time on one 
half of the rope, the other one half could still go on 
working and, (secondly) had the whole 2*6 miles of 
Ropeway running down 4,000 feet vertical been in 
one ]iiece, the wear on the rope at the upper end 
and on the gear there, due to the weight of the 
rope itself, would have been very excessive. 
The next point we decided on was the driving 
arrangements and as at a convenient point we 
were able to get in Beeton wheels, having a 
vertical fall ot water operating them of over 
700 feet and developing 100 H.P., we fixed this 
as the Pov/er Station and transmitted the power 
through a ^S E.H. P. Dynamo one mile over 
a thin cable to the Centre Station where the 
motor in its turn operates the Ropeway. By 
actual results the whole Ropeway requires on'y 
about 20 HP. to drive it, full of lofui.-', 
at two miles an hour, but of course the power 
required is greatly regulated by the amount of 
up or doivn loads at any given time. The 
dynamo is ca))able of driving it fully loaded 
on the up going side only at two miles au 
hour. To save risks of accident we put in du^ 
plicated peltons, dynamos and motors. 
