On Rail - Roads . 
m 
regular and easy descent with which the rails were laid. 
It was not until the year 1738 that this improvement was 
introduced at the Whitehaven colleries. Afterwards, 
attempts were made in different parts to introduce cast- 
iron instead of wooden rail- ways, but, owing to the great 
weight of the waggons then in use, these attempts did not 
succeed. 
About the year 1768, a remedy was contrived for the 
principal objection to cast iron nil-ways ; namely, the 
making use of several small waggons linked together, 
instead of one large one ; thus diffusing the weight over 
a greater surface of the road, and consequently throw- 
ing less stress on any one part of it. Soon after the 
year 1797? they began to be constructed as branches 
to canals : since that period they have rapidly increased, 
and their great utility is now unquestionably estab- 
lished. 
As on canals, locks are required in order to raise the 
vessels from a lower to a higher level, and vice versa ; so, 
on rail-ways, what are called inclined jj lanes are often 
necessary to attain the difference of level. 
These inclined planes are generally, compared with 
the rest of the rail- way, very steep. A perpetual chain 
raises and lowers the waggons. It is so contrived, that 
the waggons disengage themselves the moment they ar- 
rive at the upper or lower extremity of the inclined plane. 
In some cases, the laden waggons descending serve as 
a power to bring up the empty ones ; but where there is 
an ascending as well as a descending traffic on the rail- 
way, steam engines, water wheels, or other machines to 
answer the same purpose, are used. At Chapel le Frith, 
there is an inclined plane about 550 yards long, so that 
the chain extended is, of course, more than double that 
length. 
