270 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
of rope or chain will compensate; for then the animal 
power diminishes as the distance from the inertia of re¬ 
sistance increases—another objection, to be taken into 
account hereafter. 
“ Moreover the traction horse, or horses, will be always 
pulling oblique to the railway line of direction, like as on 
canals, which obliquity will cause considerable increase of 
friction, also, on the fore-wheels of the first, in any train 
thus producing additional resistance, far from inconsi¬ 
derable The power of a horse is reckoned equal to five 
men ; or, he can raise 1000 pounds 35 feet a minute ; but 
this power diminishes as the speed accelerates If that 
power is assumed at JuO, and at a rate of two miles per 
hour; then, with a 6peed of five miles in the same time, 
his force will be only 50. 
“ So, taking into consideration all the disadvantages 
enumerated, the power of a horse cannot be estimated at 
more than 40, or raising 400 pounds 53 feet a minute— 
thus requiring more than double the number necessary 
to work a common tramway, for working the single 
railway. 
“ Then why not try steam for a motive power? I ask 
why not ? Without the least intention of detracting from 
the proposed scheme, but desiring further information 
for us, simple country folks, in what way most effective, 
the new Railway is intended to be conducted. 
“ It may not be credited that I and hundreds more 
that much maligued order called Squatters, are anxiou* 
to see cheap internal communication, uot merely pro¬ 
posed but set going. The tale may be scarcely believed 
in Sydney generally, much as they gulp down, per con¬ 
tra, but so *• of a truth It is.” Now, the distance be 
tween Grafton and Armidale. of 125 miles, offers advan¬ 
tages for constructing such a line of railway as proposed, 
far superior to any others in the colony—for ehoice timber 
of various kinds can easily be obtained about midway, 
and 1 am ready with statistics to shew that the traffic, even 
during the first year, would, yield 8 per cent., and pay all 
working and other expenses incident to a horse-traction 
tramway. 
“ What may be the cost of the new pattern goes beyond 
my arithmetic. 
ROBERT MESTON 
Clarence, Rocky River, Feb. 15, 185S. 
EXTRACTS. 
Improved Ships’ Masts. —It is well known that 
wooden masts soon decay about the head, and down to 
the hounds and the truss hoop, in consequence of lodg¬ 
ments of moisture at such parts, induced by the cap, 
the tigging, and tho top, It is also well known that 
iron masts are objectionable, on account of their rigi- 
ditv, the difficulty of cutting them away to save a ship, 
&c’ Mr. J* Brown, a inastmaker, of Liverpool, pro¬ 
poses to obviate these objections as follows;—He makes 
the top of the mast, from the cap to the truss hoop, in 
the form of a tube, of wrought iron, similar to an ordi¬ 
nary iron mast, and continues the metal downwards in 
the form of four tapered arms. The lower part of the 
mast is entirely of wood, and the upper end of it is fitted 
into the tube as far as the hounds, where it abuts against 
a itrcn-T iron cross plate formed in the tube. The 
tapered arms fit close to the wooden portion of the 
mast, to which they are securely fixed by iron hoops or 
otherwise.— Mechanics. Magazine., No. 17C6. 
Tuxford' s Traction Engine. —At the Smithfield 
Club Show, and the Agricultural Machinery exhibited 
there in 1857, we noticed the Portable Steam Engine 
of the M essrs. Tuxford and Sons, of Boston, Lincoln¬ 
shire •, this beins the third year this eminent firm have 
held the first prize of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England. The .Messrs. Tuxford and Sons were tho 
pioneers of farmers’ portable engines and combined 
thrashing-machines, and are now engaged in developing 
a new feature in agricultural mechanics—the Traction 
Engine, or Steam Horse—a sort of walking leviathan, 
more powerful than the elephant, yet as manageable as 
the farmm's best-bred cavt-liorse. A number of these 
self-moving machines are in course of construction, or 
are already completed, for some extensive sugar plan¬ 
tations in the IVest Indies. Sefior I’laciile Gener. of 
Mantanzas, Cuba, a large landed proprietor and sugar- 
planter of that island, who holds the exclusive right 
tor tho introduction of the traction-engine into the 
Spanish West Imlies, has been for some time in Eng¬ 
land superintending the manufacture of several of the 
engines, which he intends for ploughing, for drawing 
in cars the produce of the field /or the mill, for carry¬ 
ing tho sugar from the mill to a railway some miles 
distant, and also for working as stationary engines when 
not otherwise employed. In appearance, the traction- 
engine has a massiveness which, at first sight, leads to 
, an inference that, from its weight, it is not adapted for 
travelling across grass-lands, or over light soils. The 
reverse is the fact; the slippers or shoes, with the raih 
upon them, which are attached to the wheels, and 
over which the wheels themselves travel, offer to the 
surface of the land an aiea, with the whole weight 
of the engine upon them, twice as great as that 
presented by the feet of either horses or oxen when 
walking with their proportionate weight. Hence the 
simple downward pressure, or sinking into the soil, 
ol' the traction-engine will be only one-half of that of 
horses or oxen, when any' of them are employed for 
traction purposes. This is an important fact, and must 
be borne in mind by every one before expressing an 
opinion as to the fitness or nouadaptation of so massive 
a machine for agricultural purposes. The very weight 
itself is essential for obtaining the end desired. r With a 
heavy load behind it, and without a given weight upon 
the land from the engine as a resistance, the power of 
tho engine would be expended without any forward 
movement. The action of the endless railway-wheels is 
precisely that of walking; the slipper being the foot, 
its heel first touches tho ground, and tho too last; the 
cycloidal iron at its apex forms the ankle, and the nave 
of the wheel the knee. The wheel, in its revolution, 
brings down six of these feet, to which there is but one 
common knee, tho centre or nave* It is not so much 
to this endless railway that attention bore need be 
directed, as the credit of its invention belongs to Air. 
Boydell; but it is to the mechanical combination by 
which the Messrs, Tuxford have been able to make 
these rail way-wheels signally' successful with steam- 
power. The difficulty' hitherto experienced in making 
turns when travelling to either side has, in this engine, 
been surmounted ; and the power from the two cylin¬ 
ders can be given off equally' to each of the impelling- 
wheels, or a greater power given to one and a less to 
the other, or either of the wheels can be detached from 
the power instantaneously, and without the least shock or 
jar. This engine weighs altogether about twelve tons. 
—Illustrated London News's* o. 893. 
Anesthetics Destroying Insects.— Marshal Yail- 
lant has communicated to the Trench Academy of 
Sciences, a paper by Mr. Doyfere, on the curious and 
important fact that Anesthetics—as ether, chloroform, 
&cL_tave the power of destroying all kinds of insects 
injurious to the preservation of com. Experiments on 
a largo ecale were made at Algiers by order of the 
Minister of War ; and M. Dovere states as the result, 
that two grammes of chloroform *per metrical quintal of 
wheat are sufficient to destroy every' insect in the silos 
(com pits hermetically closed, common both in Algeria 
and Italy) in the course of four or five days. Five 
grammes of sulphuret of carbon will effect the same in 
twenty-four hours. Not only the insects, hut even the 
larvte inside the grains are completely extirpated ; and 
the corn, after being shovel ltd four or five times in the 
open air, does not retain a trace of the operation. 
Cattle will eat the barley thus treated even while still 
infected with the odour, and without any injurious 
effect. 
