Ci:ysta/ Pahrce Pneumatic Raikcwv.—A pneumatic system for the con veyance of passengers has been put in operation at the Crystal Palace, Sydenhain, London. The following data respecting this railway are given by Knight: The line is laid between the Sydenham entrance and the armory near Penge Gate. The tube is a simple brick tunnel 9 feet high and S feet wide. It is about a third of a mile long, with several sharp curves, and very little of it is level, one incline being in r5. The size of the tube renders it capable of receiving an ordinary railway-carriage. The piston is provided with a fringe of bristles, which forms between it and the walls of the tunnel an elastic packing sufficiently air-tight for the purpose required. A fan zo feet in diameter is employed to exhaust or force the air. The entire distance, six hundred yards, is traversed in fifty seconds with an atmospheric pressure of only two and a half ounces.
Beach Pneunzatic the United States the use of the pneu matic despatch for the conveyance of letters, parcels, etc., is very general. A section of pneumatic railway intended for freight and passenger service on the plan devised by E. A. Beach of New York was laid a number of years ago under Broadway in that city, but continued in use only a short time. The Beach system embraced special devices for the delivery of let ters and parcels at intermediate stations along the line. The interior of the car is shown on Plate 37 (fig. 2).
recent years, a number of mountain-railways, notably for the convenience of tourists, have been con structed, and to overcome the very 5teep gradients special modifications of the motor and of the track have been introduced. In the system devised by Fell (AL 26,figs. 24, 25) a hig-11 central rail is laid between the two ordinary rails. Upon this central rail, pressed against it by springs, run the four horizontal driving-wheels of the locomotive. By this artifice the adhesion of the engine to the rails is increased and it is enabled to over come the steep gradients. The amount of pressure thrown on the centre rail by the driving-wheels is under the control of the engine-driver. Besides the ordinary brake mechanism applied to the vertical wheels, a special form of safety-brake operating as a clamping device is employed together with the centre rail. This system, after a successful experi mental trial on the inclined plane of the CroMford and High Peak Rail way, was put in operation during the construction of the Mont Cenis tun nel, in connection with the temporary railway constructed from St. Michael over Mont Cenis to Susa. The average gradient of this road, some thirty miles in length, was r : 25.6, the maximum being r : 12. The radius of
the curves was as low as 13o feet. The gauge of the track was 3 feet SY inches. The railway occupied 13 feet of a pre-existing roadway, whose course it followed, the unoccupied portion being left free for the common road-traffic. The locomotive had two axles spaced 7Y, feet apart, and weighed, when loaded, twenty-two tons. Railways upon this system have been constructed in Brazil.
ifottill Washington zmy. —What is believed to be the first moun tain-railway operated by locomotive power is that constructed up the slope of Mount Washing-ton, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire 34,fig. 3). It was built after the plans of Sylvester Marsh, and was designed to afford the great throngs of summer visitors a convenient mode of ascending to the summit, some 6000 feet above sea-lex-el. In 1866 a short piece of experimental track was laid up the lower slope of the moun tain, and an engine WaS built to attempt the ascent. It proved successful, and in 1869 the road was completed to the summit; in the same year it was opened for traffic, and has continued in service to the present time.
The road-bed of the Mount Washington Railway is mainly a trestle work of timber cut from the forest of spruce that covers the lower slopes of the mountain. The rails are of the ordinary strap pattern, laid on longi tudinal timbers, with a gauge of 4 feet. In the middle of the track a third longitudinal timber is securely fastened and surmounted with a heavy rack-rail, into which steel pillions engage from the engine and car. The motive-power is a locomotive engine working through countershafts and pinions into this central rack. Iron pendants from engine and car with flanges turning under the longitudinal timbers are provided to guard against the accident of the lifting of the train from the track by the wind or other cause; and by a combination of atmospheric brakes and brake straps on the pinion-shafts the train can be stopped under all emergencies. The engine is placed behind the car in ascending and retains this position in descending. It has an upright boiler and a horizontal cylinder; its weight is about seven tons. The car of the ordinary American pattern, but about one-half the usual size, and the seats are hung on stirrups, so that they shall retain their horizontal position under all circumstances. The len,gth of this railway is about three miles, and the time required for ascending or descending is about one hour. The maximum grade is 17oo feet to the mile, and the average is 13oo feet:to the mile. This railway was the prototype of the Vitznau Railway, Switzerland, next to be described.