Tclpherage system of wire-rope transmission, known as " telpherage," in which electricity is the inotive-power, has lately been. devised by the English electrician Fleeming Jenkin (fig. 4). Pro fessor Jenkin has proposed this system as a substitute for the overhead Ivire-rope system just described, which the fixed portion of the telpher line generally resemblts. In the telpherage system, however, the line is immovable, and the carriages are driven by simple electrical appliances. Like the travelling wire-rope system, the telpherage system inay be employed with advantage for the conveyance of minerals, ores, etc., from mines or quarries to shipping-stations at inoderate distances (from one to twenty miles), and where canals or railways do not exist it affords a cheap method of inland conveyance for raw products and goods when these are of such a nature that they may be divided into parcels of one, two, or three hundredweight.
Telpher Line at telpher system has been practically introduced at Glynde, in England, where a line about one mile in length Ivas put in operation in rSS5 to carry clay from the pit to the.nearest rail way-station. It consists of a series of posts spaced 6o feet apart and fur nished with two lines of steel rods supported by cross-beads at the posts. Each of these lines carries a train, one being the " " and the other the " down-line." The line is divided into electrical sections, and each section, having a length of 12o feet, is insulated from its neighbor. The line wire is supported at the posts by cast-iron saddles curved so as to facilitate the passage of the wheels over the point of support. Each alter nate section is insulated from the ground, and all the insulated sections are in electrical connection with one another, as likewise are all the uninsu latecl sections.
The train is rzo feet long—the same length as that of a section. It consists of a series of seven buckets and a motor, which are kept evenly spaced by the interposition of distance-pieces of ash. Each buck-et will transport a load of two and one-half hundredweight, and the bucket—or "skip," as it is called—weighs, with its load, three hundredweight. The weig,rlit of the motor is three hundredweight. The skips are suspended below the line, from one or from two V-shaped wheels, being supported by arms, which are curved out sideways to clear the supports at the posts.
The motor on the locomotive also hangs below the line, being supported on two broad, flat wheels and driven by two horizontal gripping-wheels.
A wire connects one pole of the motor with the leading wheel of the train, and a second wire connects the other pole with the trailing wheel; the other wheels are insulated from one another. Thus the train, wherever it stands, bridges a gap separating the insulated from the uninsulated sec tion. The insulated sections are supplied with an electric current from a dynamo driven by a stationary engine, and the current, passing from the insulated to the uninsuIated section through the motor, drives the locomo tive. From this description it will readily be understood that, given suf ficient power, any number of trains can be driven one after another con tinuously on such a line. The motors employed on the locomotives of this line were designed by Ayrton and Perry, and are reputed to develop great power for their weight, one weighing ninety-six pounds developing one and one-half horse-power, and another weighing thirty-six pounds giving nearly one-half horse-power. The details for blocking to prevent collis
ions, for the construction of sidings, and for loading and discharging have all been carefully worked out.
It is claimed for this most ingenious system of electrical transportation that such lines will find their application in all cases where the traffic is sufficient to pay interest on a small outlay, but is insufficient to pay inter est on the cost of constructing even the cheapest form of railway. As compared with the travelling wire rope, the telpher line is claimed to be simpler and cheaper, as pulleys and other operative parts are dispensed with and no second rope is required; the cost of maintenance is less; the direction of the line can be changed as often as mav be desired so as to follow a winding course, which is difficult to accomplish, even to a limited extent, with wire-rope haulage. At present there are two telpher lines in operation—one an experimental line, at the telpherage company's works at Werton, England, and the other the Glynde line, above described.
Post-line Railways.—ln treating of special forms of railroads it will be necessary to make some reference to the post-line, or elevated, railroads which have lately come into prominence, more especially in the United States, as a means of solving the difficult problem of providing- rapid transit in the large cities and between the business-quarters of the cities and the suburban districts. The earliest suggestions for such elevated roads were intended to provide means for the more convenient transporta tion oE counnodities of various kinds; later on they were adapted to meet the requirements of passenger traffic.
Figure I GO. 35) represents one of the earliest of these post-roads, proposed by Pahner in England in 182r. It consisted of a beam carrying a single rail on top and supported upon a line of posts. A vertical wheel runs on this rail, and from this the load is suspended on each side. The system of Sargeant, an American inventor (1825), was substantially the same as that of Palmer. The Bryant and Hyett plan (r831) was based on substantially the same principle as those above named, but was more elaborately planned to serve for passenger as well as goods traffic. Einnion, in the United States (1837), in addition to the post-line, the single rail, and the vertical wheel riding- upon it and carrying the car pannier-fashion, extended the latter down on each side of the post, and on the posts introduced side-rails, on which horizontal wheels were to run to steady the car. Figure 2 is a section of a single-rail post-line road built by General Le Roy Stone of New York over the Belmont Ravine on the grounds of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. This road, which i.vas successfully operated during the exhibition, consisted really of three rails instead of one, the supporting portion of the post being triangular in section, with a rail at each point of the triangle. The supporting-rail was at the top, the lower rails serving as horizontal steadying-wheels for the saddle-bag car.