built and cared for they are entirely safe, and a commendable feature. Without such economies the development of our country would have been greatly retarded. Practice throughout the world is now tending to approximate to Amer. methods. The early rails were of cast-iron, and 5 or 6 ft. 1. They were soon made of wrought-iron, 10 and 20 ft. 1., and since 1870 have been almost universally 30 ft. 1. Some 60-ft. rails have been used, but the gain is not great. The weight of rails was for a long time 50 lbs. per yd. or under; then 56, b A Cross Sections of Rails. a, American or H rail; b, double-headed or I rail; c, bridge or U rail; d, Seaton's rail; e, Trail; f, strap rail; g, street rail; h, locomotive street rail; i, contractor's rail. which was for a long time the standard Amer. rail; then 60 and 66, which are now the most used weights in the U. S.; and finally 75 and 80 lb. rails have become common here, and even 100 lb. and 105 lb. rails have been largely introduced in Belgium with favorable results. It is highly uneconomical to use too light rails. The standard Amer. form of rails is about as broad on the base as it is high, with about half the metal in the head and half in the base and neck. Its base rests directly on the tie to which it is spiked. In Europe double-headed or I-shaped sections are still much used, resting in a cast-iron chair on each tie. In old days a strap-rail, a light bar laid on longitudinal sills of wood, was for a time largely used. Rails are now almost universally made of Bessemer steel, which has become cheaper than iron as well as curvature, and cheaper construction generally; but they were much more durable. To the economy thus resulting, as well | ished, because when the wheels are temporarily relieved of as from the smoother and more perfect road-bed, a large part of the great reduction of cost of transportation in recent yrs. is due; but there has been no little deterioration in the quality of rails, and some hardly last longer than iron. The joints are the weak point of a track. They usually consist of two L-shaped fish-plates called angle bars, 24 to 42 in. 1., bolted together through the rail. Ties (or cross-ties) are about 6 by 8 in. w. by 8 to 8 ft. 1., preferably of oak or chestnut, and spaced 2 ft. or less, center to center, making 2,640 to 3,000 per m. In Europe they are often 3 ft. apart, necessitating heavier rails. They rest on 12 to 18 in. of ballast of gravel or broken stone. Stone is the best, but gravel is very good and cheaper. Much Amer. mileage has had no ballast for yrs., and if well-drained the track may still be fair. The graded road-bed below is usually 14 ft. on fills and 18 to 20 ft. in cuts, with side-slopes of 1 horizontal to 1 vertical. Rock is taken out nearly vertical, or to a to 1 slope. All track requires incessant watchfulness to keep it safe. A section of 4 to 8 m. has four to 10 men always at work on it. Parallel tracks are 13 ft. between centers. The standard gauge of railways is 4 ft. 8 in., 90 per cent. of all in the world being of that gauge. The early railways were made 5 ft. gauge, but the car-wheels had flanges on the outside of the rail. Then a change was made to inside flanges which had to run on the same rails, hence the odd distance. Wider and narrower gauges have both been tried, the widest 7 ft., introduced by Brunel in England, and 6 ft., once largely used in the U. S. but the importance of having all rollingstock interchangeable, so as to avoid breaking bulk, rather than any inherent disadvantage in the gauge, has caused nearly all of this to be changed to standard gauge. The same has resulted from the so-called "narrow gauges" of 2 ft., 3 ft., 3 ft. 3 in., (1 meter,) and 3 ft. 6 in., first introduced in 1868-70 by Robt. F. Fairlie, with extravagant claims of great economy. Some of these were real, especially reduction of dead weight in proportion to load, sharper and more weight they are apt to slip, and once having begun to slip exert no considerable tractive force, and will not stop slipping till steam is shut off. The Amer. locomotives are likewise heavier than the European for the same service, as a rule, and haul much heavier trains. In freight service the contrast is very great. The essential features of the locomotives bid fair to remain almost unchanged in the future as they have in the past, the most important change of principle now undergoing test being the compound engine, passing the steam from one cylinder to the other, one being high pressure and the other low pressure. This type is finding favor in England, but not in this country. It promises some economy of fuel, but the locomotive as it is is an economical form of steam-engine, developing a horse-power for 3 lbs. of coal, or even less under favorable conditions, the best attained in marine engines being about 1 lbs. The compound engine does not promise to increase hauling power, and that, rather than economy of fuel, is the great desideratum. The average consumption of coal varies from 25 to 100 lbs. per mile-usually about 50 lbs. for heavy passenger trains-and each pound of coal evaporates from 5 to 10 lbs. of water, usually 6 or 7 lbs. The locomotive is capable of exerting a tractive pull equal to about one fourth of the weight on the driving wheels, or, with all conditions favorable, one third. European locomotives have in practice a less ratio of adhesion than Amer., owing, probably, to the difference in the running-gear. But it is only at slow speed that the boiler is capable of generating power enough to maintain such a tractive pull, so that passenger engines are built with less weight on the drivers, and very fast express engines sometimes have only one driving axle. (See LOCOMOTIVE.) Every form of Amer. car (a few thousand coal cars excepted) is carried upon two swiveling trucks under each end, insuring even distribution of weight and ease in passing curves. Leading dimensions of various kinds are shown in the accompanying table. European cars are heavier and less economical in proportion to load carried, RAILROAD. while demanding very perfect track for safety. The tendency is to more and more luxury in passenger cars, it being found that the extra cost of providing more space and weight per passenger is really not great until the limit that can be hauled by one engine is reached. Increasing the weight of engines does not increase the cost of running per mile much, and so quite heavy engines are becoming the rule for express service. Sleeping-cars were introduced by George M. Pullman in 1859. They are run on all Amer. lines of importance, but are yet the exception in Europe, and much dearer. The swiveling trucks of cars are built usually with four wheels, spaced 5 ft. apart in freight cars and 8 ft. in passenger cars. The better grade of passenger cars have six-wheel trucks, axles 6 ft. between centers, which give a smoother motion; eight-wheel trucks have been built, but are not found to have sufficient advantages, and are rare. The brake now in universal use for passenger service is the Westinghouse automatic air-brake, (q. v.) a highly ingenious contrivance, which goes on automatically if the couplings part as well as when applied from the engine, and instantaneously applies brakes to every wheel in the train, stopping a train moving 2147 passenger service. Paper wheels, made of compressed paper between iron plates, and with a steel tire, are much esteemed, and are coming into general use for passenger service. The resistance of cars is about 6 lbs. per ton empty and 4 lbs. per ton loaded at slow speeds, being double this at about 30 m. per hour. At high speeds of 50 to 60 m. per hour the head resistance of the engine is very great, absorbing fully half of the total power of the engine, owing partly to the air, but chiefly to some obscure cause not fully determined, probably the elastic sinking of the track, which compels the engine in effect to run continuously up a steep grade. The loads hauled in freight trains have increased enormously within the past 20 yrs. Thus, the average on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern R.R., a fair sample, was: 1870, 137 tons; 1875, 168 tons; 1880, 252 tons; 1885, 254 tons; 1888, 275 tons. During the same period rates have fallen, and the total traffic increased in the extraordinary manner shown in the accompanying table. The percentage of the various items of operating expenses to each other maintains a singularly constant ratio under all conditions of traffic and locality. The absolute amount varies much more greatly. The following table shows 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1,000 10 Diagram Showing the Reduction of Rates and Increase in Volume of Traffic on 21 Leading Lines of the United States. 4, truck-frame; B, axie-guard; C, swing-beam; D, axle-box; E, Indiarubber springs. Car-wheels in Am. are usually of chilled cast-iron. The chilling is from contact of molten iron, made from certain peculiar ores, with an iron instead of sand mold. Where the iron surface takes the place of sand (which is only on the part which is to form the tread) the molten metal is crystallized, and becomes intensely hard and durable. The "chilling" ores do not exist in Europe, where, consequently, cast wheels are little used and wrought iron and steel wheels are preferred. These are also coming into use in this country for the usual distribution. The average cost of running a train a mile in the U. S. is about 90 cents, and in England (with much lighter average trains) 63 cents. Many very heavy freight trains cost $1.50 per mile, or even more. The expenses are, as a rule, 60 to 65 per cent. of the receipts; but in countries where rates are high, and must be kept high to pay heavy fixed charges for interest, etc., as in England and the Rocky Mountain region, this percentage is often as low as 50 to 55 per cent. Although often misused in that way, this percentage is no criterion whatever of the efficiency of management or reasonableness of rates. As will be seen from the table of expenses, many of them are but little effected by a little more or less traffic. It has been calculated that an extra train or two costs only half as much to run as the average of all trains; an extra car or two on a train which must run any way only one third or one fourth of the average cost, and an extra passenger or two in a car which must run any way hardly any thing. Hence there is no reasonable fixed sum which can be specified as the cost of transportation below which there is a loss; and hence has come a great deal of reckless cutting of rates in fighting for business, much of which, however, is legitimate, since it secures business at a slight profit over actual outlay for hauling which otherwise would not be carried at all. Resulting inequalities of rates, which in part only were indefensible, have caused great dissatisfaction, and led to the initiation of a partial national WORLD. MILES OPEN. COST (millions, $). 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880. 1888. 1850, 1860. 1870. 1880. 1888 Un'd K'gd'm 6,621 10,433 15,537 Baggage CARS. DIMENSIONS OF BODY. KIND OF CAR. Weight. Capacity. ft. in. ft. in. 9 10 Length. Width. Height.| Pass 51 lbs. 40,000 40,000 control of rates and administration by a commission, thus PROGRESS AND EXTENT OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEMS OF THE assimilating U. S. practice to that of all the rest of the world. The effect will undoubtedly be beneficial, although many arguments advanced in favor of controlling rates are quite unsound. Without governmental interference rates have been reduced in recent yrs, with very great rapidity, as shown in the accompanying table and diagram, and are now far lower in the U. S. than anywhere else in the world, but the tendency is still downward. The safety of railway travel is very great. Accidents are not infrequent, and their dramatic features attract attention; but it is calculated that on any given mile an accident occurs only once in 100 yrs., a passenger or employee killed once in 427 yrs, and injured once in 128 yrs., so that, in the words of C. F. Adams, "the chances of accident in LEADING DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT OF PASSENGER AND FREIGHT railway traveling are so small that they are not appreciably increased by any amount of traveling which can be accomplished within the limits of a human life." Special types of railways are the rack-railways for heavy grades used on Mount Washington and the Rhigi, of which the best form is the Abt system, a highly ingenious device of recent introduction; grip railways, in which the tractive power is obtained not by Passenger... the natural weight of the machine, but by pressing horizontal wheels against a central rail; gravity railways, in which the cars are hauled up a short, steep grade by cables, and run thence by gravity to a succeeding plane; and cable railways proper, in which an endless cable from 1 to 10 m. 1. is kept constantly moving by stationary power, and cars are attached to or detached from it at will by some form of grip. The last was first introduced in San Francisco in 1882, but many hundred miles of it now exist in all parts of the world, almost wholly for street service. It is probable, however, that erelong some form of cable traction may be introduced for handling ordinary railway traffic on short steep grades, thus returning in a measure to early practice when crude forms of cables were used to haul cars up even as low grades as 0.5 per cent., (26 ft. per mile,) as on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, from the supposed impossibility of working locomotives on such grades. These cables, however, were not endless. Cable traction, in a crude form, has existed from a very early date. The railway in its essentials is undoubtedly destined to be a continually increasing factor in the world's development, and to multiply on every continent to many times the present mileage. It is quite possible that electricity may take the place of steam as a motive power, but there seems no reason to hope for any material improvement in the form of the railway proper as a means for facilitating the rapid transit of heavy loads other than by more solid and perfect construction. The probable effect of the use of electricity as a motor would be to render heavy grades less objectionable, and so greatly cheapen construction; but an economical mode of applying electricity as a motor for general railway service remains to be discovered. The latest railway statistics of cost, revenue, traffic, mileage, rolling-stock, etc., can always be found in Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States, issued annually. The Car-Builder's Dictionary gives drawings and details of cars; Forney's Catechism of the Locomotive is good, and Wellington's Economic Theory of the Location Maintenance of Way. of Railways gives technical information about expenses, construction, etc., in much detail. Hopper bottom.. APPROXIMATE ESTIMATE OF THE DETAILS OF OPERATING EX- [From Wellington's Economic Theory of the Location of Railways. Liable to considerable variations in individual instances, especially when the traffic is very great or very small, but to much less extensive variations than might be imagined, even in extreme cases. The average total cost per revenue train-mile is still not very much below $1.00, and by taking it at that even figure the following become either percentages or cents per train-mile.] INCREASE OF TRAFFIC AND DECREASE IN RATES ON VARIOUS Tots! "Line" or Transportation Expenses. Station, Terminal, and General Expenses and Taxes... .100.0 p. c YEAR. PROGRESS OF AMERICAN RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION BY GROUPS OF New En- Wis., Minn., Great FOREIGN COUNTRIES. RAILROAD SPEED-RAIN. 1840. 1845. 1850. 1855. 1880. 1865. 1870. 1875. 1880. 1888. Britain 838 2,536 LATEST STATISTICS OF RAILROADS IN THE U. S. YEAR Capital Stock. 1886.. 1587 1888 189 $5,999,508,508 1890. 1891.. 1892. 18 3. 4,640,239,57 1894. 297,363,677 205,80,052 78,943,041 179,8871,105,284,267 327,505,716 2149 heavier, wind-currents getting beneath them, and thus wedgeways thrusting them upward; and the same result is accomplished by ranges of mountains opposing their masses to the onward horizontal course of the winds, so that the air, being forced up their slopes, is cooled, and its vapor liberated in showers of R. or snow. Again, the temperature of the air is lowered and the amount of the rainfall increased, by those winds which convey the air to higher latitudes. This occurs chiefly in temperate regions, or in those tracts traversed by the return trade-winds, which in the N. temperate zone blow from the S.-W., and in the S. temperate zone from the N.-W. Miles Line Groes Net Interest Dividends Earnings. Operated. Earnings. Paid. The meeting and mixing of winds of different temperatures Paid. is also known to produce R., but not nearly to the extent at 125,185 $829,940,836 $300,603,564 $189,036,304 $81,654,138 137,028 931,385,154 334,989,119 203,790,352 91,573,458 one time believed. It is also increased or diminished accord145,341 950,622,008) 152,69 992,456,856 211,171,279 79,532,863 ing as the prevailing winds arrive immediately from the sea, 163,420 1,097,847,428 343,921,818 229,101,144 83,863,632 and are therefore moist, or have previously passed over large 164,324 1,138,024,459 356,209,880 231,259,×10 90,719,757 170,66% 1,204,915,204 358,638,520 232,509.089 95,662,412 tracts of land, and particularly mountain ranges, and are 173,433 1,224,618,290 364,591,109) 239.616,284 95,337,681 therefore dry. Since the rainfall is evidently much modified 175,508 1,080,345,015) 322,539,276 237,620,367 85.278,669 242,943,243 83,175,774 by the temperature of the earth's surface over which the R.-producing winds blow, it follows that sandy deserts, by allowing solar and nocturnal radiation to take immediate effect in raising or depressing the temperature, and forests, by delaying, if not in many cases counteracting, these effects of radiation, have each a peculiar influence on the rainfall. R. is the most capricious of all the meteorological phenomena, both as regards its frequency and the amount which falls in a given time. It rarely or never falls in certain places, which are on this account designated the rainless regions of the globe; the coast of Peru, in S. Am. ; the great valleys of the rivers Columbia and Colorado, in N. Am.; Sahara, in Africa; and the Desert of Cobi, in Asia, are examples, while, on the other hand, in such regions as Patagonia it rains almost every day. Again, the quantities which have been recorded at some places as having fallen at one time are truly enormous. In Great Britain if an inch fall in a day it is considered a very heavy rain. In many parts of the highlands of Scotland three inches not unfrequently fall in one day. But it is in continental, and especially tropical, countries that the heaviest single showers have been recorded. The following are a few of the most remarkable: at Joyeuse, in France, 31.17 in. fell in 22 hours; at Geneva, 30 in. in 24 hours; at Gibraltar, 32 in. in 26 hours; on the hills above Bombay, 24 in. in one night; and on the Khasia Hills, 30 in. on each of five successive days. In all places in the tropics where the trade-winds are blowing regularly and steadily R. is of rare occurrence, the reason being that as these winds come from higher latitudes their temperature is increasing; and hence they are in the condition of taking up moisture rather than parting with it; and the return trade-winds which blow above them in an opposite direction, having discharged the greater part of their moisture in the regions of the calms, are also dry and cloudless. Where, however, these winds are forced up mountain-ranges in their course, as on the E. of Hindustan, they bring R., which falls chiefly during night, when the earth's surface is coolest. The region of calm is a broad intertropical belt about 5° in breadth, characterized by calms, and toward which the N. and S. trades blow. This, the region of calms, is at the same time the region of constant Rs. Here the sun almost invariably rises in a clear sky; but about midday clouds begin to gather, and in a short time the whole face of the sky is covered with dense black clouds, which pour down prodigious quantities of R. Toward evening the clouds disappear, the sun sets in a clear sky, and the nights are serene and fine. The reason of this daily succession of phenomena in the belt of calms is that there the air, being heated to a high degree by the vertical rays of the sun, ascends, drawing with it the whole mass of vapor which the trade-winds have brought with them, and which has been largely added to by the rapid evaporation from the belt of calms; this vapor is condensed as it is raised toward the line of junction of the upper and lower trade-winds, and the discharge is in some cases so copious that fresh water has been collected from the surface of the sea. As evening sets in the surface of the earth and the superincumbent air are cooled, the ascending currents cease, the cooled air descends, and the dew-point is consequently lowered, clouds are dissipated, and the sky continues clear till the returning heat of the following day brings round a recurrence of the same phenomena. Since the belt of calms which determines the rainy season within the tropics moves N. or S. with the sun's declination, carrying the trade-winds with it on each side, it follows that there will be only one rainy and one dry season in the yr. at its extreme N. and S. limits; but at all intermediate places there will be two rainy and two dry seasons Rail'ways, Elevated, are lines of steam railway of recent origin, elevated above the streets and thoroughfares, notably of New York. The track is laid on rows of upright iron columns averaging 16 ft. in h., 30 ft. span, the trains running over the street. A road of this sort was opened in 1869 in New York on Greenwich Street, but failed financially. Permanent construction began in 1872. Within the decade 1880-90, however, the interest in these highways as a mode of "rapid transit" revived, and with such effect that five E. R. girdle the city, three of them running to Harlem, a distance of 8 m., and two several miles beyond. The Kings County Elevated R.R. in Brooklyn was opened in 1877, and the Brooklyn Elevated R.R. in the same city in 1885-89. Raimon'di, (MARC ANTONIO,) a celebrated engraver, b. at Bologna in 1487 or 1488. Having seen prints from the woodcuts after Albert Dürer, he engraved on copper two sets of prints from that great master's designs, viz., those illustrating the "Life of the Virgin," and the "Life and Passion of Christ." D. about 1530. Good impressions of this eminent engraver's work bear, perhaps, a higher value than any other engravings. Rain. The phenomena of the R. may be thus described: At a given temperature air is capable of containing no more than a certain quantity of aqueous vapor invisibly dissolved through it, and when this amount is present it is said to be saturated. Air may at any time be brought to a state of saturation by reducing its temperature; and if it be cooled below this point the whole of the vapor can now no longer be held in suspension, but a part of it, passing from the gaseous to the liquid state, will be deposited in dew, or float about in the form of clouds. If the temperature begins to fall the vesicles of vapor that compose the cloud will increase in number, and begin to descend by their own weight. The largest of these, falling fastest, will unite with the smaller ones they encounter in their descent, and thus drops of R. will be formed whose size will depend on the thickness and density of the cloud. The point to which the temperature of the air must be reduced in order to cause a portion of its vapor to form cloud or dew is called the dew-point. Hence the law of aqueous precipitation may be stated: whatever lowers the temperature of the air at any place below the dewpoint is the cause of R. Various causes may conspire to effect this object, but it is chiefly brought about by the ascent of the air into the higher regions of the atmosphere, by which, being subjected to less pressure, it expands, and in doing so its temperature falls. Ascending currents are caused by the heating of the earth's surface, for then the superincumbent air is also heated, and consequently ascends by its levity. Air-currents are forced up into the higher parts of the atmosphere by colder, drier, and therefore ན |