THE MASSILON (Ohio) Bridge Company has received an order for the
construction of a cantilever bridge 562 feet long and 18 feet wide,
which is to be built by the New York Dredging Company at Honda, on the
Magdalena River, in Colombia, South America.
NAVIGATION ON the Amoo-Darya is to be extended considerably, so that
Russian steamers will proceed upward on that river to Feisabad-Kalch,
which is only about 200 miles from the scene of the recent Indian
frontier troubles.--Uhland's Wochenschrift.
A NEW process of manufacturing artificial stone has been patented in
England. The stone is formed in steel moulds, which can be adjusted to
any size, shape or design for which the finished stone may be
required, and solid blocks weighing several hundred pounds have been
easily produced.
M. BERLIER, the well known engineer, has laid before the governments
of Spain and Morocco a project for the construction of a tunnel under
the Straits of Gibraltar. The execution of this plan would have
immense economic consequences, so that its fate will be followed with
interest. M. Berlier is the inventor of a new method of subterranean
boring.
"THE SALE of the steamers 'Pennsylvania,' 'Ohio,' 'Indiana,'
'Illinois,' and 'Conemaugh,' by the International Navigation Company
to the States Steamship Company for the Pacific trade leaves but five
steamships flying the American flag crossing the Atlantic Ocean," says
The Marine Record. "They are the 'St. Paul,' gross tons 11,629.21;
'St. Louis,' gross tons 11,629.21; 'New York,' gross tons 10,802.61;
'Paris,' gross tons 10,794.86; 'Evelyn,' gross tons 1,963.44, the
latter three built in English shipyards and denationalized."
JOHN MURPHY, general manager of the United Traction Company, of
Pittsburg, reports the average life of motor gears on his line as two
years, and the average life of pinions, nine months. He is employing
the gears and pinions of the Simonds Manufacturing Company. The
service is an exceedingly severe one, on account of the many grades on
the line. The average life of trolley wheels is 1,000 miles, and the
conditions under which they operate are quite severe, as the company
has on its main line eighteen railroad crossings. A tempered copper
wheel is employed.
ACCORDING TO a recent correspondent of The Buffalo Express, in the
Pennsylvania oil region during the last year over 300 gas engines have
been placed on oil leases and are doing satisfactory work. The engines
vary from 10 to 50 horse power. Every big machine shop in the oil
regions is turning out gas engines. The machine shops are also using
gas engines to drive their own machinery. During the last year twenty
of the Standard Oil Company's pipe line pumping stations have been
equipped with gas engines. In all the new stations and in old ones
where new machinery is needed, the gas engine will be preferred. Where
natural gas cannot be had and coal was formerly burned, gasoline is
used. The pumping station engines are all provided with electric
ignition.
IN A recent issue of The Railway Age is published the following, based
upon the last report of the Interstate Commerce Commission: "Last year
the railways of the United States carried over 13,000,000,000
passengers one mile. They also carried 95,000,000,000 tons of freight
one mile. The total amount paid in dividends on stock was
$87,603,371--call it $88,000,000. Of the total earnings of the
railways, about 70 per cent. came from freight service and 30 per
cent. from passenger service. Let us assume, then, that of the
$88,000,000 paid in dividends, 70 per cent., or $61,600,000, was
profit on freight service and $26,400,000 was profit on passenger
service. Let us drop fractions and call it $62,000,000 from freight
and $26,000,000 from passengers. By dividing the passenger profit into
the number of passengers carried (13,000,000,000), we find that the
railways had to carry a passenger 500 miles in order to earn $1 of
profit--or five miles to earn 1 cent. Their average profit, therefore,
was less than two-tenths of 1 cent for carrying a passenger (and his
baggage) one mile. By dividing the freight profit into the freight
mileage (95,000,000,000) we find that the railways had to carry one
ton of freight 1,530 miles in order to earn $1, or over fifteen miles
to earn 1 cent. The average profit, therefore, was less than
one-fifteenth of a cent for carrying a ton of freight (besides loading
and unloading it) one mile."
THE RAILROADS in the United States have cost about $60,000 per mile,
and probably a considerable percentage of this has not entered into
the construction of the railroads and the equipment of same, says
"Signal Engineer" in The Railroad Gazette. The railroads of Great
Britain have cost about $240,000 a mile, and yet we claim for the
United States more luxurious travel than can be found in Great
Britain; and this is true so long as the travel is safe. The
difference in the cost of construction in the United States and
England may be found in the item of safety appliances. The railroads
of Great Britain carried during the last year 800,000,000 passengers,
with safety to all but five, and this was possible because the
railroads, instead of expending their capital in luxurious equipment
and passenger stations, chose rather to equip their lines with the
most improved signaling and interlocking. The railroad companies of
the United States in expending large sums for handsome and convenient
terminals and luxurious cars are placing monuments before the public
eye which naturally lead to the belief that every appointment of such
roads is on the same high plane, and it requires much less expenditure
to furnish luxurious equipment to be carried over 1,000 miles of road
than it does to equip 10 miles of the 1,000 so as to make it safe; and
since the expenditure for safety appliances and permanent way is not
seen and felt by the passenger so long as he is carried in safety, it
is not, therefore, so prominent before the public gaze as is the
handsome station and the palatial car. On one road in Great Britain,
having but 2,000 miles of track, there are employed more men in the
manufacture and installation of signal work than are employed by all
the signal companies and in the signal departments of all the
railroads of the United States, where we are now operating about
182,000 miles.
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