If George Stephenson, when he placed the first locomotive on the track
and guaranteed it a speed of six miles an hour, could have foreseen that
in less than eighty years the successors of his rude machine would be
climbing the sides of mountain ranges, piercing gorges hitherto deemed
inaccessible, crossing ravines on bridges higher than the dome of St.
Paul's, and traversing the bowels of the earth by means of tunnels, no
doubt his big blue eyes would have stood out with wonder and amazement.
But he foresaw nothing of the kind; the only problem present in his mind
was how to get goods from the seaports in western England to London as
easily and cheaply as possible, and to do this he substituted for
horses, which had for 150 years been drawing cars along wooden or iron
tracks, the wonderful machine which has revolutionized the freight and
passenger traffic of the world.
It was, indeed, impossible for any one to foresee the triumphs of
engineering which have accompanied the advances in transportation. To
the engineer of the present day there are no impossibilities. The
engineer is a wizard at whose command space and matter are annihilated.
The highest mountain, the deepest valley, has no terrors for him. He can
bridge the latter and encircle or tunnel the former. The only requisites
which he demands are that something in his line be needed, and that the
money is forthcoming to defray the expense, and the thing will be done.
But the railroad he is asked to construct must be necessary, and the
necessity must be plainly shown, or no funds will be advanced; and
although the theory does not invariably hold good, especially when a
craze for railroad building is raging, as a rule no expense for the
construction of a road will be incurred without a prospect of
remuneration.
Hence the need of railroad communication has caused lines to be
constructed through districts where only a few years ago the thing would
have been deemed impossible. The Pacific roads of this country were a
necessity long before their construction, and in the face of
difficulties almost insuperable were carried to successful completion.
So, also, of the railroads in the Andes of South America. The famous
road from Callao through the heart of Peru is one of the highest
mountain roads in the world, as well as of the most difficult
construction. The grades are often of 300 feet and more to the mile, and
when the mountains were reached so great were the difficulties the
engineers were forced to confront that in some places laborers were
lowered from cliffs by ropes in order that, with toil and difficulty,
they might carve a foothold in order to begin the cutting for the
roadway.
In some sections tunnels are more numerous than open cuts, and so far as
the road has gone sixty-one tunnels, great and small, have been
constructed, aggregating over 20,000 feet in length. The road attains a
height of 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, and at the highest
point of the track is about as high as the topmost peak of Mont Blanc.
It pierces the range above it by a tunnel 3,847 feet long. The stern
necessities of business compelled the construction of this road,
otherwise it never would have been begun.
The tunnels of the Andes, however, do not bear comparison with the
tunnels, bridges, and snow sheds of the Union Pacific, nor do even these
compare with the vast undertakings in the Alps--three great tunnels of
nine to eleven miles in length, which have been prepared for the
transit of travelers and freight. The requirements of business
necessitated the piercing of the Alps, and as soon as the necessity was
shown, funds in abundance were forthcoming for the enterprise.
But tunneling a mountain is a different thing from climbing it. Many
years ago the attention of inventors was directed to the practicability
of constructing a railroad up the side of a mountain on grades which, to
an ordinary engine, were quite impossible. The improvements in
locomotives twenty-five and thirty years ago rendered them capable of
climbing grades which, in the early days of railroad engineering, were
deemed out of the question. The improvements proved a serious stumbling
block in the way of the inventors, who found that an ordinary locomotive
was able to climb a much steeper grade than was commonly supposed. The
first railroads were laid almost level, but it was soon discovered that
a grade of a few feet to the mile was no impediment to progress, and
gradually the grade was steepened.
The inventors of mountain railroad transportation might have been
discouraged by this discovery, but it is a characteristic of an inventor
that he is not set back by opposition, which, in fact, only serves to
stimulate his zeal. The projectors of inclined roads and mountain
engines kept steadily on, and in France, Germany, England, and the
United States many experimental roads were constructed, each of a few
hundred yards in length, and locomotive models were built and put in
motion to the amazement of the general public, who jeered alike at the
contrivances and the contrivers, deeming the former impracticable and
the latter crazy.
But the idea of building a road up the side of a hill was not to be
dismissed. There was money in it for the successful man, so the cranky
inventors kept on at work in spite of the jeers of the rabble and the
discouragements of capitalists loath to invest their money in an
uncertain scheme. To the energy and perseverance of railroad inventors
the success of the mountain railroad is due, as also is the construction
of the various mountain roads, of which the road up Mt. Washington,
finished in 1868, was the first, and the road up Pike's Peak, completed
the other day, was the latest.
Of all the mountain roads which have been constructed since the one up
Mt. Washington was finished, the best known is that which ascends the
world-famous Rigi. With the exception of Mont Blanc, Rigi is, perhaps,
the best known of any peak in the Alps, though it is by no means the
highest, its summit being but 5,905 feet above the level of the sea.
Although scarcely more than a third of the height of some other
mountains in the Alps, it seems much higher because of its isolated
position. Standing as it does between lakes Lucerne, Zug, and Lowertz,
it commands a series of fine views in every direction, and he who looks
from the summit of Rigi, if he does no other traveling in Switzerland,
can gain a fair idea of the Swiss mountain scenery. Many of the most
noted peaks are in sight, and from the Rigi can be seen the three lakes
beneath, the villages which here and there dot the shores, and, further
on, the mighty Alps, with their glaciers and eternal snows.
Many years ago a hotel was built on the summit of the Rigi for the
benefit of the tourists who daily flocked to this remarkable peak to
enjoy the benefit of its wonderful scenery. The mountain is densely
wooded save where the trees have been cut away to clear the land for
pastures. The ease of its ascent by the six or eight mule paths which
had been made, the gradual and almost regular slope, and the throngs of
travelers who resorted to it, made it a favorable place for an
experiment, and to Rigi went the engineers in order to ascertain the
practicability of such a road. The credit of the designs is due to a
German engineer named Regenbach, who, about the year 1861, designed the
idea of a mountain road, and drew up plans not only for the bed but also
for the engine and cars. The scheme dragged. Capitalists were slow to
invest their money in what they deemed a wild and impracticable
undertaking, and even the owners of the land on the Rigi were reluctant
for such an experiment to be tried. But Regenbach persevered, and toward
the close of the decade the inhabitants of Vitznau, at the base of the
Rigi, were astonished to see gangs of laborers begin the work of making
a clearing through the forests on the mountain slope. They inquired what
it meant, and were told that a road up the Rigi was to be made. The
Vitznauers were delighted, for they had no roads, and there was not a
wheeled vehicle in the town, nor a highway by which it could be brought
thither. The idea of a railroad in their desolate mountain region, and,
above all, a railroad up the Rigi, never entered their heads, and a
report which some time after obtained currency in the town, that the
laborers were beginning the construction of a railroad, was greeted with
a shout of derision.
Nevertheless, that was the beginning of the Rigi line, and in May, 1871,
the road was opened for traffic. It begins at Vitznau, on Lake Lucerne,
and extends to the border of the canton and almost to the top of the
mountain. It is 19,000 feet long, and during that distance rises 4,000
feet at an average grade of 1 foot in 4. Though steep, it is by no means
so much so as the Mt. Washington road, which rises 5,285 feet above the
sea, at an average of 1 foot in 3. There are, however, stretches of the
Rigi road at which the grade is about 1 foot in 2½, which is believed to
be the steepest in the world.
The Rigi road has several special features aside from its terrific
slopes which entitle it to be considered a triumph of the engineer's
skill. About midway up the mountains the builders came to a solid mass
of rock, which presented a barrier that to a surface road was
impassable. They determined to tunnel it, and, after an enormous
expenditure of labor, finished an inclined tunnel 225 feet in length, of
the same gradient as the road. A gorge in the side of the mountain where
a small stream, the Schnurtobel, had cut itself a passage also hindered
their way, and was crossed by a bridge of lattice girder work in three
spans, each 85 feet long. The entire roadbed, from beginning to end, was
cut in the solid rock. A channel was chiseled out to admit the central
beam, which contains the cogs fitting the driving wheel of the
locomotive. The engine is in the rear of the train, and presents the
exceedingly curious feature of a boiler greatly inclined, in order that
at the steeper gradients it may remain almost perpendicular. The coal
and water are contained in boxes over the driving wheels, so that all
the weight of the engine is really concentrated on the cogs--a
precaution to prevent their slipping. The cost of the road, including
three of these strangely constructed locomotives, three passenger
coaches, and three open wagons, was $260,000, and it is a good paying
investment. The fare demanded for the trip up the mountains is 5 francs,
while half that sum is required for the downward passage, and the road
is annually traversed by from 30,000 to 50,000 passengers.
Curious sensations are produced by a ride up this remarkable line. The
seats of the cars are inclined like the boiler of the locomotive, and so
long as the cars are on a level the seats tilt at an angle which renders
it almost impossible to use them. But when the start is made the
frightful tilt places the body in an upright position, and, with the
engine in the rear, the train starts up the hill with an easy, gliding
motion, passing up the ascent, somewhat steeper than the roof of a
house, without the slightest apparent effort. But if the going up
excites tremor, much more peculiar are the feelings aroused on the down
grade. The trip begins with a gentle descent, and all at once the
traveler looking ahead sees the road apparently come an end. On a nearer
approach he is undeceived and observes before him a long decline which
appears too steep even to walk down. Involuntarily he catches at the
seats, expecting a great acceleration of speed. Very nervous are his
feelings as the train approaches this terrible slope, but on coming to
the incline the engine dips and goes on not a whit faster than before
and not more rapidly on the down than on the up grade. Many people are
made sick by the sensation of falling experienced on the down run. Some
faint, and a few years ago one traveler, supposed to be afflicted with
heart disease, died of fright when the train was going over the
Schnurtobel bridge. The danger is really very slight, there not having
been a serious accident since the road was opened. The attendants are
watchful, the brakes are strong, but even with all these safeguards, men
of the steadiest nerves cannot help wondering what would become of them
in case anything went wrong.
Bold as was the project of a railroad on the Rigi, a still bolder scheme
was broached ten years later, when a daring genius proposed a railroad
up Mt. Vesuvius. A railroad up the side of an ordinary mountain seemed
hazardous enough, but to build a line on the slope of a volcano, which
in its eruption had buried cities, and every few years was subject to a
violent spasm, seemed as hazardous as to trust the rails of an ordinary
line to the rotten river ice in spring time. The proposal was not,
however, so impracticable as it looked. While the summit of Vesuvius
changes from time to time from the frequent eruptions, and varies in
height and in the size of the crater, the general slope and contour of
the mountain are about the same to-day as when Vesuvius, a wooded hill,
with a valley and lake in the center of its quiescent crater, served as
the stronghold of Spartacus and his rebel gladiators. There have been
scores of eruptions since that in which Herculaneum and Pompeii were
overthrown, but the sides of the mountain have never been seriously
disturbed.
A road on Vesuvius gave promise of being a good speculation. Naples and
the other resorts of the neighborhood annually attracted many thousands
of visitors, and a considerable number of these every year ascended the
volcano, even when forced to contend with all the difficulties of the
way. Many, however, desiring to ascend, but being unable or unwilling to
walk up, a chair service was established--a peculiar chair being slung
on poles and borne by porters. In course of time the chair service
proved to be inadequate for the numbers who desired to make the ascent,
and the time was deemed fit for the establishment of more speedy
communication.
Notwithstanding the necessity, the proposal to establish a railroad met
with general derision, but the scheme was soon shown to be perfectly
practicable, and a beginning was made in 1879. The road is what is known
as a cable road, there being a single sleeper with three rails, one on
the top which really bore the weight, and one on each side near the
bottom, which supported the wheels, which coming out from the axle at a
sharp angle, prevented the vehicle from being overturned. The road
covers the last 4,000 feet of the ascent, and the power house is at the
bottom, a steel cable running up, passing round a wheel at the top and
returning to the engine in the power house. The ascent to the lower
terminus of the road is made on mules or donkeys; then, in a comfortable
car, the traveler is carried to a point not far from the crater. The car
is a combined grip and a passenger car, similar in some points to the
grip car of the present day, while the seats of the passenger portion
are inclined as in the cars on the Rigi road. But the angle of the road
being from thirty-three to forty-five degrees, makes both ascent and
descent seem fearfully perilous. Every precaution, however, is taken to
insure the safety of passengers; each car is provided with several
strong and independent brakes, and thus far no accident worth recording
has occurred. The road was opened in June, 1880. Although there have
been several considerable eruptions since that date, none of them did
any damage to the line but what was repaired in a few hours.
The fashion thus set will, no doubt, be followed in many other quarters.
Wherever there is sufficient travel to pay working expenses and a profit
on a steep grade mountain road it will probably be built. Already there
is talk of a road on Mont Blanc, of another up the Yungfrau, and several
have been projected in the Schwartz and Hartz mountains. A route on Ben
Nevis, in Scotland, is already surveyed, and it is said surveys have
also been made up Snowden, with a view to the establishment of a road to
the summit of the highest Welsh peak. Sufficient travel is all that is
necessary, and when that is guaranteed, whenever a mountain possesses
sufficient interest to induce people to make its ascent in considerable
numbers, means of transportation, safe and speedy, will soon be
provided. The modern engineer is able, willing and ready to build a road
to the top of Mt. Everest in the Himalayas if he is paid for doing
so.--_St. Louis Globe-Democrat._
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To clean hair brushes, wash with weak solution of washing soda, rinse
out all the soda, and expose to sun.
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