Chap. VIII.
585
way, at about 4 feet distance from each other. This single road required freqlient repairs,causing constant impediments to the carts ; another rail was therefore added to that peggedupon the sleepers, and as this upper rail wore away it was kept renewed. Between therails the roadway was made level with the tops of the sleepers with ashes, so that theywere in some degree protected from the horses’ feet.
Cast-iron rails were substituted for wooden at the Norfolk colliery, near Sheffield, aboutthe year 1776, and were, perhaps, the first plate rails on record; they were secured to thewooden sleepers by nailing only, and it does not appear that stone bearers for the ends ofthe rails were used before the year 1800. We have an account also of a railroad laid downas early as 1767 at the Colebrooke Dale iron-works, where cast-iron wheels, turned in alathe, were applied, when it was soon discovered, that if these were running on a pair ofiron plates, a great advantage would be obtained over those employed upon common roads.
The plates were at first of cast-iron, very fiat and smooth on the upper surface to receivethe wheels, but having a flanch or feather rising vertically on one side, for the purposeof guiding them, which were cylindrical, and preventing them from getting oft’; thesewere sometimes placed on the inner, and sometimes on the outer edge of the rails, mostgenerally on the former.
Another variety of rail was afterwards made use of, without vertical flanehes, the flanchbeing formed upon one side of each wheel, and the wheels arranged in pairs upon the sameaxle, so that the flanehes embraced the two parallel rads, or they were placed inwards andfitted between the lines of rail.
Wrought-iron bars were then adopted, 2 or 3 inches in width, and $ of an inch in thickness,lying upon longitudinal sleepers of timber, and fastened by spikes or bolts, upon whichran similar wheels to those last described.
Cast-iron bars were next introduced, with their edges upwards, on which ran cylindricalwheels, with either a flanch or groove around them, to keep them on the rail. These anda variety of other methods were adopted until the present edge-rail superseded all others.Mr. Jessop used tins rail at Loughborough in Leicestershire , and instead of nailing theends of the rails, he united them in a block of cast-iron, made to receive them, which wascalled a chair ; these were placed upon stone blocks firmly fixed in the ground.
In October, 1820, a patent was obtained by Mr. John Berkinshaw of the Bedlington iron-works, Durham , for an improvement, capable of extensive application, which was that offorming rails of wrought-iron, by passing them when red-hot through rollers grooved inthe required form ; by this means wrought-iron bars, with rounded tops of any form, withflanehes, may be produced in lengths of 18 feet or under, and when fixed on chairs ? feetdistance from each other make an admirable and permanent railroad.
Mr. Blenkinsop was the first to introduce the locomotive at the collieries in the north ofEngland : one wheel of the engine had strong cogs or teeth around its periphery, whichfitted into a toothed rack on the rail ; this was considered necessary to prevent the wheelfrom slipping or turning round without advancing.
In 1829 the directors of the Manchester and Liverpool line employed Mr. James Walkerand Mr. Itastriek to enquire whether it were possible to use the locomotive on a publicrailroad, and a very valuable report was made upon the power of such engines, the quantityof work they are capable of performing, their consumption of fuel, their annual cost, thefriction of ropes in stationary engines, the cost of such ropes, the wear and tear of waggons,the accommodation to the public, and the comparative safety of the two modes.
In the year 1830, when the London and Birmingham was projected, it was considered thatone line of rails would be sufficient for the traffic, and that the whole might be constructedfor 6000/. per mile ; it was at first intended that the carriages should be drawn by horses atthe rate of 8 miles per hour. Fifteen years’ experience has shown how little the success whichhas attended railway transit was then anticipated; since that time more than 73,000,000/.sterling has been expended upon the leading lines, the interest of which at 5 per cent.,requires that the profits should not be less than 10,000/. per day. Five times that capital willbe required to complete the various railroads now in progress, and those projected. Thepower of steam has triumphed over the prejudices which obstructed the progress of the firstspeculations, and it is now generally admitted that railroads are not only necessary, but in-dispensible ; and when a system, uniting public utility with safety, and founded on integrity,shall be established over the whole of Great Britain , the price of the necessaries of life willno doubt be rendered more equal, intelligence will be spread, and the arts of civilisationcarried through the length and breadth of the land.
The execution of railways has called into active employment a very different class of menfrom those engaged in repairing the common roads, and the arti/ans who manage the steampower, and superintend the property of the companies, are far more intelligent than werethe great mass of attendants on the old system. All the arts of construction have beenessentially improved; new principles have suggested themselves, and other materials havebeen made use of: iron has been wrought into every possible form, and its strength testedto serve the purposes of the railway engineer; the carpenter has exerted his skill to perfectthe works with which he was entrusted, and many novelties have been introduced in the art