SEPTEMBER, 1898.

AND RAILROAD JOURNAL.

819

————-"""’-W"'_

is therefore believed that wrought iron cross ties serve a better
purpose in reinforcing the cylinder saddles than would be ob-
tained by increasing the saddle length, and with much less in-
crease of weight. Where cross ties are used suitable flanges, of
course, should be provided on the cylinders to resist the pull of
the cross ties. Inside lips on the cross ties are unecessary, and
if well fitted prevent the cross ties being shrunk on after the
frames are bolted in place. The advantage of cross ties is
shown from the fact that they are used successfully to hold
cylinder saddles after cracking, and therefore cannot fail to as-
sist in preventing cracking. Long transverse bolts through the
cylinder saddles serve the same purpose in holding the saddle
together as cross ties, and have been found very useful on many
roads, but they are not thought to be as effective as cross ties,
as they do not assist in holding the frames to cylin-ders and
cannot be spaced as advantageously to resist bending strains in
the saddles. They are useful, however, for cylinders having
single front frame connections. Where used they should be
placed as low down in the saddle and as near the back and

front as possible.

BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

“Railway Construction,” By William Hemingway Mills, M. Inst.
C. E., Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers of
Ireland and Engineer in Chief of the Great Northern Railway
of Ireland, New York, London and Bombay: Longmans,
Green & Con, 91 Fifth avenue, New York, 1898. Large octavo,
366 pages; many illustrations and index. Price $5.

This is an excellent book on English railway con-struction,
giving in considerable detail the methods of conducting work
in construction and maintenance of stations, bridges, founda-
tions, track, culverts», walls, sidings, "switches, interlocking, sig-
nal and brake apparatus and some general treatment of loco-
motives. The work opens with the location and government
regulations, followed by chapters on works of construction and
permanent way, stations and other buildings. Sidings, turn-
tables, water tanks and water columns are treated in turn,
after which a whole chapter is given to weights and types of
locomotives. Signals-, interlocking, telegraph and staff sys-
tems occupy another chapter, and the closing pages treat of
railways of different ranks, progressive improvements, grow-
ing tendency for increased speeds with corresponding increase
in weight of permanent way and rolling stock, the last sub-
ject treated being electricity asa motive power.

What may be termed the massive solidity and conservatism
of the boo-k is best expressed b-y quoting its closing paragraph:
“Strength and efliciency are the leading po-inrts which must be
always kept in view, and the engineer must never forget that
he is solely responsible for the’ safety of the line and works,
and that of the public passing over the same.” Instead of pre-
senting details of construction Mr. Mills attends chiefly to gen-
eral principles and le-aves the application of these to those
who educate and train engineers for their work. He shows
many examples from practice, and these have evidently been
selected with great care in order to record only what is trust-
W0lI‘thY. He also leaves matters of cost to others,.but it is
clear that he does not always consider the matter of cost
as sufliciently important. We believe that American practice
shows examples of equally good methods that are sometimes
much less costly. He does not like our flanged rails, preferring
the “bull-head” section, saying of the flange rail: “Having
fewer parts, it makes a, cheaper road than the‘ bull-head rail,
but is not considered so strong or suitable for heavy and fast
traffic.” .

. When he writes of brakes for freight service he is ‘amus-
ing; for instance, he says on page 46: “Every goods
W3J8’0n should be fitted with a. brake, and it would be of im-
mense value if that brake could in all cases be applied and
controlled when the train is in motion." This is followed by a.
detailed description. of an American freight car hand brake,
and herein is a commentary upon English freight brakes, be-
_cause of our ordinary hand brakes being considered interest-
mg eT101l~gh to take the space of a book that is intended to be
up _to date. A primitive braking appliance, the “sprag,” is de-
scribed. It is a wooden bar passed between the wheel spokes
to skid the wheels and assist in safely passing heavy down-
grades. We would suggest that English railroad men order a
5:‘! lgad or so of Westinghouse catalogues. The work under
thrill Zratlon is certainly weak in regard to brakes, but
eign 8’ Out We see indications of a desire to benefit from for-
A practise When it appears to be a.va.i1a.ble.. For example,

merican 130819" enginle trucks are illustrated and: the au-

thor says: “Its recommendations are its simplicity, its efli-
ciency and its accessibility for inspection and lubrication.”
Mr. Mills appears to be afraid of heavy locomotives,‘ thinking
that they are not steady and safe on the rails He means to
be always on the safe side of every question.
ten-wheel type as used in the United States.

The strongest feature of the book is in presenting a large
number of examples of successful practice. It will have the
greatest value in -countries where English practice is followed,
and it records much that American engineers ought to know
3~b011‘t- AS Presenting a, general view of railway construction,
from the point of view mentioned it is successful.

The engravings are good, the letterpress excellent. It is
Printed on unusually good paper and the binding is service-
able. It has an index, but we would like to see more cross ref-
erences.

“The Indicator Handbook.” Part I. The Construction. a.nd
Application o-f the Indicator. By C. N. Pickworth Editor the
“Mechanical World.” 126 pp., 81 illustrations. D: Van Nos-
trand Company, 23 Murray street, New York. Price, $1.50.
This is a valuable little book. It treats of the indicator, its

use and its errors, while Part II. will treat of indicator dia-

grams and their analysis. There is much that is new in Part

I., the illustrated descriptions of the Wayne and the Simplex in-

struments having their springs outside of the instrument, and

away from the inifluence of the steam. being specially note-
worthy. These indicators are described here for the first time
in a work of this kind. The Wayne indicator uses a rotary in-
stead of reciprro-eating motion for the piston and the card is held
on a curved shield, the -pencil movement being radial to the pa-
per. The deslcrlptions of these and themo-re common instru-
ments are well «written, and the author takes pains to bring out
the characteristic features of each type and each design. All
the reliable instruments are included. Indicator attachments
and reducing motions are given -a good share of space and the
errors of the indicator itself and of the reducing motions are
very fully treated. The most common rigs are shown in small
scale drawings, and below them are scales which show the er-
rors very clearly. Among the errors of attachment are those
due to lo-ng pipes and long co-rd connections. Methods of test-
ing are described. The book will be useful to engineers, even
those who have had a. great deal of experience with indicators,
and to students it will be valuable as a. text book. It is up- to
date and its purpose is so well carried out that we look forward
to the appearance o=f Part II. with considerable interest. Part

I. is complete in itself, it is well written, printed and illustrated,

and is of a convenient size, 5 by 71,4, in. The author shows that

he thoroughly understands his subJ‘ect..

“Universal Directory of Railway Officials, 1898-” C0_mDi1ed
from official sources by S. Richardson Blundstone, editor of
“The Railway Engineer”; price 10 shillings. The Directory_
Publishing 00., Lim., 8 Catherine St., Strand, W. C., London.
Representative for the United States: E. A. Simmons, 717
Chauncey St., Brooklyn, N. Y., 1898; pp. 475; boards.

.We look upon this publication as a necessity in any ofiice
Where there is occasion to look up the names and addresses
and amount of equipment of foreign railroads. The revision
this year has been carefully made, as usual, and brought up
to date as nearly as possible in a work of this character. The
new lines added are in Denmark, China, Nicairalgua and Sou-
dan, and also light railways in the European countries». The
preface states that, with exception of the African German col-
onies, lnformation respecting every railway in Africa is now
included in the directory. Twenty-five pages have been added
to the directory section -and the personal index has been made
proportionately larger. .

“Administration Report on the Railways in India.” for 1897-
1898, by A. Brereton, Esq., Director of Railway '.l‘ra.fflc- and
Statistics, Part I., Simla, 1898, Government Printing Oflice.

“Some Statistics of Engineering Education,” by Dr. M. E.
Wadsworth,‘ President of the Michigan College of Mines,
I-Ioughton, Michigan. A reprint: of a. paper read before the
Lake Superior meeting of the American Institute of Mining
Engineers.

“The Elective System in Engineering Colleges,” by M. E. Wads-
worth, Ph. D., Director of the Michigan Mining School,
Houghton, Michigan. A paper reprinted from the proceedings
of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education,
Buffalo meeting, 1896.

He approves the