a

Fig. 1.

h

The soldiers of Napoleon, unable to occupy Cattaro, took | called sleepers), and under the rails, with ashes, grave, or military possession of Ragusa, in May, 1806, without any other road materials. Fig. 1 is an elevation and groundshadow of right, except the pretence of defending it from plan of this primitive railway, a a being the sleepers, and the incursions of the Montenegrins.' (Botta, Storia d'Italia, b b the rails. b. xxii.) But it was precisely the French occupation of Ragusa that led the Montenegrins to overrun its territory. They besieged the French within the town. The unfortunate Ragusans, placed between the regular French troops within and the savage Montenegrins without, saw their country-houses and villages devastated, but the town was saved from the Montenegrins. The result of this was, that Napoleon, by a stroke of the pen, in 1808, abolished the republican government, and incorporated Ragusa with the province of Dalmatia, and he made Marmont titular duke of Ragusa and governor of the province. Thus ended the independence of Ragusa, in the same manner and nearly about the same time as that of Genoa, Venice, Lucca, Geneva, Hamburg, and the other free towns of Germany. On the fall of Napoleon in 1814, when the Austrians again occupied Dalmatia, they found Ragusa included in that province, and they kept it, and it has ever since formed part of the Austrian territories. A good map of Dalmatia, including the territory of Ragusa, was published at Vienna in 1810: Carte von Dalmatien und dem Gebieth von Ragusa,' by Max. de Traux.

RAGWORT is the vulgar name of a plant called Senecio Jacobæa, which is so called from the ragged appearance of the leaves. It is a mere weed of no beauty; but the name is often applied to Senecio elegans, a Cape annual with purple flowers, which was formerly a common ornament of gardens.

RAI. [PERSIA, p. 476.]

RAIKES, ROBERT. [SUNDAY SCHOOLS.] RAIL (Ornithology.) [RALLIDE.] RAILWAY, a road in which smooth tracks of wood, iron, or other suitable material are laid to facilitate the motion of wheel-carriages. Railways are of various kinds, and have been used for a very considerable time as a means of transport for minerals and heavy goods; and recently, in conjunction with locomotive steam-engines, have been introduced to a very important extent for the purposes of general conveyance.

As the construction of railway carriages and the power made use of for drawing or propelling them are subjects intimately connected with that of the formation of the road itself, it appears desirable to treat of the whole in one article. It is here intended therefore to present a sketch of the progress of inventions relating to railways; an account of the designing, executing, and mode of working a line intended for general traffic; and a condensed description of the principal railways completed or in progress in this and other

countries.

History.-Though some writers, in attempting to trace the origin of railways, have gone back to an earlier period, it does not appear that any satisfactory notice of what may fairly be considered as such is to be found before the seventeenth century, in the early half of which wooden rail, tram, or waggon ways were introduced in the collieries of the north of England. They were adopted in order to reduce the labour of drawing coals from the pits to the places of shipment in the neighbourhood of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and they consisted, in the first instance, simply of pieces of wood imbedded in the ordinary road, in such a manner as to form wheel-tracks for the carts or waggons employed. The wooden tracks presented a much smoother surface for the wheels to roll upon than the very imperfect roads previously used, and therefore greatly increased the available power of the horses. The advantages even of this rude kind of railway were so great as to cause its extensive introduction in various mining districts, and in course of time several improvements were made upon it. About 1765, from a hundred to a hundred and fifty years after their first introduction, the wooden railways appear to have been made in the following manner:-The road was prepared by being levelled, or reduced to as uniform an inclination as circumstances would allow; pieces of wood, roughly squared, about six feet long and four to eight inches square, were then laid across it at a distance of about two or three feet from each other, and upon these other pieces, carefully sawn, about six or seven inches wide and five deep, were fastened by means of pegs, in such a manner as to form two wheeltracks, about four feet apart. The road was then completed by filling the spaces between the cross-pieces (which are

An important improvement on this construction consisted in the addition of a second set of rails, similar to the first, and spiked or pegged down to them, as shown in the elevation, fig. 2, in which c represents the upper rail. In the Fig. 2.

former plan the removal of a rail that was broken or worn out frequently occasioned the derangement of the sleepers, and rendered them useless, from the peg-holes becoming too large. By this improvement these inconveniences were removed, as the upper rails might be repeatedly renewed without disturbing the substructure, and there was no necessity for pegging twice into the same hole. Another advantage of the change was that, by the rail being raised, a greater depth of ballast or road material might be spread over the sleepers, to protect them from the horses' feet.

The vehicles used upon these wooden railways were generally waggons, containing from two to three tons of coal, mounted upon small wheels. The wheels were provided with a flange, or projecting rim, which, by coming in contact with the side of the rail, kept the waggon in the proper direction. Each waggon was drawn by one horse.

As it was desirable that, as far as possible, the power of the horses should be equally applied in every part of the road, it became usual at an early period, at least as early as 1716, to nail thin plates of malleable iron upon the surface of the wooden rails, wherever a steep ascent or a sharp curve rendered the draught harder than usual, so that the horse might travel with a full load upon the ordinary portions of the line, and yet, by the help of the greater smoothness of an iron surface, be able to pass the difficult points without inconvenience. The circumstances in which these lines were used were such that there was almost invariably a descent towards the river or sea-shore, which, being in favour of the load conveyed, was an advantage. Where the descent would otherwise be too abrupt, it was not unusual to make an elevated staith at the river end of the railway, and shoot the coal from the waggons, by an inclined plane, at once into the hold of the ships. Sometimes also, where the inclination would prove inconvenient if distributed equally along the line, it was so arranged that the greater part of the railway was made of a convenient descent, and the remaining fall accomplished by one or more inclined planes, or runs, which the waggons were allowed to descend by their own gravity, the velocity being checked by a piece of wood, called a brake or convoy, being pressed forcibly upon one or both of the wheels on one side of the waggon.

It may be supposed that the saving of labour effected by means of the wooden railway was considered sufficient for the purposes to which it was applied, as it continued in use for a century and a half without any important step being taken for the introduction of a more durable material. Some stone-ways were constructed for similar purposes, but, though possessing many advantages, they are not so smooth as those of wood. The next material improvement was the use of cast-iron plates upon the wooden rails. It is somewhat remarkable that, notwithstanding the well known effect of iron plates in diminishing the

the cost of repairs on the Surrey tramroad.

The serious disadvantages of the plate-railway led to the use of edge-rails, which have now almost entirely superseded the previous form. The first edge-railway of any considerable extent was that completed in 1801 for the conveyance of slate from the quarries of Lord Penrhyn. Its construction is illustrated by fig. 7, which represents the two rails, and the form given to the tire of the wheels in order to keep them in the right course. These rails were Fig. 7.

resistance, and their frequent use as already stated, this | The form of the rail is however a weak one, considering the experiment is said to have been made more in consequence quantity of iron used, and it is such as to permit the lodgeof accidental circumstances than as a premeditated mea- ment of stones and dirt, which not only impede the motion sure of improvement. A wooden railway was in use at the of the carriages, but are also liable to throw them out of the Colebrook Dale iron-works, about the year 1767, when the track. The former of these inconveniences has been in price of iron became very low, and it was determined, in some degree remedied by the use of a rail with an under order to keep the furnaces at work, to cast bars which might rib, as shown in fig. 6, a form which was adopted to reduce be laid down upon the wooden rails, and save expense in Fig. 6. their repairs, and which it was proposed to take up and sell as pigs in case of a sudden rise. This plan was suggested by Mr. Reynolds, whose name is also worthy of remembrance from the circumstance of his having erected the first iron bridge set up in England, also at Colebrook Dale. These bars, or scantlings of iron,' as they were called, were five feet long, four inches broad, and an inch and a quarter thick, and were cast with three holes for convenience of nailing to the wooden rails. Mr. Hornblower, an ingenious mechanician, known as a rival of Watt, in describing this road, remarks on the facility with which vehicles might be turned off the track when required, owing to the absence of a guiding flange; but this is a convenience incompatible with some of the most important qualities of a railway. Various plans have been proposed for combining the smoothness of a railway with the character of a common road, and of these perhaps none is more feasible than that patented by Mr. Woodhouse, in 1803, in which, by ingenious arrangements which it is not necessary here to detail, rails of the sectional form represented by fig. 3, are imbedded in an ordinary pavement or road. The concave form of the upper surface of the rail would tend to keep carriages in the right direction, and yet admit of their being turned out without difficulty. The ease of draught which would be attained by the adoption of such a plan may be conceived by observing the effect of the iron gutters in some of the streets of London, which closely resemble Woodhouse's rail in form, and are frequently made use of as wheel-tracks by drivers, notwithstanding the inconvenience, and even danger, arising from their being confined to one side of the vehicle.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Shortly after the experiment at Colebrook Dale, cast-iron rails with an upright flange, as shown in section in fig. 4, were brought into use. They were first used, it is believed, at the colliery of the Duke of Norfolk, near Sheffield, in 1776. Originally they were fixed upon cross sleepers of wood, like those used to support wooden rails. They were cast with holes for nails, and so laid down that the flanges should either both of them be towards the middle of the track, or vice versa, so that, as explained by fig. 5, which represents an end section of the two rails fixed to Fig. 5.

of an oval section, the longest diameter being vertical. They were four feet six inches long, and had a dovetailed block cast beneath each end, which fitted into an iron sill imbedded in the road. The wheels were formed with a

grooved tire, fitting loosely on the rail. It was found however that in course of time the groove became so deepened by wear as to fit the rail tightly, and thereby produce much friction. To remedy this, Mr. Wyatt, the inventor, introduced a rail and wheel formed as shown at b, fig. 7, in which the bearing surface of the rail and the corresponding part of the wheel were flat. The rails being laid only two feet apart, the carriages were necessarily small, and the fricthat two horses regularly drew a train of twenty-four wagtion considerable, yet the saving of power effected was such gons, each containing about a ton; and ten horses were found sufficient to conduct a traffic which had, on a common road, required four hundred.

The decided advantages of edge-rails were so well appreciated by the coal-owners of Northumberland and Durham, that they were adopted extensively by them within a few form of rail most generally adopted was even better calcuyears after the successful experiment at Penrhyn. The lated to economise the strength of the iron than that of Mr. Wyatt. The following figures represent a mode of construction introduced early in the present century, and which is still used for colliery railways to a considerable extent. The rails are cast in lengths of three or four feet, and their greatest sectional dimension is in the depth. They are made of what is called a fish-bellied form, the lower edge being curved so as to give the rail greater depth in the centre than at the ends or points of support. a, fig. 8, repre

Fig. 8.

a sleeper, with a pair of wheels on them, one flange on each rail is sufficient to prevent carriages running off.

About the year 1793 blocks of stone were introduced as supports, instead of the wooden sleepers. They were, in the early railways, about a foot square, and eight or nine inches deep. One of these blocks is imbedded in the road under each joint in the rails, which are spiked down to wooden plugs inserted in the stone. As the foundation afforded by stone blocks is firmer than that of wooden sleepers, they were quickly introduced in most cases where a durable road was required.

Many ingenious improvements have been made upon the kind of railway just described, which is still extensively used in mining districts for the conveyance of coal, ironstone, &c. It is, for distinction, called the plate-railway or tramroad, and is very convenient from the facility of its construction, and the circumstance that vehicles adapted for use upon it may also, if necessary, be used off the rails.

wooden sleepers. A side view of the rail with two chairs Is given at c, fig. 8, and the upper part of the figure is a section of the railway as completed, showing also the form of wheel employed. It will be readily perceived that the rounded surface of the rail renders the lodgement of extraneous matter almost impossible. The means adopted to keep the carriages upon the rails are much the same in this as in the plate-railway, but the position of the parts is reversed, the protecting flange being upon the wheel instead of the rail. By this arrangement the flange may be made much smaller than that of a tram-plate, and the friction is usually still further diminished by giving a slightly conical form to the wheel-tires, so that the flanges are but rarely brought into actual contact with the rails.

Although the principle of construction here given is that most commonly followed, the details vary so much that hardly any two railways are alike. More will be said on this subject in treating of the improved railways constructed during the last ten years, it being the object here to present an outline of the progress made in the construction of railways prior to their recent extraordinary extension. The sectional forms of edge-rails, though very various, generally bear a considerable resemblance to that here represented; and the fish-bellied profile has been selected as the most usual, although parallel rails, or those with an equal depth throughout from end to end, have also been extensively used. The form of the chairs or pedestals, and the method of securing the rails to them, is also very variable. In figs. 8 and 9 the rails are represented as having half-lap joints, the two ends being placed together between the cheeks of the chair, and fastened by a pin driven through the whole. Sometimes the ends of the rails are made square, abutting against one another in the chair, and secured by a separate pin through each rail. Since the general introduction of locomotive engines, the use of pins has been abandoned, as they have a tendency to work loose, and wedges or keys, which may be tightened when necessary, have been applied in different ways in their stead. In some cases edge-rails have been cast with a pedestal attached to one end, fitted to receive the opposite end of the adjoining rail.

while the brittleness of cast rails rendered it unsafe to have them more than three or four feet, the space between two points of support. Originally the long wrought rails were confined to the parallel form, but they are now, by a very ingenious adaptation of rolling-machinery, made fish-bellied when that form is preferred.

The application of railways having been, down to a recent period, limited to the conveyance of minerals and merchandise, and that at a very moderate velocity, there was little that requires remark in the construction of the carriages employed upon them. They were usually four-wheeled waggons, of small dimensions compared with those used on ordinary roads, in order that the weight might be distributed over a considerable length of road. Being guided in the required direction by the flanges, it is unnecessary to attach the axles of railway carriages in such a manner as to enable them to turn, and the wheels to lock under the body, as in common vehicles; and for the same reason, combined with the greater straightness of a railway, it is unnecessary, and mostly deemed unadviseable, to allow the wheels to revolve independently of the axles. The most approved plan, especially for edge-railways, is to fix the wheels firmly to the axle, and allow the axle to revolve in bearings attached to the body of the carriage. The wheels are almost invariably made of iron, those for slow traffic being cast, and others either wholly or partially made of malleable iron, in order to diminish the risk of fracture. Cast-iron wheels were found to wear very rapidly when used upon wrought edge-rails, but the application of the case-hardening process has rendered them more durable. From a very early period, railway vehicles have been fitted with an apparatus called a brake, consisting of a piece of wood adapted to the form of the wheel-tires, and capable of being pressed against them by levers or screws with sufficient force to impede or arrest their revolution, and consequently the progress of the carriage. Previous to the recent adaptation of railroads to rapid travelling, the use of springs was not common, either in carriages or locomotive engines.

In the infancy of railways animal power was the only means of locomotion employed to any considerable extent. but the purpose to which they were applied, that of convey ing mineral produce to a place of shipment, naturally led to the application of gravity as an auxiliary, and, in some cases, as the sole source of motion. Where, in such a case, the inclination of the ground is very moderate, the slope of the road is frequently so adjusted that no greater power is required to take a loaded carriage down, than to take it up again when empty. When a declivity occurs steeper than is convenient for the ordinary power, an ingenious arrangement called a self-acting inclined plane is occasionally resorted to, on which a loaded carriage, or train of carriages, is allowed to run down by the force of gravity, drawing a rope, which, after passing round a wheel at the top of the incline, is conducted down the slope and attached to an empty train-the force of the descent of the loaded vehicles being sufficient to cause the empty train to run up to the top of the plane. This admirable contrivance was introduced in the latter part of the last century, and is still extensively used. Stationary steam-engines, drawing the carriages by means of ropes guided by pulleys or sheaves in the centre of the track, have been used from an early period, generally in situations where the ascent is too great to be conveniently mounted by horse-power. Locomotive or moveable steam-engines, in many different forms, have also been tried at various times since about the year 1805, although for more than twenty years after that time their powers were very imperfectly developed.

One other improvement in the construction of railways must be mentioned in this hasty sketch of their early history: it is the introduction of malleable iron as a material for rails, an improvement which may perhaps be considered to have done more than any other in preparing railroads for becoming the principal highways of a commercial country. From the commencement of the use of iron railways, much inconvenience was caused by the frequent breakage of the rails, especially those of the tram-plate form. The brittleness of cast-iron, owing to its crystalline structure, rendered it necessary that the rails should be made much stronger than sufficient to bear ordinary loads, that they might be able to resist accidental strains and shocks; but although many of the earlier railways were relaid with heavier rails than were originally supposed needful, breakages were of such common occurrence as to occasion much trouble and expense. So long as the travelling was restricted to a low rate of speed, the accidents and delays thus occasioned were of minor importance, but the difficulty of guarding against them would no doubt have greatly retarded the use of railways for the conveyance of passengers, had not an adequate remedy been provided before the experiment was made. Bars of malleable iron were laid down as rails to a limited extent as early as 1808, and there were some engineers who advocated their use, notwithstanding the inconvenience arising from their unsuitable form, no machinery being then used by which they could be made economically in any In the following notice of the steps by which the locoother than a square or flat form. The desire to introduce a motive engine has been brought to its present state of commore durable rail led also to experiments on the combina-parative perfection, those points only will be dwelt upon tion of wrought and cast iron; but these and all similar contrivances were superseded in 1820 by Mr. Birkenshaw's invention of an efficient and cheap method of rolling iron bars suitable for rails and other purposes. [IRON, vol. xiii., p. 34.] The fibrous texture of wrought-iron makes it far less likely to break when subjected to concussion than castiron, and the sectional form used is such as to render bending improbable. It is a remarkable fact that malleable rails, when in use, do not rust to any material extent, while the same rails, if lying on the ground beside the track, rapidly exfoliate and waste away. One very important advantage of malleable rails is the reduction that they effect in the number of joints, they being usually made fifteen feet long,

which are peculiar to that machine as applied to railroads, referring to STEAM ENGINE for more general information, and to STEAM-CARRIAGE for a notice of its adaptation to ordinary roads.

The possibility of applying the steam-engine to the purposes of locomotion was conceived by several of its earliest improvers, and in 1784 a plan was suggested in one of the patents of Watt; but it does not appear that either he or any other inventor carried their ideas into practice urtil about 1802, when Messrs, Trevithick and Vivian patented a high-pressure engine which, by its simplicity and compactwas admirably adapted for locomotive purposes. Within a few years they built several carriages, one of which,

ness,

Fig. 10.

at least, was for use on a common road. In 1805 they made | the adhesion of plain wheels was insufficient for any prac some interesting experiments with a machine similar to that tical purpose, and consequently much ingenuity was exrepresented by the annexed cuts, on a tramway near pended in contrivances for securing progressive motion by Merthyr Tydvil, and thereby proved the practicability of other means. One of the most successful of these experitheir plan. It is remarkable that notwithstanding the ex-mentalists was Mr. Blenkinsop, who, in 1811, patented a treme simplicity of this machine, it possessed almost all the locomotive engine in which the power was applied to a large essential arrangements of the modern engines; and the ideas cogged wheel, the teeth of which entered a rack laid down of its inventors were so complete, that subsequent engineers beside the ordinary rails. Blenkinsop's engine was in other have had little to do beyond improving and carrying into respects very similar to that of Trevithick, but two cylinders effect the suggestions of their specification. and pistons were employed, working separate cranks at an angle of 90°, so that one was exerting its full force while the other passed its dead points. Engines on Mr. Blenkinsop's plan were worked for some years on a colliery line near Leeds, and drew very heavy loads at a slow rate; but the friction of the machinery was excessive, and they are consequently now disused. In 1812 Messrs. Chapman constructed engines on eight wheels, all of which were turned by the machinery in order to increase the adhesion. They also proposed to stretch a chain or rope along the railway, which should pass round a grooved wheel turned by the engine, and thereby aid the progressive motion. Shortly afterwards Mr. Brunton invented a locomotive machine, which was caused to advance by the alternate motion of two legs, thrust out from the hinder end of the engine. This singular contrivance was carried into effect, and the machine was found to have considerable power, but an accident caused the inventor to abandon it. Similar propellers have since been tried by Gordon and Gurney upon common roads.

e

Fig. 10 is a side and end elevation of this machine, the same letters in each referring to the same parts: a is the boiler, which is of a cylindrical form with flat ends. The fire is contained in a large tube within, and on one side of, the boiler. One end of this is seen at b, and the form is indicated by dotted lines in the side view. This tube extends nearly to the opposite end of the boiler, and then, being diminished in size, it is turned round and brought out to the chimney at c. The fire-tube is completely surrounded by the water, by which arrangement steam is generated with great rapidity and of a high degree of elasticity. The steam-cylinder is placed vertically at d, being immersed nearly to the bottom of the boiler, as shown by the dotted lines. The steam is admitted alternately above and below the piston by means of a fourway-cock in a valve-box at the top of the cylinder, and the waste steam, after propelling the piston, passes by the eduction-pipe e into the chimney, where its emission causes a strong draft. The upper end of the piston-rod is attached to a crosshead f, which slides up and down on vertical guides, and from the ends of which connecting rods g g descend to cranks fixed on the axles of the fore-wheels, which are thus caused to revolve like the fly-wheel of a stationary engine: h is a safety-valve on the upper part of the boiler. The immersion of the working cylinder in the boiler is happily contrived for compactness and economy of heat, and has been frequently imitated in subsequent engines; and the admirable arrangement of throwing the waste steam into the chimney has been almost invariably followed, as it affords a blast always proportionate to the speed of the engine, and the consequent demand for the evolution of steam. This machine, when tried on the Merthyr tramway in 1805, drew a train of waggons containing ten tons of iron and a considerable number of persons at the rate of five miles per hour. Some inconvenience arose from the use of a single cylinder, because, although the impetus caused the wheels to revolve past the dead points of the crank, the motion was not regular throughout the whole revolution. A supplementary carriage followed the engine to carry a supply of fuel and water, and a small force-pump, worked by the machine itself, maintained the requisite quantity of water in the boiler.

Trevithick was aware that, although the adhesion between the engine-wheels and the rails was sufficient to ensure the progressive motion of his machine on a level or nearly level road, the wheels would slip round without advancing if the inclination were considerable or the load attached too great. He therefore in his patent proposed to remedy this by making the propelling wheels uneven by the projecting heads of bolts, cross-grooves, or fittings to railroads, where the adhesion of the plain wheels should prove insufficient. Being otherwise occupied himself, he did not proceed with nis locomotive experiments, but many others entered the field, though they produced few useful contrivances that were not either used or suggested by him. An erroneous idea was for many years generally entertained, that

In 1814 and 1815 engines were again tried with plai wheels, and, being found efficient, were used upon railways in the north of England. Several attempts have however been made since that time to introduce contrivances for increasing adhesion, to enable locomotive engines to ascend planes of greater inclination than they will do with smooth wheels alone.

Patents were taken out in 1816 and 1817, by George Stephenson, in connection with Messrs. Dodd and Losh under which several locomotives were constructed and brought into operation upon colliery railways near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The boiler in these machines resembled that of Trevithick, but the fire-tube passed completely through, instead of being turned and brought out at the back. Two vertical cylinders were used, each working a distinct axle and pair of wheels, the cranks of which were kept at the requisite angle of 90° by means of an endless chain stretched over grooved or toothed pulleys fixed on the axles; or, in the more recent engines, by connecting rods outside the wheels. A curious contrivance was introduced in them to protect the machinery from the effect of jolts caused by irregularities in the road. Four cylinders, open at the bottom to the atmosphere, and communicating at the top with the boiler, were attached to its under side, and pistons, working steam-tight in these cylinders, were fastened to the axle-bearings. By this means the pressure of the steam and water on the pistons caused the boiler and machinery to rise above the axles, and relieved them from concussions affecting the wheels. This plan ensured an equal weight bearing on each wheel, although the rails might not be level, but it has been abandoned, and steel springs employed instead. Engines of this kind seldom exceeded a speed of about five miles per hour, unless unloaded, when they occa sionally ran at the rate of ten or twelve.

When the projectors of the Liverpool and Manchester railway were engaged in the design and execution of that great work in 1825 and the following years, the advantages of locomotive steam-engines were so imperfectly developed, that it was uncertain whether or not they should be adopted. The experiment of forming a railway for passengers as well as general merchandise traffic, had scarcely been tried, although the Stockton and Darlington railway, which was opened in 1825, had done more than any of its predecessors in showing the capabilities of a railway for such a use. As the Liverpool line approached completion, the directors took great pains to ascertain the best method of working it. They were soon convinced that horse-power was ineligible, as it was intended to aim at considerable velocity, and the expense of animal power when applied at a speed of eight or ten miles per hour, is very great. It was not so easy to decide on the comparative merits of stationary and locomotive engines. Various suggestions were made for the application of fixed engines at intervals of a mue or two along the line to draw trains by ropes from station to station; but it was eventually