182 GRAND MECHANICAL COMPETITION. a few weeks; and in the following session of Parliament an, Act was obtained containing all the requisite logal powers. The Act met, as had been anticipated, with a great deal of opposition; but as that opposition had ne better foundation than the resistance made by the land-carriers of a preceding age to the introduction of canals, it necessarily shared a similar fate. The Marquess of Stafford, who was at first its most powerful opponent, became at length so satisfied of the superior advantages which it promised to confer on the country, that his Lordship not only withdrew his opposition, but purchased a thousand shares in the concern. In the summer, or rather autumn of 1826, the formation of the railway commenced under the direction of Mr. George Stephenson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who had been appointed by the Company to carry the design of Mr. James into execution. The natural character of the country through which the road passes, made the undertaking one of considerable difficulty, as will be readily perceived from a simple detail of the work which Mr. Stephenson had to perform. There were, first, two tunnels, one 2200 yards, and the other 291 yards long, to be excavated under the town of Liverpool, and afterwards six considerable eminences to be cut through; these excavations too had mostly to be made through solid rock (red sandstone), and amounted altogether to upwards of two millions of cubic yards. While in some parts it was thus necessary to hew out a level with the pickaxe, there were others where the level had to be maintained by raising artificial mounds (or embankments as they are less properly called), bridges, and viaducts. One of these mounds, called the Broad Green Embankment, rises to an elevation of 70 feet above the level of the surrounding country; another, which is about four miles long, ex'tends over a moss (Chatmoss) which three years ago was scarcely passable even to pedestrians. Of bridges and siaducts the number required to be erected on the line was 25; one of which (the Sankey) was to consist of nire arches of 50 feet span, and an other (the Newton) of four arches of It is now understood that early in the spring of next year, the whole of the railway from Liverpool to Old Field Road, near the site of the intended bridge over the Irwell, will be ready for travelling on; and that the opening may not be deferred till the erection of that bridge, it is proposed to erect a wharf and warehouses at Old Field Road, where the railway will be considered to terminate, until the continuation of the line into Manchester is completed. The rails have been as yet laid down on about fourteen miles of the road only; but as this is a matter which requires little time, no delay is apprehended on this account. The sort of rail employed is that called the edge-rail, in contradistinction to the flat rail or tram-plate,* now so generally abandoned where ease of draught is consulted; not however GRAND MECHANICAL COMPETITION. the common edge-rail, but that p par ticular description for which Mr. Birkinshaw, of the Bedlington Iron Works, has a patent. The following description of the construction and advantages of these rails we extract from the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica :— "The flat rail has been now almost entirely superseded by the edge-rails, which are now generally admitted to be decidedly superior; the edge of the bar presenting less friction, and being less liable to clog up with dust and mud, or -to be obstructed with stones driven off the road upon the surface of the rails. The edge-rail consists merely of a rectangular bar of cast-iron, three feet long, three or four inches broad, and from one half-inch to one inch thick; set on its edge between sleeper and sleeper, and bearing on the sleepers at its extremities. The upper side of the drail is flaunched out to present a broader bearing surface for the wheels, and the & under side is also cast thicker than the middle for the sake of strength. But the greatest strength is evidently attained by casting the rail not rectangular, but deeper in the middle than at the ends, to resist better the transverse strain. The ends may be safely reduced nearly to one-third of the depth in the le middle, and still be equally strong. To unite the rails together, and at the same time preserve them in their places and in their upright position, and to bind them also to the sleepers, they are set in a cast-iron socket or chair, which is attached firmly to the sleeper. This socket embracing the extremities of the adjacent rails, which are here made to overlap a little, a pin is driven at once through the rails and through the sock2et, and binds the whole together. This is the general method of uniting the fedge-rails, but the shape and dimensions of the metal chair and of the overlap of the rails are varied according to the judgment and taste of the engineer. Since edge-railways have come into more general use, an essential improve19ment has been made in their construc tion by the use of malleable iron, in Sa place of cast-iron, in forming the rails. The advantage of malleable iron rails is, that they are less subject to breakage than, cast-iron: a circumstance of importance in this case, where it is not easy to avoid those jolts and sudden 1973 shocks which cast-iron is least of all capable of withstanding, and though Jan they should happen to give way they 21 are easily repaired. They can also be lo s 133 laid in greater lengths, and requiring therefore fewer joints; they can be bent with ease to the curvature of the road : when worn out they are of greater vas lue; and, lastly, their first cost is very, little, if at all, greater than that of castiron rails. Malleable iron is, no doubt, less able to stand exposure, decaying more readily under the influence of air and moisture; but hitherto this inconvenience has not been felt, and on the whole the malleable iron is now decidedly preferred. These rails are laid and joined in the same manner as the cast-iron, only in greater lengths." The writer then proceeds to describe Mr. Birkinshaw's improvement "An improvement has lately been made in the construction of malleable iron rails, which promises to be of essential utility. It consists in the use of bars, not rectangular, but of a wedge form, or swelled out on the upper edge. In the rectangular bar, there is evidently a waste of metal on the under surface, which, not requiring to be of the same thickness as where the waggon-wheel is to roll, may be evidently reduced with advantage, if it can be done easily. The bar may then be made deeper, and broader at the top than before, so as with the same quantity of metal to be equally strong, and present a much broader bearing surface for the wheel. The peculiar shape is given them in the rolling of the metal, by means of grooves cut in the rollers, corresponding with the requisite breadth, and depth, and curvature of the proposed rail. Mr. B. recommends his rails to be of 19 feet in length. We have seen one of these patent rails at Sir John Hope's colliery; and it certainly forms the most perfect iron rail which has hitherto been contrived; combining very simply and ingeniously in its form the qualities of lightness, strength, and durability. It is twelve feet long, two inches broad along the top, about half an inch along the bottom, and still thinner between. It rests on sleepers at every three feet, and at those places the rail is two inches deep, while in the middle point between the sleepers it is three inches deep. All these inequalities, we believe, are produced on the metal by means of the rollers; and this circumstance is well deserving of attention, as may obviously be applied not merely in the formation of railways, but to a variety of other purposes in the arts. The moulding and shaping of the metal in this manner is quite a new attempt in the iron manufacture, and it is not easy K 3 134 GRAND MECHANICAL COMPETITION. Mr. Stephenson, it will be seen, had good reason for the preference he has given to Mr. Birkinshaw's rails. An engineer of great experience whom we met at the present competition, suggested what we think would be a great improvement in them; namely. that they should overlap at the extremities in the same way, in fact, as most of the old edgerails did. The advantage of an unbroken continuity in the hearing 'surface seems not to have been sufficiently consulted. The total cost of the railway is not expected to be much iéss than £650,000, or about £20,000 per mile. This is much more than was ever before expended on a railway; but the excess is to he accounted for partly by the number of deep cuttings, lofty embankments, &c., which were ne cessary, and partly by the circumstance, that compensation had to be made to the proprietors of the ground assumed for the purposes of the railway, while in most other cases there has been no need for such compensation; railways. being, nine times out of ten, constructed by individual proprietors on their own lands, and for their own exclusive benefit. Were the expence however even to exceed £650,000-nay, to be even twice or thrice as much we ase convinced there will be revenue enough to yield a handsome return. The traffic between Liverpool and Manchester is probably greater than what exists between any other two points of the kingdom. The one being the principal port for the importation of cotton, and the other the chief seat of its manufacture; this alone serves to unite them in bonds of the closest alliance. The total quantity of merchandize passing between the two towns is stated to be 1200 tons per day; and though it is not to be expected that the same result will take place here as has been exhibited in the case of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, (for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway will still have the frwell and Mersey navigation to contend with, and probably at reduced rates,) yet if only one-half of this immense traffic is transferred to the railway, it will at 2d. per tou each mile yield an annual income – of £52,478. 13s. 4d. The carriage of passengers may reasonably be expected to add to this sum at least £25,000 more. The profit to be derived by the shareholders forms however but a minor consideration, compared with the vast advantages that will result to the inhabitants of Liverpool and Manchester, and indirectly to the nation at large, from increasing the celerity and cheapness of communication between the two towns. But to appreciate duly what is likely to be effected in these respects on this new line, we must pause a moment to reflect on what was the maximum of effect previously realized on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It was not more, as we have before stated, than eight miles an hour; and the idea of any thing much beyond that rate was generally scouted as visionary. Mr. Wood, who published his book on railways, after the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway was pleased to say, "It is far from my wish to promulgate to the world that the ridiculous expectations, or rather professions of the enthusiastic speculatist will be realized, and that we shall see engines travelling at the rate of twelve, sixteen, eighteen, or twenty miles an hour. Nothing could do more harm towards their adoption or general improvement than the promulgation of such nonsense!" The Directors of the Liverpool and Man chester Railway appear to have had nearly the same impressions when they offered the present premium of £500 for "the most improved locomotive engine." They stipulated that it should be " capable of drawing after it day by day on a well-constructed railway, on a level plane, a train of carriages of the gross weight of 20 tons, including the tender and watertank, at the rate of ten miles per hour." More they did not ask for; and as if to evince how perfectly they agreed with Mr. Wood as to the nonsense" of expecting more, they selected that gentleman to be one of the judges of their competition. 60 GRAND MECHANICAL COMPETITION. The proceedings on the first day of this competition are already before 1our readers. It has been seen from them that Mr. Wood has been spared -to see, not only what he declared to be "ridiculous" and " nonsense," reduced to an unquestionable matter of fact, but of witnessing something so much more extraordinary, that had any one hinted it to him in his days of incredulity, he would we presume have pronounced it to be absolute madness. The least powerful of the two engines which then exhibited reached nearly the highest degree in Mr. Wood's scale of "nonsense," having gone without any load at the rate of about eighteen miles an hour; while The Novelty" of Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson actually realized almost double that speed! 1 "When we consider," says a writer, in the Liverpool Chronicle," that at this rate of going, Liverpool and Manchester, which are at present near half a-day's journey distant, will be brought within an hour's travel of each other; and pass from this fact to the contemplation of the vast changes which so rapid a mode of conveyance will effect in all the relations of society in this quarter of the kingdom, we feel at a loss for examples with which to contrast this great triumph of human ingenuity." But suppose we go a step farther, and estimate what the effects will be of extending this system of communication over the whole kingdom; what mind is there so comprehensive as to embrace all the important consequences to which it will lead? We think we shall not go too far in saying, that it will produce an entire change in the face of British society. The effect will be much the same, as if the workshop of the manufacturer were brought alongside the quay where he obtains his raw material, and whence he sends it forth again in a manufactured shape to the most distant parts of the world; or as if the collieries, iron mines, and potteries of the heart of England were scattered along its shores. Peculiar local advantages will figure less than they have done in our manufacturing and commercial history, since whatever one place produces, can be as quickly and cheaply transported to 135 another; and instead of our manufac tures continuing concentrated in two or three large towns-to the great injury of the moral and physical condition of those employed in them-we may expect to see them spreading gradually over the whole kingdom. Living in the country, will no longer be a term synonymous with every sort of inconvenience; and it will come to be a mere matter of choice, whether a man of business lives close by his counting-house, or thirty miles from it. The rents of land and houses will not be raised by the change, but they will be equalized; they will be reduced in town and raised in the country. In proportion, too, as the intercourse of men with each other, and the interchange of commodities between them is thus facilitated, the greater will be the cheapness of every thing; the more our manufacturers will have it in their power to bear up against that foreign competition, by. which they are so much endangered. The oftener (to use a common phrase). the penny is turned, the greater the profit; and the quicker a trader's returns, the smaller the capital he requires in business. In fine, we may say of railways, in general, as a wor thy gentleman is said to have observed of the Stockton and Darlington line, and with ten times greater probability of seeing our prophesy realized "Let the country but make the rail-roads, and the rail-roads will make the country." Wonderful as were the results which have suggested these observations, they were abundantly confirmed by the farther experiments which we now proceed to detail. Second Day, 7th October. "The Novelty" engine of Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson was this day tried with a load of three times its weight attached to it, or 11 tons, 5 cwt.; and it drew this with ease at the rate of 20 miles per hour: thus proving itself to be equally good for speed as for power. We took particular notice to-day of its power of consuming its own smoke, and did not any time observe the emission of the smallest particle from the chimney. The weather now became wet, and 136 KUHANICAL COMPETITION. GRAND the_rail-ways clogged with "mud, which made it necessary to suspend the prosecution of the experiments before the day had half elapsed. The attendance of spectators this morning was by no means so numerous as on the preceding day; but there were Yew of those absent the engineers, men of science, &c,whose presence was most desirable.ilsup ar Third Day, 8th October. Before the commencement of the experiments to-day, it was announced that the judges on reconsidering the card of "Stipulations and Conditions" originally issued, and of which we gave the substance last week, had considered them so defective as to make it necessary essary to substitute the following: 70 1TRIAL GINES. OF THE LOCOMOTIVE EN LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. SI The following is the Ordeal which we have decided each Locomotive Engine shall undergo, in contending for the Premium of £500, at Rainhill. 1 The weight of the locomotive engine, with its full complement of water in the boiler, shall be ascertained at the weighing machine, by eight o'clock in the morning, it shall be the the load assigned to times the weight thereof. The water in the boiler shall be cold, and there shall be no fuel in the fire place. As much fuel shall be weighed, and as much water shall be measured and delivered into the tendercarriage, as the owner of the engine may consider sufficient for the supply of the engine for a journey of thirty-five miles. The fire in the boiler shall then be lighted, and the quantity of fuel consumed for getting up the steam shall be determined, and the time noted.& od The tender-carriage, with the fuel hand water, shall be considered to be, sand taken as a part of the load assigned to the engine. Those engines that carry their own fuel and water, shall be allowed a proportionate deduction from their load, according to the weight of the engine. "The engine, with the carriages attached to it, shall be run by hand up to the starting-post; and as soon as the steam is got up to fifty pounds per square inch, the engine shall set out upon its journey. The distance the engine shall perform each trip, shall be one mile and three-quarters each way, including one eighth of a mile at each end for getting up the speed, and for stopping the train by this means the engine with its load will travel one and a half mile each way at full speed. 2,155 The engine shall make ten trips, which will be equal to a journey of thirty-five miles; thirty-miles whereof shall be performed at full speed, and the average rate of travelling shall not be less than ten miles per hour. As soon as the engine has performed this task, (which will be equal to the travelling from Liverpool to Manchester,) there shall be a fresh supply of fuel and water delivered to her; and as soon as she can be got ready to set out again, she shall go up to the startingpost, and make ten trips more, which will be equal to the journey from Man chester back again to Liverpool. "The time of performing every trip shall be accurately noted, as well as the time occupied in getting ready to set out on the second journey. "Should the engine not ne enabled to take along with it sufficient fuel and water for the journey of ten trips, the time occupied in taking-in a fresh supply of fuel and water, shall be considered and taken as a part of the in performing the journey.. J.U. RASTRICK, Esq. Stour- NICHOLAS WOOD, Esq. Kil. JOHN KENNEDY, Esq. Man- "Liverpool, Oct. 6th, 1829." time Judges We shall not go into a question which has been raised, as to the fairness of the judges making any alteration in the conditions originally promulgated. We have a perfect persuasion that they have no other desire than to ascertain, in the best manner possible, the relative powers of the competing engines, and shall not quarrel with them for any mere irregularity in the mode of their proceedings. The "new" appears to us to be also, on the whole, a much amended" edition. τε In the original " stipulations and conditions," it was first ordered, that the load attached to each engine should be three times the weight of the engine;" and then, that the load drawn should be equal to "twenty tons, including the tender and watertank." To reconcile these contradictory stipulations, and to make provi |