In answer to questions as to the compressed fastenings, Mr. May explained that the peculiarity of the system consisted in the fibre of the timber being compressed equally from the circumference to the centre. The pieces of wood for the wedges were cut out with parallel sides and forced by hydraulic presses into tapering moulds; whilst in those moulds they were subject to the action of heat applied through the medium of low pressure steam, and after being allowed to cool, they were forced out of the moulds, and so long as they were kept dry would retain their form; but as the operation simply contracted the dimensions of the sap vessels without crushing the fibre, the power of capillary attraction was not destroyed, and when driven into the chair and exposed to moisture they swelled so as to remain perfectly tight. There was this difference between wedges so compressed and all others; that a true wedge was formed from a piece of wood cut parallel on all sides, whilst all former modes that he was acquainted with, produced, not wedges, but parallel pieces.

The diminution of the bulk of the trenails, by the process, is from 100 to 63, and of the wedges from 100 to 80. It is found that the wood does not swell until it is placed in a damp situation, as in the sleepers. Even the most solid woods, such as African teak, can be compressed without sustaining injury. Perfectly seasoned timber will not shrink after compression, but green wood will shrink after the process. One of the principal advantages of the compressed trenails, is the firmness with which they hold into the sleeper. Around the iron spikes generally used, a sheath of rust is formed by the damp sleeper; the shaking of the carriages tends to draw them upwards, and the elasticity of the fibre around the hole in the sleeper, being impaired, it is of no use to drive them down again in the same place, and the chairs eventually become loose.

The mode of casting the chairs was described to be by placing an iron plate on each side of the pattern, ramming them up in sand, and using an iron core, which being sustained in its position by a projecting tongue falling into a groove in the side plates, preserves an uniform inclination of the rail in the chairs. Extraordinary precision is thus obtained, and only about 2 per cent. of waste-castings are made, although they are subjected to a rigid test, for if the bearing points allow the rail to vary th of an inch from the required inclination, they are broken up. The iron cores do not unduly chill the metal, and the average strength is retained. The iron used is chiefly "Welsh Cold Blast."

Mr. Cubitt's object has been to lay a railway entirely upon transverse sleepers, of such a form as would expose the largest amount of bearing surface for the least portion of timber; that the bulk of the ballast should be beneath the bottom of the sleeper, where alone it is useful; to use only the best foreign timber; to have the rails rolled uniformly and sufficiently heavy; the chairs simple in form, possessing great regularity, and giving

Guide Tube and Auger.

the inward inclination to the rail within the chairs, instead of depending upon the rail-layer doing it in fixing them; and that the fastenings should be simple, but firm, and not liable to breakage, or to be detached by the passage of the carriages.

With these views he had directed four sleepers to be cut diagonally out of each square log of foreign timber, giving about 2 cubic feet to each sleeper; to place them with the right angle downwards, so that the ballast could always be consolidated by ramming, without lifting the sleeper, or digging around it, as with square, or other formed sleepers; two places are planned to receive the chairs, and one fastening hole bored in each sleeper; they are then kyanized in close tanks, completely filled with the prepared solution, under a pressure of 80 lbs. per square inch. When placed upon the ballast, the joint chairs are first put down 15 feet apart, and the intermediate chairs loosely placed 3 feet apart; cramp gauges," embracing the inside and outside of the rails, are then fixed between each pair of sleepers, and the wedges along one side driven up-one trenail being driven in each chair, the hole for which is previously bored in the sleeper by a gauge, to insure an equal projection on each side of the rail. A "guide tube" of an internal diameter, to fit the spiral auger for boring the trenail holes, with the external lip tapered to correspond with the hole in the chair, for the head of the trenail, is then used, and by its agency the holes are pierced with great accuracy, concentric with the hole in the chair, at the same time protecting the tool from being injured by the cast-iron. The intermediate chairs are then fixed in the same manner, and the operations are repeated for the opposite rails; the ballast is then consolidated by ramming. It is found that the work proceeds very rapidly; the ballast supports the sleepers throughout, and

has no tendency to fall away from them; the water drains away freely, and hitherto the passage of the ballast waggons over that portion of the line which is laid (although they are without springs) has been productive of benefit rather than injury.

The inclination of the rail being given in the chair, had insured such accuracy, that after one day's traffic over it, the surface of the rails is rubbed equally throughout, and not alternately on either side, as is so commonly the case.

Mr. Cubitt did not claim the invention of the angular-formed sleeper, as Mr. Reynolds had used it before for his longitudinal bearing rails, but he believed that transverse sleepers of that form had not been previously laid down; nor did he claim the compressed wedges and trenails, or the peculiar mode of casting the chairs; the merit of these was entirely due to Messrs. Ransome and May, who had entered completely into his views and wishes, and executed them with extreme intelligence.

In answer to a question from the President, Mr. May replied, that it had been an object to gain in the trenails and wedges, the greatest amount of strength with diminished bulk, and also to cut away as little of the sleeper as possible in boring the holes; he had, therefore, introduced this method of compressing them, with a view also, that in swelling from the damp, they should fix themselves tight into the soft timber sleeper, and hold the chair fast down.

He hoped to extend the use of compressed trenails to shipbuilding, for which they were eminently adapted; if they were used, smaller holes would be bored in the timbers, and they would hold tighter than the trenails now used, which require to have the points split and wedged up, and the heads also divided and caulked, to prevent leakage through the open sap vessels of the wood.

The President remarked that on the Hull and Selby Railway, the chairs were fastened to the kyanized timber sleepers, by uncompressed wooden trenails.

Mr. Cubitt was not aware of that fact; he had always found that uncompressed wedges and trenails would not hold tight. Some of the compressed trenails had been wetted by accident, and could not be afterwards driven into the holes in the chairs; they nearly resumed their original size, and then showed the marks of the turning tool upon their surfaces. In answer to a question from Mr. Parkes, as to the comparative expense of laying the line, it was rather in favour of the system he had adopted, although the prices paid for the items separately, were higher.

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than usual, but the saving in labour, and the almost total absence of waste of materials, gave the economy. He then quoted a few of the prices paid; sleepers, 6s. 6d. each (ready to lay down, including kyanizing); chairs £9 per ton, free from faults in casting, the contractors for them replacing all that were broken in laying the line. Each joint chair, with three trenails and one wedge, 2s. 10d. Intermediate chairs, with two trenails and one wedge, 2s. 1d. each. The labour for laying the line was from 2s. to 3s. per yard running; the cost of fixing the sleepers, laying the rails, and ballasting complete, was from £1,500 to £2,000 per mile, including all expenses.

Mr. Macneill fully concurred in the importance of providing for clear drainage from the sleepers; and in the advantage presented by the angular form for ramming the ballast. The transverse sleepers, with such rails as had been used on the SouthEastern Railway, were preferable to a continuous bearing, as they would prevent the gauge from widening, and preserve an uniform regularity of service, which would tend materially to diminish the oscillating motion so common on railways, and which was so destructive to the engine and the carriages; altogether this railway appeared to be the most perfect he had hitherto seen.

He was using on the Dublin and Drogheda Railway, chairs of somewhat similar construction, with uncompressed wooden wedges and fastenings; they were very roughly cast in Scotland, with hot-blast iron, and the breakage was very great; they, however, cost less than £5 per ton. He believed that chairs, such as were cast by Ransome and May, would be cheaper at £9 per ton. The uncompressed trenails were found in many instances to become loose. In ballasting the railway, as stone was cheap, the whole surface of the line was pitched transversely with thin stones, and then a good bed of broken stone used for ballast, in the same manner as Mr. Telford had proceeded with the Holyhead Road.

Mr. William Cubitt had compressed a considerable quantity of wood wedges, by forcing them singly, by a blow of a piston, through a taper steel mould; on leaving the mould they had attained their ultimate state of compresson, and they were some time before they resumed their criginal bulk, but he conceived that Mr. May's plan, by which they were dried in a compressed state, enabled them to retain their form longer. He considered the systems of preparation, and of laying the road, to be the most perfect hitherto executed.