Scientific American Supplement, No. 421 | Page 7

? inch pitch. Smaller sizes are made for torpedo boats and for places where space is limited.
[Illustration: LATHE FOR USE ON SHIPBOARD.]
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ENDLESS TROUGH CONVEYER.
[Illustration]
The endless trough conveyer is one of the latest applications of link-belting, consisting primarily of a heavy chain belt carried over a pair of wheels, and in the intermediate space a truck on which the train runs. This chain or belt is provided with pans which, as they overlap, form an endless trough. Power being applied to revolve one of the wheels, the whole belt is thereby set in motion and at once becomes an endless trough conveyer. The accompanying engraving illustrates a section of this conveyer. A few of the pans are removed, to show the construction of the links; and above this a link and coupler are shown on a larger scale. As will be seen, the link is provided with wings, to form a rigid support for the pan to be riveted to it. To reduce friction each link is provided with three rollers, as will be seen in the engraving. This outfit makes a fireproof conveyer which will handle hot ore from roasting kiln to crusher, and convey coal, broken stone, or other gritty and coarse material. The Link Belt Machinery Company, of Chicago, is now erecting for Mr. Charles E. Coffin, of Muirkirk, Md., about 450 ft. of this conveyer, which is to carry the hot roasted iron ore from the kilns on an incline of about one foot in twelve up to the crusher. This dispenses with the barrow-men, and at an expenditure of a few more horsepower becomes a faithful servant, ready for work in all weather and at all times of day or night. This company also manufactures ore elevators of any capacity, which, used in connection with this apparatus, will handle perfectly anything in the shape of coarse, gritty material. It might be added that the endless trough conveyer is no experiment. Although comparatively new in this country, the American Engineering and Mining Journal says it has been in successful operation for some time in England, the English manufacturers of link-belting having had great success with it.
[Illustration: ENDLESS TROUGH CONVEYER.]
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RAILROAD GRADES OF TRUNK LINES.
On the West Shore and Buffalo road its limit of grade is 30 feet to the mile going west and north, and 20 feet to the mile going east and south. Next for easy grades comes the New York Central and Hudson River road. From New York to Albany, then up the valley of the Mohawk, till it gradually reaches the elevation of Lake Erie, it is all the time within the 500 foot level, and this is maintained by its connections on the lake borders to Chicago, by the "Nickel Plate," the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, and the Canada Southern and Michigan Central.
The Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio roads pass through a country so mountainous that, much as they have expended to improve their grades, it is practically impossible for them to attain the easy grades so much more readily obtained by the trunk lines following the great natural waterways originally extending almost from Chicago to New York.
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ENGLISH EXPRESS TRAINS.
The Journal of the Statistical Society for September contains an elaborate paper by Mr. E. Foxwell on "English Express Trains; their Average Speed, etc. with Notes on Gradients, Long Runs, etc." The author takes great pains to explain his definition of the term "express trains," which he finally classifies thus: (a) The general rule; those which run under ordinary conditions, and attain a journey-speed of 40 and upward. These are about 85 per cent. of the whole. (b) Equally good trains, which, running against exceptional difficulties, only attain, perhaps, a journey speed as low as 36 or 37. These are about 5 per cent. of the whole. (c) Trains which should come under (a), but which, through unusually long stoppages or similar causes, only reach a journey speed of 39. These are about 10 per cent.[1] of the whole.
[Footnote 1: 10 per cent. of the number, but not of the mileage, of the whole; for most of this class run short journeys.]
He next explains that by "running average" is meant: The average speed per hour while actually in motion from platform to platform, i.e., the average speed obtained by deducting stoppages. Thus the 9-hour (up) Great Northern "Scotchman" stops 49 minutes on its journey from Edinburgh to King's Cross, and occupies 8 hours 11 minutes in actual motion; its "running average" is therefore 48 miles an hour, or, briefly, "r.a.=48." The statement for this train will thus appear: Distance in miles between Edinburgh and King's Cross, 392?; time, 9 h. 0 m.; journey-speed, 43.6; minutes stopped, 49; running average,