Scientific American Supplement, No. 484, April 11, 1885 | Page 9

much safer, and will use one-half the fuel of the very
best steam engines for equal power. The first cost also will not be
greater than that of steam. The engine itself will be more expensive
than a steam engine of equal power, but the gas producer will be less
expensive than the boiler at present. Perfect as the gas engine now is,
considered as a machine for converting heat into work, the possibility
of great development is not yet exhausted. Its economy may be
increased two or even three fold; in this lies the brilliant future before it.
The steam engine is nearly as perfect as it can be made; it approaches
very nearly the possibility of its theory. Its defect does not lie in its
mechanism, but in the very properties of water and steam itself. The
loss of heat which takes place in converting liquid water into gaseous
steam is so great that by far the greater portion of the heat given out by
the fuel passes away either in the condenser or the exhaust of a steam
engine; but a small proportion of the heat is converted into work.
The very best steam engines convert about 11 per cent. of the heat
given them into useful work, the remaining 89 per cent. being wasted,
principally in the exhaust of the engine.
Gas engines now convert 20 per cent. of the heat given to them into
work, and very probably will, in a few years more, convert 60 per cent.
into useful work. The conclusion, then, is irresistible that, when
engineers have gained greater experience with gas engines and gas
producers, they will displace steam engines entirely for every
use--mills, locomotives, and ships.
* * * * *

RAPID CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC
RAILWAY.
By E.T. ABBOTT, Member of the Engineers' Club of Minnesota. Read
December 12, 1884.
During the winter of 1881 and 1882, the contract was let to Messrs.

Langdon, Sheppard & Co., of Minneapolis, to construct during the
working season of the latter year, or prior to January 1, 1883, 500 miles
of railroad on the western extension of the above company; the contract
being for the grading, bridging, track-laying, and surfacing, also
including the laying of the necessary depot sidings and their grading.
The idea that any such amount of road could be built in that country in
that time was looked upon by the writer hereof, as well as by railroad
men generally, as a huge joke, perpetrated to gull the Canadians. At the
time the contract was let, the Canadian Pacific Railway was in
operation to Brandon, the crossing of the Assiniboine River, 132 miles
west of Winnipeg. The track was laid, however, to a point about 50
miles west of this, and the grading done generally in an unfinished state
for thirty miles further. This was the condition of things when the
contract was entered into to build 500 miles--the east end of the
500-mile contract being at Station 4,660 (Station being at Brandon) and
extending west to a few miles beyond the Saskatchewan River.
The spring of 1882 opened in the most unpromising manner for
railroad operations, being the wettest ever known in that country.
Traffic over the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad, between
St. Paul and Winnipeg, was entirely suspended from April 15 to the
28th, owing to the floods on the Red River at St. Vincent and Emerson,
a serious blow to an early start, as on this single track depended the
transportation of all supplies, men, timber, and contractors' plant,
together with all track materials (except ties), all of these things having
to come from or through St. Paul and Minneapolis. The writer hereof
was appointed a division engineer, and reported at Winnipeg the 15th
of April, getting through on the last train before the St. Vincent flood.
No sooner was the line open from St. Paul to Winnipeg than the
cotillon opened between Winnipeg and Brandon, with a succession of
washouts that defied and defeated all efforts to get trains over, so it was
not until the fifth day of May that I left Winnipeg to take charge of the
second division of 30 miles.
By extremely "dizzy" speed I was landed at the end of the track, 180
miles from Winnipeg, on the evening of the 9th (4 days). My outfit
consisted of three assistant engineers and the necessary paraphernalia
for three complete camps, 30 days' provisions (which turned out to be
about 20), 11 carts and ponies, the latter being extremely poor after a

winter's diet on buffalo grass and no grain. On the 18th day of May I
had my division organized and camps in running order. The country
was literally under water, dry ground being the exception, and I look