WIRE TRAMWAYS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 274, 20 November 1871, Page 2

WIRE TRAMWAYS.

In a notice of ,the Lou Jon International Exhibiton, the ; Standard says :—ln associatioD with the transit on common roads we may very properly associate the means of carrying materials from quarries or factories in places where' either no roads exist, or where, for economy of transit, direct mechanical means are preferable to cartage. The wire tramway is the most simple and important of auy such meaus yet proposed. It consists of a simple endless rope carried over pulleys on posts at convenient intervals and running round a drum at either terminal station, one of these drums being driven by steam power. The buckets for transporting the materials (stone, ore from quarries, packages of goods, and the like) are merely slung on the rope, and hold on to it by adhesion. The line at the Exhibition is about a hundred yards long, and is a model of the smaller sizes of lines, capable of transporting from 60 to 80 tons a day; it has run some 2,500 miles since the opening of the Exhibition, doing a duty equal to the delivery of about 7000 tons at the termini. The first experimental line of wire-tram-way was erected in Leicestershire, in April, 1869, on a length of three miles, and was used in transporting stone to the railway. It would have been permanently employed, but that the turnpike trustees beside whose road it ran were unable to give definitive authority for its remaking without act of Parliament, which would have cost twice as much as the construction of -the line ; it was therefore shipped to the New Zealand quartz diggings. Another heavier line was immediately afterwards fixed near Ashby-de-la-Zouek at Messrs. Ensor's fire-brick works, and has for the last two years given complete satisfaction, the same rope being still in use and in perfect order. If it were now worn out it would show a cost of only Is. 2d. per ton per mile for replacement of rope. Since the establishment of this line about forty others have been placed by Mr. Hodgson, C.E., the raven tor,;' in Holland, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, JSussia, Spain. Italy, North America, " West Indies, Peru, and other countries, ' their applicatiou having been successful in the transport of coal, fireclay, road metal, beetroot, iron-stone, various mineral ores,' sugar cane, timber, and, in fact, aIL/ descriptions of produce. The longest lice is one of 13 miles in Spain for tne

supply of coal to. the government gun factory of. Ironbia, in ; Austurias,-near the north coast. It effects a saving of twothirds the previous cost of transport, and crosses some most difficult mountainous .districts. Two other lines are about to .. be constructed in that country for the transport of iron ore, and many others are likely to follow. Amongst the lines at •work in England are— one for the Ebbon Vale Iron Company, a mile and a quarter lon>, "which is proving most satisfactory in working ores in the Forest of Dean; one at Mr. Fox's Iron Works, at Dupcar; one for the War Office Department, at - Purfleer, to move gunpowder; one at the cbprolite beds, in Cambridgeshire, besides several others in course of construction. In Italy two most difficult lines were undertaken in the Alps for the Pesterina Mining Company, and for some time it seemed impossible to overcome the obstacles presented by steep inclines, in some cases amounting to 1 in 3; but success has at length been obtained by an exceedingly simple clip in the hook by •which the boxes are suspended, and which the inventor specially devised for this case. A very similar line is employed in delivering' some 200 tons a day of silver ore to the now-famed mills of the Eberhar>!t and Aurora mine, in Nevada, the distance being two miles, and the fall 2500 feet. In France many lines have been put to work for beet-root, varying from one to three miles in length. The patent for that country has been sold to Messrs. Cail, the leading mechanical engineers. Last year was of course barren of operation?, but this firm has now actively commenced the execution of lines. In the West Indies a wire tramway was at work on sugar-cane last season, and having giveu entire satisfaction, others are now in course of erection. The Anglo-Indiau Government are laying down or rather putting up one of ten miles for salt from the Mayo mines in the Punjaub.\ Another has been sent to Ceylon for carryiug coffee. A great deal might be said for the actual progress made in the extension of this system: but we may well afc this sta.ee turn to the results of the working. In many cases the wire lines are doing work which could not be done by steam power in any other way at any cost whatever They are daily showing themselves more/ economical than small railways -or ordiuartf tramways for quantities up to 100,000 tons a year. Taking the Festiniog Railr way, for instance, on which about that quanity of slates are annually transported, at rotes exceeding twopence per ton per mile, "we are confidently informed that the cost of the wire-line transports would be under three half-pence. With the (exception of the wear of rope versus i ail,' which proves to be about a halfpem y a ton a mile against the rope, every oi her consideration, is in favor of wire trimways for restricted traffic— low first cist, extended range of applicability, regularity of work, by which the same hands are constantly employed, stationary pow<k compensation of up-hill and down-hiS-work, and saving of land. During thte past summer a private limited company, with a capital of £100,000, was formed t > extend the business more rapidly, many of the leading men of business in Londo i and the North being shareholders.