A SINGLE-RAIL TRAMWAY.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 822, 8 June 1871, Page 3

A SINGLE-RAIL TRAMWAY.

(From " The Times," Feb. 28.) In thinly-peopled and mountainous countries, and especially in many parts of Turkey, the want of roads for internal communication is the great difficulty in the way of national progress. It is also a difficulty well nigh insurmountable by the methods to which we are accustomed in the more favoured parts of Europe, because there is not capital available for the purpose of making communications that would have to create their own. traffic, and that would probably ruin the owners before they had done so. For example, about 1G years ago, a road was made from Beyrout to Damascus, and upon this there is not only not a.single native waggon running, but the muleteers and camel drivers take the old breakneck track by choice, because it is shorter from point to point, and is free from the trifling toll which is charged on the highway. Moreover, in such countries the value of an ordinary road is much diminished by the inevitable steepness of the gradients, which render it necessary that a waggon should carry but a small load. A carriage road is now being constructed, at a vast expense, between Alexandretta and Aleppo ; and seems likely to be as little traversed as that to Damascus. It is being carried through the of Beilati ; and, in order to obtain even tolerable inclines, a distance which is ouly 70 miles by mule track, will be increased to more than 100 by the new road. Mule and camel drivers will certainly not use it, more especially as it is badly supplied with water; and, as the steepest gradient will be one in 7f, it is difficult to conceive that wheel traffic can ever become a source of profit. A railway on the European system would be simply impracticable. Water and men are scarce, skilled labour is expensive and would have to be imported, the country is very difficult, and the whole value of the transport to and fro is now about £62,000 a year. At £IO,OOO a mile the cost of constructing a railway would be a million sterling ; and when working expenses were paid, little would remain for the shareholders. Such a line may possibly be needed hereafter as a portion of a route to India, through Alexandretta and Aleppo, to the Euphrates, and thence to Bagdad, and, as it would pass through a fine grain country, it may eventually be in itself profitable. The present need, however, is to provide a means of traffic not much in excess of the actual or probable demand, and suited to the wants of a country in which railroads are impossible from their cost, in which roads are useless because the natives find that carriages do not pay, and in which there can be no canals, because water will not run up hill. In these conditions, Mr J. L. Iladden, C.E., has devised a single-rail tramway for conveyances, of which he gives the following description: — " Imagine a bicycle let into a longitudinal aperture in the centre of the bottom of a cart, and the cart nearly touching the ground, so that only about six inches of the wheels would be visible; next, a kind of balancing pole run through the sides of the cart at right angles to the single rail on which the bicycle is to run. The two ends of the pole are to project about three feet on either side of the cart, and rest upon, and be harnessed to, the backs of two mules. The animals will thus be one at each side of the load, instead of being in front iu the ordinary way. It would be impossible for the cart to turn over,

b cause in order to do so, it would have to force one mule to the ground and to lift the other ii to the air; and, moreover, as its floor would oidy be six inches above the rail, an overtip would be of no account. All the weight in the cart, if evenly distiibuted, would bear upon the rail, and the animals, having no load on their backs, would be able to exert considerable traction power." Mr Hadden thinks it an incidental advantage that with such a tramway the muleteers would be compelled to keep the appointed way, instead of leaving it, as they now do, by side tracks that enable them to avoid toll bars ; but, at the same time, he proposes to give the wheels broad double flanges, so that in case of need the carts would run upon any good road. He states that reasonable contractors are prepared to lay his single line, with 301b rails and De Bergne's pot sleepers, at a cost of £450 per mile, all sidlings included. Mr. Hadden does not consider that the utility of his invention will be limited by the precise conditions that first called for it. He not only suggests its employment for military purposes, but also for tramways in" Targe cities : and he says that, where space is very valuable, a horse or mule on only one side of the cart would be sufficient. In towns, on bridges and other important places, the rail might for a short distance be dispensed with ; and passenger vehicles should be fitted with small friction wheels on either side, so that, if a horse should fall down, the balance of the carriage should remain undisturbed. We are not aware whether there is any near prospect of the idea being realised, even in Turkey ; but it seems sufficiently ingenious to deserve at least publicity.