. Elements of transportation, a discussion of steam railroad electric railway, and ocean and inland water transportation . used, came to be preferred. The next great advancewas made when steel rails began to be substituted for ironones. This was shortly before 1870, when the Bessemerprocess so cheapened the cost of steel that it could be usedin making rails. The substitution of iron for wooden rails and of steelfor iron was made gradually; as late as 1850, there weremany railroads in the Ujiited States, especially in the THE RAILWAY MECHANISM :]9 Sontli, still luiviiig: wooden rails surfaced w
. Elements of transportation, a discussion of steam railroad electric railway, and ocean and inland water transportation . used, came to be preferred. The next great advancewas made when steel rails began to be substituted for ironones. This was shortly before 1870, when the Bessemerprocess so cheapened the cost of steel that it could be usedin making rails. The substitution of iron for wooden rails and of steelfor iron was made gradually; as late as 1850, there weremany railroads in the Ujiited States, especially in the THE RAILWAY MECHANISM :]9 Sontli, still luiviiig: wooden rails surfaced with plates ofiron. Likewise, it was not until near the end of the cen-tury that steel rails had entirely sui)planted iron ones. The Roadbed of To-day has rails weighing from 85 to 110pounds to the yard, 100 pounds being the weight now mostfrecpiently used. Every possible effort is now being made,by careful ballasting of the track and by burnettizingthe railroad ties to prevent their decaying, to strengthenthe railroad track so that the track may safely bear thesevere strain put upon it due to the use of heavy engines. Rolled-Iron U Rail, 1844. and cars and to the high speed of passenger trains. Untilrecently the Bessemer steel rail was entirely is now found to be too brittle; railroad companies arenow insisting upon the use of open-hearth steel, and ex-l)eriments are being made to produce a particularly toughrail of an alloy of a small quantity of other elements withsteel. Invention of the Locomotive.—The success of the steamlocomotive dates from 1829 when George Stephenson builthis celebrated Rocket. To adapt the stationary engineto the requirements of a locomotive, Stephenson had tointroduce two new features: one was to run a large number 40 ELEMENTS OF TRANSPORTATION of tubes through the boiler from the fire box to the smoke-stack, in order to increase the heating surface; and theother was to have the steam from the cylinder exhaust intothe smokestack, and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjecttranspo, bookyear1920
