Home › Miscellaneous Curiosities › Elevated Railroads

Elevated Railroads

has occupied the attention and employed the skillfu. manipula tion of leading inventors and other scientists. M. Jablochkofi, an eminent Russian, has received the credit of first producing a very much simplified form of lamp, in which, without using mechanical contrivances in the nature of clock-work, it is entirely possible to manage a number of lights, so far separate in their action that the going out of one of the lamps will not cause the rest to become extinct. This particular kind of lamp or candle, as it is sometimes termed, is produced by two rods of gas carbon, kept side by side by an asbestos holder, but slightly separated by a slight rod of some insulator, as glass or krolin. Copper tubes hold the carbons, and connected copper wires lead the current from the dynamo-electric machine used to produce the power. The ingenious and delicate mechanism would require plans to give a non-scientist a proper idea of the operation. Edison and other eminent electricians have patents covering the same results by many different methods. Many public buildings, including that vast edifice, the New York Post-Office, and a number of streets and private buildings in New York City, are brilliantly illuminated by this process. It has been found in practice admirably fitted for the illumination of the lofty lanterns of light-houses, and for the flashing of signals to and from forts and other beleaguered places. It has also the valuable property of being used to light up the depths of the sea. (See page 793).

ELEVATED RAILROADS. - The first of these roads built in New York City was known as the Ninth Avenue Road. At first it was a good deal ridiculed, but improvement succeeded improvement, until its utility became acknowledged. It starts from Whitehall Street and runs through Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue to Fifty-third Street, where it joins the Metropolitan (Sixth Avenue) road. This latter road also starts from Whitehall Street, and running within a block or two of Broadway reaches the Sixth Avenue, along which it continues until it, reaches Fifty-ninth Street. It makes over two detours to gain Eighth and Ninth Avenues, and continues on to the Harlem River. On the east side of the city the Third and Second Avenue Roads run from the Battery and City Hall, and by transfer enable their passengers to reach different parts of Harlem River. These roads, notwithstanding they were very speedily erected, were strongly built, and are well equipped. In the construction of the elevated railroads the combination of solidity and lightness was an important object, and it is believed that in each case the problem has been satisfactorily solved. The foundation for the supports are laid in concrete, stone, and brick-work. Four long rods pass up through the heavy foundation-stones, and around these is built up the brickwork, inclining gradually inward from the base to the top. The HETROPOLITANG (196) (193)