The reader's guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica : A handbook containing…

account is given in the present chapter, are those to which railroad men will naturally first turn. The key article is RAILWAYS (Vol. 22, p. 819), equivalent in length to more than 120 pages of this Guide. It is written by the foremost authorities on the subject both in the Old World and in the New, including: [Sidenote: Technical Authorities] ARTHUR TWINING HADLEY, president of Yale University, and author of _Railroad Transportation_. HUGH MUNRO ROSS, author of _British Railways_ and editor of the _Engineering Supplement_ of the London Times. RAY MORRIS, formerly managing editor of the _Railway Age Gazette_ of New York and author of _Railroad Administration_. LT. COL. H. A. YORKE, C.B., chief inspecting officer of railways of the English Board of Trade. PROF. FRANK HAIGH DIXON, of Dartmouth College, author of _State Railroad Control_. BRAMAN BLANCHARD ADAMS, associate editor of New York _Railway Age Gazette_. WILLIAM ERNEST DALBY, professor of engineering in the South Kensington Central Technical College, and author of _The Balancing of Engines_, etc. WILLIAM BARCLAY PARSONS, formerly chief engineer to the New York City Rapid Transit Commission and advisory engineer of the Royal Commission on London Traffic. MAJ. GEN. C. E. WEBBER, founder of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. EMILE GARCKE, managing director of the British Electric Traction Co., Ltd., author of _Manual of Electrical Undertakings_. [Sidenote: The Key Article] The article opens with an introductory historical summary which describes the use of railways or tramways before the invention of the steam locomotive in mining districts in England (just as in the article _Mauch Chunk_, Vol. 17, p. 903, early mine transportation in America is described) and the way in which their use induced the development of high speed locomotives and how the first American trans-continental railroads were built. The student will find next a section of general statistics of railway mileage for the world, with a summary of American railway building, especially in the Far West since 1896. The following section is on economics and legislation in general, followed by separate treatment of British railway legislation and of American railway legislation. The great problem of government control and operation of railways as practised in various European countries is also discussed and is of interest in connection with contemporary American tendencies. The safety of railway transportation is treated in a section containing in compact form the most valuable classified statistics. A section on _Financial Organization_ compares American and British conditions in a most illuminating way. Of even greater importance to the technical student are the remaining sections of this great article, namely: (1) CONSTRUCTION, with subsections on _Location_, _Cuttings and Embankments_, _Gradients_, _Curves_, _Gauge_, _Permanent Way_ (including ballast, ties, fish-plates and other rail joints, and rails), _Bridges_, _Rack_ (or cog) _Railways_, _Cable Railways_, _Mono-Rail Systems_, _Switches and Cross-overs_, _Railway Stations_ (for passengers and for freight), _Round Houses for Locomotives_, and _Switching Yards_. This treatise on construction is equivalent to 22 pages of the type and size of this Guide, and is in itself an adequate brief manual for the use of the construction engineer, with valuable illustrations in the text. (2) LOCOMOTIVE POWER, including subsections on _Fundamental Relations_, _Methods of Applying Locomotive Power_, _General Locomotive Efficiency_, _Analysis of Train Resistance_, _Vehicle Resistance_, _Engine Resistance_, _Maximum Boiler Power_, _Draught_, _The Steam Engine_, _Tractive Force_, _Engine Efficiency_, _Piston Speed_, _Compound Locomotives_, _Balancing of Locomotives_, _Classes of Locomotives_, _Current Developments_. This section of the article is a little longer than the preceding,—it would fill 25 pages of this Guide,—and has illustrations, tables, and formulae. It is written by Prof. Dalby, the principal British authority on locomotives. (3) ROLLING STOCK, dealing with dining, sleeping, passenger and vestibule cars, wood and metal, their heating and lighting and their weight and speed; with freight cars, their weight and speed; and with car-couplers and brakes. (4) INTRA-URBAN, or city street railways, elevated and underground, by W. B. Parsons, formerly chief engineer of the New York Rapid Transit Commission. (5) LIGHT RAILWAYS for rural and interurban service and portable railways. [Sidenote: Other Major Articles] The next article to be read is _Tramway_ (Vol. 27, p. 159), dealing with the earliest railways used in coal mines, American and English, without locomotive power; and with modern street railways,—surface lines, steam, cable and electric, the last being subdivided into three classes, overhead or trolley, open conduit and closed conduit. The different types of street cars are discussed, and there are summaries of legislation and of commercial results, with general statistics. The article TRACTION (Vol. 27, p. 118, equivalent to more than 20 pages of this Guide) is by Louis Duncan, formerly head of the department of electrical engineering in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It deals principally with electric traction and thus supplements the article TRAMWAY. _Steam_ traction, as treated in the section on _Locomotive Power_ in the article RAILWAYS, by Prof. Dalby, may be studied further in the article STEAM-ENGINE (Vol. 25, p. 818), and especially that part of the article which deals with locomotives (§ 104, p. 841). The civil engineer engaged in railway work will profit by reading, besides the articles already mentioned: Professor W. C. Unwin’s article (Vol. 4, p. 533) on BRIDGES, especially pp. 545 and 547 seq., dealing with railway bridges; and the article TUNNEL (Vol. 27, p. 399), by H. A. Carson, engineer-in-charge of the Boston Subway and of the East Boston Tunnel, which would make about 30 pages if printed in the form of this Guide. This article classifies tunnels into river, mountain and town (subway) tunnels, and gives special information about rail corrosion and ventilation in tunnels. The equipment engineer will add to the topics already listed (cars, engines, etc.) the article SIGNAL, § _Railway Signalling_ (Vol. 25, p. 73; as long as 15 pages of this Guide), by B. B. Adams, of the _Railway Age Gazette_, and H. M. Ross, of the London _Times_ Engineering Supplement; and BRAKE (Vol. 4, p. 414). [Sidenote: Legislation] On the history of railroading and on statistics there is much information in the Britannica in local articles. It has already been remarked that each article dealing with a state of the United States, or any of the commercial countries of the world, has a section on _Communications_, giving railway mileage and describing the principal railway lines in the area; and that articles on cities and towns give accurate and minute information about railway service. In pursuing the study of legislation bearing on railways, and especially on rate legislation, the student should read the article INTERSTATE COMMERCE (Vol. 14, p. 711), by Prof. Frank A. Fetter of Princeton University, a part at least of the article TRUSTS (Vol. 27, p. 334), by Prof. J. W. Jenks, of New York University (formerly of Cornell), parts of the article on the history of the United States, in the same volume, especially pp. 315, 316, 353, 367, 394, 395, 396, 406, 407, and, in separate state articles, the sections on laws and history, notably NORTH CAROLINA for the rate cases of 1907 (Vol. 19, p. 778), NEBRASKA for the maximum freight rate of 1893 (Vol. 19, p. 329), WISCONSIN on radical rate legislation and on physical valuation for _ad valorem_ tax of railways (Vol. 28, p. 744). [Sidenote: Biographies] The biographical articles in the new Britannica also have much important information for the student of railways. Among the names of inventors whose lives are outlined are: THOMAS NEWCOMEN (Vol. 19, p. 475), JAMES WATT (Vol. 28, p. 414), MATTHEW BOULTON (Vol. 4, p. 324), GEORGE and ROBERT STEPHENSON (Vol. 25, pp. 888 and 889), RICHARD TREVITHICK (Vol. 27, p. 256), OLIVER EVANS (Vol. 10, p. 2), JOHN ERICSSON (Vol. 9, p. 740), PETER COOPER (Vol. 7, p. 80), and SIR MARC I. BRUNEL (Vol. 4, p. 682); among the names of engineers and railway and bridge builders GEORGE PARKER BIDDER (Vol. 3, p. 918), THOMAS BRASSEY (Vol. 4, p. 435), JOHN COCKERILL (Vol. 6, p. 625), ERASTUS CORNING (Vol. 7, p. 174), JAMES BUCHANAN EADS (Vol. 8, p. 789), SIR WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN (Vol. 19, p. 129), SIR JOHN FOWLER (Vol. 10, p. 761), JAMES HENRY GREATHEAD (Vol. 12, p. 398), SIR JOHN HAWKSHAW (Vol. 13, p. 99), WILLIAM KINGSFORD (Vol. 15, p. 817), SIR ROBERT GILLESPIE REID (Vol. 23, p. 50), JOHN RENNIE (Vol. 23, p. 101), and J. A. ROEBLING (Vol. 23, p. 450); and among railway financiers,—to take only a few American names,—the VANDERBILTS (Vol. 27, p. 885), JAY GOULD (Vol. 12, p. 284), ASA PACKER (Vol. 20, p. 441) and E. H. HARRIMAN (Vol. 13, p. 18). In such articles as STRIKES AND LOCK OUTS (Vol. 25, p. 1024) and TRADE UNIONS (Vol. 27, p. 140), each with American sections by Carroll D. Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor, the reader will find valuable assistance in studying railway economics as affected by the relations of labour and capital. For marine transportation see the next chapter in this Guide. The following is a brief list of articles, and of sections of articles, of interest to all railroad men: Analysis of Train Resistance Anthracite Atmospheric Railway Ballast Balancing of Locomotives Blasting Bearings Bogie Boiler Boring Brake Brickwork Bridges Cable Railways Caisson Canal Cantilever Car Cement Classes of Locomotives Coal Cog Railways Compound Locomotives Concrete Conveyors Cranes Cross-overs Curves Current Developments Cuttings Dock Draught Dredge Elevators Embankments Engine Engine Efficiency Engine Resistance Felloe Fire brick Fish-plates Foundations Freight Fuel Gauge General Locomotive Efficiency Gradients Horse Power Hydraulics Iron and Steel Location Locomotive Power Maximum Boiler Power Masonry Methods of applying Locomotive Power Monorail Systems Mortar Motors, Electric Oil Engine Permanent Way Pier Piston Speed Rack Railways Rafter Rail Railways Railway Stations River Engineering Roads and Streets Roadbeds Rolling Stock Roof Semaphore Sewerage Shaft Sinking Shoring Shovel Signalling Siphon Sleeper Smoke Steam Engines Steel Construction Stone Strength of Materials Switches (or points) Switching Yards Ties Timber Traction Tractive Force Tramway Tunnels Vehicle Resistance Ventilation Welding