Reader's Guide — 11th Edition

Ancillary  ·  Articles
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Chapter XVIIIFor Railroad Men

Contents

  1. Six Classes of Articles
  2. Technical Authorities
  3. The Key Article
  4. Other Major Articles
  5. Legislation
  6. Biographies

There are no less than six distinct classes of articles in the new Encyclopædia Britannica which contain information of peculiar interest to railroad men:—

1. Articles on continents contain authoritative and original accounts of trans-continental routes and traffic. For example the article Europe has a table in which the 19 chief avenues of trade are analyzed, showing the direct distance, the distance by sea and the distance by rail from point to point; another table comparing railroad developments in the various parts of Europe, and also an account of the contour of Europe from the railroad man’s point of view, discussing the mountain ranges pierced by tunnels and the passes over which lines have been carried wholly or largely in the open.

Six Classes of Articles2. The articles on separate countries, on the individual states of the Union, and on colonies contain detailed accounts of the railway systems. For example, the article France describes the six great French railroads, traces their lines and explains the financial system by which they were constructed, the concessions granted to them by the French government, and the extent to which direct state ownership and management has been adopted.

3. The articles on cities show the relation of each centre to the general railroad system of the country and describe the terminals and the methods of urban communication. For example, in the article Berlin there is an account of the Stadtbahn, carried through the heart of the city, 20 feet above the street, providing for through traffic as well as for suburban service.

4. The maps as well as the many plans of cities, all of which were specially prepared for the Britannica, show much more clearly than does an ordinary atlas, the present development of railroads in all parts of the world.

5. The articles on various branches of engineering and mechanics, described in other chapters of this Guide, are complete treatises on the technical subjects connected with railroad construction and management.

6. The articles devoted exclusively to the subject, of which a brief 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:

Technical AuthoritiesArthur 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.

The Key ArticleThe 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.

Other Major ArticlesThe 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).

LegislationOn 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).

BiographiesThe 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. 93Brunel (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: