SCIENTIFIC.
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SCIENTIFIC.
There is to be a railroad built to the summit of Pike's Peak, Colorado. The road will be thirty miles long with a maximum grade of 300 feet to the mile. The surveys of the peak are completed.
The stone arch viaduct over the Mississippi just below the Falls of St. Anthony, Minneapolis, Minn., belonging to the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad, has been completed. It is 2100 feet long and 28 feet wide. It crosses the river with 23 arches and has 16 spans of 80 feet each. The total weight of the structure exceeds 100,000 tons. The cost is estimated at $600,000.
—Advices from Nicaragua, via Panama, of November 16, say Seavala, ex-President of Nicaragua, has been appointed Minister to the other Central American Republies for the purpose of endeavoring to obtain their acceptance of the proposal made by Nicaragua, that the five republics shall jointly guarantee three per cent. on seventy-five millions to be expended in the construction of the Nicaragua Canal.
The new bridge across the Firth of Forth is to have two spans, each of which is 105 feet longer than the long span of East River Bridge, being 1700 each, the other two spans will be 700 feet each, making a total length of 4800 feet. The placing of such a bridge across a channel 200 feet deep is not as simple a problem as some might imagine. Measurements were taken by two parties with a difference of one foot. Measurements have since been taken within one eighth of an inch in the 1700 feet spans. This was done by means of a small steel wire,
STONEWALL JACKSON'S BRIDGE BUILDER. A useful man to Stonewall Jackson was old Miles, the Virginia bridge builder. The bridges were swept away so often by floods, or burned by the enemy, that Miles was as necessary to the confederate army as Jackson himself. One day the Union troops had returned and burned a bridge across the Shenandoah; Jackson determining to follow them, summoned Miles. "You must put all your men on that bridge," said he. "They must work all night, and the bridge must be completed by daylight. My engineer shall furnish you the plan, and you can go right ahead."
Early next morning Jackson, in a very doubtful frame of mind, met the old bridge builder. "Well," said the general, "did the engineer give you the plan for the bridge." "General," replied Miles slowly, "the bridge is done. I don't know whether the picter is or not."—Engineering News.
At the recent annual meeting of the American Street Railway Association in Chicago, the committee on Motive Power presented quite a lengthy report and after discussing at some length the different motive powers used, decided that the cable system of railroads is the best under most circumstances. Of course in the new system there are defects as in all others, but the greatest drawback is the cost of construction. They said, "We believe, in conclusion, that the only practical means presented to our view of dispensing with animal power is the cable system. At present the cable road is confined to a few favorable localities, but rapid strides are being made in the direction of its perfection, which will surely result in bringing the motive power within the reach of roads less favorably located."