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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 j. 1 2 3 4 5 6 i;-'' port esta proi( Tl aels thus tend any opei of t Dye Chi! way of a moi is n trip Wh the da> fon rea a 1 aer ne£ tha to 'f i-Y»"»^ Yf ACROSS THE CHILKOOT PASS BY WIRE CABLE. By WilUatn Hewitt. 'M HE stories that come from the Klondike are al- most incredible, and yet they are amply verified by the amount of gold brought back by re- turned miners, and recent advices from Alaska state that the rush for that section has already fairly set in. The question of transpoilation, there- lore, has become one of paramount importance, and already several trans- portation lines by vessel have been established, and routes surveyed for projected railways. The water route by way of St. Mich- aels and the Yukon river is the one thus far generally preferred, as it is at- tended with less hardships perhaps than any other. But as this will scarcely be open before next June or July, the bulk of the travel at first will be by way of Dyea and Lake Lindeman, across the Chilkoot Pass, and travellers going this way will experience the novel sensation of a trip through the air over the more mountainous portion of the route. It is not to be surmised from this that the trip will be made by balloon. Not yet ! While it is not at all improbable that the free navigation of the air may some day become a practicable thing, this fond hope of aeronauts has not yet been realised. The passage will be made by a line of overhead wire cables, — an aerial tramway, which is perhaps the nearest approach to aerial navigation that has yet been made. Few perhaps are aware of the extent to which this method has been applied. m especially in mountainous sectionSr where a surface road of any kind would be practicable only by long and expen- sive detours, or might be altogether im- practicable. The adoption of this method of transportation for surmount- ing the terrors of the Chilkoot Pass and opening a pathway to the Klondike has brought the subject into considerable prominence, and it will be of interest, therefore, to present some of the more salient features of the Bleichert system, which has been adopted by the Chilkoot Railroad and Transport Company for this purpose. The inception of this enterprise dates from the early part of last September, when a party of surveyors, under the direction of A. McL. Hawks, of Ta- coma, Wash., U. S. A., made a com- plete topographical survey of the ground, and determined the most feasi- ble route for the proposed tramway. The intention at first was to use the cable system for covering only the mountainous portion of the route from Sheep Camp to Crater Lake, a dis- tance o\ y/> miles, and a contract was made for such a line; but since then, owing to the difficulties of laying a sur- face road to Sheep Camp, it has been decided to extend the cable line 3>^ miles towards Dyea, to a point known as Canyon Camp, where connection is made with a surface road, running through the Dyea Canyon, and along the Dyea river, to the head of tide- water, thus making an uninterrupted Ime of transportation between Dyea and Crater Lake. Later on, the cable sys- tem will, undoubtedly, be extended to Lake Lindeman, the head of lake navi- gation. The first section of the cable tram- way from Canyon Camp to Sheep Camp is now completed, and the re- 529 530 CASSIER'S MAGAZINE. maining part of the work is being pushed as rapidly as possible. Al- though such lines have been used to a limited extent as a means of convey- ance by miners in going to and from their work, they have heretofore been designed more especially for carrying ores and other similar freight, and the The buckets, or other receptacles, in the Bleichert system are suspended from carriages which run on stationary cables, and are moved by a light endless rope, known as the traction rope, to which they are attaclisd, and which travels continuously about terminal sheaves. This is the general distinguishing fea- THB CABLEWAY TERMINAL AT SHEEP CAMP, TBE ENTRANCE TO CHILKOOT PASS. Chilkoot tramway is the first one designed with a view to passenger traffic. The idea of transportation by recep- tacles suspended from a wire cable .nay seem, at first glance, simply an extended application, on a large scale, of the mech- anism involved in the wire cash car- riers used in many modern American department stores; yet experience has demonstrated, as it has in most other undertakings on a large scale, that many things must be taken into ac- count to ensure 'their successful opera- tion, and it has been just this experience, added to years of careful study of every detail, that the present high standard of excellence in equipments of this kind has been reached. ture of the system and has led to its be- ing known in many localities as the ' ' double rope "or " fixed rope " sys- tem, in contradistinction to the " single rope " system, in which one rope per- forms both functions. It is a curious fact that the pioneer in this field, Mr. Charles Hodgson, of Richmond, England, first directed his attention to the ' ' double rope " system, and his earliest experiments were in this direction; but he appears to have abandoned it soon after he began to develop his inventions, doubtless on ac- count of the difficulties encountered in procuring the kind of cables and mate- rials suitable for the construction of the roiling stock and operating parts that this system demanded. Steel castings. THE CHILKOOT PASS CABLEWAY. 531 )tacles, in ided from ,ry cables, less rope, to which ;h travels sheaves, shing iea- d to its be- ies as the rope " sys- he " single rope per- he pioneer odgson, of irected his e " system, ts were in ars to have i began to tless on ac- auntered in and mate- :tion of the parts that el castings. and the high grades of tempered steel- wire now used in the construction of the best cables, were then unknown; everything had to be of cast or wrought iron, and this was a serious drawback to the earlier wire rope tramways, which, in consequence, were compara- tively crude and clumsy affairs. The advent of steel cables and steel castings, however, led to the develop- ment of the " double rope " system at the hands of Mr. Adolf Bleichert, of Leipzig-Gohlis, Germany, who brought to bear on the subject the skill of engi- neering talent, added to the ingenuity of an inventive genius. The develop- ment of the Bleichert system has been carried on still further by the manufac- turers in the United States, — the Tren- ton Iron Company, of Trenton, N. J. — who introduced several improvei.ients, more especially in the construction of the track cables and the grips for attach- ing the cars to the moving rope, and the success and increasing popularity of this method of transportation are due in a large measure to these improve- ments. The track cables are of peculiar con- struction, and are known as ' ' locked- coil " cable, from the fact that the outer wires are of such shape that they inter- lock with each other, as shown in the accompanying illustration, presenting a smooth surface, and yet possessing suffi- The objection to ordinary cables, or ropes composed of strands, each of which is made up of a number of round wires, twisted about a central strand or ONE OF THE ROPEWAY CARS FITTED WITH A \k'EBBER COMPRESSION GRIP. core, is, that the wires soon break un- der the constant rolling of the small carriage wheels over them, resulting in a ragged and uneven surface, as shown A LOCKBD-COIL TRACK CABLE, cient flexibility to be shipped in coils. Theae cables are made in lengths of from 800 to 2400 feet, which are joined by special couplings. These are made in halves, each of which embraces a funnel-shaped aperture, into which the ends of the cables are socketed, the two halves being joined by a plug with right and left-hand screw threads. in the upper part of the illustration on page 535. This is due to the fact that pressure at any instant is con- fined to a few wires over a com- paratively narrow surface. The locked- coil cable, it will be observed, has a surface almost as smooth as a solid round bar, and this form of cable, therefore, not only renders the highest 4435« 532 CASSIER'S MAGAZINE. CKOSSINO THB SUMMIT IN CHILKOOT PASS. degree of service, but results in a mini mum wear on the wheels of the car- riages from which the loads are sus- pended. In the case of the Chilkoot tramway, however, it was necessary to make everything as light as possible, con- sistent with the necessary strength, ow- ing to excessive transportation charges, and it was found impracticable to use the locked-coil cables on account of the difficulty of making a cable of this kind as small as the exigencies of the case demanded. A style of cable was there- fore adopter' known as the ' ' smooth coil " cable, the kind rirst used for the track cables of Bleicheit tramways. This cable is composed of a series of round wires, considerably larger than the wires of ordinary wire ropes or cables, and laid up in the manner of a single strand. The cables of the Chil- coot tramway are but 54 of an inch in diameter, and weigh atx>ut 7-10 of a pound to the foot. The wires are of a special grade of crucible steel known as " plough steel," possessing a tensile strength far greater than the steel ordi- narily used, the finished cable having an ultimate strength of 36,000 pounds, JW'-'S. used for the tramways. a series of larger than ropes or manner of a of the Chil- an inch in ; 7-10 of a res are of a teel known ng a tensile ; steel ordi- ible having too pounds, THE CHiJ.KOOT PASS CABLEWAY. 533 The " smooth coil " cable, whiie supe- rior to ordinary wire rope as a track cable, obviated only in a degree th-^ ob- jections to the ordinary rope, and pos- every 20 seconds. The usual load fov outputs up to 20 or even 25 tons per hour, is from 400 to 600 pounds, accord- ing to the nature of the material, and A CABLE COUPLINO. sessed the further disadvantage that when a wire did break, it was liable to strip or uncoil lor a considerable dis- tance. Several devices have been re- sorted to for holding the loose ends of such wires in place, but the best of them have given but indifferent sat- isfaction. It is rare, how- ever, for the wires to break under a reason- able degree of service, and the illustration on page 535 of a rope of this kind, after it had been in use day and night for a period of over four years, shows what may be ex- pected of such a cable, and what it looks like when worn. The locked-coil cables are made in sizes from "4 inches up to i J4 inches in diameter, ranging in weight from 2 to 5^ pounds to the foot. Loads of a ton may be carried on a ij^-inch cable; but, as a rule, it is not desirable to carry such heavy weights, and for a given output the loads will be regulated according to the num- ber of cars that a man can despatch in a given time to the best advantage. This will determine also the proper sizes of cables to use. The intervals will vary from a car every min- ute to a car every half minute, accord- ing to the desired output; on some lines the cars are despatched as often as one for outputs above this, 1000 to 1500 pounds. A further advantage in the use of stationary track cables is due to the high tension to which these cables may (VU) CABLKWAY CiRRZER AND FRICTION ORIP DETAILS be stretched, which results in a com- paratively direct path for the moving loads, and a uniform motion, whereas in "single rope" lines, in order to avoid overstraining the rope, the dual function it has to perform in both sup- porting and moving the loads neces- 534 CASSIER'S MAGAZINE. t A FORM OF IRON TOWER SUPPORT WBICH COULD NOT, HOWEVER, BE USED IN CHILKOOT PASS BECAUSE OP TRANSPORTATION DIFFICULTIES. sarily results in greater deflections be- tween the supports, and consequently more vertical movement, or wave mo- tion, for which reason also the speed of such lines cannot be as great as in lines of the " double- rope " type. In the latter type of tramways also, the weight of the loads is shared to a certain ex- tent by both the track cables and the traction rope. On level lines, most of the weight is borne by the track cables, and the stress on the traction rope, therefore, is little more than the tractive force required to move the loads. Up- on slopes, however, the stress upon each will vary according to the inclina- THE CHILKOOT PASS CABLEWAY. 535 sles and the nes, most of rack cables, iction rope, the tractive oads. Up- stress upon the inclina- tion; the steeper this is, the greater the stress in the traction rope, and the less that in the track cable, and vice verse It is evident irom this that an accurate profile of the ground is essential in lay- ing out any line. The usual practice is to lay out the line of the track cables for a safe work- ing tension, and erect the supports to this line, the cables being weighted to a somewhat lower tension, so that there may be no possibility of their risiing out of the saddles upon which they rest. Where the cable lines pass at a considerable eleva- tion abo"e the ground, or at such an elevation that the deflection due to the weight of the moving loads would not cause the buckets to strike or interfere with objects below, it is not absolutely necessary to put in supports. The sup- porting points, therefore, will be located mostly on the ridges and more elevated portions of the route. In the Chilkoot line, there is one clear span of 1600 feet, and another span only slightly shorter. There are a couple of lines near Silverton, in Colorado, each of which contains a clear span of 2100 feet, and Concentrating Company, showing a clear span of 1173 feet, where the line crosses the town of Wardner, in Idaho, U. S. A. In most lines the tension in the track A USUAL FORM OP TIMBER SUPPORT. these lines have been in satisfactory operation for several years. A view is given on page 536 of the tramway of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and I.— ORDINARY WIRE ROPK, WORN FROM USE. 2.— A NEW SMOOTH-COIL TRACK CABLE. 3.— SMOOTH-COIL TRACK CABLE AFTER FOUR YEARS' USE. cables is produced by weights applied at one or the other of the terminal sta- tions; but in lines of great length it be- comes necessary, on account of the sad- dle friction, to apply tension at inter- mediate points also, the location of which will vary from 3000 to 6000 feet apart, according to the contour of the ground, the points us- ually selected being on the side of a hill, or on some level portion of the ground. The track cables are parted at these points, the ends of the upper section of the line being counterweighted, and the ends of the lower section being firmly anchored. The cars pass Irom one section of the cable to the next by means of intervening rails, so that no interruption oc- curs in the continuity of the track. The structures at such points are known as tension stations. Occasionally such a station will happen in a valley or ravine, in which case the cable ends of both sections of the line are counterweighted, 536 CASSIER'S MAGAZINE. S . 't. o < is a"* o u h u U 1,- a t- z » £ u BO o« U J 3! J A' THE CHILKOOT PASS CABLEWAY. 537 or it may happen to be desirable to locate such a station on an elevated point, in which case both ends are anchored. In any event, one end of any section is always weighted and the other anchored. Where the line crosses a sharp ridge, supporting structures are frequently used and are known as rail stations. These consist of a series of bents from 15 to 20 feet apart, support- ing steel rails, which overlie the track cables, and save them from undue wear. Next in importance to the track depended on in such cases. In some instances, instead of lugs, bulbous points have been produced in the rope, by in- serting metallic pieces between the strands, known as star knots. The car illustrated on page 531 shows the grip used on the Chilkoot tramway. This is the invention of Mr. S. S. Web- ber, assistant manager of the Trenton Iron Company, and is known as the Webber g , ip. The jaws of this grip are operated h\ a peculiar arrangement of toggle-jointed levers that produce a bite A WIRE ROPE TRAMWAY USED BV TIIK SOLVAY PROCKSS COMPANY AT SYRACUSE, N. Y. SHOWS BOTH WOODEN AND IKON SUPPORTS, cables is the rolling stock, and m re especially the means employed for at- taching the cars to the moving rope. Various styles of grips have been used, some depending simply on frictional contact for holding, and others again designed to straddle lugs clamped to the traction rope at certain intervals, or sect Ted by pins. The latter style of grip has been employed mostly on lines in which steep grades occur, as the fric- tion grips heretofore used could not be 6-6 on the rope sufficient to hold securely on any grade. These grips have been applie 1 on a great many lines in the past few years, some of them with grades as steep as 45 degrees. When properly adjusted these grips have never been known to slip. The advantages of such a grip are manifest, in distributing the wear over the entire rope, instead of confining it to certain spots, as is the case where lugs are used, and the life of the traction rope is thereby greatly 538 CASSIER'S MAGAZINE. increased. A further objection to lugs, or knots of any kind, arises from the constant hammering which they receive. This loosens them in time, so that they slip, which has been not only a source of great annoyance, but in one or two instances has resulted in serious acci- dents. This occurs not only in de- spatching the cars, but also while they are in transit, at every change in the grade or irregularity in the motion of the rope. The Webber grip forms a di- rect and rigid bond between the car and the rope, and, like a bulldog, when it once takes hold, there is no shaking it off. The view of the Chilkoot cableway on page 532 showing that portion of the line where it crosses the summit, illustrates the manner in which passen- gers will be carried. It is needless to say that all will travel alike; there will be no drawing room cars. This view also illustrates the style of support used, which consists simply of one or more sections of iron pipe, bolted together and imbedded in the rock, and bearing cross timbers which support the saddles upon which the track cables rest, and the rollers also upon which the trac- tion rope travels. The supports, as ordinarily constructed, are of various designs, and may be either wooden or iron structures, as preferred. The view on page 537, of the Solvay Process Com- pany's line near Syracuse, N. Y., used for carrying lime rock from the Split Rock quarries to the soda ash works, at Geddes, a distance of about 2/i miles, shows two supports, one of wood and the other of iron, of the tower type, — the style mostly used on lines of heavy outputs, and where long spans occur. All the supports of this line were orig- inally of wood, but it is the intention of the company to replace these with iron supports as the wooden ones give out. Other types consist simply ol square frames, or more commonly of /^-shaped frames braced against longitudinal pres- sure. On some lines, where snow- slides occur, the best type of sup- port has been found by experience to consist of a single stick or mast im- bedded in concrete and guyed by wire ropes. An illustration is also given on page 5 34 of an iron support of the ordi- nary tower construction, such as was adopted on a line on the island of Hayti nearly 12 miles in length, used for trans- porting logwood. re of various er wooden or d. The view Process Com - , N. Y., used om the Split ash works, at )ut 314! miles, of wood and tower type, — lines of heavy spans occur, ine were orig- le intention of hese with iron ines give out. iply oi square y of /4-shaped ptudinal pres- where snow- type of sup- y experience k or mast im- juyed by wire also given on irt of the ordi- such as was iland of Hayti used for trans- hm