GIRDLED BY WATER
RAILROAD'S ELABORATE SYSTEM
OF FIGHTING FIRE.
Mora Than Seven Mile of Large
Water Maine Surround Their Ex
pensive Machine and Car Shop
at Mechanical Center.
To determine the efficiency of Its
own system of flre protection, one of
the great railroad lines of the coun
try has undertaken a thorough test
of its fire fighting
facilities at Its
headquarters
where there has
just been finished
a new high pres
sure water sys
tem for fire pro
tection purposes
only, and without
connections with
any other , distri
bution pipes.
That it is of
great importance
that this system
should have been
developed may be
realized in the
fact that a con
fiagratlon there
would seriously Interfere with the op
eration of the entire system, because
the city is its mechanical center. Be
sides, the insurable value of the ma
chine and car shops, with the equip
ment in adjacent yards, is more than
16,000,000.
Grldironlng the expensive machine
and car shops are more than seven
miles of large water mains, with 72
two' and three way hydrants, supply
ing 184 streams of water. These af
ford a protection which, from exhaus
tive tests, has been shown to make
very remote the possibility of a seri
ous fire.
In addition to two fire engine com
panies, chemical extinguishers are dis
tributed through the shops, while sand
and water pails, hose racks, chemical
engines, water casks and ladders add
to the equipment with which these
railroad fire fighters are armed. Some
31,000 feet of cotton rubber-lined hose
is available for utilizing the water
from the hydrants, which, owing to
the arrangement of the mains and
valves, cannot be shut off from their
water supply by breaks in the pipe
lines.
In the same way has this railroad
established its flre protection at every
large and small terminal and station
At the more Important points systems
proportionately as elaborate have been
installed to protect the property of
the company. Networks of flre mains
with plugs at convenient places, make
it unlikely that the company will suf
fer serious loss from fire.
- At the test at headquarters a num
ber of supposititious fires were started
In different parts of the railroad shops,
and firemen, with their helpers, re
sponded to fight imaginary flames.
Some thirty-two regular firemen and
a score or more of the auxiliary force
directed the streams of water, while
inspectors checked up the results. To
make the test more thorough 17
streams were brought into service. At
Intervals of two minutes streams were
turned on, and after all of them were
throwing water on the buildings read
ings were taken of the pressures. The
test continued for an hour and a half,
during which time some 186,000 gal
lons of water was used.
Newcomb's Definition of "Magnet."
Personally, Newcomb was an agree
able companion and a faithful friend.
His success was due largely to his te
nacity of purpose. The writer's only
personal contact with him came
through the "Standard Dictionary"
of whose definitions in physical sci
ence Newcomb had general oversight.
On one occasion he came into the of
fice greatly dissatisfied with the defi
nition that we had framed for the
word "magnet" a conception almost
impossible to define In any logical
way. We had simply enumerated the
properties of the thing a course
which in the absence of authoritative
knowledge of their causes was the
onjv rational procedure. But New
er jb's mind demanded a logical treat
ment, and though he must have seen
from the outset that this was a for
lorn hope, his tenacity of purpose kept
him, pencil in hand, writing and eras
ing alternately for an hour or more.
Finally he confessed that he could do
no better than the following pair of
definitions "Magnet, a body capable
of . exerting magnetic force," and
"Magnetic Force, the force exerted by
a magnet." With a hearty laugh at
his beautiful clrculus in definiendo he
threw down his pencil, and the imper
fect and illogical office definition was
accepted. North American Review.
Alaska Still Has Much Gold.
The decrease of the gold product of
Alaska, which is noticeable for the
years 1907 and 1908, has been seized
upon by some persons as an Indica
tion of the exhaustion of the metal.
But such is not the case. The de
cline has been due to labor troubles
and a lack of water, which is regard
ed as temporary only. There is every
Indication that the product will be
very materially Increased in the near
future, owing to the establishment of
valuable facilities. A number of good
roads have been built recently, by
which the freight charges for interior
transportation will be reduced. Foun
darles and similar establishments have
been located at desirable points, and
by a recently devised process the
sluicing season will be prolonged iato
the winter. , j .
RUSSIA HOLDS SECOND PLACE
Second Orvly to United States In the
Matter of Greatest Railroad
Mileage.
If it is a question merely of bigness
the Russian railroad system is far and
away the first in Europe. There are
already many more miles of railway
in the vast empire than in any other
country in the world excepting the
United States,' and Russian railways
are still only in their Infancy.
It is of course quite true that there
are now in the United States mora
miles of road than in all Europe and
almost as many as in all the rest of
the world put together, and that our
territory is so large and as yet so
far from complete development that
we shall probably keep the lead as
far as railroad enterprise is concerned
for a long time to come.
But in taking these large views,
says Moody's Magazine, we have for
gotten that Russia is two and a half
times as large as all the . United
States put together with a population
more than half as large again as our
own; that in territorial extent it is
more than twice as large as all
Europe; that it stretches across the
world for 170 degrees of longitude
nearly half way around the globe
and that it includes one-slxeth of the
land surface of the planet.
It is not surprising that in such a
country railroads should have had a
large development, that already there
is a considerable mileage and tia
the prospects in this direction seem to
have no limit. In the future Russia
and the United States are likely to di
vide the railroad empire of the
world between them.
FIRST SLEEPING CAR BUILT
The "Pioneer" Cost $18,000, in 1864,
and Was Regarded as Reckless
Extravagance.
The first sleeping car was built in
1864. It was called the "Pioneer" and
the builder further designated ' it by
the letter "A," not dreaming that he
would soon exhaust the letters of the
alphabet. Outing says. The "Pioneer"
was built in a Chicago & Alton shop
and cost the almost fabulous sum of
$18,000. That was reckless extrava
gance in a year when the best of rail
road coaches could be built at a cost
not exceeding $4,500.
But the "Pioneer" was blazing a
new path in luxury. Without it was
radiant in paint and varnish, in gay
stripes and lettering; it was a giant
compared with Its fellows, for it was
a foot wider and two feet and a half
higher than any car ever built before.
It had the hinged berths that are the
distinctive feature of the American
sleeping car of to-day, and the porter
and the passengers no longer had to
drag the bedding from closets at the
far end of the car.
The "Pioneer" was not only wider
and higher than other passenger cars,
but it was also wider and higher than
the clearances of station platforms
and overhead bridges. But when the
news came of the death of President
Lincoln the fame of Pullman's "Pio
neer" was already widespread and it
was suggested that the new car should
be the funeral coach of the president.
This Involved cutting wider clearances
all the way from Washington by way
of Philadelphia, New York and Albany
to Springfield, III., and gangs of men
worked night and day to make the
needed changes.
Last Thought Was His Record.
Passengers on a train wrecked
near Bristol, Ga., recently told of the
bravery of Engineer Bush, who died
as a result of his Injuries. Bush was
painfully working his way out of the
wreck of his engine, scalded and
frightfully bruised, when the few pas
sengers who retained their senses dug
into the mass of twisted and burning
iron to meet him. When the passen
gers offered him whisky he begged
them to look after the comfort of the
other passengers. Told that no pas
sengers had been injured, he said
"That's good. But before I take this
whisky I want you men to smell my
breath and testify, if need be, that
had not been drinking when this hap-
pened. AH a man has is his record,
And Engineer Bush went out on his
last run with his record spotless. .
Revised Upward.
One evening at family prayers the
head of the Ljuse read that chapter
which condta!8 with, "And the wife
see that ste .'erence her husband."
After the eiutes had closed and the
children ha c?ne to bed, the New
York Evening Post says, he quoted it,
looking meaningly at his wife.
"Let us see what the Revised Ver
sion says on that subject," said she.
"I will follow the new teaching, if you
please.'
The Revised Version was produced,
and her chagrin may be imagined as
the head impressively read, "And let
the wife see that she fear her hus
band." Youth's Companion.
Balloon on Railroad Track.
A surprise meeting took place be
tween a balloon and a train on the
P. L. M. line near Chalons-sur-Saone,
In France, which might have proved
disastrous to the aeronauts. The train,
which carried passengers, was ap
proaching the station of Romaneche,
and had luckily begun to slow down,
when the balloon Anjou, which had
started for Ruell with two Parisian
aeronauts on board, landed on the
track. The train was brought to a
stop at once, and this gave the bal
loonlsts time to let their airship
bound up again and land la a less
dangerous spot.
Enormous Amount
of Money Spent
On American
Railroads
Dwarfs Huge Sum
World's Powers
Pour Out on
Armament
T
HE news traveled fast
from railroad board rooms
to Wall street banks, and
the floor of the stock ex
change, and then across
the ocean to the money
markets of Europe. It ran on to roll
ing mills and blast furnaces on the
Monongahela and the Allegheny, to
car shops and locomotive works, to
coal mines and coke ovens, to the iron
ranges of Minnesota, and the forests
of the Sierras.
There were lighted the fires of the
Idle blast furnaces, from the Alleghen-
ies to Lake Michigan beacon fires
signaling the return of prosperity.
The purse of the railroads, closed
since the panic, had been opened
again,, and the country was glad.
No intricate compilations of dry
statistics are needed to understand the
big part the railroads play in the
American industrial drama. Their
wealth in lands, roadways, buildings,
equipment, and securities is as great
as that of all the wealth of the south
ern states, or the combined wealth of
Belgium, Holland and Switzerland.
One dollar in every eight of the
wealth of this country is railroad prop
erty. The B-ailroads' outlay next year
ior laoor ana materials ana me pay
ment of taxes, interest and dividends
will be a sum as great as all the
money in the country. The bills for
labor and materials alone will far ex
ceed all the money raised by taxation
national, state, county and town.
Europe is groaning under her ter
rific burden preparing for war. But
the enormous cost of the armed peace
of Europe is dwarfed by our railroad
expenditures. What traveler thinks of
the cost of the wooden ties? But, in
the "fat" year before the panic, our
railroads spent more on ties than
England and Germany together spent
in building fighting ships. Our steel
rail bill next year will equal the com
bined naval' budgets of Russia and
France. The smoke trailing from the
stacks of our locomotives will evidence
the burning up of more wealth than
all the naval powers England, Ger
many, France, Russia. Japan and the
United States will spend on war
ships. The German war lord's expenditures
on an army that threatens the peace
of Europe will be exceeded next year
by the money our railroads will spend
buying new freight cars and keeping
the old ones in repair. Our locomo
tives will cost more than the British
army. The military establishment of
France will cost less than our track
repairs. On bridges and culverts we
will spend as much as will Italy on
her army. All the money spent on the
army of the czar would not pay for
the steel the Steel corporation will
make for the railroads. The huge out
lay the railroads will make this com
ing year for new materials will equal
the combined cost of the military and
naval establishments of all Europe.
In the "fat year" before the panto
one combination of eastern lines
bought $30,000,000 worth of cars and
locomotives, $12,000,000 worth of ties
and rails, and spent $30,000,000 in
track improvements. They have spent
$300,000,000 in improvements in the
past ten years a sum greater than
the entire capital stock of any single
railroad in America, two only ex
cepted.
In the west the big spenders for the
past ten years have been the Harrl-
man lines. "Mad Harrtman" they
called him because he spent $30,000,
000 Improving properties that his pre
decessors had let go to ruin. Hani-
man gave more orders big orders to
rail mills, bridge .works, car shops, lo
comotive works and lumber mills than
any other man who ever crossed the
Mississippi to run railroads.
Here, then, are three American rail
roads whose expenditures for improve
ments in the past ten years foot up
$1,000,000,000. A billion dollars how
much is that? With that money you
could build a railroad girdling the
earth.
Railroad buying follows the tide of
prosperity. Every great boom in this
country has been marked by enormous
railroad expenditures, and the great
inaustriai ana nnanclal crises have
been the aftermaths of these booms
The first big waves of prosperity were
marxea Dy the building of new rail
roads; the latter ones by railroad re
construction.
ine eDD and flow of prosperity in
this country is like the tide in the Bay
of Fundy greater than anywhere else
In the world. The country never runs
along on even keel. The railroads, the
arienes oi commerce are highly sen-
sitive to the ups and downs of trade
because they carry nearly everything
the country produces, from producer
to consumer. In boom times the pro-
aucuon or me country rapidly in
creases, and the demand for transpor
tation increases accordingly. Railroad
gross earnings mount to record fig
ures, and with them profits. To carry
we growing Tonnage Dig outlays must
be made for new tracks, cars and loco
motives, and for enlarging the capacity
GIANT INDUSTRY
:.:c:::::
The wealth of American railroads equals the total wealth of all
the southern states, or Belgium, Holland and Switzerland combined.
More money will be spent In 1910 in this country on cross-ties than
England and Germany will spend on warships.
More wealth in coal will be consumed in locomotives than the
world's naval powers will spend on warships England, France, Ger
many, Russia, japan and the United States.
The locomotives will cost more than the maintenance of the Eng
lish army.
The cars will cost more than the maintenance of the German army.
i New materials mostly from the steel mills will cost the railroads
more than all Europe will spend on armies and navies.
The railroads will take one-third the product of the steel mills.
The coal bill nearly equals all the dividends.
Car and locomotive repairs equal
of the tracks and equipment already
in use.
The greater part of the hundreds
of millions of dollars spent in recent
years has been devoted, not to new
mileage, but to increasing the ton
nage capacity of the lines built years
ago. Hundred-pound rails, hundred
ton locomotives, and 50-ton cars have
replaced 60-pound rails, 60-ton locomo
tives, and 25-ton cars. It is in the
west that most of the mileage has
been built.
This extension and improvement of
the railroads in boom timeB are paid
for partly from surplus profits and the
rest from new capital. Heavy out
lays are accelerated in boom times
by the ease with' which new capital
may be raised in the world's money
markets. The big profits make rail
road Investments attractive, and. as
everything else in the country is ma
king money and searching for a place
to put it at work, new railroad se
curities find a ready- sale. . The rail
road purse, therefore, in boom times,
is doubly stuffed by - receipts from
big earnings and new capital from in
vestors. Money is spent lavishly.
But the tables are turned in periods
of panic and depression. The country
produces less, trade slackens, and the
demand for the product the railroads
have to sell transportation declines.
Car famines" are quickly followed by
miles of "idle cars" on the sidings.
Earnings fall away, surplus profits dis
appear. The railroads, having more
transportation for sale than the mar
ket demands, have no need for big
outlays to produce more transporta
tion. They could not spend much mon
ey, anyway, because of their declin
ing profits and the disappearance of
the investment demand for their se
curities. So, as the railroad purse in
boom times is doubly stuffed, in pe
riods of depression it is doubly deplet
edby the cutting down of profits and
the withdrawal of new capital. Hence
the rigid economy of "lean" years.
When economy is forced on the rail
roads, money is saved along the line
of least resistance. Taxes must be
More Money for Crossties
in 1910 Than .England
8pnd for Warships.
the bondholders' returns.
paid; the failure to meet interest
charges means bankruptcy; the con
tinuance of dividends at the regular
rate Is the salvation of credit.
The first saving is made by stop
ping improvement work out of sur
plus earnings; then the current ex
penditures for materials for the main
tenance bf way and equipment are cut
down, and along with this economy
goes the pruning of the cost of labor
the biggest item of railroad expense.
It is interesting to note, in attempt
ing to realize the magnitude' of these
outlays, that the 500,000 owners of
American railroad securities, from the
Rockefellers and Morgans and Harri
mans down to the little one-share In
vestors, all received in dividends but
a little more than was spent on coal
to be fed to the locomotives; that all
the bondholders, spread over . Europe
and America, received no more than
was spent on the upkeep of rolling
stock, and that the heavy taxes but
slightly exceeded the cost of wooden
ties.
. "Steel is either prince or pauper,"
said Carnegie and it's railroad buy
ing that turns the wheel of fortune in
the Industry. The railroads are the
foundation of the steel trade, for they
buy more than a third of all the prod
ucts that are made from the ore of
American Iron ranges. When the rail
roads stopped buying in the "silent
panic" of 1903, the steel business
dwindled to the pauper stage, and the
shares- of the new steel' trust tumbled
from $55 to $8.
Again, when the panic of 1907 closed
the railroad purse, gloom spread over
the Alleghenies, and steel shares col
lapsed a second time. Late last win
ter, when all up and down the Alle
heny and Monongahela valleys " blast
furnaces were cold and dark, Pittsburg
was in the doldrums because the rail
roads didn't buy. Prices were slashed
and the gloom spread to Wall street
Steel shares sold at $41. Weeks went
by, and then the news came across the
mountains. "The railroads . are . buy
ing." Now there is hardly an Idle
blast furnace to be seen in the valleys,
and Germany Will
Cars Alone Cost
More Than the
Huge German
Army
One-Third ot the
Product of Our
Steel Mills
Used
for the big spenders the railroads J
are pouring in orders. And Pittsburg
is beginning to complain that the re--bound
is. too sadden and the pace too
swift.
Snmfl enncention of the relation be-
tween the railroad business and the
steel industry is had by taking, an in
ventory of some of the visible railroad
nroDertv made from iron and steel
the rails and rolling stock, the. re
newal of which is the foundation oi
the steel industry. The rolling stock1
consists of 2,250,000 freight cars, iu.
000 passenger cars and 65,000 locomo
tives. The locomotives are worth an,
average of $12,000 each; the passenger.)
cars, $6,000; and the freight caraj
$1,000 giving an aggregate value or,
rolling stock of more than $3,000,000,-!
000. The rails now ' laid 35,000,000
tons cost about $1,000,000,000, so that (
rails and rolling stock represent up-'
ward of $4,000,000,000. '
"This four billions' worth of steel
made products wears out rapidly un-i
ler nnr heavy American traffic. ' Agel
adds no luster to thev materials of in
dustry on this side of the water, over,
in England, when a locomotive gets
along in middle life, they begin to tie
ribbons on her, like a pet cow, and
proudly keep count of ner mneaga
from year to year. This is nice for the -locomotive,
but hard on ' the steeL .
mills and locomotive wonts, uver
here, to-day's giant of the rails is to
morrow's candidate for the scrap heap.
To Wn rails and eauinment up to
the American standard of use costs
unward of S400.000.000 a year, while
additional equipment and new rail
mileage is now costing arouna sauu.
000,000 a year that is,- we have new
reached the point of putting $700,000.
nnn a vanr a a much as the whole cost
of running the government into rails,
. n. -i.
cars and locomotives, roese are m
big items of railroad steel consump
tion. Steel bridges, structural steel for
buildings and block signals and other
structures, steel tools ana maccmery,
and all the countless minor products
of iron and steel used on the railroads
add. perhaps, $200,000,000 more.
nn than we find the railroads
nvm nn a nrnannritv consumntion basis
of $900,000,000 worth of steel products
a year. Small wonder mat we news.
"The railroads are buying," vitauzea
the steel Industry this summer and .
lifted the cloud of gloom from Pitts
burg.1 Steel te a . prince . again; six
months ago it was a pauper or
thought it was.
What the closing of the railroad
purse meant to the steel Industry in
tha vpjlf following; the nanic of 1907
1b strikingly shown in the slump in
the output of rails and equipment. The
rail mills in 1906 rolled 4,uuu,uou ions,
eniii fnr si I2.ooo.oo0: the car shops in
1907 turned out 290,000 cars, worth up
ward, of $300,000,000; tne locomotive
wnrVo nlltnilt was 7.500 locomotives.
bringing in something like $90,000,000
all told, $500,000,000. Last year tne
output fell away to 1,900.000 tons ot
roii. K3 onn.ooo; 76.000 cars. $80,000.-
000, and 2,300 locomotives, $27,000,000
-in all,. $160,000,000, showing a loss m
business to these three branches ot
the steel industry of $340.000,000. .
One need go no further than the re
ports, of the big works to see the hav-
oc that was wrought in the steel trade
by the closing of the railroad purse.
The Steel Corporations' sales were
$766,000,000 in 1907 and $482,000,000
in 1908 a loss of $284,000,000. The
American Locomotive Company'a
gross fell from $50,000,000 to $19,000.
000. One of the car works reported a
decline in Income from $36,000,000 to
$8,000,000. The car builders were the
worst sufferers for the railroads al
ways stop buying cars when trafllc de
clines. In the dull times after the
bank panic the idle cars on American
railroad sidings would have made ten
solid strings across the country.
' Railroad buying to-day is enormous,
but men like Hill of the Great North
ern, and Brown' of the New York Cen
tral, predict that the railroad purse is
small compared with what it will be.
Hill says that the railroads haven't
grown as fast as the country, and that
we ought to build them twice as fast
as we are now. Five billions of new .
capital ought to be put into railroads
In five years, he . thinks. Brown be
lieves that seven and a half billions In
15 years is a conservative estimate.
But this is .too low a figure. We are
now on a half billion a year basis for ,
new railroad capital. Four billions of
new capital has been put into Ameri-
can railroads since the panic of '93,
and half these years have been "lean"
years.
One great Industry that is Just be
ginning to feel the stimulus of rail
road buying, and that is likely soon to
be revolutionized by an era of new
construction,' is the copper industry.
Copper to-day is waiting for the rail
roads to open their purses in electrical
reconstruction like that now In prog
ress on the New York Central and the
New Haven. Copper will boom as
never before in its spectacular career
when the news comes tfaat "The rail
roads are buying." . !; -
