Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ...He showed, as the result of careful and long-continued experiment, that the power of an iron bar to bear weight is no test of its strength to endure weight in motion. It dislikes above all things intermittent weight. When five-minute trains are run over girders they can hardly be made strong enough, and even slow and unfrequent movement wears out the resisting power. The usual theory is that a bridge is safe if it can bear three times the heaviest weight ever placed upon it; but this is by no means the case if the weights move, and such a bridge would break down rapidly under the passing of twenty trains an hour. Many English bridges are unsafe, from this cause or from defective construction; and Mr. Baker added on the latter point a suggestion which would delight a Hindoo. American ironfounders, he said, adopted a type of bridge or other work and adhered to it, instead of trying all sorts; and it was found that, from practice and the observation of faults, their bridges grew better and better. That is what the Hindoo workman has been saying for two thousand years or so, without getting much attention." November 1jth, Sir,--I am very much dissatisf1ed with the discussions on " Iron Railroad Bridges for Japan," and, as I do not wish the Japanese to have a false idea of the real value of what has been written, I consider1 it necessary now to express my opinion about it. As far as I know, most of the opponents are not civil engineers, and not capable of understanding the merits of the controversy. Consequently, they seem to have looked only at the introductory part of Mr. Waddell s work. Yet they undertake to criticize the workl Some of them believe that a young man ought not to have liberty to discuss the work of an elder, and say that Mr. Waddell,...
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