RaiFway or RaiUroad

A road or way of parallel iron or steel rails on which the wheels of car¬ riages run, and supported on a bed or structure. Railivay is the usual word in England, but railroad 4s common in the United States. The modern railroad is an adaptation of the old horse tram-roads, with cast-iron flange rails, used for hauling coals early in the century. The Stock ton and Darling ton Railway, the first line with locomotives, was opened in October, 1825. The first pa enger line in the United States was the Baltimore and Ohio, opened in 1830. There are now over 190,000 miles of railroad in the United States, 160,000 in Europe, and about 450,000 in the world. Rails are now usually laid to the standard width or gauge of 4 feet 8*4 inches. The iron rail, formerly wholly in use, has been widely replaced by steel. The steam locomotive known as the Rocket, invented by Robert Stephen son in 1829, weighed 8 or 9 tons; locomotive engines now weigh from 35 to 50 tons, and draw a train averaging from 400 to 500 tons. In 1838, on the Uondon and Birming¬ ham line, a speed of 20 miles an hour was obtained. Now a speed of 50 miles an hour, including stoppages, is maintained on one of the New York Central trains between New York and Chicago for a distance of nearly r,ooo miles, and 60 miles an hour is made on some roads for shorter distances. A straight and horizontal surface being the standard of perfection for railroad-making, sharp curves and steep gradients are regarded as evils. Routes are therefore shortened by embankments, cut¬ tings, tunnels, and bridges. Among the remark¬ able railway tunnels are the St. Gothard and Mont Cenis in Switzerland, and the Hoosac Tunnel in Ma achusetts. Of railway bridges the most wonderful are the Forth Bridge, Victoria Bridge (Montreal), Britannia(Menai Strait) also those at St. Louis, Rock Island, Louisville, and Niagara. Cars such as Pullman cars, with entrance at each end, are common in the United States and Switzerland those entering at the sides are usual in Britain and other parts of Europe. in drops. This is the chief source of water supply. By the heat of the sun water is evapo¬ rated from the surfaces of the seas and oceans and transported as water-vapor by winds. When it is condensed by cold, chiefly caused by the heated air rising into higher regions, it returns again to the liquid state, and falls down as drops of water in rain or, if the cold be very great, the water may pa at once into the solid state, and fall as snow or as hail. Rain-water is very soft, and in country places it is pure the air of large towns being full of impurities, the rain brings moisture from the Atlantic, much rain falls on In the eastern part of the United States, where there are no great mountains to catch the moisture, the rainfall is uniform but in the west and are confined to one part of the year called the rainy season. At a point 100 miles north of Calcutta the annual rainfall is from 500 to 600 inches. In Burmah the rainfall is 200 inches.