The article Traction (Vol. 27, p. 118, equivalent to more than 20 pages of this Guide) is by Louis Duncan, formerly head of the department of electrical engineering in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It deals principally with electric traction and thus supplements the article Tramway. Steam traction, as treated in the section on Locomotive Power in the article Railways, by Prof. Dalby, may be studied further in the article Steam-Engine (Vol. 25, p. 818), and especially that part of the article which deals with locomotives (§ 104, p. 841).
The civil engineer engaged in railway work will profit by reading, besides the articles already mentioned: Professor W. C. Unwin’s article (Vol. 4, p. 533) on Bridges, especially pp. 545 and 547 seq., dealing with railway bridges; and the article Tunnel (Vol. 27, p. 399), by H. A. Carson, engineer-in-charge of the Boston Subway and of the East Boston Tunnel, which would make about 30 pages if printed in the form of this Guide. This article classifies tunnels into river, mountain and town (subway) tunnels, and gives special information about rail corrosion and ventilation in tunnels.
The equipment engineer will add to the topics already listed (cars, engines, etc.) the article Signal, § Railway Signalling (Vol. 25, p. 73; as long as 15 pages of this Guide), by B. B. Adams, of the Railway Age Gazette, and H. M. Ross, of the London Times Engineering Supplement; and Brake (Vol. 4, p. 414).
Legislation
On the history of railroading and on statistics there is much information in the Britannica in local articles. It has already been remarked that each article dealing with a state of the United States, or any of the commercial countries of the world, has a section on Communications, giving railway mileage and describing the principal railway lines in the area; and that articles on cities and towns give accurate and minute information about railway service. In pursuing the study of legislation bearing on railways, and especially on rate legislation, the student should read the article Interstate Commerce (Vol. 14, p. 711), by Prof. Frank A. Fetter of Princeton University, a part at least of the article Trusts (Vol. 27, p. 334), by Prof. J. W. Jenks, of New York University (formerly of Cornell), parts of the article on the history of the United States, in the same volume, especially pp. 315, 316, 353, 367, 394, 395, 396, 406, 407, and, in separate state articles, the sections on laws and history, notably North Carolina for the rate cases of 1907 (Vol. 19, p. 778), Nebraska for the maximum freight rate of 1893 (Vol. 19, p. 329), Wisconsin on radical rate legislation and on physical valuation for ad valorem tax of railways (Vol. 28, p. 744).
Biographies
The biographical articles in the new Britannica also have much important information for the student of railways.
Among the names of inventors whose lives are outlined are: Thomas Newcomen (Vol. 19, p. 475), James Watt (Vol. 28, p. 414), Matthew Boulton (Vol. 4, p. 324), George and Robert Stephenson (Vol. 25, pp. 888 and 889), Richard Trevithick (Vol. 27, p. 256), Oliver Evans (Vol. 10, p. 2), John Ericsson (Vol. 9, p. 740), Peter Cooper (Vol. 7, p. 80), and Sir Marc I. Brunel (Vol. 4, p. 682); among the names of engineers and railway and bridge builders George Parker Bidder (Vol. 3, p. 918), Thomas Brassey (Vol. 4, p. 435), John Cockerill (Vol. 6, p. 625), Erastus Corning (Vol. 7, p. 174), James Buchanan Eads (Vol. 8, p. 789), Sir William Fairbairn (Vol. 19, p. 129), Sir John Fowler (Vol. 10, p. 761), James Henry Greathead (Vol. 12, p. 398), Sir John Hawkshaw (Vol. 13, p. 99), William Kingsford (Vol. 15, p. 817), Sir Robert Gillespie Reid (Vol. 23, p. 50), John Rennie (Vol. 23, p. 101), and J. A. Roebling (Vol. 23, p. 450); and among railway financiers,—to take only a few American names,—the Vanderbilts (Vol. 27, p. 885), Jay Gould (Vol. 12, p. 284), Asa Packer (Vol. 20, p. 441) and E. H. Harriman (Vol. 13, p. 18).
In such articles as Strikes and Lock Outs (Vol. 25, p. 1024) and Trade Unions (Vol. 27, p. 140), each with American sections by Carroll D. Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor, the reader will find valuable assistance in studying railway economics as affected by the relations of labour and capital.
For marine transportation see the next chapter in this Guide.