description and engravings.

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THE GIRARD HYDRAULIC RAILWAY.


[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.]

We give herewith some illustrations of this railway which has recently
excited so much technical interest in Europe and America, and which
threatens to revolutionize both the method and velocity of traveling,
if only the initial expense of laying the line can be brought within
moderate limits. A short line of railway has been laid in Paris, and
we have there examined it, and traveled over the line more than once;
so that we can testify to the smoothness and ease of the motion. Sir
Edward Watkin examined the railway recently, and we understand that a
line two miles long is to be laid in London, under his auspices. He
seems to think it might be used for the Channel tunnel, being both
smokeless and noiseless. It might also, if it could be laid at a
sufficiently low price, be useful for the underground railways in
London, of one of which he is chairman. We are favorably impressed by
the experiments we have witnessed; our misgivings are as to the cost.
The railway is the invention of the well known hydraulic engineer,
Monsieur Girard, who, as early as 1852, endeavored to replace the