OF

THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE

OF THE

State of Pennsylvania

AND

AMERICAN REPERTORY

OF

MECHANICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE,

CIVIL ENGINEERING, THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES,

AND OF

AMERICAN AND OTHER PATENTED INVENTIONS.

EDITED

BY THOMAS P. JONES, M. D.,

Mem of the Am. Philos. Soc; of the Acad. of Nat. Sci., Philad.; the Am. Acad. of Arts and Sci., Mass.;
the Nat. Inst. for Promotion of Sci., Washington, &c &c. &c.

AND

JAMES J. MAPES, A. M.,

Prof. of Chem. and Nat. Philos. in the Nat. Acad. of Design; Hon. Mem. of the Scien. Inst., Brussels;
of the Roy. Soc. of St. Petersburg, &c. &c. &c.

PUBLISHED BY THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, AT THEIR HALL.

1842

Engin. Library

T

T

.F834j

JOURNAL

OF

THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE

OF THE

State of Pennsylvania,

AND

MECHANICS' REGISTER.

JANUARY, 1842.

Civil Engineering.

FOR THE JOURNAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE.

Notes on the Internal Improvements of the Continent of Europe. By L. KLEIN, Civil Engineer.

Within the last few years, internal improvements, principally railroads, have made very great progress upon the continent of Europe. The example given first by Great Britain, and later, on a much larger scale, by the United States of North America, could not fail to attract the attention of other people and governments. The important influence of facilitated internal communications upon the prosperity of a country could no longer be doubted; all prejudices against their introduction were gradually vanquished, and the spirit of enterprize and speculation became awakened. We now see extensive lines of railways already completed, and others in progress, in different parts of the continent of Europe, and at no distant period we may expect to see connected by them all the capitals and other important cities of the numerous states and provinces, in which this large territory is divided.

Although the United States are already provided with a system of railroads, the extent of which far exceeds that of all railroads executed in all the other parts of the globe, a notice of the works undertaken and accomplished in Europe cannot be without interest to the readers of this journal, and principally to the engineer, who may find in the history of every railroad, in the description of its locality and construction, and of the difficulties overcome, something new and inVOL. III. 3D SERIES.-No. 1.-JANUARY, 1842.

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