Excerpt from Journal of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania, Vol. 7: And American Repertory of Mechanical and Physical Science, Civil Engineering, the Arts and Manufactures, and of American and Other Patented Inventions

I must lay before the reader certain details which have been used in the construction of the formula. In anticipation of this explanation, however, I may observe that the true cause is, that these circumstances, which disturb the action of the general law, have very little influence compared with the value of the great items which compose the formula. I shall return to this subject again, but at present we may proceed with the determination of the values of the detail of expenses, and leave the slight corrections to be applied in consequence of these irregularities - irregularities chiefly in the prices of labor and materials - for the sequel. The reports of the various companies for the current year, will shortly be published, and by introducing the results which it is to be presumed they will exhibit, under an improving system of economy, 1 hope to be able to make a still closer approximation to the truth. We shall have also, in a few weeks, the results of the years operations on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, from which we shall be able to verify experimentally, the influence on the cost attributable to a very large trade conducted under remarkably favorable circumstances.

I propose to consider next -

The Cost of Fuel. - It is obvious to every one that the consumption of fuel depends on the construction and power of the engine, the gradients of the road on which it operates, and the load which is conveyed. The cost of fuel really depends, in some measure, on these circumstances, but chiefly, in practice, on the price of wood, for in this country the price of a cord of wood is much more variable than any other element which affects the value of fuel, or the value of motive power.

The following table of the distance run by locomotive engines in different parts of the country, together with the annual aggregate expense of fuel, and the reduced expense, per mile run, will serve to exemplify this point.

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