Devil's Dyke Cableway
This was a cableway for tourists, crossing Devil's Dyke, West Sussex.
Passengers were carried across the dry valley in a car running on cables stretched between pylons and supported by catenary cables, the structure having a superficial resemblance to a suspension bridge. See illustration here. The system had 12,000ft [1200?!] of cableway stretched across the valley. The car was moved by an endless cable worked by a Crossley Brothers oil engine.
It was variously called an aerial cableway, aerial railway, aerial ropeway, cable car system, overhead tramway, passenger ropeway, suspension railway, wire rope tramway, etc. It has even been called a transporter bridge.
See here for much more information[1]
1894 'The suspension cable is 1200 ft. long, and is secured to anchorages formed by sinking heavy I-beams into the sides of the gorge. The suspension rods are steel bars 1 in. in diameter, and at their lower ends carry anchor-shaped steel castings, on which the track cables are supported shown in Figs. 2 and 3. These track cables are 1 in. in diameter, and are fixed at 18-in. centres, as shown. The car wheels have, it will be seen, deep wide grooves, and easily clear the supports at each point of suspension. Even if one track cable parted, the would not fall, though it would tip at an awkward angle for the passengers. The hauling cable runs set of small wide-grooved pulleys 1 1/2 in. in diameter, supported on the anchor piece as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.[2]
1894 'A Proposed Aerial Cableway near Brighton.
— The Devil's Dyke, near Brighton, is a steep and narrow gorge running some miles inland, and across which at present there is no other means of communication than by descending the cliffs on the one side and going up them again on the other. A company has recently been formed to supply a much wanted means of communication across this chasm. An ordinary bridge is out of the question, the span required being 650ft., and the cost, therefore, would be out of proportion to the traffic expected. The plan to be adopted is a modified telpher system, the invention of Mr. W. J. Brewer, C.E. The main feature of this system is the fact that the car to carry the passengers or goods runs on two parallel cables, which are supported at 25ft. intervals from a main suspension cable. The car cables are under considerable tension, and, being supported at such short intervals, sag but little. Each car can carry a load of 4 1/2 tons, and they may be run in trains of as many as 24 cars. At the Devil's Dyke cable haulage is to be used, but in future applications of the principle electric traction is contemplated. The towers supporting the main suspension cables have openings in them through which the cars can pass, so that any length of line can be traversed, the system not being confined to the working of a single span. Curves and switches have also been devised, and, in short, the Company are prepared to undertake the erection of a regular railway on the system, complete with switches, sidings, and all the usual appurtenances of such. In connection with the line over the Dyke, an inclined cableway down into the Devils Punchbowl is also to be erected. This should prove a boon to the farmers at the bottom of the gorge, whose transit dues to Brighton have been extremely heavy in the past. — Engineering. [3]
1894 'THE DYKE CABLE-WAY AT BRIGHTON.
The opening ceremony took place at Saturday in connection with the new Cable-way across the "Devil's Dyke," the well-known resort, some five miles inland and uphill from Hove, whence such extensive and beautiful views are obtainable. The Dyke itself is one of the deepest and steepest of the many combes into which the geological chalk tracts are always more or less cut up by natural causes. The heights referred to have long been seized upon by "trippers" and pleasure-seekers, and the paraphernalia of a standing fair are more in evidence now than the Roman fortifications which are popularly supposed to have existed there in former days. The distance across the valley from summit to summit is over fifteen hundred feet, and the depth below the level of the new Cable-way is two hundred and thirty feet perpendicular. This work is a practical demonstration of the suitability and capacity of this particular system for doing pioneer transport duty under circumstances in which the ordinary railway could not possibly bo remunerative. Switchbacks, gigantic wheels, high towers, water chutes, and other sources of sensation have proved popular and profitable and the new experience of travelling in a cage suspended from a rope in mid-air may be expected to form a remunerative addition to the attractions of the Dyke — especially as the capital outlay on this Cable-way, with all the incidental expenses of a first essay, was under two thousand pounds. On Saturday the Mayor of Brighton (Dr. Ewart) and Mayoress, Mr. William Spink, the Chairman of the Telpher Cable and Cliff Syndicate, and the inventor, Mr. Brewer, at one o'clock precisely, opened the undertaking for public use by making a journey across from side to side. There have been numerous examples of telpher lines in single rope, double rope, and electrical haulage for minerals, but we do not recall any really convenient and suitable application of the system to passenger conveyance. The Mayor's journey, and the others made during the next three hours by the numerous visitors at least are evidence that, in this case, the result is successful. The Syndicate have employed contractors, Messrs. Heenan and Froude — the constructors of the Blackpool Tower, who are now engaged in erecting the still loftier one at Wembley Park. They have further obtained certificates of the safety of the line and its fulfilment of the requisite conditions of service from Mr. Eric Scott Russell and Mr. Molesworth, members of the Institute of Civil Engineers.
The Dyke Cable-way is undoubtedly a novelty in engineering. It is constructed of the lightest and strongest materials — steel wire-rope and angle-iron. It is very simple in its detail and in its working. The primary support of the suspended track is a steel-wire cable, which is carried twelve hundred feet from side to side of the valley over two lofty columns, formed of angle-iron rivetted, erected at some distance down the slopes of the banks. The ends of this catenary cable are anchored into the solid chalk, near the summits of the valley crests. Screws of steel, ten feet in length, are provided for putting the requisite tension on this cable. From this cable a series of steel anchors are suspended by wire ropes of smaller dimensions, at suitable distances, the lengths varying according to the position of each to the catenary curve of the main cable, so that the anchors are all upon a level from one end to the other of the Cable-way. The distance from fluke to fluke across the anchors is about two feet ; and, instead of the ordinary points, there are sockets by which the steel road-rope is supported and firmly secured. Thus, instead of a railroad or a platform, there are two parallel horizontal wire ropes maintained by the anchors. The catenary cable is, seemingly, a three-inch one, and the road-ropes each about an inch in diameter. The breaking strain of the main cable would probably be some hundred and sixty tons, and as the road-ropes relieve rather than add to the strain there should be no misgiving with regard to the strength of the entire structure. The passenger cars — or, rather, cages, for they are formed of iron rods and stout wiring — are about seven feet long and about five feet wide, capable of holding eight persons sitting back to back. They are suspended from the two track-way ropes by four pulleys attached to the inwardly-curved ends of the four main rods of the car. Thus the pulley axles are always outside the track-ropes, and always at the same distance apart, and the pulleys can never get off the ropes. This arrangement has also the advantage that no provision has to be made for clearing the supports of the road-way at any point whatever, as the cars pass completely free within the supporting columns. The haulage of the cars on the Dyke line is effected by a Crossley's oil engine, which drives a small endless wire rope on a perpetual horizontal plane, the hauling rope passing within the curves of the anchors. The car can be gripped to either portion of the hauling rope, and its course can be controlled on the journey if required. An electric telegraph wire is permanently provided for communication along the line, available alike to cars and stations. The time occupied in transit between the terminal stations is two and a-half minutes.'[4]
1894 'THE DEVIL'S DYKE CABLEWAY. A peculiar and interesting addition has been made to the Devil Dyke near Brighton, in the shape, a cableway which has been constructed across the deep gorge so curiously named. The engineering feat involved. which is considered by experts one of great difficulty, and at the same time be open to important developments, has been successfully carried through ; and the completion of the work was formal inaugurated on Saturday by the Mayor of Brighton (Dr. Ewart), who was accompanied by the Mayoress. Although the structure which now crosses the Dyke from hill side to hill side is an imposing character, it is intended to utilise the invention on a still larger scale ; and the Telpher Cable and Cliff Railway Syndicate, formed to undertake the working of the patents, have in view the spanning of distances as from mountain to mountain or across rivers, where the ordinary form of a bridge would be either impossible or too expensive to be carried out. The great advantage of the cable way system is its cheapness, the 1,200 feet structure suspended over the Devil Dyke having involved an expenditure only about £5,000. For those technically minded it may be mentioned that the track cables are supported from catenary cables by a cast metal support, having two arms extended outwardly, and joined to the catenary cable by a vertical rod. The track wheels supporting the cars are adjusted so that any running off the tracks is impossible, and the cars are in the present instance moved by an endless cable worked by oil engines. The system, invented by Mr. William J. Brewer, C.E., lends itself to any position either on an incline or passing in a straight line (as at the Dyke), and it is the fact of no permanent way being required which considerably reduces the cost of construction. The Mayor and his wife were the first to take the aerial trip on Saturday, a height of 230 feet from the bottom of the chasm, and Dr. Ewart and the Mayoress spoke in enthusiastic terms of the exhilarating effects of the ride. In complimenting Mr. Brewer on the success attending his efforts, the Mayor laid especial stress the fact that experts have certified the cable absolutely safe. He also referred to other projected cable ways which were to add to the convenience of those who wished to visit the district around the Devil's Dyke. Speaking as a physician, he said the Dyke and the Downs made one of the healthiest spots in England. The Dyke had always been a wonderful place; but there was nothing written to direct particular attention to it until the beginning of the present century: then they heard of its origin. It was said that our great enemy became jealous of the number of churches and religious people that he saw in the plains below, and that he made up his mind to establish a communication with the sea, for the purpose of putting an end to this (from his point of view) undesirable state of things. It was said also that had nearly accomplished his foul design, when the noise he made at his work awoke an old lady, who arose in the night and saw how he was engaged. She happened to hold a candle directly in his face, and as the light and Satanic influences were opposed, he speedily decamped. Two little hills interposed between Lewes and the sea coast, were simply two shovelsfull of earth which the Evil One lifted on that occasion and threw over to Lewes. Nowadays, course, geologists would account for the earth's upheaval in more practical ways ; but none could deny either the beauty of scenery or the healthiness of the Dyke, and he thought a monument to Hygea should be erected there. Speeches were also delivered complimenting the contractors, Messrs. Heenan and Fronde, and the cable makers. Messrs D. H. and G. Haggie, on the manner the work had been executed.'[5]