“ Two Hundred Miles an Hour.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 407, 23 January 1890, Page 2

“ Two Hundred Miles an Hour.”

PanTrcuLARS are published of experiments new in prngreM at Laurel, near Baltimore, U 8.. with a new formjof electrical transit, Aspect! of two milss a minute, it is said, has been already ch ained, and the inventor, Mr Weem«, claims ths newer of working regula-ly at a speed of 200 miles an hour. It is not proposed “ as yet ’’ to carry passengers by thia summary method, but it la hoped to organise a service of mails and light parcels between some of the chief cities of the Union before long. The system is thus des cribedt—" The railway has two rails, very much like any other railway, but it is enclosed—here is a sort of lattice work and th"re by a barbed wire fence, which stretches along on both sides. But the

queerest thing about this railroad is what travels on it. Mr Weems, standing in the door of a shed, touches a button, when out nf the «hed crawls an iron plated thing, about 24ft square and 20’t long, pointed at one end. It is on wheels! and looks very heavy and clumsy. No sooner have you begun to look it over and wonder whether it is a torpedo or a rock crusher, then it dißappeara It goes off like a flash. Ap par-ntly nothing propels it; but it goes. A little rumble, a dark streak going round the curve of the circular railway, and It is hidden behind a clump of tress. Mr Weems still stands with his hand on the button, watching a pencil moving in an automatic device over a piece of ruled paper. ■ At the half 1’ he exclaims, and a mom«iit or two later 1 One mile 1’ Then A mile and a-half 1’ and in a few seconds more the long black thing on wheels whizzes by. You taks out your watch and time it. in a little less than a minute it reappears. In another minute it whizzes past once more. As it goes round and round it is like nothing so muon as a big shuttle moving in a circle with inconceivable rapidity. The 'trank is exactly two miles in oircumferenoe. ‘We are not running very fast now.' Mr Weems says; only 1400 revolutions of our dynamo. This gives us a speed of exactly two miles a minute. Our machines develop up to 10,000 revolutions, and we have run them 8500 revolutions, equal to more than four miles a minute, tor 24 hours without stopping. On a. first class track, reasonably straight and without too many steep grades, we oan easily develop a continuous sneed ot three to tour miles a

minute. In fact there ia practically no limit to the speed that our power oan produce. The only question la how much speed the tracks and oars are able to stand. The track we are now using is all curve and full of heavy grades. Within a very few years there will be a double track oleotrio railway from New Yorit to Chicago, about 900 mile» long. The track will have a 12in. gauge, and will be enclosed in a network of barbed wire. The wires of which this fence is made will be used for telegraph, telephone, and automatic signals. Overhead will be space for carrying 100 commercial telegraph wires. The track is eo light and the rolling stock B o easily carried that at very small additional ooat the wd oan ha elevated through towns and cities, and wherever it may be necee_ aary to obviate heavy grades T. hrO “S5 this protected way trains 3i feet wide, and of about the asms height, will bo run at the speed of 900 miles an hour. No enginemen, conductors, or brakemen accompany the train, whose movements are controlled easily and absolutely from the power station. Of these stations there will be one in New York, and one in Chicago, and seven on the line, ahout 100 miles apart. These power stations will require a capacity ot about 800 horse-power «ooh, and any P’»o‘ io » engineer can compute the cost ot maintaining them. It ia really trifling, considering the efficiency developed. If water power oan be had for some of the stations, even if flye or ten miles from the track, it will be utilised, power being transmitted by wire. In operation, trains of four or five oars will be run. a motor bar and three or four others. Ihe cars are so telescoped together as to form unbroken surfaces, top, bottom, and sides, and the rear, as well ae the first or motor car, is pointed oo as to offer the least possible resistance to air. Ihe movement of each train is automatically and accurately registered on a ohai't in tne power stations. The slightest accident to the train or the presenae of an obstacle on the frack shuts off the connection. At the willcf the despatoher a train can be stopped at any point, backed PP or started ahead again. The trains are,' therefore, under complete control, and if traffic should not justify thp building of a double track, U single track could be efficiently operated.