The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-19 00:00:00

best consulted by the steady support and encouragement o 11 N
_
the inhabitants being given to the Wilts, Somerset, and ps.sss.s.l--si
mouth Railway, upon the reliance of their proceedi
rapidly as possible with the construction of their line b
Dorchester and Weymouth, and affording assistance -• • f
general improvement of the harlaour. .
ss:
" That it is therefore inexpedient to give any enco 1 -
inent to the competing line, proposed as the Exeter, `--
chester, and Weymouth Coast Junction Railway. Itaen'tt A1.:11.-
" That the extension proposed from the Wilts, Somerset,
and Weymouth Railway, at Yeovil and Bridport, towards
Exeter, called the Exeter Great Western, will be serviceable
to this port, as affording railway communication with the
intermediate towns of Crewkerne, Chard, Axminster and
Honiton, as well as with the city of Exeter."
Capt. MANNING seconded the resolution.
Mr..ARDEN, the local agent for the Exeter, Dorchester,
and Weymouth Coast line, proposed as an amendment—
" That it appears to this meeting highly desirable that a
coast railway communication between Weymouth and Exeter
be made, in order to afford increased facilities to visitors
frequenting Weymouth ; and that a survey of an intended
line having been made by the Directors of the Exeter, Dor-
chester; and Weymouth Junction Coast Railway, and its
details fully explained, this meeting considers it perfectly
adapted to serve the above purpose, and hereby pledges itself
to support the same, and respectfully requests their county
and borough Members to further it in Parliament."
Seconded by Capt. Maacii.
R. GORDON, Esq., requested to be permitted to say a few
words before the resolution or the amendment was put. I
congratulate Weymouth in having so many companies to
court their patronage.—(Laughter.) I hope you will con-
sider that it is not for your interests alone that they thus
came forward.—(Hear.) They have their own interests
to serve, and it is for you to consider how you can promote
their interests in conjunction with your own.—(Hear, hear.)
On a former occasion I recommended you to make the Great
Western your friends ; well, have they deceived you ?—(Hear.)
I am told they have not began; other lines are being con-
structed, but the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth show no
symptoms of a commencement; but can we wonder at a little
delay when we know what a demand there is for efficient
hands? Why, the master of our workhouse has just deserted
us, and is employed by some railway company at the rate of
two or three guineas a day. We have no reason to doubt
their sincerity, but as another Company is present, this is a
good time to ask them what they intend doing for the im-
provement of the harbour and the port generally, and I will
take this opportunity of urging on the merchants, and those
who have the management of the harbour dues, the necessity
of reducing those charges so as to place you on an equal foot-
ing with the competing ports of Bridport and Poole. If the
present charges remain until you are connected with Poole
and Bridport by railway, I am told that coals can be im-
ported at either of those places, and conveyed to Weymouth,
and sold for a less price than they can be landed for at Wey-
mouth. If the harbour dues cannot be removed, I want to
hear Mr. Sanders and Mr. Brunel say that we shall have a
harbour and docks elsewhere, and thus make you indepen-
dent of the corporation ; and, to carry out those views, I shall
propose that a committee be appointed at this meeting, to
confer with the Great Western, and see if the port of Wey-
mouth cannot be materially improved.—(Hear.)
WM. ELIOT, Esq., here read a prospectus of a company to
be formed for the purpose of constructing docks, and other-
wise improving the port of Weymouth, but which, not meet-
ing with general approval, was withdrawn, and a committee
was formed in accordance with Mr. Gordon's suggestion.
Mr. SANDERS said—l am not prepared to make any spe-
cific pledge as to the intentions of the Great Western Com-
pany with regard to the port of Weymouth, but this I will
promise, that if you appoint a committee, I will undertake
that the Directors of the Great 'Western and the Directors of
the Wilts, Somerset, and Weymouth Railway shall appoint a
committee; and they shall sit down and examine the case in
a business way—(Hear, hear)—and my committee will be
quite ready to bear their portion of relieving you from your
harbour debt, and also to aid in other ways in the improve-
ment oryour port. (Mr. Sanders took occasion to deny the
statement made by the engineer of the Exeter, Dorchester,
and 'Weymouth line, that they (the Great Western) had
come forward at the eleventh hour to construct a direct line
from London to Exeter. The construction of a direct line
had long been contemplated by the Great Western Com-
pany, even before the commencement of the last session of
Parliament. He also denied that the concession of the clause
inserted in the Wilts, Somerset, and Weymouth Railway Bill
(that they would not oppose a direct line to Exeter) at all
led them into difficulties, or caused them to make alterations
in any of their plans.) The Great Western could not in good
faith have come out with their scheme at an earlier period, on
account of our connexion with the Bristol and Exeter Company,
but as soon as their arrangements were made with that Company
our plans were announced. And as to the charge of occu-
pying the ground of the Exeter, Dorchester, and Weymouth
Coast line, I never knew, until I received a letter from Wey-
mouth a few days ago, that such a company as the Exeter,
Dorchester, and Weymouth Coast Railway was in existence.
Our projected line from Bridport to Exeter has already ob-
tained the sanction arid support of all the noblemen and
landowners in that part of the country. In conclusion, I
would say, trust to us, and we will not forsake you; we will
carry out every plan we project; for though we may be fools
enough to make them, we are not knaves enough to forsake
them.—(Cheers.)
The amendment being put, not half a dozen hands were
held up in favour of it.. The resolution, being submitted, was
carried with acclamations.
ThankS having been given to the Chairman, the meeting
was dissolved.

NEW SYSTEM OF LOCOMOTION.
A system of locomotion on railways, altogether different
from any hitherto invented, has recently been put forth ; and,
whatever may be its merits or demerits when applied on a
working scale, it is important as evidence that there is still a
wide field for discovery in the application of power to pro-
pulsion on railways. We witnessed on Saturday the action
of a working model of the new plan, in a large room at
Messrs. Keene and Nickells's saw-mills, in the York-read,
near Westminster-bridge; but, before we describe the appa-
ratus, we will insert the account given by Messrs. Keene and
Nickells themselves of the wonders to be achieved by their
ingenious mode of applying the power of compressed air to
propel carriages on railways:—
" They can now confidently state that, in addition to the
general advantages possessed by competing systems, they
may subjoin the following as peculiarly characterising their
invention :
,‘ 1. Perfect safety. 2. Great economy, in construction, in
simplicity, in motive power, in reparation, in facility of
adaptation. 3. Less oscillation. 4. Less vibration. 5.
Steeper gradients overcome. 6. No leakage or loss of power
beyond the actual amount required for working. 7. Absence
of piston, wheels, racks, pinions, and longitudinal valves.
8. Most perfect control."
With the exception of the seventh characteristic feature,
the working model affords no test whatever whether the ex-
traordinary advantages held forth will be realised. It is
quite true, however. that without travelling piston and
longitudinal valve, as in the Clegg and Samuda Atmos-
pheric Railway, and without racks and pinions, as in Pil-
brow's invention, the carriage is propelled by the pressure
of air with great velocity, and a tractive power is attained
superior to that of the working models on the same scale of
either the atmospheric railways. We will endeavour to ex-
plain how this is done, though without drawings we fear the
description will not be perfectly intelligible. Between the
two rails there is laid down, as in the atmospheric rail-
ways, a pipe to contain the air which acts as the
moving power ; but instead of being a circular rigid iron
pipe, it is square, and on each side of this square pipe there
is a flat flexible tube, through which the propelling com-
pressed air passes. Two small wooden wheels fixed upon
vertical axles press against these flexible tubes, or air pas-
sages, so tightly as to arrest the progress of the air along
them. The wheels are fixed to the body of the carriage,
which is mounted on flanged wheels, as in ordinary railway
carriages; no part of the weight resting on the two wooden
wheels, which serve merely as propellers. When the com-
pressed air is admitted into the elastic tubes, they become
instantly inflated, and the air presses against the wooden
wheels, and forces them onward. It is really extraordinary
to witness the force with which the compressed air acts when
applied in this manner, like a wedge, and apparently at great
disadvantage. Compressed air, with an acting pressure of
forty pounds to the square inch, admitted through a pipe not
more than one inch and a half in diameter, propelled a car-
riage holding four persons with great velocity; and the
tractive power was so great, that a gentleman standing on
the ground could not hold it back. The material of which
the flexible tubes are made is a peculiar composition, adapted
for the purpose, and the external part, which presses against
the wooden wheels, is nearly a quarter of an inch thick, and
seems well protected against abrasion.
The experiment was perfectly successful, and the tractive
force of the compressed air so applied, is very much greater
than would, on a first inspection of the apparatus be supposed
possible. The mode by which a train in motion is to be con-
trolled was not explained, as the inventors do not wish at
present to make known the whole of their
_plans, but we were
assured that the most perfect control may be attained.

A RAILWAY RACE.—A railway. race is a sufficiently
exciting and interesting event ; but it is rarely witnessed, and
scarcely ever in perfect safety. it
a pair of well-
matched locomotives it would be sufficiently exciting; but
between a new system, like the atmospheric, and its rival,
the locomotive, the character and reputation of both sys-
tems for speed depending upon the issue, a well-matched
contest would be of no common interest. In this case we
were lucky enough to see such a race; and we believe that
any of our readers who leave London-bridge station at
twenty minutes past two, and take an atmospheric ticket,
may do the same. We were standing at the Forest-hill
station, preparing to start, when it was announced that the
Dover express train was in sight ! Immediately we (the
atmospheric) made preparations to 'start, and were just in
the act of starting from rest when the locomotive train
whisked " past us at probably some thirty-five miles an
hour. We started, but before we got into motion at any
velocity, the Dover train was a mile a-head of us, and was
evidently gaining rapidly in speed. However, on we went
like a whirlwind, and it soon became evident we were gaining
on our rival. Three or four minutes decided the race. We
passed tha express train at a rate exceeding her own by fif-
teen or twenty miles an hour. Our velocity could not be
less than sixty miles an hour. It was easily and steadily
maintained, and we were over the Brighton viaduct and con-
siderably beyond it before the Dover reached it. But consi-
derably before this time, the brakes were put on, and the
vacuum destroyed by the valve, to avoid danger in running
upon the workmen round the sharp curves; and when we
reached Croydon in 64 minutes, it was found that thejourney
as a whole had occupied more time than it has frequently
been performed in.—Railway Chronicle.
CONTEMPLATED INCREASE Or TUE FIRE BRIGADE.
—lt is in contemplation of the directors of the various fire
insurance offices to increase the number of brigademen, and
to form the whole body into a police fire brigade. The cause
ro
ef the e e qtuhi r e
keepd increaseh a
dr iasye s
and fr from mn tghhet
hnnu mp
rbeer
s. of e
sfi re m e
wheremen
fires have occurred, to guard the property saved until it is
removed, or arrangements made with the directors of the
tire- offices. The forming the force into a police brigade will
be advantageous to the public, as the metropolitan police cm-
, stables will not be required to remain on the premises.