The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1845.

'The extension of railway communications continues
to be the most remarkable among the improvements of
our social economy. Everything connected with this
.subject is on a grand and unprecedented scale : the vast-
mess of the capital, the extent of the staff, the working
luck of machines, carriages, &c. The speed attained
eight years ago by locomotive engines with any draught
of luggage waggons, and carriages, passengers, and
goods in their rear, might have sufficed to lodge the
STEPEIENSON, or the BRUNEL, the NAPIER, or the
lacreJ.,aY of the day, in any of her MAJESTY'S gaols,
-under the siatutcs for the suppression of witchcraft,
prier to the repealing the Act of lOth GEORGE 11. Yet,
:in the last eight years, we have been enabledeto achieve a
(degree of still enhanced speed, which is scarcely less
rat.rvellous than the first successful application of steam
to this species of traction. Express trains rushing from
one extremity of tlyi land to another at a speed that runs
;down the tl-etest hare and outstrips the very birds in
:their onward flight (although burthened with a long
!:itri:,lg of carriages and a hundred passengers), these
rni;,:ht ,rein t be the filial triumphs of human ingenuity,
onterpriAe, and perseverance in rapidity of transit between
any gi, en pints Nev: rth,less, we verily believe that
"(;,are ~:pan the eve not only of seeing them surpassed,
;-:.‘,;a(N.d by taofive agents and machinery still more
powerful, ct.rtain, direct, and tractable in their opera-
Ilion. We ferl a strong confidence that the day is not
far distant at which, on many of the lines of railway
that are in active working, we shall behold a signal
change is ul: ti;e material elements of railway locorno-
Those huge and banner-like clouds that now roll
their fuliginous volumes, far and near, over every die-
ariet of country traversed by their iron lines will dis-
Nriiittr. The bellowing, the snorting, and hissing of the
ipoa4lerous locomotives, and not less ponderous coal and
'water tentlerti, under whose wheels the whole massive
framework of the railway appears to tremble, as "AJAX"
or •" ()mos" thunders on his journey, will be, after a
;brief internal, remembered only as traditionary accona-
Taniments to the incipient efforts of a more highly per-
fected and simplified system of locomotion, based on the
:scientific employment of common atmospheric air as the.
thief worker of the mechanic power to be set in motion.
The " insurmountable"—" inseparable"—" hopeless"
difficulties tahich have been so gravely predicated,
,hitherto, of winking atmospheric' railways seem at
;length to have followed the fate of most auguries touch-
ing physical impossibilities, where there is so much of
knowledge, experience, capital, and spirit a-field, to en-
counter and to conquer them, as are now enlisted in the
service of railway invention.

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01course, the pi inci ple of atmospheric railways must
always have presented itself to the consideration cf
revery it ehigent observer as being reeimmended by
many essential qa.lities that do not attach to any works
moved by steam power. The economy of fuel, of ma-
chinery, of labour, of wear and tear, of all the main
tkinents, therefore, that ultimately occasion the largest
3sitt;iioc-s ie L.:Taal in these undertakings—is the most
..>IALas tiro the uto,t sigma of these recommendations in
Favour of railv.ays on the atmospheric principle. Of the
few peri,-eixtt attempts which have been made at its
pr.. *.
ad,./niri we klicve we are correct in stating
,that t.lte most important. is one of the Irish lines, leading
'directly from the Lea coast to the capital—and on this it
Ims ~.,;.7t;ceerlc.l to an extent greater than had been anti-
tipated for it by some of its warmest supporters. Still,
ewe were found, in its practical details, some of those
dementary difficulties and disadvantages, on the strength
of which (far to,, reality assumed) engineers of distin-
gui,!.hed rpu h iaiticurted in prow iiticing it to
'be to its general adoption. Among.
theta the foraiidable have alw Is been rigarded
(I.‘e tinders:slid) the construction of the valves and
pistons of adequate tenacity and strength, in conjunction
with ad,quate facility of action and perfectness of
,joint-
ilig. pr•ipuision ~f carriages alai trucks, laden,
ui, s. last exertion, it has been
etoot,.v .ulo not be accomplished by any
iconeeivable application of atmospheric pressure. The

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