Butte record., 1853-12-17
THE ATMOSPHERIC TELEGRAPH.

" hOeFer supposea the mtcAanlcai pos
sibilities of the world are exhausted must
have studied nature and art to little pur-
pose. Nature is old and boundless, art
is an infant. 1t is but yesterday that
philosophers were accounting for the rise
of water under the valves Of a pump, by
Natures "horror Of a vacuum" Why
this adherence should extend only some
thirty odd feet above the water in the
well outside of the pump they could not
tell OF course the mechanical prop
critics and possibilities Of the wonderful
atmosphere in which we are enveloped
did not then begin to be understood.
The Italian Torricelh seems to have been
the first man who recognized that air
was anything at all Since him, that and
other gasses have been studied, mathe-
matically and chemically; 50 that, now,
we live and move not only in gas, but By
gas. But we have more to learn and to
achieve
The possibility of moving railroad
trains by atmospheric pressure at rapid
rate, has been particularly demonstrated
and the only obstacle to success, we take
it, is the difficulty of keeping the nice
machinery required in sufficiently thor
ough repair But in the transmission Of
a simple mail bag through a tube by at
mospheric pressure, this difficulty is so
much diminished BY the ingenious inven-
ton Of Mr. J. S. Richardson, as to be
quite insignificant. We cannot for the
life of US see why this must not become
the cheapest mode Of transporting the
large mails on the main routes. II the
abrasion Of the plunger, as Mr.. Richard
son has shown by thorough experiment,
is inconsiderable, there can be no wear
and tear more than arises to ordinary
stationary engines. The mail itself,
which must, when going at the rate Of
thousand miles an hour, stand out behind
the plunger ike the coat-tail of a fugi-
tive, can take no harm from contact with
the tube. 1t viii move as comfortably
as We all do at far more rapid rate by
our geocentric and heliocentric planetary
locomotion. The only disaster it has to
apprehend is that of collision when it
reaches the end Of It's course, but this Is
easily and infallibly prevented by the
elasticity of the unexhausted air, which
serves as a cushion OF buffer, and is able
to reduce the shock Of stopping to one
which would not hurt a nursing baby.
Tie only question which remains IS that
of the economy Of the traction. As it is
not necessary to exhaust all the air from
the tube, but the plunger with the mail
attached must begin % move when there
Is a slight degree Of exhaustion, and will
as the exhaustion proceeds, continue to
move with less friction than that which
occurs TO any car Gu railroad, it is
plain that the tractive force required can
be no more than wculd be required to
move the load itself, instead of moving
that and vehicle And as there IS no
increase of resistance or friction by the
increased velocity Of the load, the in
crease Of the tractire force operates d.
rectly to increase the said velocity If,
therefore, one horsepower, acting con
stantly, would be sufficient to draw a
mail bag through a tube from Boston to
New York in "a hours, 100 horsepower
acting constantly would do it in little
less than Is minutes. Indeed, time may
be saved to any desirable extent by the
simple increase Of the exhausting power.
which can be applied at any number of
points along the line, while air Is admit
ted TO the tube behind the load through
valves opened by Its passage, as often as
may be necessary 10 give full effect to the
aerial pressure
Mr. Richardson's invention has been
for some time before the public, and has
doubtless been examined by many practi-
cal engineers. II any of them have dis
covered mechanical obstacles to its sue
cess, we have heard nothing Of it. We
presume, therefore, that it has only to
overcome the financial difficulty, which
meets most great mechanical improve
ments, to make itself one Of the greatest
tr1umphs of mind over matter. 1t is
said that subscription Is open at the
Merchants Exchange, In Boston, to build
an atmospheric mail-tube-tsIsgraph it is
not exactly-two feet in diameter, from
that city to this, and has received the
u