, 1854-11-11

WHICH ii CONTINUAL current was kept up bN
exhausting the air, the two currents NOV.
ing in opposite directions The mail bags
were hollow balls of caoutchouc, perfectly
elastic and capable of sustaining blows and
! bruises, like foot ball or boxing glove
These bags were about fifteen inches in
diameter, and it was expected when the
current was once started, they would be
carried along, one after the other, without
touching the sides of the tube, like so many
balloons in gale of wind
Mr.. Richardson's invention is an impor-
tant modification of this. His plunger is
air-tight, and the least inequality produced
in the column of air confined in the tube,
causes it to move and the more perfect
the exhaustion, the more rapid is the mo-
ton. He exhibited model of his machine
at one of the committee rooms Of the SEN
ate, which the appointed committee exam
ined with much care.
The working model is thus described in
the report:
:" 1t consists Of horizontal tube Of one
inch clear diameter, one-half of which is
straight, while the other half contains
curves, designed to represent the sinuosi-
ties of the tube passing over uneven
ground. One small air-pump, placed near
its centre, and communicating with the
other end of it, exhausts it at pleasure
from left to right, or from right to left. A
piston, or plunger, three inches long, and
fitting the tube loosely, but followed by
several detached disks or washers of leath-
er, which accurately fit it, is inserted in
one end of the tube, separated by a cutoff;
and few strokes of the pump produce in
the tube partial vacuum. The cutoff is
then reversed, and the plunger set free on
the side of the vacuum, relieved from the
resistance Of the air in the tube, and, pro-
PEELED alone by the pressure of the atmos-
phere, passes through it in a time wholly
unappreciable by ordinary means. The
cutoff may be dispensed with; for il the
plunger, with its miniature mail bag at
tached, be placed in one end of the tube,
and the pump be worked, it will move
(supposing an absence Of air and friction)
with the first stroke of the pump, which
destroys the equilibrium between the inter
nal and external atmosphere: and the de-
gree Of exhaustion necessary to produce
this Momentum must depend upon the
weight and friction of the plunger and its
attachments"
The committee say that this model works
admirably, and seems to have overcome all
difficulties; some even of those which have
long been supposed insuperable in the prac-
tical operation of the atmospheric tele-
graph. Many difficulties aud objections
will probably develop themselves, whenever
the machine shall be established on a large
scale, such as waste of power, wear of mail
bags, pistons, and interiors of tubes, by
high velocities, effect of climate upon them,
etc, but the committee, after duly weigh
ing these and other objections, deemed it
proper to recommend an appropriation
small in comparison with the national in
terest involved in the success of the inven-
tion, to test its utility and capacity. The
experiment is % be tried on an established
mail route, probably between Washington
and Baltimore, and the question is to be
left to the Postmaster General.
The mail between Washington and New
York is now carried in twelve hours. 1t
is expected by the sanguine committee that
it may be carried in the great tube in less
that two hours time If these expecta.
tions are realized, the advantages of the
atmospheric telegraph will be ncalculahle
to the man of business to whom time is
money, the quick transmission Of documents
somewhat more ineligible than telegraph
ic dispatches will be highly important, and
will soon become indispensable, and to eve
y Siaso VI ueuJ " "uOm tho iattsI news Is
pleasant, this ingenious mail carrier will be
a welcome contrivauce. But there is a
deeper significance in the atmospheric tele-
graph than all this. 1t will be another of
those links which bind together our con-
federaey by ties of intercourse and interest
another of those arteries which convey to
every part of the Union the strengthening
current Of our common vitality 1t will
join with the canal, the railroad, and tele-
graph, in the happy work of improving our
commerce, developing our resources, facili-
tating financial and social intercourse, and
uniting us as one people, Missouri Re
/ publican.