The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1854-11-15

The Scientific American publishes the
following extract from q paper read by
George Meigs before the Farmers Club in
New York, and adds some interesting obser-
yations Of ito own, as to the possibilities Of
railroad speed. Our readers. will 6nd it
worth reading:
al have, with others, admired the progress
made in velocity tn railroads up to even one
hundred miles an hour on straight rails, hi b
has been done in England. But enter.
tain views Of railroad velocity beyond any
yet ventured TO be expressed. The EmPer
or of Russia has taken the first great step
towards wha; deem the ultimatum of rail-
road travel.
"lnsiead of c, ting narrow alley through
the country, or going around everything in
tie way Of straight hne-he has cut broad
way five miles from ST. Petersburgh. to Mos
c,w-he has made il all the way tsco hundred
feet ride, So that the engineer can see every
thing that comes on The road!
"Such is part oi the future; the railroad
from point to point mathem Itical line; the
rail tn times stronger tn any now used;
the locomotives on wheels Of far greater d.
amrter, sly twelve or fifteen feet; the guage
of a relative breadth; the signals and times
perfectly settled, the road walled on both
sides, during the transit OF the trains having
the gales OF the walls all clos"d.
18th, n, instead oi one hundred miles an
hour. we shall more safely travel three hun.
dred miles an hour! ! will rot preieud TO
say more-One hundred seems last enough;
8, did twenty, a lew years ago; and now on
very straight rails or very straight runs, we
travel sixty miles an hour in this tate, and
in New England one hun Ired have been &C.
compIlShrd.
"Ma,hematical precision and time will
solve this probiem-a passage from New
York to San Francisco in ten hours!"
We have no doubt OF one hundred miles
per hour being n perfectly practirsble rail.
road speed, by the building OF such railroads
as those described by the Judge, and this
opinion we expressed in the columns OF the
Scientific American some years ago. But
three hundred miles an hour inclines u to
the fogy side OF the question. This speed
would require pist"n velocity Of $500 ieet
per minute, OF eighteen inch stroke, il the
irving wheels were twenty. four feet in cir.
cumference, (nearly eight feet in Diameter
whoppers) and they would have to make 100
revolutions per minute. Asihe wheels Cal .
not turn round without steam, the query
with US is, the means Of raising the steam
necessary to perform this feat, a the boiler
would have TO evaporate about ton vi
water per minuie-sixfy in the hour. So
| { r as il relates to steam in avacuum, the
speed of three hundred miles per hour could
be obtained. but how can such quantity
Of steam be evaporated in a Locomotive boil.
er, in this space OF time! Judge Mrigs may
perhaps be able to answer Us. With re-
spect to the velocity of bodies, our ideas are
bounded by what has been performed before
our eyes-the flight Of the swallow, the
pigeon, the eagle; but when we look TO the
heavenly bodies and calculate the awful We
locity with which they are Increasingly
wheeled through space, the MIND, is struck
with solemn awe at the mighty power Of he
great Creator, who has made high Jupiter
TO revolve oEce on his axles in ten hours.
and through n space at the rate OF 1855 miles
an hour. or fifteen times the velocity Of a lo-
connective running at the rate of three hum
| dred miles per hour.