Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1862-01-25
Ghe 4olpnesian,
New Mode of LocOmoiion-5OO Miles an
Hour by the Pneumai tic Tube!

New Mode of LocOmOIiou-5OO Miles an
Hour by the Pneumatic Tube!
1t would be great step in the direction of safe
and economical lCcomotion if men and women could
be induced to trust themselves in a train inside ola
pneumatic tube
- Tube, indeed what next!" demands an in
dignant reader. " Perhaps you would have us shot
on from Whitworth guns, or explode us under the
receiver OF an air pump, or steam in kettle ~
q" | have heard, interrupts another, '' of es-
Gaping slaves being boxed up as goods and packed
OH by railway or steamboat, the box being occa-
sionally placed the wrong end by way of variety
Being packed In tube, like cartridge in rifle,
might prove, perhaps, an equally agreeable mode
of travelling :"
No, no, nothing of the kind and the man who
trusts himself to the impulse of the atmosphere in
Its fort to regain Its equilibrium in closed tube,
need not fall martyr to science, nor need he
send through his motherin-aw by way of expert
ment, to become the subject of Interrogation
inquest at the distant end of the thoroughfare.
George Medhurst proposed the plan sixty years
ago, and we may live to see it carried out. Lotus
Perkins, grandson of the late Jacob Perkins, and
still engaged In perlecting the inventions of that
ingenious man, endeavored, when last in the United
States, to carry out a scheme of pneumatic cOmmu-
nlcaton between Boston and New York, the dis
tance of 236 miles to be made in almost incred-
IDLY short space of time-sav in half an hour Mr..
Perkins offered to be the first through passenger,
taking with him, might be inclined to suppose,
small quantity OF respirabe air in an accGrdeon,
pOrtmanteau, or twO-gallOn Jar.
In explanation of the enormous rate Of speed we
may observe that air, under the ordinary pressure
Of the atmosphere, rushes into a vacuum at the
rate of nearly 1000 feet per second, or at about
ehalf the velocity of steam of the pressure.
A velocity of 200 feet per second is speed of
6Sl.S, or nearly 700 miles hour-a rate of
travelling somewhat beyond the ordinary expert
ence of this fast age There is, too, ground
hat for fnar in a njUht thrOuoh Suph a tuhp
the carriages could not off the line, and it
would be impossible to work them IN such way
that two trains could proceed at the same time, in
opposite directions in the tube and very diff
cult, if not impractcable, to run two trains, the
one after the other during an exhaustion OF the
tube If the wheels axes of the carriages should
break, or if rail should snap in two, there need
be further damage. as provision could easily be
made against becoming wedged, and the carriages
would then only rub along, in confined passage,
until they stopped.
"Ah yes but how about sufocationt -
There could hardly be such thing-and unless
the leakage or % windage'' between the
riages and the tube very slight indeed, there
would, on the contrary, be more air than would be
wanted 1t would be question of keeping out
draughts from the carriages rather than OF prevent
ing the stagnation of that already in them. We
have old ladies going down in the diving bell at
the Polytechnic. young ladies going up in balloons,
mild gentlemen descending the Dukinfeld coal pit
to experience an additional 800 of the earths GEN.
tral heat, and wherever there is a lofty chimney
in progress, hundreds are glad to be drawn up 1t
to the top, an excursion which, at one time, was
amazingly popular at St. Rollox, Glasgow. Why,
them should one fear to be whisked through an at
mospheric tube. Besides, the thing has been
done.
The " Pneumatic POST in Batterseaieds has
actually become thOrOughfare for passengers.
Through a tube rather more than quarter of a
mile long, and only equal in area to 33-lnch water
main, trucks are run In which, after bags, ballast
and dogs had been first sent through at speed OF
about twenty five miles an hour, an adventurous
navy booked his passage. lie came out In good
state of preservation and appeared disposed to re-
commend the route to the patronage OF the travel
ing public Sincethen, the oath of July, 1861,
a large number of men have passed through the
tube and they agree in describing their journey as
smooth and comfOrtable-the interior being agree
ably cool, with want of fresh air. With 7-fOot
tube the passage might be made luxuriously, and
at any speed desired, 80, 60, 100, or 200 miles an
hour.
1t is questionable whether the dislike to such
mode of travelling would be greater than that
originally entertained towards railways. Railway
tunnels too, at one time were the especial bug
bears of nervous people. On account of the oc-
currance of accidents in them they may be STILL
but in the atmospheric tube, collisions, as we have
said could not possibly occur, and are not, there
fore, to be dreaded. The original apprehension as
the passengers would be suffjcdted, like the two
unfortunate men recently in the Ellsworth tunnel
of the Grand Junction Canal. DR.. Lardner was u
stout opponent of the Great Western Railway, and
we believe he made strong point as to the Box
tunnel Eminent medical authority had to be called
10 to show that the danger of sufocation would be
very slight indeed, else, perhaps, the bull would not
have passed Setting aside the apprehension as to
collisions few people, probably, have any particu-
lar dislike now to a subterranean journey under
Box Hill. or at Kilsby, Standedge. Woodhead or
even at Clayton. The Metropolitan Railway Com
pany expect their underground line to become popu-
lar and a tunnel six miles and half long is being
made under Mont Gents, and one OF four miles and
a half through the Hoosic Mountain in the United
States, both without shafts and both, II they are
ever finished expected to become ordinary routes
of travel There are IS miles of railway tunnels
in the kingdom. through the whole of which many
millions of passengers are carried yearly. Lond0"
Engineer.
&C Fr CAP. Among