Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1864-10-28
A New Invention U ndersround Atmospheric
Railway,

Railway.
The London correspondent Of the New York Her.
ald dated September 3, gives the following acco INT
of new and important phase of railway progress
This week has been made memorable by the most
important experiment in locomotion since the first
opening of railway. This has been the successful
commencement OF a new railway-one to be worked
without horses, locomotives, stationary engines or
water power. And what pow er then? you may ask.
Why, the pneumatic, to be sure-thc atmospheric
ar as motor.
| will not 90 so far as to predict that the days of
locomotives over or soon to be among the things
that were but thing certain, and that is,
that for short lines, where large traffic is required,
lines in attcs and lines under rivers and up and
down steep ascents, the pneumatic propulsion must
take the place of both locomotives and horses AS
power, under such circumstances, it is far more
economical, more efficient, more comfortable, and
will give travellers an almost entire immunity from
accidents and casualties.
The pneumatic princIpe-using air as a motor
is not new but this method of applying it to rail-
ways is quite new-the patented invention of Thorn
as W. Rammell Esq, of Bridge street, Westminster,
a civil engineer Of high standing
Former pneumatic, or atmospheric" railways,
as they were termed, were worked by means of
cylinder and continuous piston, some twenty inches
in diameter, under thu carriages between the rails
The power was connected to the train by valve
and slot; but it was impossible to prevent great
loss of power by leakage and after or two trials
it was abandoned. 10 Mr.. Rammells pneumatic
railway the cylinder" is the railway tunnel, and
the piston is the train itself One carriage Tor carr
known the "pis!on2ihas projection disc of
metal the outer edge off being a soft substance,
like brush of brStles, and this comes in contact
with the brick work, or other material forming the
inside of the railway tunnel, touching all around
sides, top and bottom, and thus excluding the air.
1t is not actually air tight like piston rod in pis-
ton, but practically the leakage makes no material
loss of power.
Then the pneumatic machine, or grand wheel of
Eolus that RAISES the wind" is stationed near one
end Of the railway tunnel, and is moved by small
stationary engine, or any power. The first pneu-
matte railway experiment on this principle you
aware, small line, about three feet in diameter
for carrying mails and parcels, and that has been in
operation from ,EaSton London ard Northwestern
Railway terminus to the Northwest District Post
Office, in the Northwest part of London. That has
been in successful operation, carrying the mails
twenty or thirty times day, for over year and a
half.
Next, line for goods and mails, about Eve feet
in diameter, has been built under the Streets like
the smaller one, to carry the mails to and from the
general post Office, st. Martins lie Grand and that
is soon to be opened It will also connect the Lon
don and Northwestern railway with Chaplin &
Horns (the great railway carrielS) premises, in
Gresham street, near the Bank of England. That
line besides carrying the London mails between the
sand tons of goods day, between the heart of the
city and suburban railway station, (Camdentown, }
and all through single cast iron tube, and with
one stationary engine.
The passenger line opened this week is about six
hundred yards-say a third of a me-n the Crys-
tai Palace Park and is between ten and eleven feet
in dameter-not nine feet by ten, as enormously
stated by some of the newspapers-and will take in
a great Western (broad guage) train, and transport
it from one end to the other. The line has been
purposely constructed with all the disadvantages
that any railway is liable to-neither strait or level
but with very sharp curve and up q sleeper In.
cline Zone foot in teen) than is practicable for any
locomotive to work. n
The trains are blown through in one direction
and then sucked back on their return the power
working equally we'll in each direction. great
deal of nonsense is talked and written about the
pneumatic railways, like the trains being 'shot
through, or working in vacuum. Now be it
| known once for all, that vacuum" in working
pneumatic railway is both useless and impossible
Take the train when 1t is sucked through and what
is the process2 Why, precisely the same as that Of
| boy sucking pea or a bullet through hollow
| reed. The train stands at the farther end of the
tunnel or tube, quarter of mile from the pDeu-
matte machine. Then the air is sucked BY this
| powerful apparatus out of the tunnel. Of course
as the air Is gradually drawn Out-the other end of
the tube being closed by the train-the atmosphere
| becomes raTihed, attenuated, and the process
goes on second or two till the air in the tunnel is
made thinner-rari6ed-by about one per cent, and
the pressure of the surrounding atmosphere outside
equal to fourteen pounds to the square nch) then
presses or drives the train into the tunnel and the
sucking process going On all the time, the train
runs Its third of mile in some forty eight or fifty
seconds-eighteen to twenty miles an hour On
lines of any length, fifty miles on hour will be at.
| tanned with ease S..a' -.
| The carriage is lighted by lamps that give bril-
liant light and, having none of the gases or smoke,