The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-09-16
Indian Rubber as q Motor.

Every school boy knows that strip
| of India rubber, when stretched to the
utmost limit of which it is capable, has
q strong tendency to rebound and re-
sumo its original shape. This cOntrac-
tility has suggested to an expert arti-
san in New Orleans the novel idea of
making India rubber motor for NOV
ing cars, and has recently invented an
arrangement for putting his idea into
practice. A number of careful expert
ments proved to him that Para rubber
would stretch ten feet for every one of
its ordinary length, and that tie re-
tractile power of large bands of this
material was enormous. He devised
system of turniDgs, windings, and
twistings of this power to be placed
under an ordinary street car that would
enable him to prOpel it at q rate of
speed always under the control of a
conductor, and that would last three
years. The machinery is simple; the
rubber is wound upon drum, and the
drum once let loose the car commences
to move at q speed more than would be
desired were it not that it is under per-
feet command from a simple system of
cOgs working under the leverage power
in the hands of the conductor. For
street cars, two bands of the rubber, two
and half inches in diameter and fifty
six feet in length each, are used. Each
piece is attached to a separate drum,
and as the stretch of the rubber is ten
feet for one, five hundred and sixty
feet will he run off the drum before it
will be necessary to use its fellow drum.
In running off this five hundred and
twenty feet, distance fOver two miles
will be traversed by the cars; the other
drum is then called into requisitiOn,
and while it is propelling tine car, the
exhausted drum is wound up by the
same leverage which the conductor
uses to stop and control the car.
The present cost of running q street
railroad car is about 5000 dollars q
year, independent of the mules or hors-
es required for it, whose value must be
between six and eight or nine hundred
dollars. With the new arrangement,
the cars are put in running order with
the rubber motive power at an expense
of about five hundred and fifty dollars
month to pay the driver or conduc-
tor, whatever he may be called.
The new apparatus is to be used OH
the street cars in Mobile, and if proved
to work successfully, will, no doubt, be
introduced elsewhere. 1t will occur to
any mechanic, that coiled steel springs
possesses precisely the same kind of
elastic power as rubber, in a greater
degree, and if the contractile power of
rubber can be made available in the
manner mentioned, the spring can be
used more cheaply and more effective
ly. A tiny steel spring runs a watch
for twenty four hours, and a larger one
gives steady motion to the works of
clock for eight days; why not still
more powerful one drive street car
for an hour, and after having been
wound up, prOpel it again, and so on
indefinitely. We cannot tell whether
the new power can he used to advan-
tage or not, but to an expert mind it
seems probable, and the growing pity
we feel for those hard-wOrked and
much-abused animals, car horses,
prompts us to wish that the invention
may he successful.
A Paris correspondent writes: al
wonder il there are many French wO-
men like three sisters l saw selling
tickets at the statiOn-tall, graceful
and beautiful, with features like the
pictures of Marie Antoinnete, and a
wealth of golden hair to make man
crazy. | showed them my ticket for
Strasburg. "You must CO." said the
eldest, Ito the Chef de Ia Gore.p l
was not sure that ! could find him.
She started at once; led the way
through all tine noisy crowd of soldiers
and passengers, accomplished my bu-
siness and received my thanks all |
with the manners of queen. And it
seems to me that French women, in
stations, show this same kind of SOW
ereignty. If the Germans can conquer
the men of France, they will still have
to submit to the women and that,
am sure, will not be any hardship if
there are many like the beautiful, l
ought to say heroic, ladies who sell
tickets at the railway station of Nam
cy."
u