The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-03-09
from the Scientific Americana
The Pneumatic Tunnel under broad
way, New York.

Although the President of the Beach
Pneumatic Transit Company is one OF the
proprietcrs of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN,
the writer of the present article visited the
tunnel for the first time on the Sth of Feb
ruary. The day was tormy and the snow
fell fast and heavy. Cars were with diff
Guilty kept on the tracks in the streets.
Umbrellas were in vain. The wind made
no more of turning them inside out, than
of shaking dead leaves from the trees IN
the park 1t was a favorable time to con-
trast the miseries and annoyances of street
car travel with the comfort o. tunnel tran
sit.
Entering at the southwest corner of
Warren street and Broadway, We were
soen initiated into the mysteries of which
so much has been made by the newspaper
reporters. The simplicity of the principle
of this mode of transit is not fully appre-
ciated until one sees the thing itself.
Let the reader imagine cylindrical tube
eight feet in the clear, bricked up and
white-washed, neat, clean, dry, and quiet.
Along the bottom of this tube is laid q
railway track, and on this track runs a
spacious car, richly upholstered, well light
ed, with plenty of space for entrance and
exit. The whole arrangement Is as COM
Portable and coZy as the front basement
dining-roo of first-class city residence.
The tunnel has not only the positive COM
| forts described, but it Is absolutely free
| from the discomforts of surface car-travel
| The track is smooth and level, and, not be-
ing subjected to incessaut battering form
heavy trucks. is easily kept in first rate
condition. 1t is not cold in winter II
l will be delightfully."- cool in summer The
air will be constantly changed in it by the
action of the blowing engine. The filthy
Notwithstanding, patience-kilhng, street
dust, of which uptown residents get no
only their fill, but more than their fll-sE
that 1t runs ovor and collects on their hat
and clothes; fills their hair, boards. 9p;
eyes, and floats in their breaths like tn
Vapor on a frosty morning-will never b.
found in the tunnel Add to these advan
tages that Of cheap, rapid. and unlnter
rupted transit, free from the dangers Q
collision with loaded trucks, and we hav
q pretty fair showing IN favor Of the tun
mel over street railways.
When the tunnel is opened to- the pub
lie it will be no dirty hole in the groun
the people will be invited te enter, but
, handsome subterranean avenue, throug
which they may be very rapidly transport
: ed TO their homes up town.
This system is in our opinion vastly So
perior to subterranean stream transit ur
! der Broadway, as has been proposed.
! | is free from the smoke nuisance and frol
the dust of locomotives. There can be Il
= accumulation of carbonic acid gas in it, a
] evil which may be estimated from the fa'
: that for every pound Of coal burned, thrC
and one-third pounds, or twenty an
3 one-half cubic feet Of carbonic acid will |
: general d. Granted that this gas will fin
q free exit flon the area ways, at the side
: the street so that people can breathe ar
-. live below, it will float off into the stor
: alongside,.Ge cend into the cellars and b
= come general nuisance.
81 In the Pneumatic system, the cars W
4 be impelled by compressed air only. Tn
! air will be unccntaminated by gas or dns