Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1872-05-01
THROUGH By DAYLIGHT.
What We Are Coming To
A Gigantic Air-GBn
5000 Miles Lomg-The @
Scheme of the Age.

alton of an indulgent Senate,
perhaps the most audacious is
that composed in a bill intro
duced on the 28th of March by
Mr.. Wilson, "to authorize the
construction Of a pneumatic
tube road between the cities Of
New York and New Orleans"
lFhe corporatorsiin ia this inagnif.
icent scheme are as follows -
Albert Brisbane, Thomas j.
Durant, William Mullins, JAS.
G. Savery, John f. briggs,
James M. Ashley, Calvin Cone.
HI. M. Barnard, and John B.
Alley. The capital stock is
moderately fixed at one million
shares of 500 each or $780,
100000 in all, and, less this
should notprove pneumatically
adequate to the wants Of
the company they, are au-
thorized "at any time by a
two,thirds vote or approval of
the stockholders" to increase
the stock ad libitum, or to issue
any amount of bonds at 7 per
cent, convertible into stock at.
pleasure. Apart from the glo.
ry attending such stupendous
undertaking, the above-named
gentlemen have, on previous
occasions, rendered themselves
conspicuous by being identified
in pursuits which, if not so
brilliant in conception as the
present one, were quite as Chi
merical, At a former period
of his life, Mr.. Albert Bris-
bane turned his inventive fac.
ulty to pneumatic science, and
ultimately evolved a plan for
propelling letters and small
parcels with almost lightning
velocity through hollow sphers.
1t must not be imagined, how
ever, that the aforesaid named
gentleman was the discoverer
Of the science of elastic fluids,
for the idea is quite a hundred
years old, and was first started
by a Frenchman named Papin.
Mr.. Brisbane obtained q patent
for his scheme in 1S69.None of
the various notifications of the
invention hitherto applied have
been extended beyond the linn
its of a single city, nor have.
they been found so important,
by the combination of quick
transit with economy of work.
ing, as to lead to any general
of them. The prin,
ciple on which they are opera
ted is very simple, and depends
upon theaaction of air pressure
to drive a solid piston (Which,
in most cases, is the carriage,
through a vacuum. e., an air.
exhausted tube. In 1861 the
first pneumatic dispatch was
carried into effect in London
by the postal authorities, who
a tube from the
chief office to Euston square1
terminus, a distance Of about
two miles. The system met
with Interpretation of the au'
thorities, and is still in use.-
Similar contivances have been
in working in Paris and Berlin.
In the light of these facts the
may form some faint
conception Of the boldness of
the grand scheme of a "Na-
tional Pneumatic Tube Compa-
n.y." to build a tube road, Gin
with hollow
spheres" all the way from New
York to New Orleans, or over
2 1000 miles, while the largest
tube road now existing is less
than two miles. The next
thing notable about the scheme
is that one-third of the corpo-
rators are ex,members of Con.
gress, and we'll known and
figures in that fifth
estate known in Washington
politics as the lobby. James
M. Ashley, John f. briggs, and
John B. Alley were all in Con.
gress together five or six years
ago. The magni6cence of the
is unbounded, for it not
only includes q nationel pneu-
matte road, in combination with
hollow spheres, with a hundred
millions of dollars as q mini