The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-12-17
High Speed ON Railways.

| The modern locomotive is one of the
most marvellous and ingenious of mans
| inventions, but great as il is in this respect
| it does not completely fulfill the demands
made upon ii. 1t stands to-day the best
exponent of mechanical power and dura-
| bility we have any knowledge of, but the
world wants a better servant, and must,
in the nature OF things, finally obtain it.
| The public are constantly urging railway
managers to make better time-to increase
the speed of express trainS-and the man.
ayers are endeavoring to satisfy the de-
mand but up to the present time they
have only succeeded in ascertaining that
while it is possible TO run trains at We
locity of Tile in Oneminute the expenses
of maintaining such trains is an insupera-
bic obstacle to their use.
The wear and tear of locomotive and
rolling stock, and the injury to the perma-
nent way; the expenses in keeping up the
road bed, embankments, bridges and the
cost of the equipment of modern railway
are enormously increased by running at
high velOcities. The mechanical difficult
ties are not inSurmOuntable. Engines can
be made to turn their wheels as fast as any
one wishes to ride after them, but until
we can build road bed and equip it with
a rail that will annihilate the effects of
heavy blows from heavy bodies at a high
velOcity-until we can overcome the eX-
istence of live force and neutralize its et-
fects, we may relinquish the hope of re-
munerative traffic at a high speed.
Trains have been run for long distances
in this country at high velOcities, only to
demonstrate the views above set forth.
Locomotives have been built with enOr-
nous driving wheels, six and seven feet
in diameter, and driven as fast as the pis-
tons could propel them, but one after an
other they have all been discontinued, and
the regular rate of twenty-five and thirty
miles an hour is maintained as the highest
speed profitable. What engineers have
done to overcome space rapidly is to rem
der the locomotive capable of making long
runs without requiring to stop for fuel or
water. Ifit cannot run at high velocity
without destroying itself, it can keep run
ming at one comparatively low, and ac-
cOmplishes good results.
Ii is possible TO leave New York at 10
O'Clock in the morning, and reach Buffalo
at twenty minutes past ten in the evening,
which, viewed by itself, Is not a small
achievement. The average rate of speed
required to accomplish the distance i'm the
time mentioned is about thirty miles an
hour; the actual running speed is higher |
than this to make up for unavoidable de |
tentions at stations and decreased speed Z
through towns and at road crossings. Yet |
even this is unsatisfactory to the people /
at large, who are, as we have said, con-
stantly asking for quicker transit. 1t may
be urged that abroad trains are run rapid I
ly, at much higher rates of speed than in /
this country, but this Is true in few in
stances only. The climate of England, /
however, permits of making much more
stable roadway than our own it is more
easily kept in alignment, and stock runs
with less injury upon it. Frosts do not +.
strike three and four feet deep there as
they do in exposed sections of this cOun- /
try, and stockholders lay out more money
in cost per mile of road built than Ameri /,
can stockholders care to. But, though /
some trains do run at a speed of fifty miles /
per hour, it is said in a recent report that /
they are not profitable the same causes 1
against them there as here. The I
most remunerative trains are those which /
run at the lowest speed.
The existing locomotive, wonderful as it 1
IS, can accomplish no more than it has /
lone. 1t may admit of various refine
ments in mechanism, improvements in it
self, and additions to its capacity; but so
Ong as its enormous weight continues, so
ong as its power depends upon its weight
iOr its very existence, as it does, just so
Ong it will destroy as it moves if driven
beyond certain velocities asccrtained to be
profitable.
The locomotive of the future and the
railway train of the future to achieve high
Velocities will have to be of different con-
;truction and character; vastly different
rom those now employed. Master me
;hanics and car builders are raeking their
brains to reduce weight and retain strength
md stiffness in constructing cars and en-
gines, but beyond certain point they are
unable to get, and they will always be met
Dy the same obstacles while the conditions
remain unchanged. Wemust have lighter
motors or increased force; lighter cars
with greater strengh; more solid roadways
without curves, high embankments, long
spanned bridges or deep cuttings. When
all these conditions are obtained we may
fly over the earth's surface mile or two
IN minute as easily as birds traverse the
lir. 1t is not too much to achieve. If
man can converse with his fellow on the /
other side of the world in a minute, he |
may in due time solve this problt m also
NeaU York Sun.