New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-03-08

IN one minute. Is this all we can 90! RE
pare to exercise your imagination.
u I lit my pipe.
'Still two miles of straight track be-
} tween A and B. On the track long plat
form Car, reaching from A to within 6
quarter of mile Of B. We will now dis
card ordinary locomotives and adopt AZ
our motive power series of compact
magnetic engines, distributed underneath
the platform car, all along it's length.
81 don't understand those magnetic en-
| gines."
"Welf, each of them consists of great
. iron horseshoe, rendered alternately q
magnet and not a magnet by an intermit-
, tent current of electricity from battery,
this current in its turn regulated by clock
work. When the horseshoe is in circuit
it is magnet and it pulls its clapper to-
ward it with enormous power. When it
| is out of the circuit, the next second, it is
not magnet and it lets the clapper go.
The clapper, oscillating to and fro, i'm
parts a rotary motion to f1ywheel, which
transmits it to the drivers on the rails.
Such are our motors. They are no nov
city, for trial has proved them practicable.
with magnetic engine for every
truck of wheels, We can reasonably expect
to move our immense car, and to drive it
along at speed, say, of a mile minute
1.-The forward end, having but quar-
ter of mile to 60, will reach B in fifteen
seconds. We will call this platform car
No. l. On top of No. l are laid rails on
which another platform car, No. 2, a
quarter of mile shorter than No. l, is
moved in precisely the same way. No. 2,
in its turn, is surmounted by No. 3,
moving independently of the tiers be-
meath, and quarter of mile shorter than
No. 2. No. 2 is mile and half long;
No. 3 mile and quarter. Above, on
successive levels, are No. a mile long;
No. 5, three-quarters of mile; No. 6,
half mile; No. z, quarter of mile,
and No. 8. Q short passenger car, on top
of all.
| Each car moves upon the car beneath
! it, Independently of all the others, at the
rate of mile minute. Each car has its
own magnetic engines Well, the train
being drawn up with the latter end of each
car resting against lofty bumping-po
at A, Tom Furnace, the gentlemaniy con.
ductor, and Jean Marie Rivarol, engineer,
mount by long ladder to the exalted No.
Is. The complicated mechanism is set in
I motion.
| ono runs . quarter Of mile in If.
I teen seconds and reaches the end Of No.
z. Meanwhile No. z has run quarter of
| o mile In the same time and reached the
end of No. 6; No. 6, a quarter of mile
| in fifteen seconds, and reached the end of
No. 5; No. 5, the end of No. 4; No. 4, of
| No. 3; No. 3, of No. q No. 2, of No. /.
And No. /, in fifteen seconds, has gone its
| quarter Of a mile along the ground track,
| ano has reached station B. All this has
been done in fifteen seconds. Wherefore,
Nos. l, 2, 3, 4. S, 6, and s, come to rest
against the bumping-post at b. at pre-.
cisely the same second. We, in No. 8,
reach B just when No. reaches it. In
other words, we accomplish two miles in
fifteen seconds. Each Of the eight cars,
| moving OF the rate of mile minute.
has contributed quarter of a mile to our
journey. and has done its work in fifteen
seconds. All the eight did their work at
once, during the same fifteen seconds.
Consequently we have been whizzed
through the air at the somewhat startling
speed of seven and a half seconds to the
mile. This is the Tachypomp. Does it
Justify the name3"
Although little bewildered by the com.
plexity Of cars. apprehended the gen.
eral principle of the machine. / made a
diagram and understood it much better.
You have merely improved on the idea of
my moving faster than the train when !
was going to the smoking car"
'.Preciselv. So far we have kept within
the bounds Of the practicable. To satisfy
the professor, you can theorlZe in some.
thing after this fashion: If we double the
number Of cars thus decreasing by one
half the distance which each Las to go,
We shall attain twice the speed. Each Of
the sixteen cars will have but one-eighth
of mile to 60. At the uniform rate we
have adopted, the two miles can be done
il seven and o halt instead Of fifteen
seconds. With thirty-two cars. and a
sixteenth CT q mile, or twenty rods differ
enca in their length, We arrive at the |
speed Of a mile III less than two seconds;
with sixty-four cars, each travelling but |
ten rods, mile under the second.
.'More than sixty miles a minute! If |
this isn't rapid enough for the professor, |
tell him to 60 on, increasing the number !
Of his cars and diminishing the distance |
each one has to run. If sixty-four cars
yield o speed of mile inside the second, |
let him fancy Tachypomp of GAO cars,
and amuse himself calculating the rate of |
car No. GAO. just whisper to him that
when he has an infinite number Of cars,
with an ininitessimal difference in their
lengths, he will have obtained that inf
mite speed for which he seems to yearn.
Then demand Abscissa."
wrung my friends hand in silent and
grateful admiration. I could say nothing.
''You have listened to the man OF the
ory," he said proudly. "You shall now
behold the practical engineer. We will
go to the west of the Mississippi and find
some suitably level locality. We will
erect thereon q model Tachypomp. We
will summon thereunto the professor, his
daughter, and why not his fair sister Jo-
casta, as we'll? We will take them jour-
ney which shall much astonish the vener-
able Surd. He shall place Abscissa's digits
in yours and bless you both with an alge-
braic formula. Jocasta shall contemplate
with wonder the genius of Rivarol. But
we have much to do. We must ship to
St. Joseph the vast amount of materials to
be employed in the construction of the
We must engage small
army of workmen to effect that construc-
ton, for we are to annihilate time and
space. Perhaps you had better see your
bankers"
1 rushed impetuously to the door.
There should be no delay.
''Stop! stop! Um GoHss a0iler', stop!"
,hrieked Rivarol 'Ilaunched my butcher
his morning, and haven't bolted the"
But it was to late. I was upon the
rap. 1t swung open with crash, and l
vas plunged down, down, down! | felt
IS if I were falling through illimitable
space. l remember wondering, as /