The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-07-09
Freight by Telegraph.

The familiar pleasantly about send
ing persons from place to place by tele
graph is, in the LIGHT of modern inven-
ton, far from u joke. How speedily
the fact may be realised can not be
said, but just now n worthy English
scientist has come as near an answer
to the question as to have scheme
perfected for transporting freight by
wire. No one so much as whimpcrs a
doubt of the entire practicability of
Professor Fleeming Jenkins project of
telpherage. The experiments have been
wholly satisfactory, and the invention
now but awaits practical use, and
lines will be at once constructed TO
give it this final test.
Telpheragc is in truth physical teleg-
raphy, by means of which, instead Of
mystic sounds Ineligible only to
special education, an operator may dis
patch from one station to another mat
ter to the amount of one ton weight,
with no intermediate handling or SER
vice. The means to the accomplish
ment of this end are Interesting Strong
posts. erected at distances of seventy
feet apart, provided with cross-headS,
will support steel rods about three
quarters of an inch in diameter, one
set of rods serving as the up-line, and
the parallel set as the down-line Of the
telpher road; the height of the posts
will be determined by the character of
the locality traversed. The end of q
rod on one line is connected by con-
Quoting wire to the end of the next rod
on the other line, the extreme rods
at one end of the line being thus con-
nected to the terminals of the dynamo
electric machine which generates the
current. BY this means consecutive
spans are alternately in different cleo
trical state, and the connecting wire
makes the circuit complete. On the
rods wheels are run from which depend |
the trains, consisting of an electric |
locomotive and five or six buckets or |
carriages. The buckets are connected |
with each other by stiff rods, which |
maintain the equal distance Of each |
during the transit of the train up and |
down grade or against winds, separat- |
ing the buckets from ten to fifteen feet,
thus covering the length of one whole |
span of rods. Therefore when part of |
a train is running down an incline be- |
cause of the bending of the suspended |
rod, the other part is going up, one
aiding the other by decreasing the
traction.
Although each train will be able to
carry only about one ton burden. as
trains can be repeatedly run at a dis
lance apart of one-tifth of a mile, as
much service can be effected as is usual |
with an ordinary railway track. A
great advantage is gained in dispens-
ing with all attendants, the trains |
being operated wholly from the sta
tons where are placed the dynamo
machines driven by steam or water
power. 1t is found that acute curves
can be described, a radius OF six feet |
having been practicable, and a gradient |
of one foot in ten can with ease be |
overcome. A principal objection to
the scheme that will prevent its COM
peting with railway traffic is, in addi-
ton to the distribution of bulk, the |
inability of the telpher train to attain
high rate of speed. No greater SER
vice than five miles an hour is at pres
ent calculated upon, but as the system
is only designed to dispense with team |
ing traffic it will not be found that the |
rate of travel presents an objection to
its adoption.
According to Professor Jenkins esti-
mate, five miles of telpher road, includ-
ing everything connected with its oper-
alton, can be put in readiness for oper-
alton at n cost of $4,000, and that the
expense of conducting it will be about |
2 per cent per ton per mile. This more |
than favorably compares with road |
traffic. A road of five miles costs about |
S25, 600 for construction, while the cost |
of carriage is about | shilling per ton
per mile. If the tel phcr system is
found to be practical it can be made of
great value and profit to mining and !
other districts where the condition of |
country makes railway construction |
impossible or unproiitably expensive.
The system will never be popular to |
intramural operation, owing to the
positive objection to telegraph wires
overhead, which would be greatly in
tensiiied by the telpher lines. But
there can be no question that tho in
vention will prove of very great benefit
to many important interests if the IN
ventor is happily fortunate in his ell
deavors, and with the greater perfec-
ton of the mechanical operation, in a
higher applied power, great gain may
be made in the rate of time in transfer.
The scheme is at any rate interesting,
and its development will be curiously |
watched. Inter ocean.
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