The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-09-04
FIVE MILES A MINUTE.
The Electric Railroad that Is Going to
Be Built at Garden City.

De Oullt at UaTQeu CaLy.
new YORK, August 27.-Within SIX
months Garden City, L. J., will be the
| fastest town in the world, speaking from
u railroad point Of view, provided the
| plans of David G. WeemS, a Baltimore
! inventor, and the Electro Automatic
Transit Company of Baltimore city do
not go awry. BY that time, Mr.. WeemS
| says, people in Garden City can send
their express and mail matter five miles
in ore minute, and may even make the
same trip themselves then or within Il
short time afterward, if they are not
afraid to try it. DR.. Julian }. Chisholm,
the president of the company, is about
to complete negotiations for the right OF
way for five mile circuit on the plains
near Garden City, and promises that
construction shall begin by the middle
of September.
1t will not be entirely a new thing,
however, for an experimental two-mlle
track has been in operation for some
time at Laurel, near Baltimore. This is
rather rickety concern, with a good
deal of up hill and down dale to ii, hay
ing twenty-Eine changes Of grade in al,
and the best time that has been made
over it is two miles minute. For 4
man or a company with soul to con-
ceivc five miles minute, two miles 4
minute is going backward. So having
at Laurel demonstrated to their satisfac,
lion the possibility Of their ideal, they
are going to Long Island to demonstrate
its practicability. They couldn't do that
anywhere in the State of Maryland,
because they couldn't find in that State
a level piece Of ground big enough to
hold tive-mile track.
The five mile-a- minute railroad is TO
be real railroad, with track built on
the ground, Just like an ordinary track,
except that the rails have wide tlanSe
projecting from the inner side. y shoe
depending from the car reaches under
this fange, and whenever the car tits
the shoe touches the fiange and prevents
the car from leaving the rails. The mo-
tive power is to be electricity, a low ten
sion. direct current of $50 horse power,
supplied by an overhead conductor,
borne not upon poles, but upon a sue
cession OF frames arching the track.
This framework will cover the track for
its entire length, and barbed wire will
be insulated, and may be used for tele-
graphing. The 147 patents which MIR.
Weems has obtained for different parts
of the system include several FOR using
the rails themselves as conductors, thus
dong away with the necessity for the
overhead arrangements, but it is cX-
pecled that any Of these will be found
practicable for the climate and other
conditions of this part of the country.
The motor will be ''life size and will
weigh about three tons. The most novel
feature electrically OF the invention is
the fact that the electricity acts directly
upon the driving wheels, the axles of
the wheels being used as the core of the
motor. This overcomes the difficulty
Wffsras>,-Las heretofore prevented the
at - ,.s...... ssa.. tMenss we,
motor K Z; 5ror
the track gt with the journals weighted
to conpensate for the relief given them,
has been run up to $500 revolutions a
minute without Injury. The wheels of
the Garden City motor Will be 42 inches
in diameter, and at 1000 revolutions
minute, therefore, will make the circuit
of the FIVE mile grape arbOr in just one
minute, if nothing breaks. The current
will be communicated to. the motor by
means of small brush sliding along
the conductor overhead. The contact
will be very slight and the friction
small.
The wheels of the motor, and of the
cars also, will be inside, and the only
projections will be the journals Of the
wheels on each side These have to be
very wide, to prevent heating, and will
be encased in shell-like boxes to reduce
the resistance TO the air as much
as possible. The motors and the
cars will be telescoped at the ends when
coupled, so that the whole train will
look as if made in one piece. Besides
this. the front of the motor and the
rear of the last car will be built cut to a
point, so that the train will slip through
the air Ike vessel through the water.
b. an ingenious arrangement the front
point eau be raised or lowered, varying
the upward or downward pressure OF
the air, and tightening or increasing the
pressure on the rails.
The automatic train will carry no pas
sengers or employees. 1t will be con-
trolled entirely from the generating sta
ton. The moment the current is broken
the brakes are applied. They will stop
the train, when going FIVE miles min
ute, in 1000 feet, Mr.. Weems says. The
bra kes stay set until the current begins
again. The passage of the trasn rings
bell at the station. and drops a tag like
that of hotel annunciator every mile
or so along the route. The man at the
station can thus always tell very nearly
where it is. If it has to cross draE.
bridge, the opening of the draw Ws.l
break the current, and the train will DE
stopped and cannot go on until the draw
is closed.
The cars to 60 with the three-ton mo-
tor will carry ton each Of express and
mail. They will be running from New
York to Philadelphia in two years, if Ia"
jersey Legislature doesn't object, Mr..
Weems says, aud will make the run in
twenty minutes. theoretically the train
could run from New York to Chicago in
six hours, giving Chicago people Il chance
to read the news at late breakfast the
same day it was printed, without hav-
ing to wait thirty hours for it, a> now.
The train that will make this terrific
speed will be only about four feet high,
and the cars will be from twenty to
thirty feet long. The gauge will be cor
respondingly narrow. All that Is eon-
templatcd at first is the use of the sys.
tenn as an adjunct to the present railroad
system for the swift carriage of express,
mail and other light goods Mr.. WccmS
also has patents for Il system for passcn-
ger carriage At present, he says, the
system would not be practicable for