The Red Cloud chief., 1889-09-13
An RAILWAY.

An ELECTRIC RAILWAY.
4 Systsa Th,t Theestsss . R~svolstisa-
Carrying Nan snd Exprsss Paekagso q
. speed Og 800 Miles ~ Hour.
David G. Weems. Of Baltimore. 70
tho inventor Of a new rapid transit
electric railway system which promises
to rev0luti0nize the carrying Of mails
and express. He has been interviewed
on the subject of his new invention at
his home in Laurel. Maryland. and has
now given the following interesting
details Of the plan: The railway has
two rails. very much like any other
railway. but it is enclosed-here in q
sort Of lattice work and there by .
barbed-wire fence, which stretches
along On both sides. But the queerest
thing about this railroad is what travels
on it.
Mr.. Weems. standing in the door Of
. shed. touches q button, when out Of
the shed crawls IN iron.plated thing
about two and q half feet square and
twenty feet long. pointed at one end.
It is on wheels and looks very heavy
and clumsy. No sooner have you be-
gun to look it Overa and wonder whether
It is a torpedo or q rock crusher than
it disappears. 1t goes OF like q fash.
Apparently nothing touches il. nothing
propelsit But it goes. A little rum
BILE. adark streak going around the
curve OF the circular railway. and it ia
hidden in a clump Of trees. Mr.. Weems
still stands with his hand on the but
ton. watching . pencil moving in an
automatic device over piece of ruled
paper. "At tho half!" he exclaims q
moment or two later; '.One miller then
"A mile and a halfw and q few
seconds more the long black things
on wheels whizzes bv. You take out
your watch and time it. In .
little less than . minute it re-
appears. In another minute it whizzes
past once more. As it goes round and
round it is like nothing so much as q
big shuttle moving in . circle with in
conceivable rapidity. The track 10
exactly two miles in circumference.
I'VE are not running very fast now"
Mr.. Weems says. Only 400 reyolu-
tions Of our dynamo. This gives us .
speed Of exactly two miles q minute.
Our machines develop up to 10. 900 revo-
buttons. and We have run them 8 800 rev.
o~lutiOns. equal to more than four miles
a minute. for twenty-four hours without
stopping. On a frst-class track. rea-
sOnably straight and without too many
steep grades. We can easily develop .
continuous speed of from three to four
miles . minute. In fact. there is prac-
tically no limit to the speed that our
power can produce. The only question
Is how much speed the tracks and cars
are able to stand. The track We are
now using is curved and full Of heavy
grades"
The success of this remarkable rail.
way has been 30 thoroughly assured by
actual demonstration that Chicago may
now begin looking forward to the re-
ceipt of mail from New York in four or
i've hours.
within q very few years." said Mr..
Weems, ''there will be q double track
electric railway from New York to
Chicago. about 900 miles long. The
track will have . twelve inch gauge
and will be enclosed In . net work Of
barbed wire. The wires of which this
fence IL made will be used for tele-
graph. telephone and automatic sig
mails. Overhead will be space for car
rying q hundred commercial telegraph
wires. The track is 90 light and the
rolling stock u easily carried that at
very small additional cost the road can
be elevated through towns and cities,
and wherever it may be necessary to
obviate heavy grades. Through this
protected way trains two and q half
feet wide and of about the same height
will run at the speed Of 200 miles IN
hour. No ~enginemen. conductors or
brakemen accompany the train. whose
movements are controlled easily and
absolutely from tho power sta
tons. OF these stations there will
be one in New York, one in Chi
cago, and seven on the line about 100
miles apart These power stations will
require q capacity of about 800 horse
each. and any practical engineer a
compute the cost of maintaining them.
1t is really trihing. considering the ef-
fciency developed. II water power
can be had for some of the stations,
even if FIVE or ten miles from the track.
it will be utilized. power being trans
mitted by wire. In operation trains of
four or FIVE AIRS will be run, q motor
a and three or four others. The cars
are so telescoped together As to form
unbroken surfaces, top, bottom and
sides. and the rear car. As we'll as the
first or motor car. is pointed. 50 a. to
oPor tho lAast nOAsihla r~asistanco In