The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-03-21
/ AN ELECTRIC RAILWAY. .,
4 System That Threatens . Revolution
Carrying Mail and Express. Packages at
. Speed of 600 Miles an ffsour.

Carrying Mail and Express Packages Mt
Speed of 600 Miles an Hour.
David G. Weems, of Baltimore. is
the Inventor of new rapid transit
electric railway system which premises
to revelutionize 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 enelosed-here in a
sort of lattice work and there by a
oarbed-wire fence, which stretches
along on both sides. But the oueerest
thing about this raileoad is what travels
on it.
Mr. Weems, standing in the door of
shed, touches a button. when ont of
the shed erawls an ipon- plated thing
about two and a half feet sduare and
twenty feet long, pointed at one end.
1t is. on Wheels and looks very heavy
and clumsy. No sooner have Won be-
gun 20 look it over and wonder whether
1t us torpedo Or rock crusher than
1T 'disappears 1t goes off like a flash
apparently nothing touches 1t, nothins
propelsit. But it goes. A little rum.
Die dark streak going around the
curve OF the circular railway, and it is
hidden in clump of trees. Mr.. Weems
still stands with his hand ON the but-
Lon, watching q pencil moving in an
automatic device over piece of ruled
paper. Az the halfr' he exclaims
moment or two later; Zone milei, then
"A mile and a half" and a few
seconds more the long black things
on Wheels whizzes by. You take ol,s
your watch and time it. In a
Nttie less than a minute if re.
appears. In another minute it wbizzes
past once more. AS it goes round and
round it is like nothing SO much as q
Dig shuttle moving in circle with in
conceivable rapidity. The track is
exactly two miles in circumference.
we are not running very fast now"
Mr. Weems says Only L, 400 revolu-
tlons OF our dynamo This gives us a
speed OF exactly two miles minute.
Our machines developup to 10, 900 reyo-
buttons and we have run them 8, 500 rev.
olutlons, equal to more than four miles
minute, for twenty hours without
stopping. On 3 firstfclass track, rea-
sonably straight and, without too manv
steep grades, we can easily develop a
continuous speed of from three to four
miles minute. In fact, there is prac-
tically no limit to the speed that orr
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 so thoroughly assured bv
actual demonstration that Chicago NAV |
now begin looking forward to the re-
celp5 of mail from New York in four or
five hours.
within very few years. said Mr..
Weems, ''there will be a 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 a net work of
oarbed wire. The wires of which this
fence is made will be used for tele-
graph. telephone and automatic sig
mails. Overhead will be space for car
'rying hundred commercial telegraph
wires. The track is so light and the
rolling stock so 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 a half
feet wide and of about the same height
will run at the speed of 200 miles an
hour. No enginemen, conductors or
brakemen accompany the train, whose
are controlled easily and
absolutely from the 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 a capacity of about 800 horse
each, and any practical engineer can
compute the cost of maintaining them. !
1t is really trifiing, considering the eff
iciency developed. If water power
IAN be had for some of the stations.
even If five or ten miles from the track.
t will be utilized, power being trans
nitted by wire. In operation trains of >
our or FIVE cars will be run, motor
ar and three or four others. The cars s
ire so telescOped together as to form s
lnbroken surfaces, top, bottom and
ides, and the rear car, as we'll as the 1
irst or motor car, is pointed, so as to t
'ffer the least possible resistance to S
yir. The movement of each train is i
and accurately registered !
N chart in the power stations. The =
lightest accident to the train or the
presence of an obstacle on the track
huts off the connection. At the will =
Il the dispatcher train can be stopped |.
t any point, backed up or started =
head again. The trains are, therefore.
nder complete control, and if traffic $
hould not justify the building of o
ouble track a single track could be 81
asily and efficiently operated" II
II
Why Some Women Are Ill. 81
The average woman understands just o.
bout as much about anatomy as Fl
rench doll. Look at our girls and tell ii
-